Christian Ideas Research Articles

BURIAL RITE OF THE OSTRIV GRAVEYARD (BY THE RESULTS OF RESCUE EXCAVATION 2017—2018). PART 2

In the continuation of the paper on a funeral rites of the Ostriv graveyard the features of burials without grave goods, burials in coffins fastened with nails, burials with buckets and the accompanying items of male burials are considered. Burials without grave goods, as well as burials in dominiums fastened with nails and burials in which buckets were placed, can be interpreted with great care as an indicator of the worldview of a community that was at a certain stage of Christianization. Regardless of Christian ideas about the equality of everyone in the afterlife, there was no imperative prohibition on burial with objects. After Christianization, individual objects took on new functions and became a part of the so-called Arma Cristi (instrument of the Lord’s Passion — tools for fight against Satan) and already in this capacity are used in the funeral rite.
 Male burial assemblages in general have much less ethnic indicators than female ones. Rather, their grave goods point not to a specific ethnic group but to a specific macro region of the origin of tradition — Scando-Baltic and Northern Rus as well as to a social focus on military subculture. This is evidenced by the presence of weapons, certain types of fibulae, details of the belt set, which have a lot of parallels just in the North of Europe and sharply dissonant with the antiquities of Southern Rus. The presence of weapons was typical for male burial assemblages of the Ostriv graveyard. The main type of weapon the battle axes can be considered of so-called IV type according to A. Kirpichnikov, most of which were placed near the right knee with the handle up but other weapons were also discovered — axes of type III according to A Kirpichnikov and type M according to Y. Peterson and lancet-shaped spear-heads. In the burials the elements of a belt set — buckles and portupey rings — were found. At the same time the absence of other details of the men’s belt set, first of all, the applique plates for status belts which have been worn according to the Orient tradition and became widespread in the Eastern and Northern Europe during the Viking Age draws attention. It is notable that living on the border with the steppe led to the appearance in the burial practice of certain objects inherent in the material culture of nomads, first of all, primarily the single mouth-piece bit.

The Initial Stage of the Establishment of the Orthodox Church in the European North-East

The Orthodox Church has played a major role in the history of many nations of the Russian state. Historians believe that the beginning of Christianization of the European North-East is dated to the second half of 14th century. Archaeological discoveries over the past 35 years have provided new data for researchers. The article deals with a collection consists of 11 Christian symbols obtained during the study of medieval settlements in the European north-east. All the artifacts have been dated to the 12–13th centuries. The publication defines the typological and chronological composition, provides analogies from the excavations of other archaeological sites in Russia. These findings indicate that the ancient population of the region was acquainted with Christian culture before the 14th century. The author suggests that Christianization of the region began together with Old Russian colonization in the early 12th century. The spread of items with Christian symbols and ideas of Christianity was associated with the inhabitants of settlements in the valleys of the Vym, Vychegda and Sysola Rivers. These settlements were founded by immigrants from the territory of Russia and became centres of population concentration.

The Urban Culture of the “Model” Christian Settlement at Abokobi, Ghana, 1854–1929

Although the built spaces created by the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society (the Basel Mission) at Abokobi, Ghana, prioritized missionary ideals, these designs also demonstrated striking similarities with existing Indigenous Gã patterns of sociospatial organization, including both the patrilineal household (weku shiã) and the neighborhood (akutso). In The Urban Culture of the “Model” Christian Settlement at Abokobi, Ghana, 1854–1929, E. Sasu Kwame Sewordor describes how, beginning in the late nineteenth century, the members of an emerging Gã middle class projected and redefined Gã Christian ideas of “modernity” through architectural forms that enabled them to negotiate and sometimes contest the Basel Mission’s domination of the built environment in Abokobi. Drawing on material and archival evidence as well as oral testimony, Sewordor explores how Abokobi converts to Christianity reconfigured Indigenous domestic spaces, spatial practices, and cosmological notions to accommodate and also transform the religious and cultural framework imposed by the Basel Mission.

Русская христианская лексика духовно-нравственного содержания: краткий словарь (лексикографический проект)

The study aims to create a project of a dictionary of the Russian Christian vocabulary of spiritual and moral content, in which language units denoting the main Christian ideas will be presented. The study is novel in that it is the first in Russian philology to raise the question about the need to develop a dictionary of a special group of lexical units belonging to the corpus of the Orthodox vocabulary of spiritual and moral content, i.e. words denoting Christian ideas; to consider the features of creating a dictionary entry containing such words, their interpretation and usage examples. As a result, it has been proved that the dominant Christian ideas which predetermine the realisation of others are the ideas of salvation, deification and humility and it is necessary to use the theological-linguistic method while working on the dictionary of the Russian Christian vocabulary of spiritual and moral content.

