Divine Essence Research Articles

МІСЦЕ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЇ ЦЕРКВИ В СТРУКТУРІ ІМПЕРСЬКОЇ ВЛАДИ: ЗОЛОТООРДИНСЬКА ПАРАДИГМА

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has its origins in the establishment of the Golden Horde occupation authorities in the north-eastern territories of Kievan Rus. At this time, the Kyiv metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was faced with a choice: «with whom to be?» — with the invaders, or with their own people. The vast majority of its clergy and laity are Kyiv, Chernihiv, Pereyaslav, Halych-Volyn, and others. principality) chose the path of struggle for independence, and the other (Vladimir, Suzdal, Moscow) — close cooperation and obedience to the new government. The rulers of the Golden Horde themselves were guided by the laws of Iasi, with its postulates about the divine essence of the ruler, and local beliefs (including Orthodoxy) were pragmatically used in their own interests. Instead, the clergy and church property fell under the direct subordination of the khan, and the faithful service of the hierarchs was supported by labels — personalized privileges. In this context, a conscious choice was made to serve the Horde by Metropolitans Kirill and Maxim, who adapted church norms to the requirements of the authorities, built infrastructure, established new dioceses, including the capital, in Sarai-Batu, and so on. The latter was demonstratively translated, ie expropriated, from Pereyaslav, Dnieper, with a corresponding change of name to Saraisk. In the Horde, the ROC became part of the state mechanism for managing the occupied territories and population, participating in the redistribution of power, property and resources. Methods of terror, spiritual violence, denationalization, etc. were used for everyday use, and bribes and access to looted and official success were used to recruit the faithful. Since then, the discourse of lies and deception has also been adopted as the defining communicative strategy. These Golden Horde archetypes have formed a strategic paradigm for the functioning of the ROC as an integral part of imperial power, which it is trying to implement in modern conditions. A clear confirmation of this is the participation of the ROC in promoting the ideas of the «Russian world» and direct participation in the establishment of occupation regimes in the Crimea and ORDLO.

Abstraction and ineffability in the visual cultural central middle ages and intersubjective apophatic imagination: a first approximation

Abstract and quasi-abstract motifs were widely used in the religious images of the central Middle Ages. In many cases, these were certainly not simple ornamental devices but, on the contrary, they functioned as cognitively challenging semiotic devices affected by complex theological ideas. As this article will suggest, the miniatures discussed here — produced in the Byzantine, Insular, Carolingian, and Ottonian contexts — were created in accordance with apophatic spirituality, using nonfigurative representation to emphasise God’s ineffability. Thus, visual culture from the late seventh to the early eleventh century established an intricate transregional network in which iconic and symbolic contents were communicated rhizomatically. This phenomenon will be described here as the intersubjective apophatic imagination. The aim of this notion is to reflect the influence of important authors, whether closely or distantly associated with the via negativa, such as Pseudo Dionysius Areopagita, Kosmas Indikopleustes, Bede, and Ioannes Scotus Eriugena. Taking these elements into account, the article will argue that the aesthetic and semantic singularities of the images in question would have sought to avoid the presentification of meaning as a way of capturing the incomprehensibility of the divine essence.

The Historical Development of Cajetan's Philosophy of Pure Nature and Its Origins in the Thought of John Capreolus

