Conversation on the History of Russian Evangelical Christianity
The St. Petersburg Christian University, finished filming "Conversations on the History of Russian Evangelical Christianity," hosted by an honorary doctor of historical theology, Marina S. Karetnikova.
The course of conversations created under the project "Russian God-seeking" is a unique manual for Christian universities, colleges and schools. Readers are well acquainted with the four-volume by Karetnikova, "Almanac of the History of Russian Baptists", which was included in the conversation after its publication.
Karetnikova has studied the history of the Evangelical Christians for thirty years, which is surprisingly intertwined with the history of her own family. Her mother was born in a family of milkers in Vladikavkaz in the 20s of the last century. She came to Petrograd, to become a listener of Bible courses, open by I.S. Prokhanov. Soon, she was married to the listener of the same courses. In 1930, in Leningrad, they had a daughter, Marina. The history of the twentieth century comes to life in the amazing story of this remarkable woman who wins the audience from the first minutes of conversation with her.
According to Marina Alekseeva, "if excluded from the history of the role and influence of God, it becomes just a bag of" potatoes" a set of unrelated facts."
We met with the author of "Russian God-seeking" Tatiana Snisarenko:
- Tatyana, tell us about how the filming took place.
- From the first minutes of acquaintance with Marina, it became obvious that many people need to hear and see her. I cannot speak about the uniqueness of the course, which begins with the ninth century, and ends the first half of the twentieth. I'll tell you more about the uniqueness of the individual author.
First, this project a miracle in itself. We had to work in hard mode: it took 2 weeks in 8 hour shifts, and none of us were sure of the reality of this vision. But Marina Sergeevna, incidentally, celebrated this year her eightieth anniversary, recorded all the lectures in the same breath. Only after these two weeks, she lost her voice, that occurred off camera. We (the crew) saw that for her, this work is very important: she wanted to conclude her thirty years of research. In the course of writing the program the format changed: lectures, created by us in the beginning, were more conversations in which she - almost as old as the century - told a story that comes to life before our eyes, because it is also the story of her life, her family life.
Marin's mother, Vera Shilpyakova, was a friend of the sons of I.S. Prokhanov. The life of one of them, as we know, was tragically interrupted in times of terror. Many prominent evangelical leaders of that era were close friends of the family. In addition to all of the above, Marina has a wealth of spiritual experience: she is still an active member of the Baptist Church and enjoys sharing all that she managed to survive. For me, it is very important that Marina with certainty can be called not only a brilliant representative of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia, but also a person that generates the image of the Russian evangelical Christianity. Also, the course includes a special supplement, "My block" - memories of Marina during the Siege of Leningrad. Soon to be published is her book "The Mystery of the power in weakness," dedicated to those memories.
- Who should take this course?
- First of all, the course is designed for special institutions that teach the history of Russian Christianity and the Gospel. St. Petersburg Christian University has already ordered a full course. So it certainly will be interesting to all evangelical Christians and those interested in Russian history, and its little-known story, if you wish. This is a unique opportunity to hear the facts in the materials of the course, as it refers to many sources - the fruit of years of research. For many years, Marina has spent time in the archives of the Museum of Religion, studying materials, which at that time, it seemed, would never have been made public.
For me was a big surprise that the studio audience were mostly young people who came the first day and stayed and listened to the entire course. I hope that our listeners will find their own lectures and it will be available to generations of spectators.
Before us, a long period of processing awaits us, and we plan to release a DVD in addition to a MP3-version, so people with lack of time can listen to it in the car. Applications for receiving this course, you can send on site www.bogoiskatelstvo.ru (section Contacts).
- Thank you Tatiana, we are pleased to announce the completion of the material and the release of the first part of the video lectures.