THE MOTIF OF “NOBLE ROBBERY” IN SHEVCHENKO’S STORY “THE CONVICT” IN COMPARISON WITH THE NOVELLA “MICHAEL KOHLHAAS” BY HEINRICH VON KLEIST AND THE NOVEL “JEAN SBOGAR” BY CHARLES NODIER

The paper develops comparative studies of Shevchenko’s story “The Convict” (“Varnak”) in a typological series with Western European works about the ‘noble robber’, namely in comparison with the novella “Michael Kohlhaas” by Heinrich von Kleist and the novel “Jean Sbogar” by Charles Nodier. Tere is no mention of these writers in Shevchenko‘s heritage; neither of the works had been translated into Russian during his lifetime, although he could get limited information about the authors from literary periodicals of the time. Accordingly, a comparative-typological approach is used in the analysis of texts. Several coincidences and parallels have been traced, mainly due to the elaboration of traditional robbery themes in the works.
 At the same time, the comparison of the story with other works made it possible to illustrate the degree of originality in Shevchenko‘s interpretation of the image of the ‘noble robber’ in the middle of the 19th century. The story “The Convict” is permeated by Christian ideas of forgiveness and redemption, uncharacteristic for Kleist and Nodier. In addition, Kyrylo does not fit entirely into the established scheme of the ‘noble robber’, although the work follows the main structural elements of such a story. In this work, Shevchenko distanced himself from the common robber novels, well known to him and his readers. Feeling, probably, certain obsolescence of the robbery literary tradition, he used it as a material for elaborating the character of the serf intellectual, and combined it, in turn, with his crosscutting theme of seducing a slave girl. The narrator exposed the literary motive of the ‘noble robbery’ subordinating it to the leading theme of the repentant sinner. Against the back-ground of Kleist’s and Nodier’s works, Shevchenko’s slightly belated story is characterized by its natural rootedness in the social circumstances of the contemporary Russian Empire and the life of the Ukrainian countryside, the unpretentious style of the depicted episodes, and a radically different outcome of the conflict.

Феномен странничества и его отражение в русской философии конца ХIХ – начала ХХ века

The study is devoted to the phenomenon of wandering, which was vividly reflected in Russian philosophical thought of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The phenomenon of wandering in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. realized as the ultimate expression of Russian philosophy, through its saturation and continuity with Christian (Gospel) ideas, heard as a secret thrill of the world. In the proposed article, the spiritual wandering of Russian philosophy is defined as a mode of self-realization. Scientific novelty is characterized by the fact that the spiritual pilgrimage of Russian philosophy is seen as a sharpness of perception of Christian commandments, an arrow that took off and pierced into the space of Russian culture. As a result, we can conclude that the spiritual wandering of Russian philosophy is, rather, the search for that very arrow. Wandering was perceived and picked up by the lower classes, through them it rushed vertically upwards to the elite of Russian culture, where it took shape in the spiritual search for Russian philosophy.

The Buddha's Shadow and God's Flesh: Image and Anti-Image in Huiyuan and Julian of Norwich

This essay compares the ideology of visualization of the late fourth-century Chinese Buddhist monk Huiyuan 慧遠 (334–417) and the late fourteenth-century English Christian mystic Julian of Norwich (1342–1430). Specifically, it compares how the two authors deal with the limits and possibilities of visualization in understanding the relationship between the transcendent and the immanent. Although Huiyuan and Julian lived a thousand years apart, their articulations of the imagistic representation of the transcendent reveal synchronic connections between Buddhist and Christian ideas about the absolute presence and necessary absence of the divine. Both religious thinkers use details related to the skin and to textiles when they address the representation of the "ineffable." The ways they treat the boundaries between skin and textiles expose fundamental differences between the Trinity of the Christian God and the Buddha's three bodies (the Trikāya), but the two religious writers reflect on a similar oscillation between the active generation and passive reception of mental images.

Interpreting the Christian Category of Patience in M. Elizarov’s Novel “The Librarian”

Purpose. The aim of the article is to investigate the author's interpretation of “patience” concept, other key categories and images of Christianity in M. Elizarov’s novel “The Librarian”.Results. The plot of “The Librarian” is based on the myth “USSR, the golden age” and on the complex of Christian ideas. It is most productive to consider “The Librarian” within the framework of the myth-making tendency, when the author continues to cultivate a myth created in a fictional work in his interviews and journalism. The leading artistic task of the author is an attempt to update the Christian doctrine through a synthesis with communist ideology. In the novel, the patience category is endowed with both Christian meanings (“the consolation of the suffering”) and Soviet militaristic sense. M. Elizarov enters into a dialogue with the mass consciousness since it becomes the main consumer of any myth, including the myth created by the author of “The Librarian”. In the novel, the contexts of archaic myth, folklore and criminal subculture, the interest in which is typical for modern mass society, arise in the patience motive’s implementation. The author's understanding of patience, that is close to the Christian canon, is found in Alexei Vyazintsev’s interpretation of the soteriological mission. The motive of the alone hero’s reading of “The Incessant Psalter” in an underground bunker appeals to schema practice. However, in reality, Elizarov creates an unconscious schema practice parody.Conclusion. In M. Elizarov’s novel “The Librarian”, the ideas about the Christian feat of patience are passed through the prism of mass consciousness, that leads to literalization, simplification and emasculation of highly spiritual Christian meanings.