The Historical Development of Cajetan's Philosophy of Pure Nature and Its Origins in the Thought of John Capreolus Steven Waldorf EVER SINCE the controversy concerning how to understand man's desire for the beatific vision as his ultimate end erupted following the publication of Henri de Lubac's Surnaturel in 1946, the issue of Cajetan's conception of human nature has been much debated. De Lubac's work, continuing from Surnaturel in the 1940s to his more mature Augustinisme et théologie moderne in 1965, aimed at both the theological and the historical deconstruction of what he termed the system of "pure nature," that is to say, the view that human nature must reach its complete end or perfection strictly by natural principles. For de Lubac, such a view, which entails the effective denial of a desire for the vision of the divine essence as the complete perfection of human nature as nature, is both theologically and historically problematic. From a doctrinal perspective, it leads to a purely natural end for man that effectively closes man in on himself, severing his nature from any intrinsic connection to grace and the supernatural. Moreover, historically speaking, it represents a rupture with a classical tradition of thought that runs from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and the other great Scholastics of the thirteenth century. In purporting to find a theory of pure nature in Aquinas's writings, later Scholastic thinkers betrayed and falsified his thought. In de Lubac's narrative, the progenitor of this view of nature was Tommaso de Vio (1469-1534), better known as Cardinal Cajetan, who was a renowned Dominican theologian of the late [End Page 1] fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Often remembered by historians for his disputation with Martin Luther at Augsburg in 1518, Cajetan was one of the leading theologians of his day, producing a magisterial commentary on Aquinas's Summa theologiae that remained influential into the twentieth century, in addition to dozens of smaller treatises.1 According to de Lubac, Cajetan stands at the origin of the pure-nature theory that the great majority of later Scholastics, including de Lubac's own twentieth-century interlocutors, would adopt.2 Crucially, he was also the first to impute the view to Aquinas himself, passing off his novel philosophy of nature as the latter's own. Nearly all subsequent scholarly discussion of the issues de Lubac raised has addressed the question of whether Cajetan was an accurate interpreter of Aquinas on the pure-nature question. That the Dominican cardinal held a view of nature in which nature must reach its proper perfection in a naturally attainable end is generally not disputed, and the texts, as we shall see, are clear on the point. However, lost in the scholarly debate is sustained treatment of the question of the historical genesis of Cajetan's view. Indeed, contemporary scholars have devoted comparatively little attention to the question of how Cajetan's philosophy of pure nature developed, focusing instead on the question of his fidelity to Aquinas. When such scholars do advert to the question of the origins of the Dominican cardinal's view of natura, they generally do so in passing, attributing it to concerns about the gratuity of grace that supposedly arise from positing a supernaturally attained end as the complete perfection of nature qua nature. Indeed, scholars who find themselves on opposite sides of the debate about Cajetan's faithfulness to Aquinas, such [End Page 2] as Lawrence Feingold3 and Denis Bradley,4 generally concur in attributing the Dominican commentator's view of nature to concerns about this or some other issue of theological orthodoxy. Although theological concerns were foremost in the mind of later proponents of the pure-nature theory, writing in the aftermath of the Baianist controversy, there is less evidence that they preoccupied Cajetan, who was active decades before the controversy erupted. The argument Feingold adduces as proof of the fact that Cajetan's view of nature was motivated by issues of theological orthodoxy is based on a misinterpretation of Cajetan's De potentia neutra, a text in which the Dominican commentator argues against the claim that there can be a natural potency or inclination for...

Symbols of Mystical Ecstasy and Divine Love in the Poetry of ’A’ishah al-Ba’uniyya and W.B. Yeats: A Heideggerian Re-interpretation

Ecstasy, though, is an inexpressible and condensed experience through which the Ultimate can be revealed, the mystic poet finds expression in resorting to symbolism to reflect the uniqueness of his/her spiritual experience and to communicate the unsaying. Approaching the divine essence and expressing the euphoria of His presence in meditation, recollection and self-forgetfulness are often described as provoking ecstatic trance-like states of intoxication, dancing, flying, or even death. Within a broad interest in comparative mystical literature, this study traces the creative merit and the mystical layers of significance behind the writings of the Arab Sufi ’A’ishah al-Ba’uniyya and the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats. It follows a synthesis model, mainly Heidegger’s existentialist view of ecstasy that envisages non-temporality presence, epiphany, transcendence and the experience of Being or Dasein, Jung’s concept of individuation, and the Sufi theory of Ibn Arabi and Ibn al-Farid. This paper investigates how both ‘Aishah and Yeats interpret their spiritual visions, though different in culture, religion and gender, in terms of a powerful and beautiful poetic endeavour? How does their mystical poetry reveal a blend of Western and Eastern thoughts though it is dominated by a single Sufi touch? It also investigates how spiritual dimensions, like transport, unveiling, illumination and beauty of the divine beloved, are exquisitely and metaphorically interconnected with physical love symbology⸺the wine, woman, roses, gyres, and shapes, in the process of elevating the erotic to the sanctity of the spiritual realm and integrating gender differences in the conscious quest for union with the Absolute.

