We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article examines the F. M. Dostoevsky’s Pushkin’s Speech in the context of modern studies of the way ancient heritage was reflected in the writer’s work. The analysis of the speech was carried out in the categories of rhetorical poetics. The author proves that the speech is structured according to the rules of epideictic eloquence, with a pronounced emotional component characteristic of Christian preaching. The author identifies established stylistic figures, the use of which is always justified: repetition, parallelism, gradation, amplification, polyphonic forms, period, allusion, irony. Rhetoric is translated into poetics. Pushkin’s characters (Aleko and Onegin, Tatiana, Pimen) become images with apparent features of both Christian culture and antiquity. Evangelical motifs and images, allusions to antiquity, concepts of Orthodox and ancient culture are integrated in a journalistic form. Christ and Pushkin are connected figuratively in poetics and rhetoric of the speech. Dostoevsky creates a portrait of the Russian poet, his image, and it is no accident that the “speech” is called an essay by its author.
More...
The article focuses on the unsolved mystery of the novel by I. S. Turgenev Fathers and Children - the Italian-style al fresco painting The Resurrection of Christ, located above the entrance to the church at the entrance to the Odintsova estate. None of the researchers and commentators of Turgenev’s novel were puzzled by the question: what does “Italian-style” mean in the Easter image? Meanwhile, Turgenev directly points out that, instead of the gateway Orthodox icon, there is a religious painting The Resurrection of Christ (al fresco painting) in the church, where both the sacrament itself and the outsider witness (“a swarthy warrior in a spiked helmet in the foreground”) are presented. In the Orthodox Easter iconography, however, an outside figure is an unacceptable detail, and the sacrament of the Resurrection as the highest sacred reality in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Gospel was not depicted. The Easter sacrament was replaced by the scene of the Descent into Hell, but such an icon was still called Resurrection. Meanwhile, canonically, the procession of Christ is captured, when the Savior does not descend into hell, but rises from there on the icon of the Resurrection of Christ/Descent into Hell: he leads Adam and other biblical heroes out of the underworld by “grabbing of the wrist.” In this way, the Resurrection of Christ begins with the salvation of man, with co-resurrection. In the value and semantic space of the novel, the Orthodox icon of the Resurrection of Christ/Descent into Hell is concealed behind the “Italian” fresco-veil. If Turgenev knows the “Italian” semantics of the Resurrection, then it is quite natural that the author is more familiar with the semantics of the Orthodox icon from liturgical recollection and makes it covertly actual. The behind-thescenes presence of the icon of the Resurrection of Christ/Descent into Hell and everything that is liturgically and theologically associated with it and experienced transubs the structure of Fathers and Children. The Easter hierotopy of the novel, outlined by the Orthodox icon and supported by the prayerful hopes of the finale 1) creates a very special, breathtaking and enlightening value space, correlated with eternity, the infinity of the spiritual, which affirms, elevating all present to endless life through participation; 2) sets up the supertext dimension, gives rise to the motive of transcendental hope: “You will not leave my soul in hell”; 3) and also strengthens the Russian word as the Christocentric foundation of Russian culture.
More...
The article deals with the anthropological aspects of Dostoevsky’s creative work. Its study requires researchers to take into account the classic’s pronounced Christian orientation of the artistic system. In the center of this system is the ideal of Christ, in whose light Dostoevsky’s concept of man is formed and the typology of characters is determined. The dominant type is the hero-ideologist, however, in addition to the underground type, he is also represented by the heroes of the “positive idea”. The latter preach the idea of salvation through the transformation of the person in Christ, rather than the idea of forcibly changing the world to achieve universal happiness. However, Dostoevsky’s anthropological discovery was not only the idea of compassion for a person fallen in sin, but also the concept of human transience in earthly existence, and hence the assertion of the idea of immortality, in which man will achieve his fullness and harmony. The quintessence of Dostoevsky’s anthropological concept is the idea of “all-humanity” (“vsechelovechnost”) and “universal responsiveness”, capable of uniting people on the basis of spiritual brotherhood and acceptance of the alien as one’s own.
More...
The article analyzes the semantic functions of the Old Testament and New Testament texts in the story Polosa (Stripe), a landmark for the literature of the final stage of Russian classical realism, written by Lydia Nelidova, whose work has not yet been the subject of special study. The relevance of the research is defined by the rather high role of Nelidova’s creative activity in the literary process of the last decades of the 19th century. Biblical references, quotations, reminiscences, allusions and paraphrases, which determine the sequence of the text that creates the semantic field of the work, perform the dominant ideological and aesthetic function in creating the story as a “non-trivial new text.” Nelidova’s innovation is based on the active use of Dostoevsky’s literary traditions (orientation toward the idea of “finding a person in a person” and the “living life” constant). As a “semantic whole,” Nelidova’s story is organized by the internal dialogue of three concepts of “life.” One of them is based on the Christian teaching, the other on an appeal to science, and the third - on the idea of life as an all-dominating objective force. The author’s moral and aesthetic position, which confirms the biblical concept of life, is objectified in the logic of semantic actualization of the gospel truths associated with the interpretations of the eternal theme of the struggle between good and evil, ways of human salvation, overcoming the sin of thoughts, pride and selfishness. The artistic historicism of the story, manifested in the coverage of the social contradictions of the post-reform Russia, sanctions the author’s intentionality associated with the assertion of universal human spiritual, moral and humanistic ideals. Formation of meaning at the level of the author’s intentionality and at the level of meaning generation is carried out by activating the intertextual, hypertextual and contextual functionality of biblical pretexts and traditions of Orthodox Christian culture. It is implemented in the process of illuminating conflicts of time and characters’ psychological disclosure. Intertextual reminiscences and quotes from biblical texts, the works of Christian ascetic writers and patristic sources aim to form the semantic core of the main character’s narrative and implement the principle of intersemantization of meanings enshrined in sacred texts. Thanks to these texts, they manifest in the thoughts of a character seeking a way out of spiritual and moral impasse. The author’s artistic experience stimulated the formation of the Dostoevsky school in the literature of the last decades of the 19th century. The author’s quote-based thinking anticipates the narrative strategies that will become characteristic of the artistic discourse of subsequent historical and literary eras.
More...
This text is devoted to venerable Gregory the Sinaite of Vojlovica. The motif for this is hagiologic and it is reflected in the need to explore saintly side of Gregory’s personality, and to remove existing suspicions, all of that in context of his canonisation by the church. Starting with scarce and undisclosed historical sources and facts, that cannot be easily validated, we are going to access archaeological and anthropological way of exploring this topic which will prove to be very vital. We will also bring about collected texts relevant for this topic. The importance of this effort can be seen in its answer to questions asked many times: who is Gregory the Sinaite whose relics (remains) are in Vojlovica? Is he the same Gregory Sinaite whose relics (remains) are in Gornjak? This is a multidisciplinary text which is in its entirety devoted to this topic and it corroborates renewed celebration of God’s benefactor Gregory, which would imply hagiographic, iconographic and hymnographic elements.
More...
This article analyses the influence of Soviet religious politics on society’s attitude to religion, as well as on the transformation of religious practices taking as an example the Komi Republic. I focus on the Orthodox tradition, as the vast majority of residents of the Komi Republic were Orthodox (Russian Orthodox Church, Old Believers). The article starts with a brief review of theoretical approaches to the study of the religious transformations during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The churches’ closing in the 1920s – 1930s and their partial reopening in the 1940s – 1950s are used to discuss changes in the manifestation of religiosity in public space. A correlation between gender, age and religious activity is demonstrated. The total control by the state over the church rituals led to a privatization of religious life, which significantly limited both the state and the church control over them. The article also describes how folk religious practices, unrelated to the church, influenced the believers’ resistance and adaptation to the political and ideological changes.
More...
The topic of this work are Muslim pious endowments, waqfs, introduced by Ottomans on the Balkans. The most intensive Muslim endowment activity on the territory of nowadays Southeast Serbia was noticed after final Ottoman conquest in the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 16th century. The aforementioned period is also the time when the reshaping of the existing Christian settlements into predominantly Muslim, Ottoman ones mainly took place. The Ottoman sources on the basis of which this institute in Serbia is presented, is new, unresearched so far and kept in the Ottoman archives of the Directorate of the State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey in Istanbul. The source presents the 1839 census of endowments whose translation and comments are given in the attachment hereby. In the paper, I compared the sources on waqfs from the earlier period with the census from 1839. In this way, I was able to determine the changes that have occurred in the meantime, i.e. which endowments survived on the territory of the kazâs of Leskovac, Prokuplje, Kuršumlija and Pirot until the time of compiling this document. According to 1839 census I determined that at the time of the census there were a total of 70 waqfs in the area of today's Southeast Serbia, 36 of which waqfs were active in the Pirot kazâ, 10 in the Prokuplje kazâ, 21 in the Leskovac kazâ and three in the Kuršumlija kazâ. These consist mainly of real property, including various facilities of religious, educational, public, communal structure.
More...
This study briefly analyzes a fifteenth-century Byzantine work written by John Kananos, which describes the Ottoman attack of Constantinople led by Sultan Murat II that took place in 1422. This text is the main source for this historical event, as the author himself was an eyewitness of the Ottoman assault. Concerning the reasons for writing his account, Kananos is very clear from the beginning of the treatise. He planned to narrate the defeat of the Ottoman armies by the Byzantine defensive, which was aided by the Panagia to a decisive end. In this regard, the text can also be read as an encomion dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin, as Kananos considered her to be the saviour of Constantinople. The connection between Virgin Mary and the Byzantine capital stretches from the moment of the foundation of the imperial city by Constantine the Great until the end of Byzantium. Hence, since its inauguration Constantinople was dedicated to the Mother of God, and later the Byzantine religious tradition placed Panagia at the center of the City’s numerous salvations from the foreign attacks.In his text, John Kananos describes how the Ottoman armies fled from Constantinople after Panagia showed herself on the fortifications of the City, aiding the poor Byzantine defensive. To create a contrast between the vast and fiercely power of the Ottoman armies and the weak Byzantine troops, the author introduces vast descriptions concerning the assault machines brought by the Ottomans to conquer Constantinople. Moreover, in order to parallel the divine aid received from the Theotokos with the prophetical predictions made by the Persian scholars and the Turkish ‘patriarch’ Mersaites on the fall of Constantinople, Kananos vividly describes the outcome of the armed conflict, which brought together divine and earthly powers, on the one hand, and many nations, both Christian and Muslim, on the other. In general lines, Kananos’ narration is a vibrant description of a medieval siege, an important Byzantine source for the history of late Byzantium, an anti-Ottoman work infused with late Byzantine perceptions on Islam, as well as a miracle tale dedicated to the Most Holy Mother of God. The study is followed by the first translation into Romanian of this Byzantine work, which had been annotated, offering to the reader historical and philological explanations, as well as bibliographical references.
More...
his paper aims to show us how the church and political reform in Russia during the 17th and 18th centuries influenced the situation in the Serbian Church. The reforms conducted by Nikon, the Russian Patriarch, had echoes in the Serbian Church. Emperor Peter the Great contributed to the development of education among the Serbs. Many Serbs during the 18th century were studying in Russia, among them the most famous was Jovan Rajić. Some settled in Russia and they had a significant role in ecclesiastical and political life.
More...
