A Long Walk To Church: A Contemporary History Of Russian Orthodoxy Second Edition [Paperback]

Nathaniel Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2003

Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, interviews, and first-hand personal experiences, Nathaniel Davis describes how the Russian Orthodox Church hung on the brink of institutional extinction twice in the past sixty-five years. In 1939, only a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly. Ironically, Hitler's invasion and Stalin's reaction to it rescued the church -- and parishes reopened, new clergy and bishops were consecrated, a patriarch was elected, and seminaries and convents were reinstituted. However, after Stalin's death, Khrushchev resumed the onslaught against religion. Davis reveals that the erosion of church strength between 1948 and 1988 was greater than previously known and it was none too soon when the Soviet government changed policy in anticipation of the millennium of Russia's conversion to Christianity. More recently, the collapse of communism has created a mixture of dizzying opportunity and daunting trouble for Russian Orthodoxy. The newly revised and updated edition addresses the tumultuous events of recent years, including schisms in Ukraine, Estonia, and Moldova, and confrontations between church traditionalists, conservatives and reformers. The author also covers battles against Greek-Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestant evangelists, and pagans in the south and east, the canonization of the last Czar, the church's financial crisis, and hard data on the slowing Russian orthodox recovery and growth. Institutional rebuilding and moral leadership now beckon between promise and possibility.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A meticulous and important study...nuanced and novel." -- Religious Studies Review

"A richly detailed, highly informative, and immensely readable book on the contemporary history of the Russian Orthodox Church." -- American Historical Review

"A work of art. Likely to become the enduring, definitive work on the subject." -- William C. Fletcher, author of Soviet Believers

"An admirable piece of scholarship unusually combined with a very elegant style." -- The Journal of Religion

"For the general reader interested in religion in Russia...this is now the best book." Foreign Affairs -- Foreign Affairs

"Nowhere has there been assembled in a single book so much important information about the Russian Orthodox Church since [WWII]." -- New York Times Book Review

"Quite accessible to undergraduates who want an introduction to the history of the Russian church in the twentieth century." -- The Russian Review

"Solid scholarship... The narrative is smooth, and the book easily read." -- The Historian

"This book provides an invaluable introduction to the experience of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1917." -- John Anderson, University of St. Andrews-Fife

About the Author

Nathaniel Davis is the Alexander and Adelaide Hixon Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Harvey Mudd College. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service for thirty-six years, in Moscow, as assistant secretary of state, as ambassador in three posts, and as Lyndon B. Johnson's senior advisor on Soviet and Eastern European affairs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; Second Edition edition (February 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813340675
• ISBN-13: 978-0813340678
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,553,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, January 20, 2004

By 

Christian Moulton "Andrew Moulton" (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Long Walk To Church: A Contemporary History Of Russian Orthodoxy Second Edition (Paperback)

This book will open your eyes to what the real issues were, when and where for the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. Davis is relatively sympathetic to the ROC, but he doesn't hold any punches when there IS a criticism to be made. Davis spends quite a bit of time crunching numbers, but he also takes the time for anecdotal descriptions, too. This is very readable and insightful! Side note: He seems a little naive and starry-eyed about Gorbachev's support for the Church, but that might just be my reading too much into it.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed and fascinating, October 30, 2004

By 

S. Mosher (Arlington, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Long Walk To Church: A Contemporary History Of Russian Orthodoxy Second Edition (Paperback)

If you're interested in what's going on in the church in Russia today, Davis provides both the background and the contemporary perspective. Thoroughly annotated with 100 pages of end notes, this book combines statistical analysis of the church's fluctuating fortunes with reports from Communist and other annals and Davis' own observations from visits to hundreds of churches.

Its academic approach, while thorough, makes it less accessible to the casual reader interested in the subject, which is why I gave it only 3 stars. I'd like to see Davis return to this subject with a book aimed at the general reader. Based on my visits to 4 Moscow churches within walking distance of each other and to a couple of Old Believers churches, I think there's a story waiting to be told of the variety of approaches to Orthodox belief and practice that are active in Russia today.