Alexander Schmemann

6. Russian Orthodoxy (41 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 38

Bridge and Unifier.

One must indeed admit that the history of Russia has been a tragedy, and it is this tragedy that makes it so important in the history of Orthodoxy. When we think of the great Russian literature, we have to acknowledge that it was not only inevitable for Peter to turn to the West, but essential. Only in free encounter with the world could Russia become herself, grow to her full height, and find her true calling, which was to overcome the terrible gulf between East and West, which had been the chief sin of the Christian world since the Middle Ages. There was much dispute about East and West in Russia, but Russia herself revealed a truth that had dropped out of sight in Europe long before: that this contrast was in itself false and even sinful, for it was a falsehood against the original unity of the Christian world, whose spiritual history goes back to the miracle of Pentecost. All the best that Russia has created is the result of the inward reconciliation of “Eastern” and “Western,” of all that was true and immortal that sprouted from Byzantine seed, but could grow only by identifying itself once more with the general history of Christian humanity.

“Europe is a mother to us, as is Russia, she is our second mother; we have taken much from her and shall do so again, and we do not wish to be ungrateful to her.” No Westernizer said this; it is beyond Westernizers, as it is beyond Slavophiles. Dostoevsky wrote it at the height of his wisdom, on the threshold of death . . . His last hope was Messianism, but a Messianism which was essentially European, which developed out of his perception of Russia as a sort of better Europe, which was called upon to save and renew Europe. This hope may have been unjustified, but those who maintained such a faith were not turning their “faces toward the East,” they were turning to Europe, believing that the “Eastern,” meaning the Russian, light, or the light of Europe renewed, would shine over Europe. They did not yet know that their prophecy, to the extent that it was fulfilled, was fulfilled by them themselves.[74]

 

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