‘We’re all gonna die anyway’: the eschatological tranquillity of Russian Baptists during the pandemic

ABSTRACT The article discusses how the Russian Baptist community reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and state-imposed restrictions. After initial fears of the unknown and unprecedented threat, most believers normalised the situation and positioned it in the context of their faith, Gospel message, and eschatological expectations. I analyse their eschatological tranquillity in the context of the Russian Baptist interpretative tradition of applying the Bible to everyday life, and moral potentialities that the pandemic and restrictions created for believers.


Introduction
In this article, I discuss the reaction of the Russian 'Evangelical Christian-Baptist' (ECB) community to the COVID-19 pandemic, to the virus itself, and to state-imposed pandemic restrictions.Like most of Russian society, the ECB community initially experienced fears of a situation that was unknown, deadly, and heretofore unprecedented.However, they promptly adapted to it and incorporated the restrictions in their daily lives.Most of them quickly learned how to place the pandemic and restrictions into their Gospel message and everyday theology.In this article, I present their arguments and analyse the reasons for what I call eschatological tranquillity -a normalisation and convenient reconciliation of the pandemic with apocalyptic expectations.
This ethnographic study is based on interviews conducted with members of the ECB community by the author and his research assistant Ekaterina Mironova.In May and June 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic, I conducted online interviews (4 via Zoom, 1 via Skype, and 1 via WhatsApp); and in June and July 2021, when most restrictions were lifted, I conducted 5 face to face interviews and participant observation in Vyborg.Mironova conducted 13 interviews between June and August 2021 in Tambov, Lipetskaia oblast, Bashkortostan, and 1 via Telegram video call.
Our ethnographic interviews were semi-structured, with several questions on the way our informants perceived the global pandemic, state restrictions, and the virus itself.Participants were allowed to freely take the conversation in the direction they saw fit.The interviews were initially conducted for another research project and focused on family, gender, and sex, but we could not miss the opportunity given to us by the global pandemic and therefore used a set of questions on this issue as a conversation starter.Eventually, discussions on the pandemic, state-imposed restrictions, and the coronavirus itself became a significant part of our interviews.
Due to the topic of my initial research project and the conservative nature of the ECB community, I was mostly able to talk to men (with the exception of one interview with a married couple) and hired Mironova as a female research assistant (and an experienced interviewer) to obtain interviews with female participants.When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, the difference in gender has revealed no significant difference of approach to theology and eschatology.As is characteristic of the ECB community, most of our informants were adult converts, albeit with different experiences in church.With the exception of a pastor Stepan, 1 most held no positions of leadership in their communities, although, as is common, most were active in various church activities commonly referred to as ministries.

The church of ECB in Russia
The ECB community has a 150-year history in Russia, which for the most part shaped their theology, ideology, and lifestyle in response to the dominant Orthodox Christianity and forced isolation and marginalisation by state oppression.Although they have retained most evangelical tenets and principles, they formulate and approach these in a uniquely local Russian way.They are thus a glocal community -manifesting global and local features at the same time (Mikeshin 2020a).
One of the fundamental characteristics of the community is that they are evangelicals.Simplifying a conventional definition by David Bebbington (1989, 16), I emphasise two main tenets that ultimately define who ECBs are and what they believe in.The first is that they regard the Bible as the inerrant and sufficient word of God and an ultimate authority for faith and practice.All modern translations are deemed imperfect, but the original text is believed to have been dictated by God Himself through the inspiration of human authors.The specificity of Russian evangelical biblicism lies in the translation they use -the Russian Synodal Bible.It was made in the nineteenth century under the huge influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and its liturgical Old Church Slavonic Bible (Tikhomirov 2006).
This trait is especially strong among ECBs, even compared with other Russian evangelicals.For instance, Pentecostals emphasise the physical manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit, while Seventh-day Adventists insist on practical rules taken from the Old Testament.Baptists, in turn, are somewhat 'literal literalists' because ultimately, they practice and live their faith as a text (Mikeshin 2021).This means that in both the process of conversion and everyday routine living, ECBs learn to internalise the Bible (cf.Coleman 2000, 127-133), to make the language of the (Russian Synodal) Bible the language of not only worship and liturgy, but also interpersonal communication, thought, and reasoning.The more one internalises the scripture in this way, the stronger one's faith is considered to be (Mikeshin 2016, 190).
