Sin and virtue according to the teachings of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

This work aims to reveal and study the features of the teaching about Christian morality of one of the luminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church - St. Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh, Zadonsk miracle worker. The need for studying the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church for an Orthodox Christian is obvious. The works of Saint Tikhon are of great importance not only for the Russian, but also for the entire Orthodox Church, being part of its Sacred Tradition. In addition to this objective factor, there are a number of circumstances that make the personality and spiritual heritage of the saint especially close to Orthodox Christians of the late twentieth century, and the study of his works especially significant. 1. The works of Saint Tikhon are predominantly of a moralizing nature and practical in nature. In modern times, when emerging heresies are mainly just a repetition or modification of errors already known and refuted by the Church, issues of Christian morality become especially relevant, indicating the “path to salvation” and guiding along this path through preaching and moral and ascetic works becomes urgent. This is precisely what Saint Tikhon saw as his task as an archpastor and as a church writer. 2. The current state of Russia and Russian society is in many ways reminiscent of the times of St. Tikhon. Both now and then, Russia was a country open to the Western world, whose influence became a significant factor in the life of all (albeit to varying degrees) layers of Russian society. This influence had (and has), from the point of view of Christian morality, a predominantly negative character. In a religious sense - due to the active spread of non-Orthodox and generally non-Christian views; in terms of everyday life - due to the distortion of the traditional way of life of Russian society: among its upper strata, the views of the Enlightenment began to spread, the desire for luxury, the search for ranks, awards, contempt for the common people, and among the latter there were also fluctuations in faith (as a result of this - the emergence of “Russian” rationalistic sects, increased sentiments of schism, the revival of pagan beliefs and rituals), as well as drunkenness and other vices. Currently, these phenomena are only getting worse. 3. Saint Tikhon is close to us not only due to the relevance for people of the end of the twentieth century of those historical realities that appear so clearly and receive their assessment in his works, but also as an Orthodox spiritual writer, teacher of the Church, who lived in Russia (already reformed by Peter I and his successors) a little more than two centuries ago (in history the temporal distance is insignificant), addressing mainly the common people, in a language much closer to us than the language of the ancient Russians writers; finally, as the archpastor of a holy life, a great gift of speech and strength of spirit. All this makes the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk the subject of close attention (both study and soulful reading), and their author, as a saint of God and a saint of the Russian Church, is especially close to modern Orthodox people. In our opinion, the relevance of this work is not diminished by the abundance of literature about St. Tikhon and his spiritual heritage, to a review of which we now turn to from the point of view of revealing Christian moral teaching in it. Similar experiments have already taken place in patrol science. The main ones are the works: “Morality, revealed according to the guidance of the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” by F. Zelepugin (24) 1, “St. Tikhon of Zadonsk as a moral teacher” by priest. T. Popova (32), “St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and his moral teaching” by the same author (33), master’s thesis “St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and his teaching on salvation” by schemaarchim. Ioanna (Maslova) (26), candidate's dissertation “Disclosure of the doctrine of Christian morality in the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” by V. Pankov (31), course work “Instructions of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk on the spiritual growth of a Christian” by A. Arzhaev (16). In addition, the following articles were published in periodicals at different times: “The Teaching of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk about True Christianity” by Archbishop. Michael (Chub) (30), “Ethical and theological worldview of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” prof., prot. T. Popova (34), “St. Tikhon of Zadonsk as a teacher of Christian morality” L. Klimenko (28; 29). Finally, the course essays are known: “Teaching of morality according to the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” by priest. A. Kurennov and “The Moral and Christian Teaching of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” by priest. M. Ilyinsky (25), and reviews of them (18; 35; 21; 37). Thus, among the many works about St. Tikhon and his theology 2 one can find many works, even the names of which almost coincide with the topic of this work (15 are given). However, of these: 2 are student works (of which only the above-mentioned work by Fr. M. Ilyinsky was found in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library); 4 – reviews of them, from which one can only get an idea of ​​the plan and general nature of these works; 4 are the named articles, which reveal certain aspects of Christian morality. Works of the priest T. Popova, F. Zelepugina, dissertations of schiarchim. Ioanna (Maslova), V. Pankov and the work of A. Arzhaev have a different character than the proposed work. The main feature of the latter is the depiction and study, first of all, of the Christian moral ideal, as it is presented by St. Tikhon, while among the named authors, especially in the works of Fr. John (Maslov) and A. Arzhaev, the emphasis is on revealing the ways to achieve it (a description is given of the process of spiritual growth, completing the work of saving a Christian, etc.) 3. In addition, each era has its own primary interests, themes and issues that are especially relevant to it, and a contemporary author will consider the legacy of the holy father or church writer whose work he is researching, not least guided by these priorities. Finally, the work intends to consider the theology of St. Tikhon on the basis of his creations themselves. At the same time, the task is set not just to give a description of certain sins and virtues, but also to discover