Bushkovitch's book traces the evolution of religious attitudes in this important transitional period in Russian history. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Russia saw the gradual decline of monastic spirituality, the rise of miracle cults, and ultimately the birth of a more personal and private faith that stressed morality instead of public rituals. Bushkovitch not only skilfully reconstructs these rapid and fundamental changes in the Russian religious experience, but also shows how they were influenced by Western European religious ideas and how they foreshadowed the secularization of Russian society usually credited to Peter the Great.

About the Author
Author of The Merchants of Moscow 1580-1650 (Cambridge UP, 1980)

Reviews
an erudite and fairly readable account of religious life in Muscovy, with some thought-provoking comments on other aspects of cultural history. His sources are extensive and include unpublished manuscript material * The Heythrop Journal *
a highly scholarly and richly detailed volume, building on previous studies of his selected area and on published histories and manuscript records of churches and chapels, among many other sources ... The book is an intensely detailed one miscroscopically examining the religious nature of a small area. The work is valuable not only as a model study of local religious history, covering many facets, but as an example of developments which had national as well as local relevance. * Ian Machin, University of Dundee, The Historical Association 1996 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195069464
Author Paul Bushkovitch
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 562g
Dimensions(mm) 159mm * 236mm * 26mm