The second tenet is belief in the personal conversion of every adult individual (Bebbington 1989, 16).This means that for one's ultimate salvation it does not matter whether one grew up in a Christian home, was baptised as an infant (which Baptists do not accept) or was actively prayed for.One can only be saved when genuinely repenting of their sins, accepting Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the Cross, and surrendering their whole life to God.The common manifestation of repentance is usually a prayer stating exactly this in free form (as with most evangelical prayers), which can be prayed both publicly and alone, in which case new converts should publicly witness about their repentance.
Although typical for evangelicals worldwide, this practice once again has a distinct interpretation.Apart from the emphasis being less on 'born-again' than on penitence, most of the ECB community in Russia interpret repentance through the Arminian soteriological lens (Gololob 2010).This means that free will gives humans agency in making a decision to believe, but also to reject or lose salvation later in life.This makes repentance a responsible act of an adult individual and allows holding them accountable in case of moral collapse or 'stepping away from God' (see Mikeshin 2017).
In the rest of the article, I use these two fundamental elements for understanding Russian Baptists as a theological and ideological context of the community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state-imposed restrictions, and the virus itself.

Research on religion and pandemic in Russia
Even though the topic is still recent, and at time of writing the pandemic is not officially over (even though restrictions are lifted in Russia and the pandemic entirely replaced in the media by the 'special operation' in Ukraine), a considerable body of research on religious responses to the pandemic has accumulated.The most important collection of articles about the situation in Russia was published in 2021 in the journal State, Religion, Church in Russia and Abroad (Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom) under the editorship of Alexander Agadjanian.In his own contribution, Agadjanian (2021) outlines the most recent debates and reactions of religious communities regarding the pandemic and especially state-imposed restrictions.He puts the most controversial issue -partaking of Communion online for Russian Orthodox Christians -into the perspective of the (re)negotiation of religious identity, the limits thereof, and religious freedom in general.
In his contribution to the same collection, Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun (2021) also discusses the problem of the Holy Communion but places it into an even deeper context of ecclesiology.One of the key issues in discussions about Communion was the possibility of contracting coronavirus through a shared spoon with wine.Some Orthodox fundamentalists deemed it unthinkable because of the sacredness of the sacrament, but most believers were less enthusiastic about spoon sharing for Communion in the rise of the pandemic.Hovorun discusses the whole COVID-dissident movement, which emerged within the Church and perceived both the pandemic and the state response to it as anti-Christian, and sometimes even as satanic conspiracy.
Using the same case as an example, Anastasia V. Mitrofanova (2021) discusses the 'corona-dissidents' movement within a fundamentalist wing of the Church.These radicals strongly opposed the state-imposed restrictions, largely supported by the Church leadership, and linked them, as well as the virus itself, with the attack by evil outside forces on both the Orthodox faith and Russia more generally.
In her article, Xenia Luchenko (2021) also discusses the problem of online liturgy, but in the context of the mediatisation of religion.She analyses debates on interactivity and immersivity as two major aspects of authenticity of the Russian Orthodox liturgy.Luchenko highlights a conflict between new experiences and convenient opportunities for laity and 'progressive' clergy versus striving for the canonical authenticity of conservative clergy.
I will further discuss this tendency to find positive sides in moving the church services online with the example of Baptist believers.Like their Orthodox brethren, they have always been active online, and arranging their church life on the internet proceeded relatively easily and quickly.

Response and normalisation
In the beginning of the pandemic, the ECB community reacted similarly to most of Russian society.Like any other community, they faced lockdowns, the closure of live gatherings of any sort including church services, increasing cases of infected people, and some deaths.Most, if not all, of their communities had already been active on social media, and they quickly arranged substitute Sunday services and home Bible studies online via Zoom and similar software: It was a problem, because, well, the services stopped.But initially, when it happened in spring 2020, it was like the end of March, I think, so we made all the decisions, pastors, all brothers, like single-heartedly that, well, we had to stop the services for the time being.Because all that was, like, to not cause any reaction, because at that moment there was a tumult (azhiotazh).Well, it's still there.(Grigorii) The initial reaction to the global pandemic was shock and fear, again like society generally.Some of our informants had thoughts about the end times, but this did not last too long.Mostly, they were impressed by the unprecedented measures and their representation on TV and online: empty cities around the globe, lockdowns, and the moving of most of their everyday interactions online.
