Russia And The Universal Church

Vladimir Solovyev was a convert to Catholicism. In this book he gives an defense of his new faith. He gives the historical evidence that proves the Catholic Church is the one Church of Christ. He dispels the myths propped up by the Orthodox as an excuse to stay away from Rome and the Pope. This book is vital for anyone who believes that Russia will have a role to play in future events; that is, a future Catholic Russia.

Vladimir Solovyev was a convert to Catholicism. In this book he gives an defense of his new faith. He gives the historical evidence that proves the Catholic Church is the one Church of Christ. He dispels the myths propped up by the Orthodox as an excuse to stay away from Rome and the Pope. This book is vital for anyone who believes that Russia will have a role to play in future events; that is, a future Catholic Russia.

The Russian Church and the Papacy, edited by Father Ray Ryland, is an abridgement of Vladimir Soloviev's classic work, Russia and the Universal Church. This is a powerful defense of the papacy from Soloviev, a Russian Orthodox theologian who was committed to the cause of Christian unity and spent years attempting to convince his Orthodox brethren to reunite with Rome. Soloviev uses Scripture, history, and hardheaded logic to prove that the papacy is essential to Christian unity and truth, and without it the early Christian Church would have disintegrated into hundreds of competing sects.

This book is a critical study of the interaction between the Russian Church and society in the late 19th and early 20th century. While other studies exist that draw attention to the voices in the Church typified as liberal in the years leading up to the Revolution, this work introduces a wide range of conservative opinion that equally strove for spiritual renewal and the spread of the Gospel. Grounded in original research conducted in the newly accessible libraries and archives of post-Soviet Russia, this study is intended to reveal the wider relevance of its topic to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between national or ethnic identities on the one hand, and the self-understanding of Orthodox Christianity as a universal and transformative faith on the other.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

Vladimir Soloviev was a philosopher, poet, theologian and prophet. He was widely recognized as Russia's greatest thinker of the 19th Century. Michel d'Herbigny's biography allows us to experience Soloviev the man, in his struggles against censorship, the Tsarist police, and others who sought to keep the Russian people uninformed of Soloviev's work. Soloviev has been recognized by John Paul II and Benedict XVI for his personal holiness. His fervent drive for the reunion of the Russian Orthodox with the Catholic Church, and life of asceticism led to his early death as he poured out his life for Christ. Hated by Lenin, forbidden in his homeland until the 1990s, and lost in the clutter of modern life in the West, Soloviev is only now beginning to rise again among Russian Orthodox, Catholics and other Christians. Vladimir Soloviev is a thinker that will remain with you, and help you realize God's plan for mankind and yourself.

Written in French in 1888, The Russian Idea contains elements of ideas that Solovyov developed more extensively in his much larger work Russia and the Universal Church. In The Russian Idea, Solovyov seeks to answer the question: What is the role and function that God has in mind for Russia as being integrated into all of humanity and especially as being integrated into the Mystical Body of Christ on Earth? "The idea of a nation is not what it thinks of itself in time, but instead what God thinks of it in eternity." Remarkably perceptive and insightful, trenchant and charitable, Solovyov remains pertinent today.