Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe
Volume 4 | Issue 3
Article 2
5-1984
Religion in Soviet Marxist Societies: Ideology and
Realpolitik
Paul Peachy
Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
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Recommended Citation
Peachy, Paul (1984) "Religion in Soviet Marxist Societies: Ideology and Realpolitik," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe:
Vol. 4: Iss. 3, Article 2.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol4/iss3/2
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RELIGION IN SOVIET MARXIST SOCIETIES:
IDEOLOGY AND REALPOLITIK*
Paul Peachey
Dr .
Paul
Peachey
(Mennonite )
professor of sociology at
of
America ,
Ph .
D.
i zes
Washington ,
DC .
from University of
in
sociological
munity studies .
the execut ive
Mission
and
chairperson
traveled
Soviet
is
He
received
theory
and
C .A .R . E . E .
Union
in
and
urban
com ­
1 9 60s he served as
secretary of the
was
a
founder
of
his
Zlirich and special ­
During the
widely
associate
Catholic University
Church Peace
and
former
He
Europe ,
Eastern
lived
and
including
the
Europe
where
he
carried on extensive research . His most recent
publication
Local
(New
is
The
Residential
Participation
York:
in
Irvington
Area
Delocalized
Press ,
1 98 3 )
Bond:
Studies
co -edited
with Erich Bodzenta and Wlod zimierz Mirowski .
Uneasiness
Eastern
in
Europe
the
United
persists
as
States
a
over
the
disturbing
fate
factor
of
in
rel igion
in
international
relations today . Is the practice of religion free , as spokespersons from
these societies frequently assure us ,
to
the
stories
of
continuing
or are we to lend credence rather
harassments
of
relig:.onists
that
re­
currently filter westward?
Despite
the
increasing
flow
of
information
and
the
mov ement of
persons between the United States and Eastern Europe , misinformation and
even ignorance in the
the
one
hand ,
widespread ,
and
imagine .
the
On
United
religious
vital
other
States
practice
than
hand ,
many
regarding these matters abound .
in
Eastern
Americans ,
the sober
EuropE�
even
fact remains:
is
in
more
the
On
open ,
churches ,
within the Soviet
Marxist societal "model , " "religion" remains intrinsically problematic .
Relations between churches and the state are sometimes characterized as
"normal , "
yet
a pproximates
given
the
state
the
premises
of
the
societal
of a cease fire without a
model ,
peace treaty
normalcy
.
Thus a
simple incident may trigger renewed hostilities .
*Thi s is a lightly revised version of a
pa per read in a meeting of the
Southern Sociological Society in Atlanta , Georgia , March 3 1 ,
- 1 -
1 971 .
Logically enough ,
par t ,
or
alone ,
lead
on
the
however ,
sur face ,
it
policy
on
the
issues
of
theism
is di fficul t to see how or
to unrelieved
Soviet
the conflict be tween religion and regime turns in
hostility
can
of
accommodate
the
policy
"theism"
and
atheism .
Taken
why this problem should
toward
inso far
r1�ligion .
as
it
In
fac t ,
en tails
mere
meta physics , void of social signi ficance . The system pc•si ts two possible
types o f world view ,
but
not
the
only ,
religion is also a
namely
dei ty ,
Insofar
ac tion
as
namely ma terialism and idealism . Religion is one ,
is
form
form
than
idealism .
Bu t ,
accordinsr
to
the
theory ,
of aliena tion . The supposed otjec t of religion ,
regarded
religion ,
ra ther
of
as
thus
those
a
figment o f
conceived ,
genera ted
the
aliena ted
generates
by
the
modes
society
aE:
imagination .
of
a
behavior
or
"materialist"
phenomenon it can be viewed
according to the model as dys func tional .
In
fac t ,
or
or
only
by
distor tion
negation
can
religio:1
be
recuced
restric ted to "me ta physics . "
A
second ,
1
religion
somewhat
and regime in
less
ambiguous
the Soviet model is
in
pre -revolutionary
czarist Russia .
in
old
been
Russia
autocracy .
the
The
crown ,
had
source
For cen turies
in tegrated
served
as
tool
of
fric tion
between
their intimate associa tion
in to
the
Church was feudally organized ,
and
of
th1� Or thodo:;< Church
structure
of
c zarist
provided legi tima tion for
the Russian
despots .
