The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war since February 24 shocked the whole world including the Chinese people, generating many concerns, discussions, and controversies in Christian circles.
In early April, a Christian scholar of folk culture put his deep thoughts in his new book Christ and Culture on important social topics such as the Russian-Ukrainian war and the pandemic. Jiang Yuanlai, a playwright and classical music connoisseur from Shanghai, believes that due to the events of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is necessary to re-examine Russian ideology and culture, especially for those in China, who are concerned about Russian ideology and culture and Orthodox.
In the 20th century, Jiang went to a remote village in Heilongjiang to “join the labor force” for more than three years. After graduating from college, he worked in the government and research institutes for a long time in the environmental planning of scenic nature reserves and field environmental research. Jiang became a Christian in the 1980s, entered the field of folk culture and Christian culture in the early 1990s, and started writing in the late 1990s. He is regarded as one of the most important Christian playwrights in mainland China and is called “Floor Playwright" because he was living in a tiny room during his playwriting
The scholar bluntly says, “From now on, any contemporary theology and ideological culture of the Orthodox Church and of the broader Christianity without a thorough repentance, reflection and criticism of the brutally desperate situation of the Russia-Ukraine War will have no legitimacy!”
This article is the sixth postscript that he will publish in Hong Kong, which is added to his 500,000-word monograph Christ and Culture based on the recordings of lectures given in theological colleges in various places for twenty-one years, titled “As the ‘Great Religious Judge’ Rages War - Rethinking Russian Ideology and Culture”.
Jiang explains the reason why this article is added to his book, “There are young church workers that suggest: in view of the fact that more and more Chinese Christians have adopted Russian Orthodox ideology and culture in recent years, the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war has caused great confusion to everyone, and the war is still raging. The article is absolutely necessary, but there is a lack of domestic Christians who deeply reflect on this important event and the relationship between Russian Orthodox ideology and culture. So, I hope I will publish this article on an official WeChat account first. After a week’s deliberation, I decided to adopt the suggestions made by church workers hoping it can promote the exploration of such an important issue as mentioned in the introduction of this article.”
Unfortunately, however, this article was deleted less than one day after it was posted on WeChat, China's largest social media platform.
Jiang cuts to the chase in his article, saying, “When I was about to finish this postscript, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine broke out. This great change is beyond the expectation of the international community. So far, the world ideological circle has just recovered from the shock and started to conduct in-depth discussions one after another in the past months, and the Christian world has also started to reflect deeply on the shock. This war is bound to profoundly change the world, and it has also severely challenged the broad Christian world because most of the soldiers on both sides are Christians (among them, the Orthodox Christians are the most), and Ukraine, in the blood pool of this war, is the area with the largest number of churches under the long-term jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow. All the children of God have the responsibility to face this tragedy completely. The brothers and sisters are in a desperate situation of killing.”
Therefore, Jiang regards it necessary to examine this topic, so he spent more than a month before June praying with his brothers and sisters for the Ukrainian people for a long time. He continuously summarized and browsed many works and documents that he had studied for decades, reviewed the accumulated contacts with Orthodox believers, and pondered the lessons of this war. Starting from his ministry, this introspection focused on Russian ideology and culture and its possible relationship with this war.
Jiang states that, in fact, apart from the Russian mainstream church led by the Patriarch who supports the war, there are millions of independent old liturgists in Russia and a huge foreign church in Russia shortly after returning to Patriarch Moscow. Most of the Christians in these churches opposed the war, and the middle and lower class priests and Christians in the mainstream church in Russia also voiced many anti-war opinions. Therefore, during this war, the decline and obedience of Russian mainstream Orthodox Church leaders and a large number of laymen coexisted with the increasing anti-war stance of some churches and some laymen.
