Abstract

Abstract The concept of Satan in Prosvetitel’ is that of Orthodox Christianity and the Church Fathers from the era of Ecumenical Councils. Satan is especially prominent in the introductory Skazanie, where he is responsible for the new, soul-destroying (and allegedly judaizing) Novgorod heresy, whose leading proponents are infused with him, and in Slovo 4, where he is responsible for humanity’s initial fall from grace and then is deceptively but appropriately defeated via Christ’s redemptive self-sacrifice and harrowing of Hades. Satan and his legion of demons are likewise found scattered throughout the rest of the work promoting heresy and sin and requiring divine aid to oppose on earth and during the immediate judgment after one’s death. But within the Muscovy of the time Prosvetitel’ was in no way uniquely anti-Judaic, and so the effect of Iosif’s anti-Satanic thrust on state or private actions beyond the repression of accused heretics is impossible to gage.

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