Christianity and the Martial Arts

• ABOUT:
  • Sergey Yugov: Martial Arts -- What Good Are They? Pravda, 2002 March 20. About a meeting at Sergiyev Posad, sponsored by the Moscow Patriarchate. The participants, while considering the "outward aspects" of martial arts to be spiritually harmless or even somehow "necessary" to the modern world, expressed concern about the spiritual aspect of East Asian martial arts and about the prevalence of corrupt "masters" with cult-like followings. --- Pravda
  • Siberian orthodox priest teaches karate to paratroopers and schoolchildren. Interfax news item, 2005 September 24. --- Yahoo Orthodox News

• "Orthodox Christian Martial Arts"?:
  • Sambo: In full, Samozashchitya bez Oruzhiya, "Self-Protection without Weapons". A fighting technique and associated judo-like sport apparently invented in the USSR in the 1920s and very popular in Russia to this day (In America, Sambo would doubtless fare better with a different acronym.) One of the inventors, Vasiliy Sergeyevich Oshchepkov, was an Orthodox believer who as a young orphan from Sakhalin Island was personally blessed by St. Nicholas of Japan to study martial arts at the Kodokan Institute. He was executed as a "Japanese spy" in 1937, but his memory was rehabilitated during "de-Stalinisation".
    • Mikhail Lukashev: V. S. Oschepkov. --- Grappling Concepts

  • Systema: In full, Rossiyskaya Sistema Samozashchity, the "Russian System of Self-Defence". Its origins are obscure, with some enthusiasts tracing it into the mists of Slavic prehistory and others considering it merely a combat-oriented offshoot of Sambo. It is not a sport, and is allegedly practiced by elements of the Russian state security forces. Like other Asian martial arts, it has a spiritual side, but this varies from teacher to teacher. Some well-known teachers seem to lean toward Slavic neo-paganism or do-it-yourself cultism, but others appear to be staunchly Orthodox. A number of Western converts report having discovered the Church by way of Systema.
    • Wikipedia entry
    • Alexander Hropak: Freedom Within. Very interesting first-person account of training with Mikhail Ryabko, emphasising the spiritual aspect of Systema almost to the exclusion of all else. --- Russian Martial Art Forum
    • Stanley Pranin: Interview with Mikhail Ryabko. Aikido Journal online version, 2003 May 19. Gen. Ryabko and his associate Vladimir Vasiliev have apparently solid Orthodox connections. --- Aikido Journal
    • James Williams: Systema -- Principles of the Russian Martial Art. Aikido Journal online version, 2003 (no other date). The author begins: "If someone had told me a few years ago that out of a western Christian tradition would come a martial art as deep, sophisticated and evolved as the best of the oriental arts I would not have believed them. Yet there is such an art coming out of the ancient Russian culture with deep roots in the Russian Orthodox monasteries." --- Aikido Journal