It's like, you know, how do I put it, there are those documentaries, impressive ones.You see them on YouTube.Or there's some information, it impresses you initially, if it's some kind of, or you're an impressionable man, it will follow you in your thoughts.And so, when Coronavirus progressed it was that kind of an impressive event, because of those empty cities and all that.The picture and image of what was going on were, of course, monumental.And thus, inadvertently, especially if you're a believer and you know all those books, the last ones, yes.Well, yes, there was something of that kind, something like that.(Pavel) From the very beginning, most people were adapting to the situation, especially pastors and those engaged in ministries, such as the rehabilitation ministry run by a church in Vyborg.A rehabilitation facility operates as a therapeutic community, meaning that recovering addicts live together in an isolated place in constant need of food and other provisions.Pastors also had to keep in contact with the congregation one way or another.In many cases, those contacts could be only maintained face to face: Even when vaccines were introduced, becoming one of the most controversial issues of the pandemic in Russian society (as well as globally), in the ECB community vaccination was widely regarded as a personal choice and so was not much debated.However, the closure of premises for gatherings, especially during the further waves of the virus in 2021, were not welcomed by all.Some of our interlocutors complained that they felt 'unnatural, not for real' (Grigorii) and arguing that the sick and elderly were free to participate online given that most services in 2021 were in hybrid form.But others, they argued, should be able to congregate in person: And then, I remember, when they did it for the second time, in October 2020, I had this kind of rebellion, some kind of a wrong state of heart, and I had it against the brothers.You know, like, why did they make such a decision?Why don't we congregate in person?Well, like, this is not going away anyways.(Grigorii) However, this issue did not cause a split or any serious confrontation.Even the critics agreed that this was of no major importance: 'Why would we go against the authorities when it's not about our faith?Well, when we, sort of, should be obedient.If the authorities tell you, why would you directly oppose them, if they aren't, like, asking you to deny Christ' (Grigorii).After all, even the church leaders sought to return to normal as soon as possible.For instance, the pastor Stepan mentioned that in summer they organised a barbeque in the church yard to substitute for a restricted Sunday service, and with great success: This is the most exciting church time!I believe, this is the way a church should congregate.Not in a hall, but outside, reading the Bible over a barbeque [za shashlykom], praying, and having fellowship.This is the best.We had this strong, well, this close friendly atmosphere.We talked, prayed, shared something from the Bible, we ate, and then went home.
Eventually, most of the community became accustomed to restrictions, believing them to be temporary -lasting only until cases peak, or fewer people are vaccinated, or the majority goes through the virus and develops immunity.Many of our interlocutors saw a positive side to the rise of online activities in the Church.For instance, the elderly not only were better protected but also quickly mastered new technologies: The elderly, yes.Basically, they even saw a good side in it.Maybe for some it was hard.But some of their friends or relatives, well, grandchildren, helped them to set up Zoom and they realised there was nothing to be worried about.Fire does not come down from the sky.(Roman) Besides that, the focus on online activities boosted the growth of the outreach and gave new opportunities for evangelism: 'We're after all a closed Christian community, yet we went live.All of us.We appeared on YouTube, VK, much Christian content, sermons, quotes of all sorts, some kind of meetings.'(Stepan) For the rest of the article, I will discuss how people reflected on their initial fears and occasional thoughts of end times and conceptualised them as eschatological tranquillity within the context of biblical literalism.

Eschatological tranquillity
The ECB theology is not particularly apocalyptic.As an evangelical biblical literalist community, they claim the Bible in its entirety and take into serious consideration the prophecies about the end times from the Gospels and Revelation.However, as research on biblicism demonstrates (Bielo 2009a(Bielo , 2009b)), even when reading the same Bible different groups of believers emphasise different parts of it.Their interpretations often vary to the point of irreconcilable denominational differences.
ECBs believe in the second coming of Jesus and the end of this world.In addition, they read the signs and prophecies in the scripture, drawing parallels with the world they live in, the news they learn from the media, and discussions they have with one another.However, one crucial point they single out is that nobody knows the day and the hour when Jesus will come and the world will end: 'But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father' (Mark 13:32, NIV).
Individually, many experienced initial fears of something big, unknown, global, and deadly.Being well-immersed in the Bible in their everyday life and thinking, some believers naturally considered the pandemic as a sign of the end times.However, after gathering their thoughts, discussing the subject with one another or during the online church services, they commonly reached the conclusion that the pandemic is just one of many troubles facing humanity since the fall of Adam.Several of our interlocutors compared the situation to the war through which their grandparents lived: [We should always be ready] to die, to meet God, and we don't know, well they always say: everything will be over soon.There will be a Second Coming.We should get ready.It's interesting.My grandmother lived through the war.She was also saying, back then they were saying that that was the end, the end of times, and we should get ready.(Liubov) Many realised that their initial fears were probably unjustified.Even though the Bible speaks of wars and troubles near the end, such things have always happened: the COVID-19 pandemic merely has its own manifestation and media coverage.Moreover, there are certain signs lacking in the current situation: Because the end times or, like, Apocalypse, or the Second Coming, it's a different thing.The Bible speaks about people being forced to worship Satan.Now, nobody forces anything.People just get sick and some die from the sickness.There's always someone dying from sicknesses while some survive.There is nothing apocalyptic in that.(Stepan) So, what is to be done?Just as in any other situation, during crises, global pandemics, or wars, the ECB message remains the same: repent yourself and preach the Word to others.For the Gospel message there is no difference whether the end time is tomorrow or in a thousand years.We are all going to die, whether of a coronavirus or when Christ comes and the world ceases to be.The most important thing is to be saved before then: I think, well, the Second Coming, it's either way, we're gonna die anyway and come before God's judgement.Hence it doesn't matter, whether we come before the face of Christ when he comes with his angels from heaven or when we die and come before his judgement.Because in any way, this encounter is inevitable.In any case.We should think instead of our own state, and, well, the way we live.Is Christ the centre of our lives?This is, I think, the most important thing.(Grigorii) Many of our interlocutors emphasised that God supports his faithful in hard times and that they feel this support constantly: 'So that you realise, well, it's hard to overcome.But even here, God is ready to comfort the heart of humans.So that we are all gonna die anyway' (Roman).
This feeling gave them the understanding of the situation that God is in control and they should trust in Him: 'God allows all that so that we understand that nothing depends on us.Everything is in God's hands . . .As a Christian, I understand it.I am in peace' (Aleksei).

Lay theology and moral potentiality
What are the reasons for such eschatological tranquillity?On a personal level, the COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone, and like anyone else the ECB community experienced restrictions, loss of income, illness, and the loss of loved ones or even of their own lives.Aspects of their lives changed or faced unprecedented obstacles: for instance, missionary work halted and some ministries could not operate.However, most of those who underwent through the pandemic and kept going have their faith in God's plan.They believe the Gospel has always been and always will be the same.No crises, however big and severe, can change its message: be saved and preach the Gospel.
The major reason for eschatological tranquillity, I argue, is the universalism of scriptures.The Bible is an extensive and rich book.It embraces practically all aspects of the human life, especially by way of a long interpretative tradition inherited by ECBs from global Protestantism.For their century-and -a-half history in Russia, ECBs have had no chance to develop a substantial school of theology because of forced marginalisation (Bintsarovskyi 2014).However, they actively engage in 'lay theology' (Bielo 2009b), constantly interpreting, applying, and living the Bible in their everyday lives (Mikeshin 2021).
As I have claimed earlier, ECBs base their everyday thinking almost predominantly on the Bible, albeit on a particular translation and interpretative tradition.This tradition allows for a consistent system of everyday lay theology and a well-structured moral framework.Even such outstanding situations as the global pandemic pose no substantial moral or theological challenges.In the rest of this section, I will discuss the idea of lay theology, particularly contextualising it terms of what I call 'ethical affordances'.
There is a growing scholarly interest to theology in the anthropology of Christianity.Anthropologists actively study the ways theologians understand humanity and its place in the world.By doing so, they attempt to develop 'theologically engaged anthropology' (Lemons 2018).Among the key researchers in this newly emerged field is Joel Robbins.In his recent book (Robbins 2020), he meticulously studies the opportunities and challenges of the relationships between these two disciplines.
In his analysis, however, Robbins reduces theology to an academic discipline and expert knowledge.In other words, the theology that Robbins is interested in is the kind practised by professional theologians.As an anthropologist, Robbins understands that this kind of knowledge production is not something 'lay people' engage in daily.However, he claims, it is nonetheless important knowledge for anthropologists who mostly focus on everydayness, because Christian everyday life is much influenced by denominational theology as 'culture'.
