"The religious renaissance in Russia has less a religious than a national and political character, with most people equating being Russian with being Orthodox. Talk should therefore be of a borrowed religious boom, one that has less to do with the internal dynamics of the religious than with political, cultural, and economic factors."
Seems to me the basic question here is whether there's an actual spiritual revival taking place, or if Russians are simply identifying as Orthodox as a matter of national identity.
Given the Orthodox emphasis on large families, along with huge improvements in incomes and living standards since 1991, plus government incentives that encourage large families, you'd expect this trend to have reversed by now:
All good points. I saw an Andrei Martyanov video some time ago. He's an outspoken atheist but says he's "Orthodox"--meaning, I guess, Russian. The author I referred to definitely has an axe to grind. He makes good points in his critique of the West but glosses over some problems in the East.
Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-but-not-to-church/
This might explain the apparent contradiction:
https://academic.oup.com/book/10298/chapter-abstract/162637775?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false
"The religious renaissance in Russia has less a religious than a national and political character, with most people equating being Russian with being Orthodox. Talk should therefore be of a borrowed religious boom, one that has less to do with the internal dynamics of the religious than with political, cultural, and economic factors."
Seems to me the basic question here is whether there's an actual spiritual revival taking place, or if Russians are simply identifying as Orthodox as a matter of national identity.
Given the Orthodox emphasis on large families, along with huge improvements in incomes and living standards since 1991, plus government incentives that encourage large families, you'd expect this trend to have reversed by now:
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/RUS/russia/birth-rate
Then there's the divorce rate:
https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/divorce-rates-by-country
and of course this rather thorny issue:
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-russia-women-rights-feminism-fc5eab75b5e3d028aeb1f70ec8a9a2b1
All of which casts doubt on the idea of an actual religious revival.
All good points. I saw an Andrei Martyanov video some time ago. He's an outspoken atheist but says he's "Orthodox"--meaning, I guess, Russian. The author I referred to definitely has an axe to grind. He makes good points in his critique of the West but glosses over some problems in the East.