Intertextuality in the legacy of St. Theophan

Annotation. The article examines intertextuality in the works of St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky. The stages of the saint's acquaintance with patristic writing are given, an analysis is made of the formation of his theological and ascetic views, the influence of the holy fathers of the Church on them, the methods of his references and retellings of the Holy Scriptures. The saint's methods of interpretation of texts are analyzed, and it is especially highlighted that in his works two concepts of intertextuality are of interest: artistic-aesthetic and scientific-cognitive. The characteristics of intertextual techniques in his sermons, polemical works and letters are given. The term “intertextuality” was introduced relatively recently: in 1967 by a Frenchwoman of Bulgarian origin, Julia Stoyanova Kristeva, who developed the ideas of the Russian philosopher, literary critic and cultural theorist Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin. He was the first to study the phenomenon of direct or hidden overlap between the author's words and other texts that existed earlier or existed in parallel with their creation. This began the establishment of principles and mechanisms for a more complete understanding of the meaning of the text - “depressurizing” it by studying its connections with other texts and the sociocultural context of its writing. This is done by art historians, linguistic stylistics, semioticians and other specialists. Representing the latter area of ​​science, J. Kristeva and her followers generally consider every text as an intertext. This is a broad approach to the concept of intertextuality, in the light of which the entire legacy of St. Theophan can be considered as an expression of the Orthodox worldview and patristic teaching on various issues of spiritual life, as well as problems relevant to his time in the church, social, political and other spheres. However, recognizing the broad approach as insufficiently precise and productive for scientific analysis, Valeria Evgenievna Chernyavskaya and a number of other domestic researchers understand by intertextuality the dialogical correlation not of all in general, but only of certain texts or their types [12]. In this narrow sense, the intertextuality of the works of St. Theophan is manifested: – how is their relationship with the patristic writings and the words of ascetics closer to him in time at the level of content and meaning; – as a dialogue of his writings, sermons and letters with each other at the level of concept and problematics; – as the relationship between the components of each individual work of his at the level of internal logic; – as a typological openness of his works to the works of other spiritual writers; – how the relationship of his heritage with such areas of theology as dogmatics, asceticism, patristics, etc.; - as social and cultural connections that can be traced in his letters, sermons, writings and determine the place of his work in domestic and world culture. It follows from this that, despite the fact that intertextuality is an attribute of modern culture, and Saint Theophan lived in a different era, we can use this method of analysis to study his heritage in more detail. Moreover, this task faces not only learned theologians, philologists, textual critics and other representatives of Theophanic studies and has been solved by them for many years now, but also before every person who turns to the works and letters of the saint. After all, we are talking about intertextuality only when the reader notices in the text the diversity of ideas, meanings, specific data, etc. reflected in it, referring to other words, including those of the same author. It should be emphasized that the relationship between the source text and the intertext cannot be reduced to primitive borrowing or even influence. For the author's words, the starting text is not a foreign component, but an internal component that forms the content through interpretation, which reflects the spiritual and cultural experience of the author. That is why the instructions and reasonings of St. Theophan are especially valuable to us. After all, he is one of the spiritual writers closest to us in time. Unlike the ancient ascetics, he appeals to the concepts and categories of public and private life, cultural phenomena and scientific facts that are predominantly known to us. Understanding, for example, the need to speak with the world in its language, Saint Theophan was interested in the development of secular sciences, as evidenced by books from his library, among the authors of which are the historian S. M. Solovyov, the philosopher I. G. Fichte, and the evolutionist C. R. Darwin. It is not surprising that in explaining the laws of the invisible spiritual world, he sometimes resorted to analogies from natural sciences. Thus, the saint writes: “Just as a drop of water is made up of parts of oxygen and hydrogen by the passage of an electric spark through them, so faith is born for the first time by a certain mysterious touch of