In
other
Eas t
Euro pean lands Chris tianity had likewise been es tablished in pre-Marxist
times ,
though
the
forms
themselves --Orthodox ,
of
es tablishment
Ca tholic ,
varied
Protesta n t ,
as
did
e tc . Today,
the
c:hurches
though they are
consti tutionally dises tablished in the Soviet type Marxis t societies , it
is
far
from
from
their
clear
various
tha t the churches have been able
tc•
free
th·�mselves
"Cons tantinian" and /or caesaropapiEt legacies .
Both
the modali ties of s ta te in terven tion in religious pract:�ce and of church
accommoda tion to such in tervention are reminiscent o f those legacies .
The
Soviet
regimes
churches .
its
c oming
feu dal
the
in
the
other
Par ticularly in
vestiges
Un less or until
wi th
of
crown ,
Oc tober
lands ,
Revolu tion
marked
the
the Russian case ,
meant
inevi table
and
the
end
establish ment
of
a
long
era
of
for
the end of the monaJ�chy and
disloca tion
fc,r
the
churches .
the churches possessed an ide n tity otht�r th an symbiosis
they
could only resist
- 2
-
the revolution.
Much of
Soviet
h istory
of
s ince 1 9 1 7 bec omes
th is
d isplacement
deplorab le
the
in tel l ig ib le when the c om plex ity and pa thos
and
policies
transf ormation
of
the
Soviet
is
com prehended .
reg ime
v is-a-v is
However
rel ig ious
communities, g iven the historic legacy on the one hand, and the prem ises
of the reg ime on the other, these polic ies are not devoid of logic .
In
a
w ord,
symbios is
sub
of
specie
both
the
old
rel igion
order .
aetern i tatis,
prov inc e .
But
we
can
regime
had
A judgment on
it
and
and
goes
must
w ithout
test
the
been
subver ted
by
the
the caesaropapist m i l len ium
saying,
is
not
in
adequacy
of
the
m odels
h is tory offers as options for our own ac tions and polic ies .
the human
wh ich
A variety of
c riteria, whether drawn fr om the intrins ic qua l ities of re lig i on, or the
empirical domain
of policy, can be invoked, depend ing on the purpose a t
hand . But these cannot b e further pursued here .
These
two arguments,
in the feuda l
acc ount
the
for
order and
much
churches .
of
namely the pas t impr is onment of
the atheistic c oncepti on
the early host i li ty
of
But mean wh i le the churches have been d isestabl ished, and
increas ingly
socia l ist idea ls .
the
iden tified
Indeed,
w ith,
and
par ticular
have
say,
factory
ins tances,
developed .
routines
in
have
superv isi on
of
or
impr oved
Adm in istrators
Chr istians in the soc iety
prov ide
i t is poss ib le
who lesome r o le that Christ ians play
s i tua tions,
of the new order, may
the Marx is t reg imes toward
have tr othed their loya l ty to the new reg imes .
have
the churches
re ligious
affa irs
in
the
be tween
learned
G overnment
time
the
new
to time
in a l le v ia t ing d iff icu lt human
relations
improved .
f or,
to document from
commun i ty,
have
suppor t
lessons,
times
do
reg imes .
re lig ion
departmen ts
at
new
and
and
In
regime
bureaucratic
charged
rec tify
w ith
the
injus t ices
perpe tua ted by local off icia ls on prac titioners of relig ion .
On the other hand,
Organized re l ig i on
power .
