Problematics of the Demarcation of Protestants and Neo-Protestants in Protestantism, Russian Religious Studies and Church Sectology (Part II)

Abstract

In recent years, Russian Church sectology has used the term Neo-protestants along with the terms sect, heresy to distinguish them from historical Protestants to name Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals, Neo-pentecostals, the International Church of Christ, etc. This distinction has a historical, theological and dogmatic support and is fixed in Church liturgical texts; it is very relevant in the context of modern religious and political life in Russia. At the same time, in a number of works in church publications, Neo-protestant heresies are called Protestants, which does not fully correlate with the attitude towards Protestantism that has developed in the Russian Orthodox tradition, as recorded in the liturgical «Rites of Joining Orthodoxy», which distinguish between joining the Church by historical Protestants and Neo-protestants. Therefore, it becomes necessary to consider the issue of differentiation in more detail. Within the framework of this issue, the influence of secular religious studies on church theology and the question of the correlation of religious knowledge about Christian and, in particular, Protestant and Neo-protestant beliefs to the teachings of the Christian denominations themselves and their assessments of each other are also analyzed.