Possession in Contemporary Russian Orthodoxy: Between Ecclesiastical Religion and New Age

Религиоведение. 2023. No. 2. P. 66–78.

Nosachev P.

The practice of exorcism came to Russia in the 17th century, when the
Catholic rite was included in orthodox prayer books by metropolitan Peter Mogila. In
the 18th and 19th centuries cases of exorcism were rare, for a time it was even banned
by the state. Before the revolution the fashion on exorcism began, at the same time
enlightened society held the view that possessed were ill with a nervous disease. In
the new Russia the practice of exorcism was revived, it began with the simple priests; later influential elders-exorcists appeared they attract thousands of people to the so-called “otchitka” (rituals
of exorcism). Contemporary practice of otchitka has very little in common with pre-revolutionary Russian
practices and even less in common with the classical cases of possession described in early Christian literature.
The otchitka today is a kind of performance contained a number of patterns similar to modern exorcist practices
of Catholicism and Protestantism. The transformation of exorcism practice under the influence of historical and
cultural realities is an indicator of the transformation of Christianity itself, which absorbs external influences
(political, religious, esoteric, cultural). Thus, this study is not anthropological or sociological, but use the frame
of culture studies, its focuses on the ideas about the practice and ideology of exorcism, primarily formed in the
circles of the Orthodox clergy, the theological elite that defines this discourse in modern Russia. This article
aim is to demonstrate how exorcism in the contemporary Russian Orthodox Church correlates with the Russian
New Age culture. The following questions are considered: How and why is its correlation with the Christian
practice of exorcism possible? How was this practice formed in contemporary Russian Orthodoxy? How is it
being implemented now and what New Age elements are present in it?

Keywords: Нью Эйдж, христианство, Christianity, western esotericism, западный эзотеризм, New Age, русское Православие, post-soviet Orthodoxy, поздний СССР