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The article discusses how the history of forced marginality and isolation of the Russian-speaking Evangelical Christians shaped their theology and social ministry. Russian Evangelicalism is a glocal phenomenon. It fully adheres to the universal Evangelical tenets and, at the same time, it is shaped as a socioculturally and linguistically Russian phenomenon. Its russianness is manifested in the construction of the Russian Evangelical narrative, formulated as a response to the cultural and political discourse of the modern Russia and to the Orthodox theology and application, as it is seen by evangelicals. This narrative is constructed with the language of the Synodal Bible in its present-day interpretation. Russian evangelicals are constantly accused of being Western-influenced, proselytizing in the canonical land of the Russian Orthodox Church, and mistreating and misleading people. The article also argues agains these accusations, emphasizing the history, hermeneutics, and social ministries of Russian Evangelicalism.

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In my paper I discuss alcoholics in the Russian Baptist rehabilitation ministry by comparing them to drug addicts. In the outside world, as well as in the early stages of the rehabilitation program, alcoholics and illicit drug abusers are perceived as different cultural groups. However, during the program, rehabilitants learn Russian Baptist dogma and theology, and soon afterwards the distinction becomes obsolete for them. I address narratives of distinction and the Russian Baptist response to them. Then I reconstruct the Russian Baptist theory of addiction to demonstrate why alcoholism and substance dependence are not regarded as a problem, but rather as consequences of the real problem, which is a life in sin.