![]() ![]() My study engages with Russian Baptist lay hermeneutics and the application of ‘lay theology’ in everyday situations. In a collection edited by Derrick Lemons (2018), scholars discuss the perspectives of a ‘theologically engaged anthropology’ based on the undeniable impact of theology on human culture. Joel Robbins (2006) argues that the anthropology of Christianity is a relatively young discipline that has recently come to the point of understanding the role of theology in the construction of the everyday reality of the people we study as Christians. In this discussion, scholars seek to extend theological knowledge beyond simply ‘data’ or the corpus of emic dogma. This argument refers to the emerging discussion about theologically engaged anthropology. ![]() In the rehabilitation process, Luther's five solae (principles of Protestant Reformation) and Arminian free will soteriology served as the explanatory tools to adapt the biblical imperatives to rehabilitation as based on God's work through the sacrifice of Christ alone and a sinner's responsible decision to accept this sacrifice (ibid.: 147). My study of lay hermeneutics and rehabilitation through conversion in the Baptist rehabilitation ministry ( Mikeshin 2016) led me to the question, how could the ideas of Christian scholars of the sixteenth (e.g., Martin Luther) and seventeenth centuries (e.g., Jacobus Arminius) change the lives of ‘street junkies’ in twenty-first-century Russia? In the logic I applied then, and attempt to apply here, theology is the way to link the text of Scripture and everyday life through hermeneutics (interpretation of the text) and application (adaptation of the narrative, which is at least two millennia old, to the modern day). It is spread across several regions: its churches and rehabilitation facilities reach Murmansk to the north, Moskovskaya oblast’ to the southeast, and Kaliningrad, Joutseno (Finland), and Riga (Latvia) to the west. This community of approximately 4,000 members is in northwest Russia, with its central church in St. ![]() I conducted an ethnographic study of the Russian Baptist rehabilitation ministry for addicted people called Good Samaritan in 2014–2015 ( Mikeshin 2016), and my ongoing research project focuses on gender norms and family values in the same community. In this way, they interiorize the language of the Bible as the language of their everyday life and reasoning-justifying every important decision in life with Scripture. I focus on the ways and mechanisms of their interpretation of the biblical text as they apply it in everyday life. Russian Baptists are biblical literalists, meaning that they consider the Bible inerrant and sufficient for faith and practice. ![]() In this article, I go through narratives of conversion in the rehabilitation ministry and of sustaining faith in gender order and family practices to suggest that Russian Baptists regard their faith as a text. Moreover, this is also the case for practically everyone who has converted as an adult. Most of the former substance abusers in the Russian Baptist community that I study put a great deal of emphasis not only on the fact that they stopped taking drugs or drinking alcohol, but also on the radical change in their sexual behavior. It was the fact that his friend, a man in his thirties, an ex-addict with a rich life experience, voluntarily asked Aleksei to be a third party on his date, although there is no strict rule about this practice in the church. However, what interested me most was not the fact that conservative Christians engage in ‘puritan’ dating practices. My interviewee realized how odd this might sound to my secular ear. There was him, his fiancée, and me there. My friend actually invited me the other day, so I went. “They often ask someone, their friend, to go on a date with them,” Aleksei explained, “so that lukavyi doesn't tempt them. To illustrate what he meant by proper courtship, my interlocutor mentioned that although he and his fellow Baptists believe that sex and intimacy are permissible only within marriage, dating of engaged couples is seen as a good thing. My interviewee, a middle-aged man named Aleksei, 1 who was one of the leaders of the rehabilitation ministry and an ‘ex-addict’ ( byvshii narkoman) himself, was telling me about his views on the differences between men and women, their roles in the church and family, and the ‘proper’ Christian marriage. Petersburg, Russia, in a peaceful suburb with three big lakes. I was sitting for an interview in the beautiful verdant yard of the biggest Baptist church in St. ![]()
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