One of the key conquests of the Reformation was the removal of the division between laity and clergy.Humans seemingly do not need any mediators between themselves and God apart from Jesus Christ himself.Pastors are helpers, teachers, and spiritual advisors, but every person can and should communicate with God directly through prayer, Bible study, and the work of the Holy Spirit.With his focus mostly on Protestants, Robbins employs a similar division between theologians and lay people, or, rather, theological and lay thinking.
The role of academic theologians in the evangelical branch of Christianity is oftentimes obscured and reduced to the most practical matters, easily applicable in everyday life.Anthropologists of evangelicalism inevitably encounter what Bielo (2009b) calls lay theology when he discusses the diversity of the interpretations of the Bible in different evangelical denominations.My own study of the Russian Baptist rehabilitation programme for addicted people (Mikeshin 2016) demonstrates how theological knowledge is actively used in the everyday conversion narratives and lived Christianity of people without any education or prior knowledge of the matter.In other words, I looked at how the sixteenth -and seventeenth --century theology of Martin Luther and Jacobus Arminius (to say nothing of the ancient Bible itself) was actively engaged in by recovering addicts fresh from the street or from prison.
This lay theology is as rich, though obviously not as systematic, as the academic discipline.In my interviews, because of his training and experience pastor Stepan sometimes demonstrated better expert knowledge of certain issues.However, his opinions and interpretations of scriptures weigh no more than anybody else's, both for my research and in the everyday life of ECB.
As I argue elsewhere, for ECBs and their everyday faith, their lived Christianity manifests in the biblical narrative of family values and gender order (Mikeshin 2020b).These interpretations are not just everyday practices influenced by Baptist theology as 'culture'.They are the theology of ECBs.Some individually deviate in minor details, but the principles of family life and gender order are constantly reinforced in sermons, seminars on family life, and fellowship in church.Pastors, family counsellors, elders in various ministries, and more experienced brothers and sisters -all these provide a believer with practical and spiritual advice, but also constantly learn from one another with an ultimate authority in the Bible.
ECBs employ gender and family issues as ethical affordances (Keane 2016) -potentialities that ethics creates but moralities implement through individual actions.Ethical affordances invite people to act in a certain way, but do not determine that they will act.In the same manner, the COVID-19 pandemic initially was an external threat for ECBs, but through normalisation became a moral potentiality that enabled them to reinforce their eschatology, the Gospel message, and more mundane ethical tasks such as caring for the elderly.Moreover, the opportunities opened by increasing online activity can also be regarded in terms of affordances (Addo 2021).
The universalism of biblical Christianity gives ECBs many opportunities to turn moral and practical challenges into ethical affordances.Throughout the history of the persecution and forced marginalisation of Russian evangelicals, their hermeneutic tradition has developed efficient mechanisms of the interpretation of hardships and troubles.As shown above, there are clear criteria for unacceptable demands and apocalyptic signs, that is, when one is asked to deny Christ and worship Satan.Other kinds of challenges and hardships are naturally expected, and with God's help can be overcome.If, however, one succumbs to Coronavirus or any other cause, 'we're gonna die anyway and come before God's judgement' (Grigorii).

Conclusion
For ECBs, the COVID-19 pandemic caused no major turmoil.Even though believers initially experienced fear and many endured suffering and the loss of loved ones, most reacted to the pandemic, state-imposed restrictions, and the virus itself with eschatological tranquillity.They promptly positioned the pandemic in their system of worldview, apocalyptic expectations, and the Gospel message.Their glocal interpretative tradition of lay theology, which they adopted from global Protestantism, but also adapted to the Russian context of the dominant Orthodox Christianity and forced marginalisation, allowed them to swiftly turn an external threat into a moral potentiality and ethical affordance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the threats and challenges the ECB community faces throughout its history in Russia.Revolutions, two World Wars, state persecution and anti-religious campaigns, and yet again, a restrictive 'anti-extremist' legislation, and the global pandemic -all have been turned into moral potentialities testing one's faith and obedience.Nowadays, the war in Ukraine arises as yet another moral challenge and a deadly threat, and further research in this context will be needed to test the limits of eschatological tranquillity.
You know, initially it was scary.You don't know what it is.And you don't understand what to do with it.And we closed everything.All.But also, I knew I was going to get sick.Kind of, because I've never interrupted my contacts with people.I kept communicating with them, visiting them, I still do.Many-many people, very many.(Stepan, a pastor)