Prizes for A Spiritual Revolution: The Impact of Reformation and Enlightenment in Orthodox Russia (Book)

Early Slavic Studies Book Prize [link]
Date: 12/3/2021 12:00:00 AM
Organization: Early Slavic Studies Association [link]
Abstract: Ivanov’s book demonstrates the far-reaching impact the Protestant Reformation and European Enlightenment had on Russian church and society in the eighteenth century. It is the first monograph to fully explore how Western ideas influenced the Russian Church in this period. The monograph thus makes a major contribution to the intellectual history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Supported by extensive archival work in Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and the Vatican, Ivanov makes a compelling case for the impact of the Reformation and the Enlightenment—in their diversified geographical expressions—on Orthodox Russia, challenging enduring assumptions about Russia’s isolation and cultural stagnation. Ivanov presents the reader with engaging portraits of the clerical elites—mainly Orthodox bishops from the newly incorporated Ruthenian lands—who promoted a “spiritual revolution” that altered Russia’s traditional ecclesiastical and political landscape.

Marc Raeff Prize [link]
Date: 12/1/2021 12:00:00 AM
Organization: Eighteenth Century Russian Studies Association [link]
Abstract: In this beautifully written monograph, Ivanov disrupts prevailing narratives about the isolation and stasis of the Russian Orthodox Church in the eighteenth century, demonstrating its intense and conscious engagement with Reformation and Enlightenment ideas. The study is positioned as continuing the unfinished line of inquiry opened by Georges Florensky, who, as Ivanov notes, “described the eighteenth century as the age of Russia’s symbiotically theological conversation with European Protestantism.” Supported by extensive research, including archival work in Italy, Germany, Austria, the Vatican, Ukraine, and Russia, Ivanov vividly presents the personalities and debates within eighteenth-century Russian Orthodoxy. Readers will gain appreciation for the dynamism and daring of many clergymen during the reign of Catherine II, the complexity and nuance of theological discussions, and the subsequent end to their Western-oriented reforms with the ascent of Nicholas I.

Permalink: https://apps.neh.gov/publicquery/prizes.aspx?id=24280