He claims that it is a bare necessity for Russian mainstream church leaders to support the war because they are constrained by the dilemma of their church-state relationship. “In such a political-religious relationship, it is a basic necessity that church leaders succumb to and even actively support the rulers and even launch such fierce wars of aggression, which is bound by the jungle world. Faced with this painful reality, we should honestly distinguish that the relationship between church and state is an important part of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, but it is by no means the whole. The Russian Orthodox Church, like the Eastern Orthodox tradition in the whole world, has extremely rich and lofty connotations led by the Lord: saint tradition, retreat, rich theology; the church and the public treasure house of thought, culture, and art based on this tradition.”
Later, Jiang puts forward his own point of view: we need to distinguish the two main streams of Russian ideology and culture. First, the “Holy Ross” religious national concept culture gradually formed over many centuries, which has become the ideology of the power of the Czar empire, and finally made the Russian empire sacred with the religious image of “the third Rome”. However, another vein is the precious stream of the Orthodox background thought and culture that is truly in Christ: it takes retreat as the core, follows (even Lu Xun lamented “Christ in Russia”) with complete humility and devotion to life, and has achieved the deepest insight into human nature and confession, and the most thorough practice of holy love in the troubled and sinful Russian history.
Jiang stresses that we Chinese Christians need to pay more attention to and learn from the second pulse stream. “This pulse stream has many spiritual treasures. For us, Chinese Christians, the most intimate of them is the story of the saints of Shanghai Bishop St. Yiwang, Dostoevsky’s peak works, the icon paintings of Rublev, and the music works of Musorgsky and Rachmaninov. This pulse stream also has the Sacred Rose Complex, but a thorough examination shows that their understanding of it is essentially different from that of the previous pulse stream. They regard those in power as sinners who need repentance and compassion, and any existence of the country-nation-world needs salvation first. Therefore, they refuse to surrender their faith to power.” Moreover, “this pulse of ideological research and cultural creation is more independent especially in the brilliant Russian literature, from Pushkin, through Gogol, Toon, Gippius, Mandelstam and Pasternak. This kind of alert criticism of power sinners can be seen most clearly.”
Jiang clearly expresses his anti-war stance: “Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine, and even threatened all mankind with nuclear war, which was an all-out evil war. For us Christians, what is particularly shocking is that although some Orthodox clergy and believers stood up to fight, Russian Orthodox leaders declared that this was a holy war. We must make a clear position: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in countless deaths. It is a heinous crime committed by the initiator, a Judas-style war against the Lord and eating people, a contemporary war in which Cain invaded and killed Abel, and a 'religious judge' - style war in Moscow! The complicated historical origin of Kiev and Moscow, the complicated international geopolitical game involved in the war, and the complicated entanglement of Russia-Ukraine relations caused by the existence of external structural crimes in the world, all these reasons can only make us more aware that this is a criminal massacre caused by Satan, which was launched by the attached sinner who did not really repent of his deeds.”
The long-term ideological preparation and war ideology of this aggression is closely related to the above-mentioned first pulse of Russian mainstream ideology and culture. “This war is also the darkest event in the history of Christianity in the contemporary world. Every Christian together with every brother and sister of the Orthodox Church needs to repent thoroughly in the ashes - truly 'repent' as it is urged in the Orthodox tradition, so as to continue to be with the Savior,” he adds.
From the angle of ideology and culture only, his acceptance is that he needs to thoroughly repent, criticize and reflect on the following four aspects: we need to always be on guard against the alienation of the sacred belief - against faith becoming ideology; Christians should think about how to stick to holy love (agape) in the jungle world; people should firmly believe in the fundamental importance of freedom in Christ, and we receive God’s special revelation and universal revelation in an integrated way.
Talking about freedom, he says, “The Orthodox tradition attaches great importance to the harmony between Christ’s grace and human free will, and believes that the two are indispensable and complementary to each other. The key issue of Dostoevsky’s religious justice story is the issue of Christ and freedom. Freedom is not free theology, freedom is God’s respect for people (He doesn’t force people, God’s grace salvation and people’s free choice to follow are God’s wishes for people.) The true sacred faith must be the faith of freedom in essence. In today’s world, especially in the ideological, artistic, and cultural circles, where freedom is most needed for research and creation, freedom is becoming scarcer. In particular, freedom in Christ should be one of the key textures of local theology and local Christian art and culture. Through the Russian-Ukrainian war, the trinity of truth (truth and facts) - love (agape and mercy) - freedom in Christ should become the inherent texture of Christian life.”
