Bushkovitch's book traces the evolution of religious attitudes in this important transitional period in Russian history. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Russia saw the gradual decline of monastic spirituality, the rise of miracle cults, and ultimately the birth of a more personal and private faith that stressed morality instead of public rituals. Bushkovitch not only skilfully reconstructs these rapid and fundamental changes in the Russian religious experience, but also shows how they were influenced by Western European religious ideas and how they foreshadowed the secularization of Russian society usually credited to Peter the Great.