the Lord on the heart” [4, p. 496]. In order to fully understand the legacy of St. Theophan, one must know the Orthodox culture, based on the Holy Scriptures and rooted in Eastern Christian doctrine. The ascetic bishop considered it necessary for the mind to assimilate the truths of faith so deeply that they “constitute his being” [5, p. 232]. In his letters, he repeatedly advises reading spiritual books daily for this purpose, especially the Gospel [8]. This contributes to the reign of the Lord in the human mind, “when the mind, through obedience to faith, having assimilated everything communicated to us in the Holy Revelation, ... judges everything that exists and happens according to God” [3, p. 190] Obviously, the state described by the saint was inherent to himself. Being a learned theologian, teacher of theological schools, archpastor and ascetic, he not only knew the Holy Scriptures and doctrinal books well, but also “was always imbued with their spirit, putting the learned truths into practice. This gave him the right and opportunity to naturally and freely quote the Holy Scriptures" [1] It is no coincidence that it is the main outline of his sermons, letters and literary works. Back at the end of the 19th century. it was noted that “The Word of God has become so fused with the style and way of thinking of Theophan the Recluse, and this synthesis is so harmonious and complete that for the reader it sometimes seems impossible to separate the saint’s own thoughts and words from the words of the Bible” [1]. The works of the Vyshensky Recluse are permeated not only with direct and indirect quotation, references and retelling of lines of the Holy Scripture, but also with the thoughts of the holy fathers of the Church, whose work was continued by Saint Theophan, instructing his flock on the path of salvation, and ascetic writings. His acquaintance with the instructions of the ascetics of antiquity was far from formal. He did a lot to read them in the original, assimilate them in practice, and after that pass them on to his reader through intertextualization. Even while studying at the Kyiv Theological Academy, the saint turned to the works of the holy fathers, quoting them in student sermons. After accepting monasticism, to resolve issues that arose in his spiritual life, along with the advice of experienced mentors and devotees of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, he resorted to reading the patristic writings. According to I. A. Krutikov, the saint’s nephew, “he studied them both practically and scientifically, and was so imbued with their spirit that his speech, no matter what it was about, bore obvious traces of ascetic creations” [2, p. 269]. The result of deep understanding and assimilation of patristic thought through personal experience was the essay of St. Theophan “What does one who has repented and entered on the good path of salvation need” [11], compiled before his departure to the Middle East as part of the First Russian Spiritual Mission. The next, qualitatively different stage in the saint’s acquaintance with patristic wisdom and its application to his own life was a business trip to the Holy Land. Here, far from spiritual like-minded people and mentors, his thirst for comprehending the instructions of the ancient ascetics was especially evident. Being near the first centers of monasticism, he made pilgrimages to the monasteries of Palestine, Thebaid and Sinai, worked in their libraries, collected and copied unique manuscripts, and deciphered monuments of ascetic writing. To more fully understand these texts, he studied ancient and modern languages, communicated with the inhabitants of the monasteries he visited - spiritually experienced monks who preserved centuries-old traditions of asceticism. Upon his return to Russia, for the rest of his life Saint Theophan was engaged in the translation and arrangement of patristic writings. During the period of retreat in the Vyshenskaya Hermitage, the search for manuscripts of ancient ascetics was carried out mainly on Mount Athos by the monks of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery. So, in 1882, in one of his reclusive letters, he reported: “At the beginning of this year it occurred to me to ask them if Abba Isaiah was there on Mount Athos in the original - and they willingly sent it to me for translation” [10, 179]. This activity of Saint Theophan was aimed at adapting patristic writing for his contemporaries, which often required abandoning the literal translation of ancient manuscripts in favor of their interpretation. In addition to self-published translations, the thoughts and teachings of ancient ascetics were reflected in many articles of Saint Theophan and especially in his letters as an integral part of his ascetic views. In addition, as already mentioned, the saint collected the experience of contemporary ascetics. For example, he wrote about the rule for creating the Jesus Prayer in the Monastery of Saint Sava near Jerusalem [6, p. 6]. Speaking about the need to constantly stand before God, he cited the words of an ascetic he knew from Kyiv, “who