Origin of the Slavs and their Christianisation

The Slavic peoples constitute a major element in the ethnic make-up of Eurasia and are represented in diaspora communities across the world. In our time Slavs are divided into East Slavs, which includes the Russian people, West Slavs, including, for example, the Poles and Czechs, and the South Slavs, such as the Serbs and Croats. 

The origins of the Slavic peoples, as distinct from the earlier Balto-Slavs, can be traced back to a Urheimat (homeland) which many would locate in Polesia (southern Belarus, but overlapping with Poland, Russia and Ukraine). In historical sources dating back to the first and second century CE, the Slavs are referred to as "Veneti" and/or "Spori". Particularly during the second phase of the Völkerwanderung (Great Migration) around 500 CE, the Slavs, then known as Antes and/or Sklaveni, spread out in all directions. By 518 they were crossing the northern limes (frontier) of the Empire of Constantinople. By the 7th century the whole Balkan area was known as Skalvinia and was inhabited by tribal communities of Slavs known as Sklaveni, Other Slavs spread west, north and east. 

The Christianisation of Slavs by the Eastern Orthodox Church may, arguably, have begun under Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641), when in 623 Croats and Serbs were settled from what is now Central Europe into their current homelands, however their Christian faith was short-lived. Somewhat later, as the Empire of Constantinople reclaimed areas such as Macedonia and the main Greek peninsula (the "Byzantine Reconquista"), settled by Slavs (and also Avars), these areas were Hellenised, a process, carried out for example under Emperor Nicephorus I (802-811), which included Christianisation. The experience of this missionary work inspired and informed work beyond the borders of the Empire, begun in the 860s: in Bulgaria, and later by Cyril and Methodius and their disciples in Moravia and Pannonia. The Five disciples of Methodius took refuge in Bulgaria, where Clement of Ohrid probably invented the Cyrillic alphabet. It was from Bulgaria that Serbia was evangelised. The work in Kievan Rus enjoyed initial success in 860, but it was the conversion of Princess Olga and later her grandson, Vladimir in 988 that brought Kievan Rus into the orbit of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  

The Slavs were also Christianised by the western Catholic church. The see of Magdeburg was a base for missionary work. For example, Moravia was originally missionised by Frankish missionaries before the Cyril-Methodian mission, and eventually came under the jurisdiction of western church - as did Pannonia. Later, Adalbert of Prague (d. 997) was a leading missionary across eastern Europe. Towards the end of the tenth century various peoples such as the Poles in 966 formally converted to Christianity. Later, in the twelfth century, a missionary crusade was directed against the Wends (a west Slavic people).  

Scythia - the revolving door into Europe

Before the days of planes and political asylum, the most common way into Europe was via an area known historically as Scythia - the Danube Basin (Scythia Minor) and the Pontic-Caspian steppe (Scythia Major).  

As I have been writing up a masters thesis on the missionary work from Constantinople, again and again this area and this phenomenon has been relevant. I have identified several phases of the occupation/settlement of these areas. As I am able to access more data and scholarship, I hope to expand the information below with authoritative maps. 

1. Goths and Huns (from 376) 

2. Gepids and Cutrigurs, Utrigurs and Bulgars (from 453) 

3. Slavs and Avars (from 557) 

4. Bulgars/Bulgarians and Khazars; the so-called Pax Chazarica (from 630) 

5. Pechenegs and Cumans (from 10th century) 

There were earlier and later phases of this phenomenon (i.e. pre-IV century and post-XI century). 

In many cases the peoples dominant in this area either went on to migrate into Europe, or lost their ethnic identity vis-a-vis newly dominant peoples. A primary example of the latter would be the Avars who, following their unsuccessful siege of Constantinople, were absorbed by their Slavic neighbours and in the 'reconquest' of the Balkans by Constantinople.   

What is a missionary?

I was inspired to write this article by a recent, largely helpful blogpost by missionaries involved in Bible translation, although my thoughts have been 'cooking' for many years. I should point out that I have been/was a 'missionary' (we'll come back to that word) for something like 17 of 45 years of my life. Subject to what I will say below, it is a description I embrace. And, if you didn't know already, there are countless thousands, if not millions of Christians across the world who right now are giving their all to serve God in challenging settings, proclaiming the Word and helping the needy.

I will get straight to my point. I have a problem with the concept of 'sending' and thus with the term 'missionary'. This may seem bemusing, but if you ask those who have been engaged in 'mission' you will hear countless stories of insensitive people (often including the missionaries themselves) storming into other cultures and settings and imposing their agenda, setting up local branches of their church back home and promoting their pet brands and causes. By contrast there is a species of Christians who have really 'gone native' (I know it sounds awfully colonial, but you know what I mean). They have learnt the language, embraced the culture, loved the people and often, notwithstanding challenges and setbacks, their lives and ministries have seen lasting fruit.

Just this Sunday I was talking to one such man. Humble, generous, kind, outgoing, sensitive,
intelligent - the list could go on. I was asking him about his involvement with a college for training pastors. And he shared about how he had taught a module on the history of the African church. He went on to qualify that the course was intended not from the perspective of 'sending' but rather from the perspective of 'receiving'. He told me that many of our 'missionary stories' exist in a different form in those places where they took place. So we need to approach mission not in terms of those sending and sent, but rather in terms of those receiving. This ties in well with a concept taught us by Jonathan Lamb and others in the 1990s when I first travelled to Russia and the Former Soviet Union: namely partnership, i.e. a non-domineering two-way relationship in which we participate in the lives of those we serve (and they participate in ours).

Ask any Russian pastor and they will have stories to tell of well-meaning missionaries from places such as the UK, USA or Germany inadvertently or carelessly acting inappropriately. On several occasions I have met wet-behind-the-ears, ab-initio-language learners who have been 'given' cities and whole areas by their sending missions. I sat through a sermon in which teetotal Baptists were told that being filled with the Spirit was like feeling jovial after a drink. Missionaries from one international mission which should know better 'discovered' an unreached people group, the Gaelic speakers of the Highlands and islands (one of the remaining strongholds of Christianity in the British isles).  

So how does that impact on the meaning of missionary? I concede that there will also be sending. Indeed the ultimate Sender is not the support group or the local church, but the Lord himself who breathed the Spirit from the Father on the assembled Apostles (John 20). But I would like to add that a missionary is 'one who is received' (cf. Mark 9:36-37). And mission is not merely about sending and giving, but about exchange. The 'missionary' must overcome the 'benefactor's complex' and engage with those whom he or she serves, embracing them, loving them, considering them as equals and willing to receive from them. We see this clearly in the Apostolic practice: Lydia insisting on hospitality for Paul, Paul speaking to the Philippians of his 'partnership' (from the word koinos, business partner) with them in the gospel, the Gentile Christians supporting their Jewish brethren and many other examples. "At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality." (2 Cor 8:13)