Linguistic Gap Analysis

Most Romans concepts have a settled single-word or short-phrase Russian equivalent thanks to a long Christian translation tradition; the real gaps are around Reformation-specific compound doctrines that Orthodox theological Russian never had reason to develop precise vocabulary for.

Terms requiring compound phrases or explicit definition

• Imputed righteousness (вменённая праведность — “reckoned/credited righteousness”): distinguishes righteousness credited to a believer from righteousness earned (заслуженная праведность, explicitly rejected). This entire imputation framework is a specifically Western/Reformation theological category with no developed parallel in Orthodox soteriology, which prefers participatory categories (theosis); it must be taught explicitly, not assumed as background knowledge.
• Obedience of faith (послушание вере): a compound that must resist collapsing into either religious duty (религиозный долг) or ritual observance (соблюдение обрядов), both of which risk an Orthodox-praxis-only reading of the Christian life rather than obedience as the fruit of faith.
• Effectual calling / election (действенное призвание / избрание): Reformed predestination categories have no developed parallel in Orthodox soteriology and must be introduced carefully, distinguished explicitly from судьба/рок (fate), a strong current in Russian folk and literary fatalism.

Terms requiring careful disambiguation rather than translation gaps

• Grace vs. mercy (благодать vs. милость): Russian has two distinct, non-overlapping words where English sometimes uses “grace” loosely for both; this Language Package enforces благодать specifically for Romans’ unmerited-favor sense and reserves милость for ordinary mercy/kindness.
• Intercession (ходатайство vs. заступничество): both mean “intercession” but заступничество is devotionally reserved in Russian Orthodox usage for the intercession of saints and the Theotokos; using it in Romans 8 would import that specific practice into a text about Christ’s and the Spirit’s unique intercessory role.
• Church (церковь vs. собрание): церковь defaults to “the Orthodox Church” or a physical building in ordinary usage; собрание (assembly/gathering) is available as a clarifying synonym for the local congregation sense Romans often intends.

Gap-filling strategy

Where Russian’s existing Christian vocabulary carries theological freight from a different tradition, this Language Package prefers using the existing term with explicit clarifying context over either avoiding it (which would sound foreign) or inventing a new coinage (which would sound invented) — precision through explanation, not through new vocabulary.