Soteriology of Suffering: Evangelical Christians in Russia and the Trauma of Political Repression

Mitrofanova, Anastasia and Riazanova, Svetlana and Benda, Richard (2020) Soteriology of Suffering: Evangelical Christians in Russia and the Trauma of Political Repression. Religions, 11 (591). pp. 1-12. ISSN 2077-1444

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Official URL: https://www.academia.edu/44952849/Soteriology_of_S...

Abstract

This article, based on 60 in-depth interviews with the descendants of survivors of political repression, aims at finding out how making sense of a collective traumatogenic experience differs in the case of Evangelical (Baptist and Pentecostal) communities compared with the rest of the cohort. The authors conclude that, in the case of people without religious affiliation, an intergenerational memory transmission mechanism is absent; descendants up to the fifth generation envision the suffering of their ancestors as accidental and meaningless for the present and future. As a result, most descendants refuse to participate in the process of trauma creation. Alternatively, in the final master narrative of the Pentecostals and Baptists, the persecution was an inevitable result of faith. Evangelical descendants construct cultural trauma around a providential event needed to ensure individual salvation and to prevent secularization of the church; for them suffering remains meaningful for the present and future. This allows for the transformation of the stigma that was spoiling their collective identity into a badge of honor, into stigmata, revealing that these believers follow the way of Christ.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: cultural trauma; political repression; Evangelicals; Baptists; Pentecostals
Subjects: B Mission theology/theory > Identity issues
B Mission theology/theory > Persecution
G Christian traditions/Denominations > Evangelical
G Christian traditions/Denominations > Baptist
Divisions: Former Soviet Union > Russian Federation
Depositing User: Katharina Penner
Date Deposited: 24 May 2024 16:57
Last Modified: 24 May 2024 16:57
URI: https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/2958

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