Is
tha t
c om pr om ised
in
Soviet system ?
qua l i ta tive
Sov iet
problem
l ies
is a lways
what
the
is now
m ode
tak ing place ?
s ta te
there
regarding
reg ime
deeper
tempted sooner or later
of
In any case,
change
Marx ist
outside observers may be f org iven some doub ts .
has
than
the
church
con trol
the in tegr i ty
trea ted
as
is still n o reason
prob lem
taken
Is
place .
wh ich
- 3 -
of churches
" n ormal "
in
the
to bel ieve that a
re l ig i on
Indeed,
c omplic ity
to accommoda te to
we
in c zardom
poses
shal l
or
to
the
argue
the
than Marx ist
atheism.
Underlying
monistic
conception
Soviet
of
Marxist
social
difficulties
reality
which
with
religion
is
the
the system postulates and
which (see below) Russian history prefigures. Society, according to this
conception, is a single
determinate system, while the individual in the
society is simply the "ensemble" of all his social relations. The basic
energies
flow
from
the
whole
to
the
parts,
from
the
center
to
the
periphery, from the top to the bottom. Lower level units receive their
meaning from higher levels, without a clear telos or end of their own.
To
such a
view of reality, if a crude metaphor is permitted,
religion
intrudes as does a mistress in a married man's home.
Before we develop this hypothesis more fully, we need some notion
of
the
scope
Christianity,
and
as
extensively and
scale
already
openly in
of
religious
noted,
is
practise
practised
in
in
these
several
societies.
forms
more
the soviet Marxist societies than most people
in the West imagine. Indeed, the faith may well be a more vital force in
the daily life of some of these peoples than in some western countries
where religion supposedly is free. In the United States some 60-65% of
the population supposedly belong to a church or a synagogue. There is of
. course
no hard
count of church membership
Europe.
- 4 -
and even less so in Eastern
TABLE I
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION OF POPULATIONS IN SOVIET MARX:::ST SOCIE'riES*
In percentages, by country ranked from h igh t:o low
Total
Population
Country
in Millions
Roman
Orthodox
Catholic
No Religion /
Protestant
pther
Atheist
Rumanian
Socialist
Republic
85.0%
20.5
6.0%
6.5%
2.5%
6.5
Polish People's
Republic
32.9
91.0
2.5
10.4
65.0
25.0
32.0
0.8
People's
Republic
of Hungary
4.5%
5.5
Socialist Federative Republic
40.0
20.5
of Yugoslavia
12.2
15.0
I
I
I
Czechslovak
Socialist
14.4
Republic
German
59.6
10.8
0.3
29.3
8.1
59.4
1.0
31.5
Democratic
Republic
17.0
People's
Republic of
Bulgaria
8.5
26.7
0.4
0.2
8.1
64.5
24.7
13.0
1.2
0.6
14.4
70.0
2.1
20.7
10.3
69.0
?
Union of Soviet
Socialist
Republic
People's Republic
of Albania
Total p opulation
368,000,000.
*Comp iled from data assembled by
Church Within
Socialism,
Total Christian, all confessions ca.
135,000,000.
Giovanni Barberini ih "IDOC Europe Doss ier Three,"
e d ited by Erich Weinberger
1976).
- 5 -
(Rome:
IDOC International,
It
is
instructive
membership
in
the
to
note
that
Soviet Marxist
according
societies
to
is
Table I the
as
high
as,
rate of
or
higher
than, in the United States in all but three instances. Admittedly, these
figures
are
accuracy.
figures
not
strictly
Reinforced
give
some
as
comparable,
they
indication
are
by
of
the
quite
other
apart
from
indicators,
importance
of
their
dubious
however,
religion
these
in
these
societies.
What are other indicators?
cle�y,
goal
seminaries, theological students, and the like.
to
end
organized
Soviet Union,
appears
Statistics can be compiled on parishes,
though
nowh ere
religions
in
religion
there
apparently
have
sight.
In
been
has
periods
virtually
all
been
of
In Albania the
realized .
harshness,
of
the
other
In
that
the
goal
countries,
still receive--or since the revolution are receiving
for the
first time--some form of state subsidies. Theological faculties, paid by
the
state,
are
Democratic
still
Republic.
part
Under
of
the
other
university
auspices,
system
in
theological
the
German
faculties
are
state-salaried in several other countries. In Hungary, when .the Marxists
assumed
control, nearly thirty years ago,
Catholic
and
Protestant
churches
separate agreements with the
provided
for
a
diminishing
20-year
annual subsidy to the churches as indemnity for the lands taken over by
the state. Today, though expired, the payments continue, and clergy sit
in the parliament.
