From Michael Ruse—to be streamed on June 6
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev surveys some of the most important and well-known literary figures of Russian history during the synodal period. Authors such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Chekhov. Sometimes the poets reflect the deep – almost second nature – religious heritage of Orthodoxy in Russia, at other times the poets reflect a cynical influence that took them away from liturgical life.
What sets this section apart from other chapters such as Orthodoxy in Rus’ is the lack of secular literary culture. The reforms of emperor Peter I made secular culture possible. Before Russians lived mostly within Orthodoxy. Other cultural pursuits did not exist on the horizon yet. Emperor Peter I favored a western attitude toward art, music, education, philosophy, and religion. He wanted to borrow from the greatest European minds and powers of his time. An oversight that resulted from these western reforms were that they contributed to revolutionary ideas. It seems that a foreign identity was pushed forcefully on Russia. Poetry could be blasphemous or atheist by demeaning the sacred. Or, it could be beautiful or prayerful by praising nature and God. Art could reflect the traditions of Russian iconography or for mere decoration and gaudy displays. Philosophy could generate ideas that help the Church defend itself and develop the minds of Russian Christians, or ideas that lead to rebellion, atheism, and nihilism that spin out of control.
Just as forced identities on ourselves can lead to inner turmoil, estrangement from ourselves and our own traditions, likewise cultural changes forced unnaturally can have catastrophic consequences. Some of the confusing consequences for Russian culture were several debates that involved both culture and religion. First, some writers sought to unite Orthodoxy under the Pope of Rome to create a super-state religion of the world. Second, some writers advanced the idea that Sophia, or Wisdom, was a personification of the female side of God, and they introduced a fourth person into the Holy Trinity. Third, there were arguments between Westerners and Slavophiles. The former embraced a more western European culture and the latter generally favored a more Russian nativist perspective regarding the identity of Russians that was rooted in Orthodoxy and peasant farming economy as well as pan-Slavic philosophies.
Ideas which are quite common and acceptable nowadays, such as liberalism, nihilism, and atheism, might have been foreign or less well-known to our fellow Orthodox Christians in Russia – if it were not for Peter’s enforced reforms. The flavor of poetry, art and philosophy during the synodal period forecast the changes that occur in the next chapter about Russian Orthodoxy in the 20th c. under Lenin and Stalin.