The Churching of Culture as the Main Theme of S. S. Averintsev

Abstract

The article examines the main “internal” theme of S. S. Averintsev’s research, which has a paradigmatic character both for him as a scientist and for Christian philosophy of culture as a whole. This is the problem of Christianization of culture as a unique paradoxical process of filling and transformation of old pagan forms of culture under the influence of new Christian content. This process is shown by S. S. Averintsev as a model of paraphrase and paradox as forms of transcending consciousness for the openness of the gospel message. The article discusses the works of S. S. Averintsev dedicated to different periods of world culture from antiquity to the 20th century. In his diverse problematic, S. S. Averintsev uses the method of “revealing” transcendent elements of culture based on the analysis of cultural morphology. In particular, it is shown that the synthesis of the conditional pagan “West” and the biblical “East”, realized by Orthodox New Rome (“Byzantium”), was the main cultural and historiosophical theme of S. S. Averintsev, which unfolds in his works on the material of different historical epochs and different cultural regions. In his works on the culture of the 20th century, he provides a diagnosis and prognosis of processes in contemporary culture, and critically analyzes key concepts of cultural analysis during this period. According to S. S. Averintsev, Christian culture, especially in the era of secularization, de facto can become a kind of “compensator” for the lack of Christian life. On the other hand, the task of Christian culture is to provoke the awakening of Christian life, to penetrate into everyday life as a meaningful transcendence. This allows us to consider his concept as an original response to the challenge of secularization.