With
all this,
differences
Orthodox
must
(Soviet
(Poland,
be
underscored.
Union,
Czechoslovakia,
minorities;
one
Republic);
one
histories
have
nationalities,
roughly
however, the importance of in- and between-country
the
is
Three
Rumania,
Hungary),
countries
Bulgaria);
though
predominately
with
been
and
number
equally
the
of
diverse.
number
of
Christians.
three.
The
Muslims
Virtually
Roman
(German
catholic
Protestant
Democratic
(Yugoslav ia). Political
soviet
in
predominantly
significant
Protestant
is part Orthodox, part catholic
are
Union
the
all
embraces
population
of
these
many
equals
countries
include minority population groups within their territories which differ
ethnically
and
religiously
from
the
majority. In most cases the three
- 6 -
Chr istian
trad i t ions,
func t ioned
earl ier
espec ially
in
sectar ians
were
tha t
observe
Orthodox,
as
s ta te
Orthodox
and
churches
Catho l ic
persecu ted,
various
free
Roman
or
and
Pro testant,
Volksk irchen .
lands,
some times
church
Ca tho l ic,
relig ious
severely .
groups such
It
as
Accord ingly,
d issenters
is
and
impo ctant
Pentecos tals at
to
times
fare be tter under the Marxist reg imes than under " Chris tian " mor,archies .
Wha t
churches
accounts
b e tween
for
the
the
great
Sov iet
variation
Union,
on
the
in
the
one
s treng th
hand,
of
the
and Ruman ia
and
Poland on the o ther ? The mos t obv ious var iable, of course, is the age of
the
respec tive
con trol about
reg imes,
the
Sov iet
tw ice as long as
Union
the other
hav ing
two .
been
But
under
Marxist
it also appears tha t
the case aga inst the church
in the Sov iet Union was a s tronger one than
in
I n all three instances the church was bound
the other
two countr ies .
up w i th the na tional culture .
the
church
had
ma intained
hos t i le
outs ide
tied
the hos tile,
to
for these
hand,
rule,
In the Pol ish and Ruman ian cases, however,
the
whereas
but
spir i t of
in
the nation ' s cultures aga inst
the Russian case thE· church
native, dynasty .
Church
:1.ad been
membHrsh i p stat istics
two coun tries, on the one hand, and geo pol itics, on the other
speak
ra ther
eloquen tly .
Rel igion
in
these
countries
is
hardly
mere rel igion !
We can now pick up the main thread of our narra tiv8 . Sov iet Marxist
hos til i ty
to
relig ion,
conception
of
social
hypothes is
we
must
"mon is t ic, "
indeed
we
no ted
real ity
now
on
alas,
to tal i tarian,
presen t paper
is
are
wh ich
expla in .
no t
two-fold:
The
is
is
the
charge
rooted
in
soc iety
that
an old one,
and
the
is
mon istic
bu ilt .
Soviet
This
Marxism
our case may
thus
the
(1 )
same
th ing !
The
jus t if ication
we l i t tle com prehend ei ther
for
the
the sources
or the na ture of Sov iet mon ism, e i ther pos itively or ne9atively ; and
the
pro blem
considered
of
in
relig ion
rela tion
in
to
is
But pinn ing a label and understand ing a
appear bo th banal and fut ile .
phenomenon,
above,
Sov iet
the
Marx ist
mon is t
soc iety
problem
as
has
scarcely
d i s t inct
from
(2 )
been
the
famil iar debates about a the ism and the l ike .
Both
"monism, " and
models " of social
wh ich all power
is
its opposite,
theory .