Plantinga and Ash‘arites on Divine Simplicity

The doctrine of divine simplicity has been upheld across various religious traditions, including Christianity and Islam. The mainstream interpretation of divine simplicity identifies God with His attributes. I examine and discuss certain criticisms of this doctrine. I consider Alvin Plantinga’s arguments from the recent Western literature, and certain arguments given by ‘Abd al-Qāhir Baghdādī and Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī from the Ash‘arite tradition. After reconstructing these arguments, I discuss two main objections that can be directed to them. Plantinga’s criticism aims to indicate some unacceptable consequences of divine simplicity. First, if divine simplicity is accepted, then all the divine attributes would be identical with divine essence, and thus divine attributes would be identical to each other. That is to say, there would be only one attribute if they are all identical. However, this result is not easy to accept given the multiplicity of divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence. Second, via similar reasoning, it can be shown that God is not a personal being who created the universe but an abstract object since properties are abstract objects. These absurd consequences follow from divine simplicity. If they are not to be accepted, divine simplicity must be rejected. These arguments exemplify the form of reductio ad absurdum, and the same form of arguing against divine simplicity is also found within the Ash‘arite tradition. On the one hand, ‘Abd al-Qāhir Baghdādī argues that divine attributes would be identical if divine simplicity is accepted. The identity of divine attributes implies that their scopes are identical as well. However, the scope of divine power and divine knowledge cannot be identical since God knows Himself, but His power does not apply to Himself. Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, on the other hand, holds that attributes are not independent beings but can exist only as dependent upon something else. If divine attributes are assumed to be identical with divine essence, then divine essence would be a dependent being as attributes are. As we have seen, these arguments also purport to show some absurdities following from the doctrine of divine simplicity and deny this doctrine on the basis of those absurdities. Thus, they exemplify the form of reductio ad absurdum as Plantinga’s arguments. The first objection that could be directed against the above arguments aims to show that we cannot make any distinction in God since God is absolutely distinct from any other being. Thus, we cannot even differentiate between divine attributes and God’s essence. If this is the case, all the arguments considered rely on a mistaken presumption about some kind of distinction between God and divine attributes. I argue that this position is inconsistent with the doctrine of divine simplicity. Divine simplicity is a theoretical position that identifies divine attributes with God. To be able to make that identification, the doctrine already presumes some kind of distinction between God and divine attributes. The second objection does not deny that there is some kind of distinction. It aims to explain it in terms of the distinction between sense and reference as proposed by Frege and analogical predication as introduced by Aquinas. I argue that this attempt is futile and amounts to the first objection.

TUHAN PERSPEKTIF IBN ṬHUFAYL DALAM KISAH HAYY BIN YAQDZÂN

Abstract: This research aims to analyze thought of God in his book, Risâlah fî Asrâr al-Hikmah al- Masyrîqiyyah Hayy ibn Yaqzhân (1978, Published Beirut). In the view of Ibn Ṭhufayl, God is Al-Maujud so to worship unto Him is required the sensitivity of five senses, rational powers and strong spiritual processes. As Ibn Ṭhufayl said, in pursuit of Al-Maujud he uses the universe, such as sky, animals and plants to resemble Al-Maujud. in tasyabbuhat (imitating the behavior of nature) ibn Ṭhufayl can attain illumination the light of all lights. Finally, he can -musyahadah (witness) the essence of God which is the culmination of happiness. Keywords: God, Universe, Ibn Ṭhufayl

Transliminality: Comparing Mystical and Psychotic Experiences on Psycho-Phenomenological Grounds

AbstractOn a phenomenal level, no differences between the mystical and the initial sequence of psychotic experience are to be found. Both are characterized by transliminality (i.e., an experience of consciousness transcending both the psychophysical and the rational realms). However, the situation is different if we integrate psychodynamic implications before and after those experiences into the comparison. One difference on this level is that the mystical experience (if it meets sufficient ego stability) primarily offers personality-strengthening potential. In contrast, transliminality, which occurs in the course of psychotic experience (if it encounters insufficient ego-stability or a pronounced vulnerability), primarily offers personality-weakening potential. However, if the therapeutic process succeeds in setting ego-stabilizing impulses (or eliminating thought and affect disorders which are typical for psychoses of the schizophrenic spectrum), a conscious incorporation of the transliminal experience into the further therapeutic process proves to be helpful, too. The essential philosophical and therapeutic significance of the connections analyzed here are reflected on with the help of philosophical and psycho(patho)logical phenomenology, in particular with the writings of Husserl’s and Pfänder’s pupil Gerda Walther, combined with current theorems of responsive phenomenology. Walther’s insights into the (dys-)functionalities of ego-center (“Ichzentrum”), self (“Einbettung des Ichzentrums”), and basic essence (“Grundwesen”) in mystical and psychotic experience, with respect to their (meta-)transcendental relationship with divine essence (“göttlicher Wesensgrund”) provoke further research questions on the constitutive and therapeutic implications of transliminality in the context of mystical and psychotic experience.

