The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article discusses how the members of the social-missionary associ­ation “Pravoslavnoe Delo”, who published in 1939 the almanac “Pravoslavnoe Delo”, which became the general “intellectual statement” of its active core (Mother Maria Skobtsova, N. A. Berdyaev, G. P. Fedotov, K. V. Mochulsky, Hiero­monk Lev Gillet) responded to the anthropological challenges of their time — the emergence of new totalitarian regimes and the devaluation of the human personality, its dissolution in the crowd. The association’s members analyze not only the origins of totalitarianism and the varieties of contemporary totalitarian ideologies, with their suppression of freedom, coercive worldviews and persecution of dissenters, but also how the process of dehumanization can occur even in social work and charitable causes. In this regard, the ideas of the association’s participants are particularly indicative, since this is not simply a talented example of religious thought, but the ideas inextricably linked with specific activities to provide systematic social assistance to needy Russian emigrants, arising as an attempt to formulate theological foundations for their own practical work. The association’s members emphasize that for such work, for genuine “Orthodox cause”, it is necessary to treat each person in need as a unique individual, remembering the physical, mental and spiritual needs of each person; not forgetting genuine compassion for them and the fact that each person is the image of God; and not turning social work into a charitable handout that dehumanize the recipient. Mother Maria (Skobtsova) calls this sought-after method of work the “conciliar-personal method” that embraces creative labor, freedom and Eucharistic relationships between people (an ecclesiology of communion), when genuine communion with each person becomes communion with Christ himself, and participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice continues in the “extra-church liturgy”, which pours out grace on everyone, in an attempt to bring everyone into the joy of a common life in Christ.