«The times they are a-changin'»: Ural old believer discussions about the past and future in the search for a «True» Priesthood at the end of the 19th century

Abstract

This article is devoted to eschatological aspects of Old Believer discussions about the priesthood in the Urals and Siberia. The author's method combines the study of Old Believer history with analysis of their written works. The paper includes an overview of the main trends found in polemics about the " true" hierarchy of the priesthood in the 18th and 19th centuries. The key source is "The Discourse about the Times of This Century", a text created by an unknown Old Believer author in the last quarter of the 19th century. The main goal of " The Discourse" was to defend the doctrine of the Chasovennye branch of Old Believers. Comparison of " The Discourse" with other works of this period show a similarity in the methods of interpreting of Scripture, but also significant differences in metaphor, language, and sources. © 2018 Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. All rights reserved.