The Church, Kingdom and Society in the Writings of Vasilii V. Ivanov (1846-1919):
[Article]
towards a Public Theology for Post-Soviet Baptists
Oleksandr Geychenko
Leiden
Brill
With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 evangelicals received unprecedented opportunity to raise their voices in the public arena. However, as the events during the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014) in Ukraine demonstrated, most evangelicals could not formulate their attitude towards these events. Instead they assumed existing positions which sometimes were fundamentally opposite to the Christian narrative. This article seeks to explore perspectives of the one of the pioneers of Baptism in the Russian Empire, Vasilii V. Ivanov-Klyshnikov (1846-1919), on the church, Kingdom of God and society with the view to find elements for a public theology. Ivanov's perspectives are expanded through the concept of the church as visible and political. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 evangelicals received unprecedented opportunity to raise their voices in the public arena. However, as the events during the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014) in Ukraine demonstrated, most evangelicals could not formulate their attitude towards these events. Instead they assumed existing positions which sometimes were fundamentally opposite to the Christian narrative. This article seeks to explore perspectives of the one of the pioneers of Baptism in the Russian Empire, Vasilii V. Ivanov-Klyshnikov (1846-1919), on the church, Kingdom of God and society with the view to find elements for a public theology. Ivanov's perspectives are expanded through the concept of the church as visible and political.