History, Culture, and Society
Batalden, Stephen K. and Sandra L. The Newly Independent States of Eurasia: Handbook of Former Soviet Republics. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx, 1993, 3-24. Succinct overview of the history, geography, ethnic composition, and current political and economic situation in the Russian Republic.
Powell, David E. "Social Problems in Russia." Current History 92 (October 1993), 25-30. A sobering overview of increasing crime, violence, and drug abuse, compounded by a seriously faltering health-care system.
Richmond, Yale. From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1991. A wealth of cross-cultural common sense. Learned, yet perfectly practical. Based on many years of firsthand experience. "Must" reading along with the LeClairs' Handbook for Christian Travelers.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. "Matryona's House" in We Never Make Mistakes. New York: Norton, 1963, 61-100. A moving novella with a powerful message. This extraordinary examination of spiritual purity and innocence in the midst of human greed and avarice holds up a Christlike model of undeserved suffering, contrasted with a multitude of moral compromises millions of people made either to survive or get ahead in Soviet Russia.
Orthodoxy
Armes, Keith. "Chekists in Cassocks: The Orthodox Church and the KGB." Demokratizatsiya, the Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 1 (No. 4, 1993): 72-83. Highlights the serious ethnic, political, and moral cleavages within the Russian Orthodox Church today.
Curtiss, John Shelton. "Introduction" in The Russian Church and the Soviet State, 1917-1950. Boston: Little, Brown, 1953, 3-8. Necessary historical background for the demoralized state of the Russian Orthodox Church on the eve of the 1917 Revolution.
Elliott, Mark. "For Christian Understanding, Ignorance is Not Bliss." East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Summer 1993), 5-7. Evangelical and Orthodox Christianity: what they share in common and what puts them at odds.
Hill, Kent R. "The Orthodox Church and a Pluralistic Society" in Russian Pluralism, Now Irreversible? Ed. by Uri Ra'anan, Keith Armes, and Kate Martin (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 165-88. "Does Orthodoxy support the creation and nurturing of a pluralistic society?" Most, but not all, of the evidence Hill cites suggests not.
Kishkovsky, Leonid. "The Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church After Communism." East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Summer 1993), 1-2. Summarizes the massive suffering of the Orthodox Church at the hands of Soviet communism and highlights signs of Orthodox renewal.
Fairbairn, Don. "A Summary of Eastern Orthodox Thought." March 1993. Unpublished. Charitable, yet searching, examination of Orthodox theology from an evangelical perspective. Argues that Orthodoxy merges biblical understandings of salvation and sanctification. Contact EWC&M REPORT for order information.
Pospielovsky, Dimitry. "Church-State Relations in the USSR." Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History. Vol. 7, 108-18. Information-packed survey focusing on Russian Orthodox-Soviet state relations since 1917 by a leading Orthodox layman and historian.
Evangelical Ministry in the Former Soviet Union
Deyneka, Anita. "Building Bridges for God's Kingdom in the CIS." East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Winter 1993), 8. A clarion call for cooperation. Raises a host of critical considerations for effective ministry.
____________. "Russia's Restrictive Law on Religion: Dead or Delayed?" East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Fall 1993), 1-2. Thesis: We have not heard the end of it.
Elliott, Mark. "Growing Protestant Diversity in the Former Soviet Union" in Russian Pluralism: Now Irreversible? Ed. by Uri Ra'anan, Keith Armes, and Kate Martin (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 189-205. In particular, note pages 198-200 which treat the prospect of new denominations emerging from various Western parachurch efforts.
Hill, Kent. "Tips for Surviving and Thriving." East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Winter 1993), 1-2. Stresses knowing the culture and networking for best results.
____________ and Mark Elliott. "Are Evangelicals Interlopers?" East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Summer 1993), 3-4. "Evangelicals have ample room to minister to millions of Russians who are spiritually adrift, without ever engaging in proselytizing."
LeClair, Ray and Cindy. Handbook for Christian Travelers to the CIS, Reflections on Russian Culture. Wheaton, IL: Slavic Gospel Association, 1993. Hands down, the best short introduction to sensible approaches to ministry, insights into the Russian secular mindset, and unique features of the evangelical subculture.
Raber, Mary. "Do's and Don'ts for First-Time Ministries in the Former U.S.S.R." East-West Church & Ministry Report 1 (Winter 1993), 5. Stresses the need for humility and homework.
Sawatsky, Walter. "After the Glasnost Revolution: Soviet Evangelicals and Western Missions." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 16 (April 1992), 54, 56-60. Perhaps the best single, current critique of East European ministry today. Contrasts Joe Bass's Underground Evangelism and Slavic Gospel Association (prior to the departure of Peter and Anita Deyneka) as instructive examples of how not to and how to be a winsome witness in the East.
____________. "Protestantism in the USSR" in Religious Policy in the Soviet Union. Edited by Sabrina Petra Ramet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 319-49. Succinct, seven-page capsule history of Evangelicals, 1917-75, with the remainder of the chapter devoted to 1975-1990, including the extraordinary decline in state interference under Gorbachev.
Compiled by Mark Elliott, editor
