MEREJKOVSKİY’İN ‘YENİ HRİSTİYANLIK’ ANLAYIŞI VE İLK DÖNEM ŞİİRLERİNDE TANRI ARAYIŞI
MEREZHKOVSKY’S CONCEPTION OF ‘NEW CHRISTIANITY’ AND THE SEARCH FOR GOD IN HIS EARLY POEMS

Summary/Abstract: Russian poet, writer, translator, and literary critic Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky (1865-1941) is one of the most important figures of Russian symbolism. He personally experienced the turmoil of religious-philosophical conflicts that took place between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The rapidly developing science and technology of this period negatively affected the attitude towards religion. The poet believed that this situation would lead Russia and the whole world to disaster. Merezhkovsky acted as a bridge between the positivist-minded Russian intelligentsia and the clergy, and put forward a comprehensive and reconciliatory concept of a new Christian consciousness. The poet, who proposed a kind of religious reform, recommended that Christian teachings be made compatible with everyday life and that the Russian Orthodox Church be independent of the state. In his early poems, Merezhkovsky particularly focused on the search for God and argued that every person is obliged to believe in God through their subjective experiences. The poems that the poet constructed around dichotomies such as body-soul, life-death, pagan gods-Jesus, sky-earth, morning-night, and light-darkness aimed to show that God is present everywhere in the universe. In this study, Merezhkovsky's religious views and his conception of a new Christianity will be conveyed. The search for God in Merezhkovsky's early poems will be examined through a descriptive method within the framework of the aforementioned religious views.

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