Orthodox ethic and the spirit of socialism: Towards substantiation of the hypothesis

pages: 1-20

Authors

  • Ivan Vladimirovič-Zabaev

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1201001V

Keywords:

Protestant ethics, Orthodox ethics, Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, Russian monastic culture, officials

Abstract

The article traces possible channels of influence of a religious factor on the formation of a specific Russian version of socialism. Using the logics of the M. Weber’s work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, I. Zabaev reveals the categories that played a dominating role in the people’s consciousness in the pre-revolutionary Russia. According to his conclusion, these categories were “obedience” and “resignation”. It was obedience and resignation that assured the salvation (main value in Orthodoxy) of an Orthodox person. In everyday life such orientations were easily transformed into the readiness to obey the “superior”. Once elaborated, they turned to be quite stable and, being separated from their religious roots, ensured a sort of asceticism on the secular path. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179049: Politike društvenog pamćenja i nacionalnog identiteta - regionalni i evropski aspekt] Keywords: Protestant ethics, Orthodox ethics, Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, priests, Russian monastic culture, officials

References

Fafani, A. (2003) Catholicism, Protestantism and Capitalism, Norfolk.
Manchester L. (1995) Secular Ascetics: The Mentality of Orthodox Clergymen’s Sons in late Imperial Russia (Ph. D. diss., Colubia University).
Manchester L. (1998) „The Seculatization of the Search for Salvation: The Self-Fashioning of Orthodox Slergymen’s Sons in Late Imperial Rossia“, Slavic Review Vol. 57., N 1.
Mehnert K. (1961) Soviet Man and His World, Westport.
Paperno, I. (1988) Chernysevsky and the Age of Realism: A Study in the Semiotics of Behavior, Stanford.
Pounci, C. (994) ed. The „Domostroi“: Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible, Ithaca, N. Y.
Samuelson, K. (1964) Religion and Economic Action. A Critique of Max Weber, N. Y., Evanston.
Trevor-Roper, H. R. (1967) Religion, Reformation and Social Change, Leningrad.

Published

04.02.2012

How to Cite

Vladimirovič-Zabaev, I. (2012) “Orthodox ethic and the spirit of socialism: Towards substantiation of the hypothesis: pages: 1-20”, Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society. Belgrade, Serbia, 23(1). doi: 10.2298/FID1201001V.

Issue

Section

STUDIES AND ARTICLES