А. И. Сидоров Предисловие к серии «Святые отцы Церкви и церковные писатели в трудах православных ученых»

The book offered to the reader opens a new series - the Appendix to the publication “The Complete Collection of the Works of the Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in Russian Translation” (PSTSO). The series “Complete Collection of the Works of the Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in Russian Translation” (Publishing House “Sibirskaya Blagozvonnitsa”), which began to appear in 2007, like the previous two similar series “Patristic Heritage” (Publishing House “Martis”) and “Library of Fathers and Teachers of the Church” (Publishing House “Palomnik”), has as its main goal the revival and continuation of the rich tradition of Russian translations of patristic texts creations. The main and essential feature of this tradition was its deep churchliness. Like any translations, Russian translations of the works of the Church Fathers, carried out in the 19th – early 20th centuries, differed from each other both in quality and in the personal characteristics of individual translators (often anonymous). But all of them were united by the fact that they were created by people who were churchgoers and did not think of their lives outside the Church. From a purely philological point of view, sometimes a number of claims can be made against them, but one should always remember the elementary truth that there is a letter of a translation, and there is also its spirit. Philologically, literal accuracy can sometimes seriously distort the meaning of the original if the translation of any patristic text is carried out by non-church people, because the spirit of such a text eludes them. I would like to remind you that the patristic works represent the focus of Holy Tradition. And just as there is no Holy Scripture outside the Church, since “only the Church gives meaning to the existence of Scripture,” 1 so there is no Holy Tradition outside the Church, that is, the creations of the Holy Fathers, since the Spirit of God does not live outside the Body of Christ. Without this same Spirit, the works of the Church Fathers become a dead letter - lifeless flesh, from which the soul has already flown away. They turn into the writings of certain “thinkers,” whose intellectual delights become the lot of those dead who “bury their dead” (Matthew 8:22)… In addition to the translations themselves, the life of the patristic Tradition in the Russian Orthodox Church was also manifested in the theological and church-historical understanding of this Tradition. It was carried out at various levels: at the fundamental and strictly scientific level and at the more popular and generally accessible level. By the beginning of the 20th century, Russian patrolological and church-historical science, having absorbed the best fruits of the technical methods of Western science (primarily the experience of working with sources and their analysis), not only equaled it, but in many ways surpassed it. And the superiority of Russian theological science consisted mainly in an organic and living connection with Church Tradition - that connection, which the further, the more not only Protestant, but also Catholic science broke apart. It should be noted that in both of them the “technology” of scientific research was still preserved (and continues to this day) at a high level, but the spiritual meaning of such a search has practically been lost. This meaning is found only in the Orthodox Church and in the clear awareness that theological science is not an end in itself, since it is only one of many means that serve to achieve the only goal of Christian life - salvation. Most Russian Orthodox scholars had such (albeit sometimes latent) awareness, and some of them testified to this not only with their lives, but also with their glorious death. A striking example of this is Ivan Vasilyevich Popov (martyr John). Such observance of the spiritual meaning of scientific research did not in the least prevent Russian Orthodox scientists from being skillful in the “technology” of this search. The fundamental works of the same I.V. Popov, N.I. Sagarda, N.N. Glubokovsky, V.V. Bolotov, I.I. Sokolov and many others speak eloquently about this. And in our time, when the rapid de-Christianization of Europe is taking place, and with it the deep decline of Western theological science, which has already in many ways degenerated and turned into an empty (although often very sophisticated) “bead game”, it is our pathological, church-historical and generally theological science of the 19th – early 20th centuries that should serve as a guide both for the new generation of Orthodox scientists and for all Orthodox readers who want to comprehend the spiritual essence Orthodox Tradition. Therefore, the series “The Complete Collection of the Works of the Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in Russian Translation” also includes appendices where monographs and articles by our pre-revolutionary and modern scientists are published. In particular, the first two volumes of the series published the works of priest Nikolai Vinogradov “The Dogmatic Teaching of St. Gregory the Theologian” and A.V. Govorov “St. Gregory the Theologian as a Christian Poet”; in the next two volumes, several articles appeared in appendices devoted to the life and theological worldview of St. Basil the Great and St. Amphilochium of Iconium. However, these works do not exhaust the diversity of understanding the work of individual Church Fathers in Russian church science. As a result, it was decided to additionally publish a small series “Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in the Works of Orthodox Scholars.” Its predecessor, in a sense, was the series “Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church in the Studies of Orthodox Scholars,” published by the Pilgrim Publishing House, where five volumes of it appeared. This series was largely continued by the “Library of Christian Thought”, which, however, has a broader and more variegated character, carried out by the publishing house of Oleg Abyshko. But both series are focused primarily on research of a fundamental nature, and the beginning series involves the publication of works of a more popular genre, most of which were published in various pre-revolutionary church magazines. However, the series will include works not only by pre-revolutionary Russian Orthodox scholars, but also by modern Russian theologians and patrolologists, as well as translations of works by foreign Orthodox authors. Each of the books in the proposed series will be dedicated to one of the patristic authors whose works were published in PSTSO. This volume includes studies about St. Gregory the Theologian. A characteristic feature of the series “Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in the Works of Orthodox Scholars” in general and this volume in particular is that numerous references to the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church in the published works, as well as references to the works of priest N. Vinogradov “The Dogmatic Teaching of St. Gregory the Theologian" and A.V. Govorov "St. Gregory as a Christian poet" are given in accordance with the pages of the PSTSO publication. We hope that the new series will find a favorable response from Orthodox readers. Hieromartyr Hilarion (Trinity). Creations. T. 2. M., 2004. P. 154.