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Spiritual Christianity (Russian: духовное христианство, romanized: dukhovnoye khristianstvo) is the group of belief systems held by so-called folk Protestants (narodnye protestanty), including non-Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that emerged in the Russian Empire. Their origins are varied: some come from Protestant movements imported from Europe to Russia by missionaries, travelers and workers; others from disgust at the behavior (absenteeism, alcoholism, profiteering) of Orthodox priests, still others from the Bezpopovtsy Raskolniks. Those influences, mixed with folk traditions, resulted in communities that are collectively called sektanty (sectarians). Such communities were typically documented by Russian Orthodox clergy with a label that described their heresy such as not fasting, meeting on Saturday (sabbatarians), rejecting the spirit (spirit wrestlers), body mutilation (castigators), self-flagellation, or suicide.[1]
The heterodox (non-orthodox) groups "rejected ritual and outward observances and believe instead in the direct revelation of God to the inner man".[2] Adherents are called Spiritual Christians (Russian: духовные христиане) or, less accurately, malakan in the Former Soviet Union, and "Molokans" in the United States, often confused with "Doukhobors" in Canada. Molokane proper constituted the largest and most organized of many Spiritual Christian groups in the Russian Empire.
Spiritual Christians have been compared to the European Radical Reformation.[3] Extant Spiritual Christian sects include: Dukhobors, Molokans, New Israel, Sukhie Baptisty, Sons of Freedom and the Dukh-i-zhizniki.[4]
- ^ Klibanov, A.I. (1982). History of Religious Sectarianism in Russia (1860s – 1917). New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0080267947.
- ^ Camfield (1990) p.694 fn.4
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