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Candles Behind the Wall
Heroes of the peaceful revolution that shattered communism.
- GenresHistory
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 18, 2011
This is an interesting account of how Christians have suffered under communism.
July 22, 2012
A great book...deals with the role of Christians and the Church in bringing down atheistic communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Emphasises the power of peaceful resistance.
January 1, 2013
Excellent read. I read it last year. Couldn't put it down. Very moving and compelling book of what Christians endured behind the Iron Curtain.
August 9, 2024
Subtitle: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution that Shattered Communism.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the author interviewed over 100 people to get their stories of active non-violent resistance.
Alexander Ogoradnikov, Russian intellectual and dissident, was committed to take the risk of putting his faith into action. He was only one of many who were imprisoned, isolated, and tortured under Communism.
“You had to be willing to pay the price. We had to prove that Christianity is not an abstract idea, but that it was real life” (Alexander Ogoradnikov, incommunion.org).
Churches suffered. And so the story goes - in Russia, East Germany, the Ukraine, Lithuania,
“I have come to understand that suffering is fruitful only when we accept it humbly — only then does it open the eyes of the soul” (Jadvyga Bieleauskiene).
In East Germany “Prayers for Peace” met weekly “with unanticipated consequences. Some would say it was the spiritual spark that ignited East Germany’s peaceful revolution of 1989.”
Vaclav Havel, in a collection of essays, “The Power of the Powerless,” “articulated the need to live with integrity, to risk confrontation with the Communists, and to give personal witness to their convictions through the way they lived their lives. The moral power that emanated from this stance was striking.”
People begin to gather, to speak their despair, to pray and their numbers swelled. They lit candles and processed through the streets. “The message repeated again and again was ‘no violence.’”
“Non-violence is clearly the spirit of Jesus . . . .” (Pastor Christian Fuhrer).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the author interviewed over 100 people to get their stories of active non-violent resistance.
Alexander Ogoradnikov, Russian intellectual and dissident, was committed to take the risk of putting his faith into action. He was only one of many who were imprisoned, isolated, and tortured under Communism.
“You had to be willing to pay the price. We had to prove that Christianity is not an abstract idea, but that it was real life” (Alexander Ogoradnikov, incommunion.org).
Churches suffered. And so the story goes - in Russia, East Germany, the Ukraine, Lithuania,
“I have come to understand that suffering is fruitful only when we accept it humbly — only then does it open the eyes of the soul” (Jadvyga Bieleauskiene).
In East Germany “Prayers for Peace” met weekly “with unanticipated consequences. Some would say it was the spiritual spark that ignited East Germany’s peaceful revolution of 1989.”
Vaclav Havel, in a collection of essays, “The Power of the Powerless,” “articulated the need to live with integrity, to risk confrontation with the Communists, and to give personal witness to their convictions through the way they lived their lives. The moral power that emanated from this stance was striking.”
People begin to gather, to speak their despair, to pray and their numbers swelled. They lit candles and processed through the streets. “The message repeated again and again was ‘no violence.’”
“Non-violence is clearly the spirit of Jesus . . . .” (Pastor Christian Fuhrer).
June 28, 2014
Good book. At points I wished it had gone more in depth into fewer stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews