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From: martillo@csd2.UUCP (Joachim Martillo)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Refutation of the Trinity and All Things Christian
Message-ID: <3770004@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Sep-85 16:34:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: csd2.3770004
Posted: Tue Sep 10 16:34:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Sep-85 05:18:14 EDT
References: <1670@akgua.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 29

I apologize to Bob Brown for not responding promptly to his letter.

Pravoslavie is Russian  and means more  or less correct  prayer.   The
Russian  Orthodox  on the    whole   produced  relatively   many fewer
theological works than  Roman  Catholics.  They  felt that the   Greek
Orthodox had produced  all  there was to   say  and  now only  praying
correctly   was  left.  Simultaneously   since Ivan   III  the Russian
orthodox have had a great fear of intellectual production that was not
religious.  Consequently lay  life in pre-petrine  Russia had a rather
eclesial quality.   These developments in Russian Orthodoxy   were all
paralled by  similar  developments  among Ashkenazim   and   given the
frequency of Judaizing heresies in Russian religious history there  is
a strong possibility of cross borrowing.

Now it  is possible that the   Ashkenazi developments were independent
(Yemenite Jews for instance  wrote almost no  non-religious poetry but
as strict   Maimonideans were not opposed to   scientific knowledge as
many Ashkenazim have been) but I doubt it especially because  strength
of religious involvement  among Ashkenazim in  fact exactly  parallels
strength  of religious involvement  among  the  Russian  Orthodox even
after 2 or 3 generations of separation from Russia.

The ba`al tesubah movement  has a rather strong  parallel of religious
revival among the Russian Orthodox.  In fact in  Russia itself, return
(teshubah) to  Judaism  for many Jews  was  in  fact preceded  by  the
adoption of Russian Orthodoxy by many Ashkenazim.

Needless to say the Sefardi population of the Soviet Union  never left
Judaism and none have converted to Russian Orthodoxy.