Did Baptism Change the Rus’?

Clark, Roland ORCID: 0000-0003-3292-282X (2003) Did Baptism Change the Rus’? Phronema, 18. pp. 91-108.

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Abstract

Horton’s study of African conversion led him to conclude that ‘African responses to the world religions … are responses which, given the appropriate economic and social background conditions, would most likely have occurred in some recognisable form even in the absence of the world religions.’ Examining the ‘Baptism of Rus’’ in 988, one discovers social changes occurring alongside religious conversion and a political environment in which a turn towards monotheistic universalism appears the ‘natural’ progression, but baptism transformed Russian society in numerous and unexpected ways. As well as unifying diverse peoples, encouraging trade and heralding a new era in international relations, official conversion introduced a new clerical class, liturgy, centralised worship, and new conceptions of time, transforming the legal system, kingship structures, art, music, architecture, burial practices and education. Social changes were channeled in very new directions that were not necessarily ‘in the air’ anyway.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	?? DK ??
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	03 Feb 2016 09:29
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2022 01:27
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URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/2049860