A
2
"plural ism . " represent "contrast
"mon ist model " refers
" publ ic power ",
wh ile a
7 -
to
a
social order in
" plural ist model " refers to
one
in
which
public
there
power",
groups. "
3
is
with
These
"either
a
private
terms,
balance
power
though
or
a
fusion
resting "in
modern,
are
of
private
autonomous
reminiscent
and
social
of
older
debates, such as the controversy in medieval philosophy over realism and
nominalism
signifies
as
conceptual
that
"society
individual
is
the
problems.
is
the
derivative
Employed
true
and
sociologically,
primary
phenomenon. "
reality,
"Nominalism,"
on
"realism"
while
the
the
other
hand, means that "the individual is the primary and true reality, while
4
society is something either derivative or a mere sum of individuals. "
With
"realist"
terms
in
thus
nature.
directed system.
and securities.
defined,
All
Soviet
power
is
Marxist
collected
societies
in
a
are
single,
clearly
centrally
Constitutionally, citizens are guaranteed basic rights
But these rights are created by the state, rather than
acknowledged as preexisting. The citizen possesses no rights independent
of, or eventually in opposition to, the state.
is
socially
"From
the
constituted,
point of view
how
can
one
speak
Since all human reality
of
pre-political
rights?
of Marxism, the essence of any element in the
structure of a social organism or the connections between these elements
can
the
be
disclosed
general
only if the system of social relations is studied as
which
is
concretely
expressed
in
these
elements
and
connections, determining their essence," writes a committee of contempo­
rary
Soviet
atomistics"
theorists.
the
characterized
biological
view
by
a
nature,
At
of
set
in
the
the
of
the
same
time,
"individual"
immutable
depth
of
conception
of
traits
the
they
as
a
reject
as
social
supposedly
unconscious,
and
"social
atom
rooted
in
his
so on and so
forth. .,S
Only
when
this
social
and
political
reality
is
understood does the force of the case against religion become clear.
In
this conception religion has no place, no reality. There is no object to
which
religion
is
the
response.
projection of alienated spirit.
might
serve
as
source
of
Rather
Relig.i.on,
independent
it
rests
on
illusion
as
the
which in a pluralistic system
variation,
is
here
at
be st
parasitic. Following Lenin, Soviet policy at the most protects the right
of the believer to continue religious practise, confident that religion
will disappear of itself as the revolution matures. Frequently, however,
- 8 -
as
we
when
shall
see
religion
disappeared.
in
a
moment,
raises
Once
its
the
policy is not at its best, particularly
head
basic
anew
theory
at
is
points
granted
where
and
it
should
believed,
have
religion
indeed can be made to appear enigmatic and pathological!
As
already
Marxist
case
develoment
implied,
rests
of
however,
are
Western
the
arguments
political
arguments
which
theory.
have
Some
on
which
played
a
the
role
Soviet
in
the
analysts like to charac­
terize Marxism as a Western heresy rather than as something esoteric or
Eastern.
But
in
Soviet
Marxism,
or
rather
in
constituted by Soviet Marxism and the Western
the
larger
phenomenon
tradition to which it is
joined in opposition, we confront a reality far more formidable than two
conflicting
systems
doctrines.
into
It
is
constellations
rather
of
the
fusion
historical
of
power
the
that
opposing
idea
constitutes
the
peril.
Hegel,
political
regarded
it
must
reality
as
be
in
endemic
remembered,
reply
in
to
the
societies
developed
a holistic conception of
competition
based
on
and
the
conflict
market
which
he
economy.
In
substituting materialism for idealism, Marx may have turned Hegel right
side up. Yet the decisive fact is that Hegel' s realism prevailed. But it
was
not
holism
as
antidote
was
to
to
make
Western
history,
nominalism
but
and
rather
as
anarchy
that
legitimation
Hegelian
for
a
civilization and culture in Russia which had never known pluralism. Thus
the problem in Soviet Society is not too much atheism, but too little.
Soviet
Marxist
avowed
atheism
society
for
is
a
highly
secularity.
