МОДЕЛЬ ИДЕЙНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ РАННЕГО СТАРООБРЯДЧЕСТВА

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification of traditionalist and/or modernized components of confessional consciousness, confessional ethics and behavioral attitudes, as well as the ideological system of the early Old Believers. The article contains an analysis of the complex of works of Protopop Avvakum, one of the main founding fathers of the Old Believers, conducted by the method of analyzing paired semantic conjugation. The analysis showed that the structure of connections of the dominant categories in the legacy of Archpriest Avvakum corresponds basically to the traditional system of views and attitudes of the Russian Orthodox mentality of the pre-Nikon period. At the same time, in Avvakum’s works, there is an emergence of elements different both from Medieval Russian Orthodoxy and from the religion modernized by Patriarch Nikon and his supporters. These were the signs of early modern religion, including such modernizing features as formation of a new kind of religiosity, which was characterized by an active religion (faith-activity) instead of passive (faith-expectation). So, the category of “passion/patience” in Avvakum’s works comes closer not to “humility/meekness”, but to perseverance in faith and even resistance to persecutors. “Patience” as resistance, primarily spiritual activity, “struggle for faith” was defined as an important measure of the salvation of the Orthodox and Orthodoxy. The author also identifies the expansion of the ethical element and development of personal responsibility. A new interpretation of “deed” and “work” was formed. It is concluded that the emergence of Old Believers and Nikon’s reforms was a part of the general pan-European modernization process of the corresponding era with Russia’s pronounced specifics.