The World My Wilderness and the Possibility of Forgiveness: War, Guilt, Atonement

ABSTRACT In Rose Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness (1950), forgiveness affords possibilities to redeem personal and national guilt. Can humankind be forgiven for atrocities perpetrated during the Second Word War, and if so, by whom? Whereas forgiveness can undo the predicament of irreversibility by bringing about reconciliation and an improved future for individuals and communities, those outcomes never come to pass in this novel. Refusal to acknowledge guilt thwarts the likelihood that the future of Europe will differ from the past. Critics usually dismiss Macaulay’s religious thinking as irrelevant, but she freely adapts Christian ideas about atonement and forgiveness to this narrative about guilt. This essay draws upon a wide range of Macaulay’s fictional and critical works, such as Some Religious Elements in English Literature, The Towers of Trebizond, essays about Jonathan Swift and “Religious Writing,” and her biography of John Milton, to argue that wartime guilt and forgiveness regulate midcentury novelistic representation.

Asceticism and embodiment: female bodies, sexuality, and religious experiences in contemporary Russian women’s writing

ABSTRACT This article examines the religious turn that has developed since 2000 in Russian women’s writing, featuring strong female protagonists who seek spiritual enlightenment or enrichment through asceticism, usually in marginal spaces. The author focuses on Tat′iana Mazepina’s travelogue, “Puteshestvie v storonu raia” (“Traveling to Paradise,” 2012) and Elena Koliadina’s novel Tsvetochnyi krest (The Flower Cross, 2011), two very dissimilar works by authors from different generations that both explicitly engage with aspects of Russian Orthodoxy. In these works, the female protagonists achieve a moment of transcendence by leaving behind their established lives and giving up physical comforts and sexual pleasure: one by following the female pilgrim trope, the other by becoming a holy fool and, later, a hermit. In this way, identity-formation and meaning-creation for these protagonists remain within a larger Orthodox community and cosmology, but outside the direct jurisdiction of the Church. Consequently, the protagonists do not perceive their behaviour as rebelling against or subverting traditional Christian ideas about gender roles and sexuality. Rather, their experiences of spirituality are presented as an alternative, parallel way of being, modelled after established narratives of female ascetics, in opposition to the ultrasexualized secular image of femininity prevalent in Russian popular culture.

АРТЕФАКТЫ С ХРИСТИАНСКОЙ СИМВОЛИКОЙ. НАЧАЛЬНЫЙ ЭТАП ХРИСТИАНИЗАЦИИ ЕВРОПЕЙСКОГО СЕВЕРО-ВОСТОКА

The article deals with the collection of artifacts (jewelry, household items) in the form of Christian symbols or with images of Christian symbols obtained during the study of archaeological sites of the Middle Ages in the Euro-pean North-East. All items date back to the 12thand13thcenturies and are kept in the funds of the Museum of Ar-chaeology of the Komi Scientific Center ILLH. The publication defines the typological and chronological composi-tion of the collection of 38 items, and provides analogies with the excavations in the European northeast and other archaeological sites of Russia.The artifacts are of great scientific interest for the study of historical and cultural pro-cesses that took place in the north and north-east of Europe at the beginning of the 2ndmillennium AD.The initial stage of distribution of products with Christian symbols can be divided into two sub-stages: 1. First half of the 12th century. Finds of coin-shaped pendants with the image of a cross. 2. Second half of the 12th–early 14thcentury. Var-ious types of pendants with images of a cross, household items with images of crosses. Wearable crosses and icons appear. The finds of these artifacts indicate the familiarity of the population with the traditions of Christianity. These archaeological finds suggest the spread of Christian ideas to the European North-East at an earlier time –dating back to the 12thand 13thcenturies. The Christianization of the region (as a historical process) begins with the Old Russian colonization at the beginning of the 12thcentury. The finds of objects of Christian worship testify to the familiarity of the population with Christian culture, and indicate contacts with the territory for which this culturewas characteristic. The distribution of the objects with Christian symbols and ideas of Christianity was associated with the inhabitants of large settlements founded by settlers from the territory of Russia.

