Search

Dramatic religious growth has occurred throughout the former Soviet Union in the past 30 years with approximately 100 million people joining religious groups for the first time. These religious revivals correspond to lessening restrictions on religious activity--a clear prediction of the 'religious-economies' or 'supply-side' approach to the study of religion. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis of post-communist countries reveals that levels of religious pluralism are not commensurate to levels of religious growth, a finding which seemingly contradicts a central proposition in the supply-side approach. This paper argues that a religious-economies explanation of post-communist religious growth remains untarnished when one considers the impact of Soviet atheism on religious markets and the role of religious regulation in the post-communist era. These two factors have created an instance where religious monopolies are able to grow at unprecedented rates., Substantial religious revivals that are occurring throughout the former Soviet Union are beginning to be systematically documented (see Bourdeaux 2000; Ramet 1998; Borowik and Babinski 1997; Anderson 1994; Greeley 1994; [...]

Some misconceptions about the Russian Orthodox Church following the end of World War II have been corrected with the opening of the Soviet archives to the public. While Western historians previously believed that the church had 20-25,000 churches in the 1950s, the actual number was only 13-14,000. Although many parishes were ordered to close down during the time of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, the church experienced a period of growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, a schism, financial troubles and a shortage of priests are making the mid-1990s a troublesome period for the church.

Little can be said on the subject of formal Protestant theological education for most of the Soviet era because, for almost the entire history of the USSR, it did not [...]

Soviet evangelicals have been actively working in Soviet society even before glasnost. However, now that religious activity is no longer illegal, missionaries from the West are taking advantage to proselytize the former republic. The tensions between Western evangelicals and Soviet evangelists are growing as Soviet evangelists shift from an underground existance to one where they are now legitimized. Issues such as church and state, the Christians contributions to society and their role in economics and national education must be faced.

RECONCILING STEP: The Evangelical Christian Baptists in the former Soviet Union, torn by schisms provoked by antireligious measures under Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the early 1960s, took a significant step [...]