Aren
sacral
T.
phenomenon
which
mistakes
van Leeuwen coined the concept
"ontocratic" to describe those political traditions in which the "state
is the embodiment of the cosmic totality. " The Byzantine tradition, in
which the Russian monarchy was rooted, was an example of the ontocratic
conception.
Indeed, van Leeuwen continues, "the West has only with great
6
difficulty contrived to escape its (ontocracy' s) blinding spell. "
Max Weber, it will be recalled, advanced the notion of an "elective
affinity" of ideas
for certain corresponding historical configurations.
If the reception of Marxist theory into the flesh and
history
be
said
blood of Russian
appears to illustrate Weber' s conception, perhaps the same can
with
regard
to
the
reception
- 9 -
of
the
nominalist
half
of
the
debate in European political theory in the flesh and blood of American
history. Each in its own way thus appears as half-truth and perhaps as
heresy. That, of course, is another topic. It is a possibility suggested
here
only
problem
to
of
underscore
religious
the
need
to
in
the
liberty
see
the
historical
Soviet
Marxist
force
system.
of
the
Perhaps,
particularly in the light of the Helsinki Accord, we can only protest in
the West. But we should at least understand and recognize the historical
limits within which political incumbents in that system act. So we turn
finally to examine a few of their policies.
Constitutional
reflect
the
same
constitutions.
and
other
legal
Enlightenment
stipulations
conceptions
which
concerning
religion
one finds in Western
The Decree of the Soviet People's Commissars of January
23, 1918, states that "the church is separated from the state," and that
"every citizen may confess any religion or profess none at all." Article
124
of
the
constitution
of
the
USSR
says:
"In
order
to
ensure
to
citizens freedom
of conscience, the church in the U.S.S.R. is separated
from the
and
state,
the
school
from
the
worship and freedom of anti-religious
7
citizens."
These
Soviet
provisions,
Union
and
in
it
can
other
Freedom of religious
propaganda are recognized for all
rightly
Soviet
church.
be claimed, are enforced in the
Marxist
societies.
Constitutional
language, of course, varies from country to country. Where these basic
provisions have not been enforced or have been violated,
it is because
implementation of other measures result in indirect contradiction. What
are those other provisions? The most important category is doubtless the
provisions
time
of
which
the
pertain
revolution
to
religious
such
buildings
properties
were
and artifacts. At the
inventoried
and
nation­
alized. Buildings and religious objects were then to be made available
without
cost
registered
to
groups,
authorized
of
course,
religious
could
groups
receive
for
use.
permission
to
Only
duly
use
such
property. But this arrangement inserts· a local public official into the
heart of local parish activity as a normal procedure.
Another
religious
category
of
provisions
pertain
to
the
definition
of
practise. The guarantee of religious liberty applies both to
beliefs held
privately by the individual citizen, and to worship or the
- 10 -
enactment of the cult. Belief is treated as a private matter. It may not
be
mentioned,
for
example,
in
personal
civil documents. But corporate
worship is another matter. Even when confined to the regular liturgy of
divine
service,
it
becomes
in
some
degree
a
social
act.
So
a
contemporary Marxist scholar asks, "How can religion be maintained as a
private matter? . . . When religion ceases to remain a domestic cult and
begins to express itself through an organized church, the private matter
takes on a special social dimension. A social dimension is an externally
social
manifestation
which
no
society within society. Its
regulated
by
the
latter."
private and the social
longer
is
a
private
matter.
It
becomes
relationships being juridically and legally
8
The
attempt
to
draw
a
line
between
the
dimensions of religion, in order to permit only
the former, ends in ambiguities which cannot be resolved.
In
and
practise,
separation
dramatized
in
then,
of
the
the
church
two
and
dissenting
principles,
state,
namely
collide.
religious
groups
religious liberty,
This
contradiction
is
that have surfaced over
the last decade, both in the Orthodox Church and among the Evangelical
Baptists.
In
challenged ,
instances,
existing
the
but
latter
a
competing
however,
the
hierarchies
operate as
instance
the
organization
c riticism
have
existing
made
has
pertains
to
the
leadership
been
to
state
is
only
In
both
effected.
concessions
for
not
the
which
the
permission
to
churches. Significantly, the constitutional point is raised.
