Renovationist Metropolitan A. I. Vvedensky as a Participant in Religious Disputes

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the topics of religious disputes and the participation of A. I. Vvedensky in them. The study involved materials from debates contained in a number of issues of the journal «Church Renewal», as well as in the works of A. E. Krasnov-Levitin. Chronological, retrospective and ideographic methods of historical science were used. Religious disputes in the Russian Empire, and then in the USSR in the 20s. represent a special phenomenon in the context of the events of a given era. The change of power in the country and the renovationist schism in the Church largely determined the specifics of these events. Renovationist Metropolitan A. I. Vvedensky was an active participant in the debates described. A detailed examination of this phenomenon reveals many intersections of quite important and relevant topics for church historical science. Collaborating with the Soviet government, Vvedensky led an open struggle with the patriarchal Church and tried to promote the renovationist movement. In the context of the debates, his activities were expressed in two ways. On the one hand, the renovationist leader acted as an apologist for Christianity in disputes with atheists, on the other hand, he mercilessly denounced and tried in every possible way to discredit the patriarchal Church in disputes with its representatives.