Paper short abstract:

This paper details the ecclesiological responses of an 'Old Believer' community to the epistemic uncertainty sparked by the clash between individuals' mystical religious experience and the fractured Post-Soviet religious field.

Paper long abstract:

For his famous paradox ('I believe because it is absurd'), Tertullian is usually considered the theological forefather of a Christianity grounded in faith alone. To the extent that Christianity bases itself on such affirmations of pure faith there is, according to Bernard Williams, an incomprehensible element at its core. Because of the inherent difficulty in conveying the concrete content of 'belief', it is nye-impossible to find a criterion that logically distinguishes belief from unbelief. As a corollary: 'If we cannot characterize the difference between belief and unbelief, we may not be able to characterize the difference between orthodoxy and heresy (Williams 1968).'

During the tumultuous 1990s some inhabitants of the Russian Far East experienced a religious awakening that was provoked by dreams or visions, and which started them on a search for religious truth. But the lack of depth of religious tradition in this region, combined with the vast influx of foreign missionaries, presented these spiritual voyagers with a bamboozling array of religious choice. Yet how to sort out truth from falsehood, orthodoxy from heresy? This paper, which draws on 18 months fieldwork, will describe a revival of Ancient Orthodoxy that, since 1992, has battled with the epistemic murk thrown up by a particularly acute case of Tertullian's paradox, in which neophyte zeal (stemming from myriad mystical experiences) has outstripped the available institutions of religious agreement and worship. Such a mismatch has led often to the breakdown of doctrinal consensus and, subsequently, schism.