God’s mercy revealed in the ministry of charity: The Church in Poland reaching out to ‘the periphery’

The ministry of charity is an important dimension of the Church’s mission, because in this way it shows the mercy of its founder to the world. Christians incarnate God’s mercy to the world by serving other people. This is how we should understand the words of Pope Francis, who said that the Church needs to reach out to the periphery, i.e. the poor, the homeless, the migrants, the unemployed, the sick and the socially excluded. What the essence of God’s mercy is how it is shown in the community of the Church and how the Church in Poland takes care of those who remain on the periphery of the world. These are the questions which the author of this article will try to answer. The reflection undertaken is mainly based on biblical sources and the teaching of Pope Francis. Contribution: Theological reflection on God’s mercy, combined with a reflection on the ways of concrete help for socially excluded people, based on the example of the Church’s charitable initiatives in Poland, is a contribution to the development of existential and inclusive ecclesiology, which is postulated by Pope Francis. It also shows how research in the field of practical theology can use the achievements of contemporary praxeology. This juxtaposition of theological and praxeological fields of reflection coincides with the focus and scope of the journal to promote the multidisciplinary aspects of studies in the general theological area.

RELEVANSI TRINITAS BAGI HIDUP MANUSIA MENURUT KARL RAHNER

Karl Rahner made a major contribution to the trinitarian theology in this post-modern era. He has attempted to reconcile the classical doctrine of the Trinity with contemporary thought. Rahner spoke about the topic of the oneness and triadity of God. Regarding the oneness of God, Rahner did not speak about the one ousia / divine essence, but rather the unity or perichoresis of the three divine persons. What is called God here, is not the essence of divinity but the Father who is the source of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Rahner emphasizes the identification and relationship between the immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity which according to him is the important point in the theology of the Trinity. Consequently, the only starting point for developing a theology of the Trinity is the history of our experience with God, in which God reveals Himself in two ways, namely through the Word and the Spirit. This article presents Karl Rahner's thoughts on the Trinity and its relevance to human life. First of all, the author describes about the place of Trinitarian theology in the general framework of Rahner's anthropological theology. Next, it discussed his thoughts on the Trinity itself and at the end, the relevance of the Trinity to human life. This relevance becomes evident in Rahner's thought about the communication of God to man in the form of His Word and Spirit.

The Rose of Muḥammad, the Fragrance of Christ: Liminal Poetics in Medieval Anatolia

Abstract Although scent has played a diminished role in modern Western societies, it communicated a wide array of meanings to Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Anatolia. This study examines the ubiquitous presence of fragrance in Persian and Armenian poetry, particularly in the works of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273), his son Sulṭān Walad (d. 1312), and Kostandin Erznkatsʿi (fl. late thirteenth–early fourteenth cen.), a Christian Armenian poet of Erzincan. For these and other poets, olfaction served as a rich heuristic for sensing the divine essence in many contexts: in everyday customs, such as washing with rose water or the preparation of sherbet; in devotional practices, such as burning incense or receiving communion; and finally in the instruction of poetry itself.

Anhypostasis and enhypostasis: Barth’s Christological method in view of Chalcedon – its nuance and complexity

Karl Barth departs from historical Protestant orthodoxy in his unique adoption of the dual formula anhypostasis and enhypostasis to explain the union of divine and human natures in the person of Jesus Christ. For Barth, these concepts help explain why the person of Jesus Christ must not be viewed statically in his being as the God-man, but dynamically in the event of God’s movement of grace towards humanity. As such, Barth applies these concepts in his analysis of the Chalcedon definition of the Jesus Christ who exists as one person with two natures. In so doing, Barth further develops Chalcedon’s definition of the two natures of Christ based upon the hypostatica unio. Not only must Chalcedon be interpreted through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as event, but also event in the union of this human essence as the Son of Man as it participates in the divine essence. For Barth, the emphasis is not the combining of divine and human essence into one being, but that the eternal Christ has taken to himself human essence as the one Reconciler.

