General Introduction 2

Art and Spirituality of the Russian Orthodox Tradition

The traditional date in the Christianization of Russia is 988, the year of the baptism of Prince Vladimir of Kiev. Vladimir received Christianity from the Byzantine Empire (traditionally, after investigating the religious beliefs and practices of neighbouring countries). By the tenth century, Byzantine Christianity was an elaborate construction of beliefs, practices both liturgical and ascetic, philosophy, art and culture, and everything that had come to be associated with the monastic life, which played an especial role in the Eastern Church. With the example of Bulgaria (and probably Serbia)—as well as more anciently Georgia—behind them, the Byzantines brought to Kiev Byzantine Christianity in a Slav dress (unlike the West, where Christianization entailed Latinization). This meant that there was what might be called a ‘linguistic filter’: the Slavs absorbed more readily aspects of Byzantine Christianity that did not need translation—the ceremony of the liturgy, the art of icons, music (though we know little about this), and the practice of monasticism—rather than the complexities of Byzantine theology and philosophy, with the result that Slav Orthodoxy had a different complexion from its parent Byzantine Orthodoxy. Within Slav Orthodoxy, icons and ceremonial, in particular, assumed greater significance than within Byzantine Orthodoxy, as the intellectual culture fell into the background. The sense that Slav Orthodoxy was dependent on Byzantine Orthodoxy remained significant, and led to the Nikonian reforms of the seventeenth century, when the Slavonic liturgical and iconographic traditions were adjusted to correspond with current Greek practice. Many refused to accept these changes, and became known as ‘Old Ritualists’ or ‘Old Believers’, a persecuted minority, whose preservation of ancient iconographic traditions is now greatly valued.