said: I didn’t use any techniques, and I didn’t know the Jesus Prayer, but everything that is written here [meaning the ability to always “establish yourself in the memory of God”] was and is. But how, I don’t know myself. God gave!” [6, p. 18]. Woven into the context of Saint Theophan’s thoughts, these life examples act as significant phenomena that served the development of his ascetic system. In terms of the topic under consideration, two concepts of intertextuality are of interest: for artistic-aesthetic and for scientific-cognitive activities. Each of these areas has its own specifics and framework. The entire range of intertextual meanings can be realized in a work of art - from continuity in quotations to complete depreciation in parody. In scientific works, the latter is impossible, but it is in science that intertextuality can be traced simultaneously in three different directions: in retrospect, in perspective, and in the relationship of the author’s works to each other, as well as, as already noted, the compositional parts of one publication in relation to each other. In general, in scientific literature, intertextuality acts as a universal principle for constructing a text according to its content. Even the refutation of the results of previous studies is carried out within the framework of scientific criticism, while maintaining the continuity of scientific and educational activities. In this regard, the question arises about the palette of intertextual meanings in the heritage of St. Theophan. Obviously, as a theologian, translator and interpreter, he is within the framework of the scientific specificity of intertextuality. But as a writer, publicist, preacher and letter writer, the saint could go beyond these boundaries, using ideas that were far from theology in order to more conveniently subvert them in the light of the Christian worldview, and in other cases, on the contrary, to explain with their help the fundamental differences in Orthodox dogma. In polemical articles, for example, the saint actively uses the words, terms, and thoughts of his opponents to refute them, as well as sharp methods of contrasting ideas. For example, in the book “Letters on Spiritual Life” we read the dedication: “Letters were written to a beauty, then something was added and everything was aimed at keeping beauties from becoming granddaughters of monkeys” [7, p. 102]. The saint mentions the need to use the direct words of his opponents in one of his letters: “There is nothing to write about Protestant nonsense in general. ...There will be no fruit. And writing, based on the words of a heretic, will be right in the eye” [9, p. 129]. The early childhood of Saint Theophan, spent at the parish of his father, the archpriest, among the common people, was reflected in the expressiveness and figurative language of his letters. They often contain folk sayings: “if you take up the tug, don’t say it’s not strong,” “thought is far away, but death is behind you,” or analogies from the lives of ordinary people: the Church’s preservation of the Holy Tradition “from life to life” is similar to “how the same image of weaving bast shoes and baking bread has been preserved for so many centuries” [8, p. 97]. Such inclusions give his correspondence the format of a direct live dialogue with the addressee. The intertextuality of St. Theophan's sermons, letters and writings serves one purpose - to facilitate the understanding of spiritual laws for all those seeking salvation and following Christ: from illiterate commoners to learned theologians. And everyone reading his words in the 21st century needs to increase their intertextual competence in order to better perceive their meaning. 1 Artemov S.V. The Word of God in the works of St. Theophnos the Recluse // [Electronic resource]. URL: https://svtheofan.ru/images/stories/docs/Artemov.pdf (date accessed 12/16/2021). 2 Krutikov I.A. Saint Theophan the recluse and ascetic of the Vyshensk Hermitage // Soulful Reading. 1897. Part 2.S. 262–270. 3 Words to the Vladimir flock of His Grace Theophan. Vladimir: Printing house of the provincial government, 1869. 687 pp. 4 Theophan the Recluse, saint. Outline of Christian moral teaching. M.: Rule of Vera, 2010. 686 p. 5 Theophan the Recluse, St. The path to salvation. M.: Rule of Faith, 2000. 606 p. 6 Theophan, bishop. Collection of letters. Vol. 1. M.: TipoLitogr. I. Efimova, 1898. 260 p. 7 Theophan, bishop. Collection of letters. Vol. 2. M.: TipoLitogr. I. Efimova, 1898. 240, VIII p. 8 Theophan, bishop. Collection of letters. Vol. 6. M.: TipoLitogr. I. Efimova, 1899. 216, VI p. 9 Theophan, bishop. Collection of letters. Vol. 7. M.: TipoLitogr. I. Efimova, 1900. 256, X p. 10 Theophanes, bishop. Collection of letters. Vol. 8. M.: TipoLitogr. I. Efimova, 1901. 228, XII p. 11 Theophan, bishop. What does one who has repented and entered on the good path of salvation need (Written in 1847). M., Ed. Athos. Rus. Panteleimon Monastery. 1882. 116 p. 12 Chernyavskaya V. E. Intertextual interaction as the basis of scientific communication. St. Petersburg: Publishing house St. Petersburg GUEF, 1999. 209 p.