State authorities,
hierarchies,
in
in regulating religious life as indicated above, and
accepting
such
supervision,
a re
both
accused
of
9
violating the constitutional separation of religion from the state.
Westerners
benefit
from
a
critical
glance
or
back
impatient
on
with
Western
this
state
of
Here
the
history.
affairs
era
of
can
the
Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century is instructive. Luther,
it
will
religious
church
be
reform,
life,
radicals then
1960s
and
recalled,
and
confronting
finally
looked
t.he
distinguish:!d
political
turmoil
the
and outer
inner
surrounding
orders of
to the magisLracy to regulate the latter.
The
(Anabaptists), as the Initiativniki in Soviet Union in the
1970s,
rejected
this
distinction.
Religious
faith
and
life
must be independent!
In the long run, however, the view of the radicals was to prevail.
- 11 -
But
the
triumph
tradition
owes
doctrine,
even
sanction
as
more
separation
to
well.
analogous to
the
formulations.
today
In
which
reality,
that
effect,
church
and
forces
than
model
the
separation
the
prevailed
Soviet
Only
of
secularizing
though
civilization,
historical
of
notion
in
today,
to
have
in
the
the
churches'
enjoy
own
theological
christendom,
Europe,
Western
a
unified
appears
highly
however different the particular
pluralization
appears
to
does
of
medieval
state
of
Western
societies,
the
nurtured
insight
that
as
an
human
existence is fundamentally or intrinsically pluralistic. The problem is
not
the
defend
what
achievement
any
particular
passes
equally
of
for
pluralism
its
pluralism--there
pluralism
important,
but
and
recognition.
is
much
more
is not to
that is problematic in
in the United States today.
the
This
so when pluralist
Certainly it
is
forces flourish, to
look after the "core universe" which sustains groups and communities.
It is not readily evident how other societies should respond to t he
Soviet
predicament.
It
may
well
be
appropriate
leaders to be held somehow accountable
to
standards
values.
of
Whether
religious
such
readily determined.
two
societal
Perhaps
understood,
model,
the
challenges
this
and
political
before world opinion in acc ord
increasingly
aid
Soviet
or
hinder
prevailing
the
cause
in
global
may. not
be
In any event, in the US-US SR confrontation, not only
conceptions
until
liberty
for
dual
face
fact
until
each
is
other,
more
pluralizing
but
fully
two
and
histories
as
well.
widely recognized and
transformations
temper
the
Soviet
uneasy cease fire now in effect will not yield to a viable
peace.
1
FOO'lJIIO'l'ES
The
term
"specifically."
believers
or
religion
In
the
churches.
is
used
latter
Other
in
sense
this
paper
reference
religious
both
is
"generally"
always
to
populations are to be found in
the Soviet Union, but these will not be treated in this paper.
contexts should make clear which of the two usages is intended.
2
william F.
Connolly, ed.
and
christian
The Bias of Pluralism.
The
(New York, 1969)
provides a critical discussion of pluralism.
3
George Fischer,
1968) 1 pp. 14f
The
Soviet
System
•
- 12 -
and
Modern
Society
(New York,
4
Vol.
P't
.
� r�m
II, pp.
5
A.
s.
A.
S oro k'�n,
Social
and
Cultural
Dynamics
262£.
Makhov I
et
al.
I
Society
and
Economic
(London, 1947),
Relations
(Moscow I
History
(London,
1976) 1 p. 8.
6
Arend
196 4), p.
7
8
van
Leeuwen,
Erich W eingartner, ed.
Christianity
Church in Socialism
World
(Rome, 1976), p. 73f.
Religion and Atheism in the USSR and Eastern Europe
of Toronto Press, 1975), pp.
9
and
Branko Bosnjak, "Reflections on religion," in B. R. Bociurkiw, et
al. , eds.
u.
T.
285 & passim.
28ff.
Religion in Communist Dominated Areas (New York, 1976).
- 13 -
(Toronto: