Georg B Michels At War with the Church sku-36683589

Georg B Michels examines the social, religious, and institutional conflicts of the Russian Schism in At War with the Church, a hardcover in Religion & Religious Studies Books. Drawing primarily on Russian church and state archives, including records studied here for the first time, Michels traces opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of 1652-58.

The book describes an initial phase beginning in 1652, when Old Believer writers, social outcasts, and independent dissenters opposed the reforms for different reasons. A second phase began in 1666, when the church systematically enforced Nikonian worship.

Michels argues that most ordinary Russians rejected symbols such as the three-finger sign of the cross and the new service book because they saw them as demands for obedience to church authority, rather than because of Old Believer teachings. He finds that Old Believer literary and moral concerns drew little interest at the time.

The study describes religious autonomy asserted by clerics and laypeople through revolts at hermitages and monasteries, alternative forest communities, resistance by priests, attacks on church representatives, group suicides, individual quests for salvation, and merchant-supported underground networks.

Its use of archival documents shifts the focus from traditional accounts based on Old Believer writings and biographies. SKU sku-36683589.