Posted on 10/23/2017 7:53:54 PM PDT by vladimir998
WARSAW, POLAND — When the centenary of the Bolshevik revolution falls this autumn, Christian communities across the former Soviet Union will commemorate the persecutions it unleashed upon them.
But they'll also recall the religious meditations born in the country's prisons and labor camps, some of which deserve to rank with the best in Christian history.
"Soviet-era sufferings affected not just the churches but the whole of society, atheists included," said Msgr. Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of Russia's Catholic Bishops' Conference.
"Secular writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Nadhezda Mandelstam may have become the most famous. But themes of witness and martyrdom also run through the gulag literature and are universally recognized and respected."
(Excerpt) Read more at ncronline.org ...
WE all know the communist party hated religion and especially Christianity. We also know the commies employed secret police to enforce their cruelty in ways that shock decent people. The horrors of these actions are well known too (see anything by Solzhenitsyn).
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One of the evil men who sought a career under communism and who made a career with criminal element that supported the evil empire’s secret police was a man who proved himself very adaptable. His name is Vladimir Putin, a former KGB Colonel and now one of the richest men in the world. Despite his being a co-conspirator, he has his defenders including some claiming to be conservative. They’re the new age conservatives, meaning they won’t let the rule of law get in the way of authoritarianism. And as a president-for-life, it’s reasonable to consider Putin’s biography.
“...Secular writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn...”
Solzhenitsyn was not a secular writer. His writings are Christian although his Christian themes are sometimes approached subtly.
“Solzhenitsyn was not a secular writer.”
He was not a priest or monk or bishop. Hence, his writings, although overtly religious, could be considered secular because they were written in the world and not behind the walls of a monastery. That is the traditional use of the term “secular”.
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