He continues, “Today, I feel that God has allowed Christianity to be divided into three sections. Just as the separation of powers in the democratic system restricts each other, the differences among the three major Christian sectors on the premise that the core of faith is consistent can learn from each other’s strengths, watch each other and even criticize and alert each other. Imagine if the Christian world is the general unified structure of Russian Orthodox Church, what devastating consequences will that fatal injury to church-state relations bring? Without the wonderful ideological and cultural achievements of the Orthodox Church, such as the tradition of saints in the treasure house of retreat, how great the scarcity in the Christian world would be.”
He points out that we should reprimand the crime of raging war. “Only by thoroughly confessing their sins and repenting, the leaders of the Russian Church can return to the holy tradition of St. Philatellite, Bishop St. Yvonne and all saints, and make amends for the war crimes and countless sacrifices of people and Christians from generation to generation, can they get rid of the reality of demon possession.” However, he also points out that after the outbreak of the war, the cultural and artistic circles in some areas completely rejected all Russian culture and art indiscriminately. This “one size fits all” and “one pot at a time” phenomenon also appeared in those places, which deserves our attention and consideration.”
“For us, by uncovering these two veins existing in Russian ideology and culture, Chinese Christians, especially Christian cultural ministries, should cherish the lofty thread in Russian ideology and culture more. Because Russia is destined to be a neighbor here. The great exposure to the advantages and disadvantages of the Russian Church and Russian ideology and culture is the mirror that we can easily understand and compare immediately, and the closest example. After careful consideration, I strongly recommend you pay more attention to Dostoevsky and other excellent Russian ideology and culture. Because the incident proved the importance of the prophetic works of Dostoevsky, for example, their deep insight into the desperate situation of the human heart and the external world, and their deep understanding of freedom will be more meaningful for us to walk in the future.”
The Russian-Ukrainian War makes some researchers lament, “The prospect of the unity of broad Christianity has been completely broken.” Before Catholicism, the Orthodox Church, and Protestantism were trying to promote the unity of Christianity in a broad sense, but the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war embarrassed such efforts for a hundred years. Jiang quoted a line from his play Easter in Lin Lan, which is now widely circulated in China, “The unity of Christian brothers and sisters can never be achieved at round table conferences held by various churches, nor on the boulevard of seminaries, but already starts to be done by brothers and sisters who are on the wild and bitter pilgrimage of their cross.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
俄乌战争的爆发举世震惊，对国人而言也是如此，在基督宗教界引起许多关注、讨论和争议。
日前，一位民间基督徒文化学者在其新书出版时加入了对于俄乌战争、疫情等重要社会热点话题的深思。来自上海的剧作家、古典音乐鉴赏家姜原来认为，因俄罗斯侵乌战争的爆发，有必要对俄罗斯思想文化进行一次重新的审视，特别是对国内关注俄罗斯思想文化、东正教思想文化的人。
上世纪，姜原来曾去黑龙江偏僻乡村“插队落户”三年多，大学毕业后长期在政府和研究所从事风景区自然保护区环境规划和野外环境科研等工作。上世纪八十年代成为基督徒，九十年代初进入民间文化基督教文化领域，九十年代末开始创作，被认为是中国大陆最重要的基督徒剧作家之一，人称“打地铺的剧作家”
他直言：“从此以后，未经对俄乌战争这一血泊绝境彻底忏悔省察批判的任何东正教当代神学和思想文化、广义基督教的任何当代神学和思想文化都没有正当性！”
该文是他即将于香港出版的在根据在各地神学院校二十一年讲学录音整理的五十万字的专著《基督与文化》的书中加入的后记的第六篇，题目为《当“宗教大法官”发动战争——再思俄罗斯思想文化》。
之所以加入这篇文章，作者介绍说“有青年同工建议：鉴于这几年中国基督徒越来越多人开始俄罗斯东正教思想文化，但是这次俄乌战争的爆发让大家产生很大困惑，且战争仍在激烈进行中，非常需要但是又缺乏国内基督徒对这件重大事件与俄罗斯东正教思想文化关系的深入反省，所以希望我先把此文发表在公众号里。正如这篇文章引言所述，斟酌了一个星期，决定采纳同工建议，以期抛砖引玉推动这份如本文引言所述如此重大问题的探索。”
不过，遗憾的是，该文在公众号发布不到一天后被删除。
姜原来在文章开门见山的说到：“正要完成这篇后记时，俄罗斯侵略乌克兰战争爆发了。这次巨变出乎国际社会预料，迄今一个月来世界思想界刚从震惊中缓过神来开始陆陆续续深入研讨，基督教世界也同样在震惊中开始深入反省。这场战争必将深刻改变世界，也已严厉挑战广义基督教世界，因为双方军人大多是基督徒（其中东正教徒最多），这场战争血泊中的乌克兰地区正是东正教莫斯科牧首长期管辖下堂口最多的地区……。所有上帝的儿女都有责任彻底直面这场悲剧这片弟兄姐妹陷入厮杀的绝境。”
正因此，姜原来认为，有必要来审视这个话题，因此他在之前的一个多月，一边和弟兄姐妹们一起为乌俄弟兄姐妹和民众长时间祈祷，一边连续撮要浏览了几十年来研读过的许多著作文献、回顾了和正教弟兄姐妹们的交往积累、紧张思考这场战争血的教训……从他的事工出发，这次反省侧重于俄罗斯思想文化及与这场战争的可能关系。
姜原来介绍说，其实除了这次支持战争的基里尔牧首领导的俄主流教会，俄罗斯还有数百万独立的旧礼仪派教徒和回归莫斯科牧首不久的庞大俄罗斯域外教会，这些教会的基督徒大多反对这次战争，俄境内主流教会的中下层神父和基督徒也有不少反战声浪。所以对于这次战争，俄主流东正教会领袖和大量平信徒的沦落顺从，与一些教会及一部分平信徒越来越多的反战立场同时存在。
他认为，俄主流教会领袖支持战争是一种黑色的必然，因为受制于他们的政教关系困境。“如此政教关系中，教会领袖屈从乃至积极支持执政者甚至支持发动这样凶恶的侵略战争，是被丛林世界捆绑的黑色必然。直面这样惨痛现实，我们更当诚实分辨：政教关系是俄东正教会历史的重要部分但绝不是全部。俄东正教会和整个世界东正教传统一样，其中更有主带领的极其丰富崇高的内涵：圣徒传统、静修主义、丰富的神学…以此传统为基石的教会和公共思想文化艺术宝库…。”
随后，他提出自己的观点：我们需要分辨泾渭，看清楚俄罗斯思想文化的两条主要脉流：一是经许多世纪渐渐成型的“神圣罗斯”宗教民族理念文化，它也越来越成为沙皇帝国权力的意识形态，最终让俄罗斯帝国披以“第三罗马”的宗教形象使之神圣化；但是另外一条脉流才是真正在基督里的东正教背景思想文化宝贵川流：它以静修主义为核心，以“与忏悔同在”的彻底谦卑虔诚生命，追随（连鲁迅都感叹的“俄罗斯的基督”），在多灾多难也多罪恶的俄罗斯历史中达到了对人性最深刻的洞察和忏悔、对圣爱最彻底的践行。
姜原来强调我们中国的基督徒需要多多关注和学习第二条脉流，“这条脉流的精神瑰宝甚多，对于我们中国基督徒而言，其中最亲切的就是上海圣伊望主教的圣徒故事、陀思妥耶夫斯基的巅峰作品、鲁布廖夫的圣象画、穆索尔斯基和拉赫玛尼诺夫的音乐作品……。这一脉流也有神圣罗斯情结，但是深入体察可知，他们对之的理解与前一脉流有着本质的不同。他们视权力者同为需要悔改怜悯的罪人、国家——民族——世界的任何存在首先都需要救赎。所以，他们拒绝让信仰臣服权力。”并且，“这条脉流的思想研究文化创作更是坚持独立性…尤其在辉煌的俄罗斯文学中，从普希金始，经果戈里、老陀和托翁，直到吉皮乌斯、曼德尔斯塔姆、帕斯捷尔纳克……可以最清楚看到这种对权力罪人的警醒批判。”
作者鲜明的表达自己的反战立场：“俄罗斯发动侵乌战争，甚至用核战争恐吓全人类，这是彻头彻尾的罪恶战争。对于我们基督徒，尤其触目惊心的是：尽管有一部分东正教神职人员和信徒的挺身抗争，俄正教领袖们却宣称这是一场圣战。我们必须明确立场：俄侵略乌导致无数、生命罹难，是发动者犯下的滔天罪行、是犹大式悖主吃人战争、是当代该隐侵杀亚伯的战争、是莫斯科“宗教大法官”式的战争！基辅与莫斯科复杂的历史渊源、战争涉及的复杂国际地缘政治博弈、世界外在结构性罪的存在对俄乌关系的复杂缠绕……一切都不能成为吃人战争正当性的理由 只能更让我们看清这是一场出于撒旦的、被其所附妄称主名没有真正悔改的罪人发动的罪恶屠杀。 ”
而这次侵略战争长期思想准备和战争意识形态与上述俄罗斯主流思想文化第一条脉流密切相关，“这场战争也是当代世界基督教史上最黑暗的事件。我们每个基督徒和东正教每一个弟兄姐妹一起都需要在炉灰中彻底忏悔——真正如东正教传统呼吁的“与忏悔同在”，才能与救主继续同在。”
仅从思想文化角度，他的领受是，特别需要在以下四个方面彻底忏悔、批判、反省”：需要始终警惕神圣信仰异化——沦为意识形态；基督徒要思想如何在丛林世界坚持圣爱 ；坚信基督里自由的根本重要性，对上帝特殊启示与普遍启示的一体化领受。
谈及自由，他说到：“东正教优秀传统极度重视基督恩典与人的自由——自由意志的和谐，认为两者缺一不可互为补充。陀思妥耶夫斯基宗教大法官故事的关键问题就是基督与自由的问题....自由不是自由神学，自由是上帝对人的尊重（上帝不勉强人，上帝的恩典救赎与人的自由抉择追随才是上帝对人的心愿。）.....真正的神圣信仰恰恰一定是本质上自由的信仰。 今天的世界，……尤其是最需要自由地进行研究创作的思想艺术文化界，自由正变得更加稀缺。基督里的自由尤其应该是本土神学、本土基督教艺术思想文化的关键质地之一，经过俄乌战争，基督里的真（真理和真相）——爱（圣爱和怜悯）——自由的三位一体，应该成为基督徒生命固有的质地。”
最后，他说到 ：“今天来看，更觉上帝允许基督教分裂成为三大板块有其奥义。正如民主制度的三权分立彼此制约，基督教三大板块在信仰核心一致前提下的差异，可以取长补短、彼此守望乃至批判警醒。试想基督教世界如果是俄罗斯正教的大体一统结构，那种政教关系的致命伤将带来怎样毁灭性的后果？而如果没有东正教的精彩思想文化成果丰富的灵修积累如静修主义宝库圣徒传统，基督教世界的缺失又是怎样的巨大。 ”
他指出，发动战争的罪恶，我们要斥责，“俄罗斯教会的那些领袖们只有彻底认罪悔改，回到圣菲拉列特、圣伊望主教和众圣徒凝聚的圣洁传统中，并为战争罪恶和无数牺牲的民众和基督徒世世代代补赎，才能摆脱群魔附体的现实。”但是，他也指出，战争爆发后，有些地区的文化艺术界不分青红皂白完全排斥一切俄罗斯文化艺术，……这种“一刀切”“一锅端”现象也出现在了那些地方，值得我们重视思考。”
“ ……对于我们，通过揭开存在于俄罗斯思想文化内部的这两条脉流，中国基督徒尤其是基督徒文化事工应该更加珍惜俄罗斯思想文化中的崇高脉络。因为俄国是天注定的此地邻居……俄国教会及俄国思想文化这次的优劣大暴露是我们最容易领会马上可以对照的镜子、最贴身的前车之鉴。经过深思，我再次强烈推荐大家更加关注陀思妥耶夫斯基等俄罗斯优秀的思想文化。因为事变更加证明了老陀们先知般的作品的重要性，例如他们对人类内心和外在世界绝境的深刻洞察、对自由的深刻理解……对我们行走未来路会更有意义。”
俄乌战争使一些研究者悲叹：“广义基督教的合一远景已经完全破碎了。” 因为在之前天主教、东正教和新教在努力推动广义基督教的合一，但这次俄乌战争的爆发让这样的努力都百年的尴尬。姜媛原来引用他的剧本作品《兰林复活节》里有一段现在已经广为流传的台词：“基督徒弟兄姐妹们的合一，永远不可能发生在各个教会的圆桌会议上、不可能发生在神学院的林荫道上，却早已开始在弟兄姐妹们原野十字架的苦路上”。
一中国基督徒民间文化学者：俄乌战争的爆发促进我们必须深刻反思俄罗斯东正教文化
The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war since February 24 shocked the whole world including the Chinese people, generating many concerns, discussions, and controversies in Christian circles.
In early April, a Christian scholar of folk culture put his deep thoughts in his new book Christ and Culture on important social topics such as the Russian-Ukrainian war and the pandemic. Jiang Yuanlai, a playwright and classical music connoisseur from Shanghai, believes that due to the events of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is necessary to re-examine Russian ideology and culture, especially for those in China, who are concerned about Russian ideology and culture and Orthodox.
In the 20th century, Jiang went to a remote village in Heilongjiang to “join the labor force” for more than three years. After graduating from college, he worked in the government and research institutes for a long time in the environmental planning of scenic nature reserves and field environmental research. Jiang became a Christian in the 1980s, entered the field of folk culture and Christian culture in the early 1990s, and started writing in the late 1990s. He is regarded as one of the most important Christian playwrights in mainland China and is called “Floor Playwright" because he was living in a tiny room during his playwriting
The scholar bluntly says, “From now on, any contemporary theology and ideological culture of the Orthodox Church and of the broader Christianity without a thorough repentance, reflection and criticism of the brutally desperate situation of the Russia-Ukraine War will have no legitimacy!”
This article is the sixth postscript that he will publish in Hong Kong, which is added to his 500,000-word monograph Christ and Culture based on the recordings of lectures given in theological colleges in various places for twenty-one years, titled “As the ‘Great Religious Judge’ Rages War - Rethinking Russian Ideology and Culture”.
Jiang explains the reason why this article is added to his book, “There are young church workers that suggest: in view of the fact that more and more Chinese Christians have adopted Russian Orthodox ideology and culture in recent years, the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war has caused great confusion to everyone, and the war is still raging. The article is absolutely necessary, but there is a lack of domestic Christians who deeply reflect on this important event and the relationship between Russian Orthodox ideology and culture. So, I hope I will publish this article on an official WeChat account first. After a week’s deliberation, I decided to adopt the suggestions made by church workers hoping it can promote the exploration of such an important issue as mentioned in the introduction of this article.”
Unfortunately, however, this article was deleted less than one day after it was posted on WeChat, China's largest social media platform.
Jiang cuts to the chase in his article, saying, “When I was about to finish this postscript, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine broke out. This great change is beyond the expectation of the international community. So far, the world ideological circle has just recovered from the shock and started to conduct in-depth discussions one after another in the past months, and the Christian world has also started to reflect deeply on the shock. This war is bound to profoundly change the world, and it has also severely challenged the broad Christian world because most of the soldiers on both sides are Christians (among them, the Orthodox Christians are the most), and Ukraine, in the blood pool of this war, is the area with the largest number of churches under the long-term jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow. All the children of God have the responsibility to face this tragedy completely. The brothers and sisters are in a desperate situation of killing.”
Therefore, Jiang regards it necessary to examine this topic, so he spent more than a month before June praying with his brothers and sisters for the Ukrainian people for a long time. He continuously summarized and browsed many works and documents that he had studied for decades, reviewed the accumulated contacts with Orthodox believers, and pondered the lessons of this war. Starting from his ministry, this introspection focused on Russian ideology and culture and its possible relationship with this war.
Jiang states that, in fact, apart from the Russian mainstream church led by the Patriarch who supports the war, there are millions of independent old liturgists in Russia and a huge foreign church in Russia shortly after returning to Patriarch Moscow. Most of the Christians in these churches opposed the war, and the middle and lower class priests and Christians in the mainstream church in Russia also voiced many anti-war opinions. Therefore, during this war, the decline and obedience of Russian mainstream Orthodox Church leaders and a large number of laymen coexisted with the increasing anti-war stance of some churches and some laymen.
He claims that it is a bare necessity for Russian mainstream church leaders to support the war because they are constrained by the dilemma of their church-state relationship. “In such a political-religious relationship, it is a basic necessity that church leaders succumb to and even actively support the rulers and even launch such fierce wars of aggression, which is bound by the jungle world. Faced with this painful reality, we should honestly distinguish that the relationship between church and state is an important part of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, but it is by no means the whole. The Russian Orthodox Church, like the Eastern Orthodox tradition in the whole world, has extremely rich and lofty connotations led by the Lord: saint tradition, retreat, rich theology; the church and the public treasure house of thought, culture, and art based on this tradition.”
Later, Jiang puts forward his own point of view: we need to distinguish the two main streams of Russian ideology and culture. First, the “Holy Ross” religious national concept culture gradually formed over many centuries, which has become the ideology of the power of the Czar empire, and finally made the Russian empire sacred with the religious image of “the third Rome”. However, another vein is the precious stream of the Orthodox background thought and culture that is truly in Christ: it takes retreat as the core, follows (even Lu Xun lamented “Christ in Russia”) with complete humility and devotion to life, and has achieved the deepest insight into human nature and confession, and the most thorough practice of holy love in the troubled and sinful Russian history.
Jiang stresses that we Chinese Christians need to pay more attention to and learn from the second pulse stream. “This pulse stream has many spiritual treasures. For us, Chinese Christians, the most intimate of them is the story of the saints of Shanghai Bishop St. Yiwang, Dostoevsky’s peak works, the icon paintings of Rublev, and the music works of Musorgsky and Rachmaninov. This pulse stream also has the Sacred Rose Complex, but a thorough examination shows that their understanding of it is essentially different from that of the previous pulse stream. They regard those in power as sinners who need repentance and compassion, and any existence of the country-nation-world needs salvation first. Therefore, they refuse to surrender their faith to power.” Moreover, “this pulse of ideological research and cultural creation is more independent especially in the brilliant Russian literature, from Pushkin, through Gogol, Toon, Gippius, Mandelstam and Pasternak. This kind of alert criticism of power sinners can be seen most clearly.”
Jiang clearly expresses his anti-war stance: “Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine, and even threatened all mankind with nuclear war, which was an all-out evil war. For us Christians, what is particularly shocking is that although some Orthodox clergy and believers stood up to fight, Russian Orthodox leaders declared that this was a holy war. We must make a clear position: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in countless deaths. It is a heinous crime committed by the initiator, a Judas-style war against the Lord and eating people, a contemporary war in which Cain invaded and killed Abel, and a 'religious judge' - style war in Moscow! The complicated historical origin of Kiev and Moscow, the complicated international geopolitical game involved in the war, and the complicated entanglement of Russia-Ukraine relations caused by the existence of external structural crimes in the world, all these reasons can only make us more aware that this is a criminal massacre caused by Satan, which was launched by the attached sinner who did not really repent of his deeds.”
The long-term ideological preparation and war ideology of this aggression is closely related to the above-mentioned first pulse of Russian mainstream ideology and culture. “This war is also the darkest event in the history of Christianity in the contemporary world. Every Christian together with every brother and sister of the Orthodox Church needs to repent thoroughly in the ashes - truly 'repent' as it is urged in the Orthodox tradition, so as to continue to be with the Savior,” he adds.
From the angle of ideology and culture only, his acceptance is that he needs to thoroughly repent, criticize and reflect on the following four aspects: we need to always be on guard against the alienation of the sacred belief - against faith becoming ideology; Christians should think about how to stick to holy love (agape) in the jungle world; people should firmly believe in the fundamental importance of freedom in Christ, and we receive God’s special revelation and universal revelation in an integrated way.
Talking about freedom, he says, “The Orthodox tradition attaches great importance to the harmony between Christ’s grace and human free will, and believes that the two are indispensable and complementary to each other. The key issue of Dostoevsky’s religious justice story is the issue of Christ and freedom. Freedom is not free theology, freedom is God’s respect for people (He doesn’t force people, God’s grace salvation and people’s free choice to follow are God’s wishes for people.) The true sacred faith must be the faith of freedom in essence. In today’s world, especially in the ideological, artistic, and cultural circles, where freedom is most needed for research and creation, freedom is becoming scarcer. In particular, freedom in Christ should be one of the key textures of local theology and local Christian art and culture. Through the Russian-Ukrainian war, the trinity of truth (truth and facts) - love (agape and mercy) - freedom in Christ should become the inherent texture of Christian life.”
He continues, “Today, I feel that God has allowed Christianity to be divided into three sections. Just as the separation of powers in the democratic system restricts each other, the differences among the three major Christian sectors on the premise that the core of faith is consistent can learn from each other’s strengths, watch each other and even criticize and alert each other. Imagine if the Christian world is the general unified structure of Russian Orthodox Church, what devastating consequences will that fatal injury to church-state relations bring? Without the wonderful ideological and cultural achievements of the Orthodox Church, such as the tradition of saints in the treasure house of retreat, how great the scarcity in the Christian world would be.”
He points out that we should reprimand the crime of raging war. “Only by thoroughly confessing their sins and repenting, the leaders of the Russian Church can return to the holy tradition of St. Philatellite, Bishop St. Yvonne and all saints, and make amends for the war crimes and countless sacrifices of people and Christians from generation to generation, can they get rid of the reality of demon possession.” However, he also points out that after the outbreak of the war, the cultural and artistic circles in some areas completely rejected all Russian culture and art indiscriminately. This “one size fits all” and “one pot at a time” phenomenon also appeared in those places, which deserves our attention and consideration.”
“For us, by uncovering these two veins existing in Russian ideology and culture, Chinese Christians, especially Christian cultural ministries, should cherish the lofty thread in Russian ideology and culture more. Because Russia is destined to be a neighbor here. The great exposure to the advantages and disadvantages of the Russian Church and Russian ideology and culture is the mirror that we can easily understand and compare immediately, and the closest example. After careful consideration, I strongly recommend you pay more attention to Dostoevsky and other excellent Russian ideology and culture. Because the incident proved the importance of the prophetic works of Dostoevsky, for example, their deep insight into the desperate situation of the human heart and the external world, and their deep understanding of freedom will be more meaningful for us to walk in the future.”
The Russian-Ukrainian War makes some researchers lament, “The prospect of the unity of broad Christianity has been completely broken.” Before Catholicism, the Orthodox Church, and Protestantism were trying to promote the unity of Christianity in a broad sense, but the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war embarrassed such efforts for a hundred years. Jiang quoted a line from his play Easter in Lin Lan, which is now widely circulated in China, “The unity of Christian brothers and sisters can never be achieved at round table conferences held by various churches, nor on the boulevard of seminaries, but already starts to be done by brothers and sisters who are on the wild and bitter pilgrimage of their cross.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
Chinese Christian Scholar: The Outbreak of Russian-Ukrainian War Calls for Deep Reflection on Russian Orthodox Culture, Thought
