Another aspect of the Orthodox relation to the church is the tendency to emphasize cult, especially ritual, instead of doctrine and morality. Quarrels, fights, drunkenness are lesser sins than the violation of fasting; violation of chastity is forgiven more easily than the failure to attend church services; participation in the liturgy is more salvific than the reading of the Bible; the performance of cult is more important than charitable giving. It is not by chance that the Russian people assimilated Christianity not from the Bible, but from the lives of the saints; that they are enlightened not by sermon, but by liturgy; not by theology, but by the veneration and kissing of holy objects. Minds inclined to elevate rationality and analysis are dismayed by the so-called ritual-worship of the Orthodox, but this dismay is due to a misunderstanding. Is it more useful for a sick person to study medicine than to take medication? Religion is not a rationalistic business; those who reject religion are dismayed not only by “ritual-worship,” but also by religious philosophy, whereas those who regard religion as real must recognize that it consists not in rationalistic understanding and not even in knowledge, but in a real relation to God. Religion consists not in reasoning about divine things, but in the reception of divinity into one’s being. For the believer the prayer in which God descends into the soul of the person praying is therefore higher even than the reading of the Bible; higher than the kissing of relics, out of which grace pours as out of an over-full vessel; more important than the acquisition of theological wisdom. The Eucharist, the reception of the Lord’s Body into one’s own body, is infinitely more important than any sermon, than the establishment of institutions pleasing to God, schools, hospitals, and so on. For the Orthodox believer, the formulas contained in the prayers uttered in church, the hymns sung there, the lighting of the icon-lamps and of the candles — all these acts are not mere words and gestures, but sacramental actions, i.e., formulas and acts that, despite their resemblance to ordinary words and movements, possess mysterious, mystical, supernatural power. In its appearance, sanctified water does not differ in any way from ordinary water, but it chases away demons, heals the effects of an evil eye, and helps to cure all sicknesses.

Orthodox believers regard as Christians both laypersons who live a family life and monks who have consecrated themselves completely to God, but nonetheless they regard the path of the monk as special and as more salvific than the path of the layperson. Thus, Orthodox believers who live in the world regard the monastery as the higher path, as the path destined for the elect. Even as in deep antiquity, so today too, the illiterate peasant receives nourishment for his religious feeling from liturgy and prayer. He visits elders celebrated for the strictness of their lives; he stands through long services at the monastery; he makes reverences before the relics of saints; in the refectory, he listens to tales of the lives of the holy ascetics, and these tales, together with accounts of holy places, are broadcast in the form of oral narratives throughout many villages and hamlets, reinforcing in the people the ideals of holy ascesis.

The peasant separates this Christianity of the monasteries and the saints from his own domestic (so to speak) Christianity, whose center is found in the parish church and the parish priest. Here, the parishioner is not very demanding; he does little to make his church beautiful and, in general, our parish life is not very developed. He is not upset when the deacon reads incoherently and is not completely sober; and all he requires from the priest is the performance of a few simple functions. He does not expect the priest to serve beautiful liturgies, or to deliver stirring sermons, or to organize the parish life, or even to give any particular moral guidance. The priest’s role is to baptize, to marry, to bury, to celebrate prayer services on the meadows, to bless the bread for Easter and the fruits on Transfiguration Day. Of course, an energetic priest can interpret his duties more broadly and undertake to better the life of his parish by instilling higher moral standards among the parishioners, eradicating drunkenness, improving family relations, or opening a credit union. But none of this will be regarded as absolutely necessary, and a true Orthodox believer might even suspect a Lutheran spirit here and condemn such activity.