Russian Religious Renaissance

The Russian Religious Renaissance was a period from roughly 1880 -1950 which witnessed a great creative outpouring of Russian philosophy, theology and spirituality. The term is derived from the title of a 1963 book by Nicholas Zernov called, The Russian Religious Renaissance of the Twentieth Century. The renaissance began in the late nineteenth century but was unexpectedly driven out of Russia due to the violent upheavals of the Bolshevik Revolution and early atheistic Communist regimes. This dislocation led to the resettlement of many Russian intelligentsia in Europe and the West where the renaissance reached its full expression. Although often viewed as a development within the Russian Orthodox world, the spiritual ideals of the Russian Religious Renaissance were carried throughout the wider Eastern Orthodox Church and even into the Roman Catholic and Protestant communities.