their internal relationship, as it was revealed by the saint himself. Before presenting the outline of the dissertation, it is necessary to say a few words about some of the features of the saint’s work. The pronounced moralizing character of his creations has already been mentioned. Christian morality is understood by the saint extremely broadly, as a truly Christian life in general (hence the title of his main work - “On True Christianity”). Even when the saint touches on dogmatic topics, explains the Holy Scriptures, and expounds the doctrine of the sacraments, he is primarily interested in how those questions that become the subject of his attention influence the life of a Christian and help him move toward Christ. Therefore, when considering the teaching of St. Tikhon on Christian morality, it is necessary to use all of his creations without exception 4 . Considering their significant volume (in the 1889 edition there are five volumes, more than one and a half thousand pages 5), especially in comparison with the limited volume of candidate’s work, the choice of approach to solving the problem of presenting the moral teaching of the saint seems especially important. This circumstance is aggravated by the difficulty of citing the works of St. Tikhon, who is called the “Russian Chrysostom.” The impact of his words is explained, first of all and most of all, by his archpastoral inspiration, his preaching gift, the greatness of his spirit, therefore it is obvious that in order to present the thoughts of St. Tikhon it is necessary to use the words of the saint, or to be one himself 6 . The second is impossible, and to achieve the first, given the vastness of the saint’s creations, is a difficult task. A simple retelling would only be a repetition of the mostly well-known provisions of Christian morality, more or less successfully brought together. Therefore, it is intended to convey the saint’s thoughts, if possible, in his own words, avoiding paraphrase; comments, reasoning and conclusions are given separately, without mixing them with the text of the cited works. The task of constructing a work plan is no less difficult. The ethics of St. Tikhon, let us recall, are purely practical, pastoral, which presents a certain difficulty in its theoretical understanding: will not the saint’s thoughts be reduced into a system alien to his theology? And at the same time, Saint Tikhon has his own teaching. It is fully expounded in the work “On True Christianity,” which partly represents the experience of constructing Christian moral teaching 7 . Based on the fact that creating a fundamentally new system means committing violence against the approach and understanding of the author (which is especially unacceptable if the topic of the work is understood as revealing the teaching of Christian morality of St. Tikhon himself), we took as a basis (in the most general form) the plan of creation “On True Christianity.” In order to avoid simple repetition, this plan will, on the one hand, be changed taking into account the specifics of the topic, and on the other, supplemented with material from other works of the saint. The dissertation consists of an introduction, six chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography 8 . The first chapter deals with Saint Tikhon’s understanding of Christian morality, sin as such, and some of those passions and vices that are discussed in most detail in his works. The second chapter talks about the means of converting a person from a sinful state to the path of repentance (the grace of God, the word of God, the conscience of man), and about repentance itself. The third chapter sets out the saint's teaching on Christian virtues. The fourth chapter deals with the mutual responsibilities of Christians. The fifth presents those basic means that the saint offers as strengthening in the Christian feat and considers a necessary condition for its successful accomplishment (contemplation and prayer, fasting, the sacraments of the Church, reading the Holy Scriptures and patristic works). The sixth contains “consolations” designed to encourage a conversion from sin to virtue and to strengthen those who follow the “narrow path” of a truly Christian life. The dissertation has an appendix, which presents the era in which St. Tikhon lived; it is said about the current state of the manuscripts of his creations; a detailed outline of the work “On True Christianity” is given and its analysis is given; contains works that were not included in the works of the saint in the 1889 edition, translations of two articles similar in theme to this work, as well as an index of passages of Holy Scripture quoted by the saint. The content of the work is a patrolological study. The works of St. Tikhon (2–6) were used as the main source. The author expresses deep gratitude for the help in writing the work to Prof. K.E.Skuratu, as well as Hierom. Timofey (Nikonov), mon. Samuil (Karask), G. P. Grebennikova, A.E. and I. E. Ivantsov, E. A. Koltsov, A. F. Lymarev, L. V. Pavlyk, O. B. Popova. Hereinafter, the edition number is given according to the bibliography of this work, with or without indicating the page. See, for example, the bibliography for the dissertation of Fr. Ioanna (Maslova) (26, 341–372). (Cf.: “Teaching on the salvation of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk” and “Instructions of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk on the spiritual growth of a Christian” by the named authors). Understanding the conventionality of such a division (namely: it is also impossible to talk only about achieving a goal without at least a general designation of it itself, just as it is impossible to describe a goal without revealing ways to achieve it), we still consider it necessary to note this difference as a feature of the work. Except, perhaps, a few small ones, such as, for example, translations from Greek “On the sign of the blessing priestly hand” or “On the ecumenical councils” (2, 234–236). It was this (5th) edition of the saint’s works (2–6) that was used as the most complete and currently most accessible. I think this is what F.M. Dostoevsky had in mind when he said that “the main thing in Tikhon is Tikhon himself” (quoted from: 43, 224). This work, as a generalization and created later than the other main works of the saint, includes most of the thoughts that he developed earlier in other works. The work does not include the life of St. Tikhon, as it is well known and has been published many times. Instead, the appendix contains the chapter “St. Tikhon and his era,” and the work itself contains episodes from the life of the saint, chosen as illustrations of his teaching on Christian morality.