Spiritual Christianity

Spiritual Christianity (Russian: духовное христианство) is a type of Christian thought associated with various sects originating in the Russian Empire but outside the established Russian Orthodox Church.

These heterodox groups "rejected ritual and outward observances, believing [instead] in the direct revelation of God to the inner man". Adherents are called Spiritual Christians (Russian: духовные христиане) or, less accurately, malakan in the Former Soviet Union, and "Molokans" in the United States, often confused with "Doukhobors" in Canada. (Molokane proper comprised the largest and most organized of many Spiritual Christian sects in the Russian Empire).

Historian Pavel Milyukov traced the origins of Spiritual Christianity to the Doukhobors, who were first recorded in the 1800s but originated earlier. Milyukov believed the movement reflected developments among Russian peasants similar to those underlying the German Peasants' War in the German Reformation of the 1500s. Many Spiritual Christians embraced egalitarian and pacifist beliefs, considered politically radical views by the Imperial government.

The Russian government deported some groups to internal exile in Central Asia. Others escaped suppression to emigrate to North America in a diaspora.

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