The twentieth century was a time of active expansion of Christian culture throughout the world. The Catholic and some Protestant churches resorted to this. This culture, becoming global, accommodated, and united a large number of cultural and religious minorities. At the same time, promoting its uniqueness, it could not always confirm her identity.One of the characteristic features of the development of the modern world is an increased scale of events, greater internationalization of social processes, and their tendency to become global. Based on all modern problems, in the sense of their understanding and solution, Christian globalism were formed as a component of the doctrine of Christian denominations, which includes a full range of different concepts and ideas that reflect the typical human problems of modern civilization.Since Christian eschatology is confessionally multivariate, it makes sense to explore both the characteristics common to all denominations and specific to some of them, as well as to identify transformational models and forms of adaptation of eschatological ideas to today's realities.The actualization of the problem of moral-ethical and social aspects of Catholic eschatology, Christological-apocalyptic visions of Orthodox eschatological teaching, and the apocalyptic-prophetic character of Protestant eschatology in their transformational manifestations was designed to impart on the paper both theoretical and socio-practical significance.
More...
This paper deals with refugees. Social support is a final key to get over trauma. Becoming a part of church helps them to live with no fear and with security. Analysis of narratives gives us a story about trauma, culture shock and spiritual transformation.
More...
ins; Catholics; Bogomils; Babuni; Novatian; Novatians; Montanists; Manichaeans; Messalians; Paulicians; Kudugers; Serbia; Nomocanon; Cosmas the Priest; Anna Comnene; Synodik; EuthSince 1995, Serbian historian and Byzantinist Miodrag M. Petrović, has started his theory that the Bogomils, Kudugers, Novatians, Babuni, which are mentioned in Byzantine and Serbian medieval sources, are in fact Latin Roman Catholics, and that the radical dualist Bogomils have never been to Serbia. Petrović bases his arguments on his original interpretation of the sources because, as far as we know, there is no source which says explicitly that Bogomils were Latins. He uses well-known mechanism of labeling, which we could also find in St. Sava’s Nomocanon where it is said that Messalians are called Bogomils – Babuni now. But, this chapter discusses the real Messalians Bogomils not the Latins as new Bogomils. Cosmas the Priest, the first Orthodox polemicist with Bogomils, as well as the St. Sava, evidences that Messalians (Bogomils) are Molabnici (Euchites). Other Byzantine sources see the Bogomilism as mixture of the Paulicians (Manichaeans) and the Messalians. Some of their main doctrines would be: there are two opposing principles, the good and the bad god; Jesus is not God by nature; eucharistic bread and wine are only symbols; they refuse (discard) icons, cross, Old Testament, priesthood... As the Bogomils were dualists, Petrović comes up with the thesis that the Latins were called Bogomils by Medievals because of their dualism as they began to profess heresy, introducing Filioque in the 8th article of the The Niceno– Constantinopolitan Creed. According to this article the Holy Spirit proceed not only from the Father but also from the Son, namely, from two principles. However, no ancient eastern polemicist with the Latins called them Bogomils. The proves of Petrović have been analyzed in the text, particularly those based on texts of St. Simeon of Thessalonica.
More...
Proto-presbyter professor Dr. Lazar Mirković was both a student and a professor of the old Seminary of Karlovci, professor at the Saint Sava Seminary of Sremski Karlovci, and first professor of Liturgics at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade. It was through his own example of life within the Church and his tireless work in the field of Theology that he inspired many generations of students, always being ready to give answers to their questions even after they had completed their studies and become priests. His love of Christ gave him strength to overcome the tribulations of life. We have before us his Autobiography which demonstrates his desire and his zeal to be of service to his own and the younger generations. One of the most significant old Serbian manuscripts investigated by him was the Typikon of Nicodemus, which was later to be incinerated at the occasion of the German aerial bombardment of the National Library of Belgrade in 1941; Fr. Lazar Mirković had previously photographed it thus saving its contents for the future generations. During WW2 he copied all the 358 pages of the Typikon hoping that it would be published after the war. However, peace brought about different times and different criteria, and the Typikon of Nicodemus was put to the side. This did not stop Fr. Lazar Mirković from striving to have it published, and to continue studying other manuscripts knowing that their time would one day come.
More...
Through archival sources from the Archives of Yugoslavia in Belgrade (AJ) and the Archives of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade (APBF) as well as literature, this paper shows long path of the Serbian Orthodox Karlovci Seminary towards recognition of faculty (higher education) level for that institution.
More...