The concept of glory in the Russian religious culture and secular discourse

Abstract

This article is dedicated to conceptualization of the notion of glory in the Russian religious culture and secular discourse. Texts of the Holy Scripture indicate etymological relation of glory to the Ancient Hebrew root kbd (to be heavy, important, liver), which imposes additional meanings to the concept, not recorded in the dictionaries. For example, ancient Jews interpreted glory as a true value of the objects of corporeal and incorporeal world, which could be measured, “weighed”. Usage of the word glory in folklore, particularly in Christmas carols, as an imperative incantation can testify to the belief in the magic qualities of this word, as well as to connection of paganism and a religious rituals in people’s mind. As a result of comparative and hermeneutic analysis, the author concludes that in the religious context, glory retains the idea of the interconnectivity and interconditionality of hearing and speech, typical to the Indo-European root kleu, from which is stems from. A centuries-old process of de-ontologization led the loss of the internal form and value elements of semantic structure of glory, which caused distortion of this Christian concept in consciousness of the Russian native speakers. In the secular, profane discourse, fame became the key meaning of glory. However, in consciousness of the Russian native speakers, the word glory remains a significant source of cultural-linguistic information, which cannot be understood without reference to the history, traditions and religion of the nation.