A New Article by Marina Kiseleva is Published in the German Collection

A series of publications of the Institute of Russian-German literary and cultural relations of RSUH has been published

In the new collection of articles in German Ausstrahlung der Reformation. Ost-westliche Spurensuche published the text of the chief research fellow of the Laboratory, Professor Marina S. Kiseleva: 'Protestantische Spuren' im russischen Schrifttum. Von der 'Rhetorik' des Pseudo-Makarius bis zu den "Worthen" Feofan Prokopovičs ("Protestant traces" in Russian Literature. From the "Rhetoric" of Pseudo-Makarius to the "Words" of Feofan Prokopovičs).

The article examines two texts in which "traces" of Protestant influence are found. The beginning is associated with the first known researchers "textbook on the theory of Russian eloquence", the so-called "Rhetoric" by Macarius of the first quarter of the 17th century. (attribution is still being debated); the stages of studying this text are briefly examined and its place outside the educational system, which by that time had not yet developed in the Moscow kingdom, is determined. A century later, courses in rhetoric and poetics became the basis of education in theological institutions. Rhetorical culture has assumed the function of education, upbringing, and social regulation of society. The influence of Protestant ideas, together with the practice of rational evidence, honed in the polemics between Protestants and Catholics in Europe, is found in the works of Feofan Prokopovich. He not only read courses in rhetoric and poetics at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy but also wrote theological works, where the influence of Protestant intellectual culture is evident. The article analyzes one of the "Words" by Prokopovich "Theological teaching about the state of an intact person or about what Adam was like in paradise?" And concludes that over a hundred years the contact of the scribes with the Protestant intellectual culture has undergone qualitative changes. The method of critical analysis of the text became available to Orthodox scribes; polemics and use of the rules of argumentation; addressing the need for "experiential knowledge"; understanding of the authority of the academic community, etc. In these processes, the author sees a significant role of the Protestant "trace" in Russian book culture.