Трансценденция, трансцендентное, бог в философии Филона Александрийского: синтез греческой и иудейской традиций

The study focuses on the analysis of the problem of the transcendence in the philosophical and theological teaching of Philo of Alexandria. It is noted that in the cosmological teachings of antiquity, the transcendent was understood as a higher sphere, which possessed specific spatio-temporal characteristics, inaccessible for sensory knowledge, but available for speculative cognition. It is emphasized that, unlike Greek thinkers, Philo introduces a supramundane personal God and His Revelation into the philosophy. These two concepts have fundamentally changed the understanding of the transcendent and transcendence. Instead of the majestic, living, intelligent and immanent to people Cosmos, concealing in its depths the transcendent layers of being, in the philosophy of the great Alexandrian, the omnipotent, superintelligible and incomprehensible God-Creator comes to the fore, completely «beyond» the world and man and pouring out His grace on them. The Hebrew thinker distinguishes between the essence of God himself and His powers manifested in Creation. This is an integral hierarchy, at the bottom of which is the sensuously comprehensible world, and above – the intelligible world – the Logos, the Word of God, the Mind of God. Thus, the philosopher distinguished between the absolutely transcendent and the relatively transcendent.

Influence of H. Skovoroda on the Formation of the Ukrainian Cordocentric Tradition

The article highlights key philosophical ideas of H. Skovoroda, among which “cordocentrism” plays the main part. The research points out that the philosopher’s work was greatly influenced by both the ideas of the German mysticism and ancient traditions, in particular those of pantheism and Neoplatonism, which can be traced in the preceding Ukrainian philosophical thought. It is noted that continuing the cordocentric tradition, H. Skovoroda believed in the ability of a person to comprehend their divine essence only through their heart and faith. However, the philosopher does not oppose faith to reason. In his opinion, the mind must seek for the truth, which a man does not possess as a given. It is emphasized that Skovoroda saw it as a primary tool for cognition of all three worlds – the greater, or the cosmos; the smaller, or a human; the symbolic, or the Bible. The latter is meant for the mind to find a deep spiritual understanding; however, without faith it cannot reach the heights of spirituality.The article indicates the similarity of H. Skovoroda’s and Pascal’s ideas. Like Pascal, Skovoroda gives the heart a rational form, sometimes equating the idea to the heart. For Pascal, the heart is indeed a source of knowledge to the same extent as the cognition. Both Pascal and Skovoroda believed that the heart learns primarily through love. It is emphasized that the heart is able to pave the way to the perception of the individual fullness more than any other part of the human body (Homo totus). The article points out that according to H. Skovoroda, the mind and the faith are two aspects of the human spirit, which are inextricably linked, learning both the outer existence and the inner world of a man. However, deep comprehension of the divine essence is possible only through faith, focused in the heart.

NASIONALISME EKONOMI DI INDONESIA (Prespektif Ekonomi Islam dalam Al-Qur’an dan Hadis)

Economic nationalism in the perspective of Islam for its adherents not only becomes religion and state in the sense of Western studies but it is also a system that encompasses all aspects of human life in the sphere of the state and nation. In his book, Marcel Boisard considers that the universality of Islam as a religion and social system can be proven in five aspects: the metaphysical aspect, the religious aspect, the sociological aspect, the economic aspect and the political aspect. Nationalism or belief in one's own product as a faith in the Essence of God as outlined in a very strong belief, Islam is a universal ideology that cannot be equated with any ideology and religion

Quaestio Disputata: Divine Virtues and Divine Ideas of Virtues

Benjamin DeSpain has taken issue with my claim that the divine ideas according to Aquinas’s conception cannot be the objects of our moral striving, nor can they be approximated by us. I argue that he has not attended to a necessary distinction between the divine essence as single exemplar and the ideas as multiple exemplars of the varied imitability of that essence. The result is that Macrobius’s “exemplar virtues” are the divine essence; they are not divine ideas, nor are they eternal law. Approximation to these virtues is possible, but not to the ideas. I conclude with some reflections on Aquinas’s use of tradition, and on the question of his “Platonism.”

The Elder Testament: Canon Theology Trinity

The Elder Testament: Canon Theology Trinity

Trinity, Subordination, and Heresy: A Reply to Mark Edwards

In this article, I offer some analytic reflections on Mark Edward's paper, "Is Subordinationism a Heresy?" I shall discuss the desiderata for a conciliar Trinitarian theology, the divine essence, and the different notions of subordination that Edwards identifies. Then I shall consider two arguments that certain accepted, conciliar notions of subordination lead to heretical notions of subordination. Thus raising the worry that conciliar Trinitarian theology might involve some internal incoherence between the homoousios doctrine and the subordination of the Son and Holy Spirit to the Father.

PENINGKATAN TARIF HIDUP LAYAK MELALUI PRODUKTIVITAS BEKERJA PERSPEKTIF AL-QUR'AN

The main problem of humans in the process of meeting their needs lies in their ability to improve a better standard of living. This problem is more rooted in human consciousness to encourage themselves to be more productive in living life. In the context of Islamic societies, the most effective way of encouraging them to improve their standard of living is by using religious argumentations, particularly the Qur'an. The Qur'an contains a set of rules that explain how a person can enhance his quality of life. By using the al-Farmawi thematic method and the hermeneutics of liberation, this study revealed that an improvement in work ethic is needed to improve a better standard of living. The enhancement of work ethic can be actualized when humans realize their self essences and the essence of God's creation. To gain the self essence is by raising awareness that God, through his generosity, has given each person livelihood since the beginning of creation. Humans' assignment is only to obtain the livelihood in the right ways. This belief makes them not to be ambitious in working while their self essences can awaken humans to be always proportional in their work and can understand the given rules. The basis of theological liberation in the Qur'an does not only take place in one broad social community but also in every individual through awareness of the meaning of various symbols given by God. This then can lead people to a more decent level of life applied to work productivity.

Аристотелевская парадигма причастности в византийском богословии: Григорий Нисский о человеческой природе как монаде и Григорий Палама о невозможности причастности к божественной сущности

The article examines how the Aristotelian paradigm of participation works in Gregory of Nyssa’s and Gregory of Palamas’ teachings. Gregory of Nyssa uses this paradigm while developing his teaching on human nature as a monad in the treatise “To Ablabius” and relies in this regard on the “Isagoga” by Porphyry. This version of the Aristotelian paradigm of participation, which is present in Porphyry and Gregory of Nyssa, includes, first, the discourse of the participation of hypostases in their own essence, and, second, the discourse of divisibility of the participating whereas the participated remains indivisible. Gregory Palamas also uses the Aristotelian paradigm of participation in his argumentation on nonparticibility of the divine essence, and, as I suggest in the article, borrows it from Gregory of Nyssa. At the same time, Palamas transforms this discourse and associates the category of divisibility with the situation of participation as such, so that the participated appears divisible. This allows him to assert that in God the energies are participable and not the Divine essence.

Chronotope Dynamics in M. Yu. Lermontov’s Poem Alone I Set out on the Road…

In this paper, the author studies the chronotope dynamics in Lermontov’s lyric poem Alone I Set out on the Road… in order to reveal the meaning-generation processes (the so-called “semantic plot” and its ramifications) in the evolution of the lyrical character’s spiritual trajectory, who is on his “meditative philosophical journey” (O. V. Zyryanov) and gradually transforms into the lyrical subject of the poetic text. The interpretation is based on the segmentation of the chronotope system into its main components, with the description of their correlation, whose dynamics defines the position of the lyrical character and the subject of the text in their process of transformation. This aims at clarifying the multi-valency of the system of spatial and temporal elements developing according to a logic contradicting the conceptualisation of dichotomic connections and an interpretative movement in the exclusive terms of thesis — antithesis — synthesis. In Lermontov’s lyrical text, within their motif development, both the upper and the lower spatial spheres are semantically doubled (cf. the earth, the desert, the sky, heavens), while the correlations between these and other elements forming an overall global space, as a consequence of each being addressed intensively by the lyrical character/subject in his role as an active initiator (agent) of chronotopic/textual communication, outline the character’s successful conquest of the total chronotope system as a whole universe, in which spiritual omnipraesentia is achieved. Instead of a model of unification with nature or another pre-existing ideal world ready to offer itself to be acquired through life/text experience, the poem elaborates a model of creation of spirituality in such forms as the acquisition of metaphysical values of existence which are bound to the earth as the centre of primary experience. There, human creative force in cultural eternity creates forms of mediation linking the internal and the external, the lower and the upper spheres, the human and the conceptualisation of divine essence, and also direct life experience and its textual transfiguration. All of these emerge in the chronotope system of Lermontov’s poem.