Origen i simvolizam u Liturgiji - učenje znamenitog Aleksandrijca o crkvenoj umetnosti

The present paper aims to examine the relation between Liturgy as a service which is imbued with symbolism (and all kinds of art) and one typically spiritual view of communion with God. How could we reconcile Christian spirituality and liturgical symbolism? What is the view of Origen about liturgical symbolism? There are some opinions in academic research connecting Origen with iconoclastic beliefs in the Church. According to these opinions, Origen's concept of absolutely incorporeal God and the irreconcilable relation between spiritual and physical substances had influence on the repudiation of icons in Church in later times. In general, Origen's concept of God, human being and salvation formed one specific context for the theological understanding of human salvation and communion with God. With regard to this presumption, we will try to analyze it through the following steps. At first, we try to define the concept of body and material reality in Origen's ontology, as well as to contrast it to soul and spirit, which are largely emphasized in all his exegetical and other reflections. The second step is to try to reconstruct insights of Origen about symbols and icons in Liturgy. There is no complete exposition on this topic in his writings, but implicitly there is a possibility to investigate his teaching about icon and symbols. Here we take into consideration the idea of Christ as the icon of the invisible Father. Further, Origen mentions the concept of icon when he speaks about the difference between corporeal and spiritual man.

Christian motives in the philosophical work of Merab Mamardashvili

This article presents a conceptualization of the main themes of Merab Mamardashvili’s philosophy: the phenomenon of thinking and consciousness, the role of philosophy in the formation of a person’s personality, the problem of “effort”, and the philosophical concept of time. The hypothesis of the article is that this issue is based on an implicit “religious soteriology”, which is manifested by Mamardashvili in his special understanding of the role and tasks of philosophy in culture. In this context, the traditional themes of Mamardashvili’s work receive a new, original reading. The topic of “effort” is approaching the understanding of faith as a religious act, and philosophy itself becomes a secular version of the Christian religion, called upon through thinking to realize the “salvation” of man and the highest justification of culture. This view also makes it possible to explain Mamardashvili’s rejection of any “national” traditions of philosophizing, since, apparently, in his criticism of nationalism he relies precisely on Christian ideas about the unity of Christian humanity and European culture. Attention to these aspects of Mamardashvili’s philosophy clarifies and gives additional meaning to many of the classic plots of his philosophy and allows redefining the basic concepts anew.

Old Norse Rite Blótweitzla

A serious problem in the study of the cultural characteristics of archaic Scandinavia is the verification of the sources. The main questions that arise: to which extent pagan ritual practices continued to exist after the beginning of mass Christianization, and what Christian ideas were extrapolated by later sources to the pre-Christian era. One of the major rituals mentioned in the sources – the feast of sacrificial blood, which was a crucial element of the structures of everyday life in pagan society, seems to be very important. A sufficiently detailed description of the ritual in the sources allows us to draw a number of conclusions about its role in the life of the ancient Scandinavians. The correspondence between the songs of the “Elder Edda” and the ancestral and royal sagas in the designation of objects of worship and their functions, as well as the preservation, even after the baptism of Iceland, of the traditional formula of the legal oath, which was originally given on the sacred ring of the godi, and after 1000 – on The Bibles, and the ancient formula of the agrarian cult (“for a harvest year and peace”) in a similar ritual of drinking beer in Norway at Christmas, according to Gulathing, with a high degree of probability confirms the historicity of ancient Icelandic information about a pre-Christian temple and a feast of sacrificial blood – blotweizl. In a broader context, it provides additional confirmation of the historicism of Icelandic sources and their extraordinary value for the process of reconstruction of the way of life in archaic Scandinavia.

ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЯ БЭЙ ЦУНЯ КАК ПРОЯВЛЕНИЕ ФЕНОМЕНА КУЛЬТУРНОГО ХРИСТИАНСТВА В СОВРЕМЕННОМ КИТАЕ

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of cultural Christianity in modern China. This phenomenon suggests the desire to explain the norms and values of Christianity to the Chinese audience through the prism of the traditional foundations of Chinese culture. Examples of cultural Christianity include Chinese intelligentsia's fascination with the history and philosophy of Christianity; Chinese masters' creating Christian images and scenes of the Virgin Mary, the Nativity, etc. in the traditional Chinese guohua style; Chinese deltiology with pictures of famous temples in Harbin; the folklore heritage of Harbin residents, etc. Sharing the idea of the existence of cultural Christianity phenomenon, the authors analyze the works of the contemporary Chinese writer Bei Cun. After 1992, when he converted to Christianity, a key transformation took place in his work. Bei Cun strives to convey to the Chinese audience the Christian categories of sin, redemption, guilt, forgiveness, love, etc. The main theme of the novel I Have a Covenant with God comes down to the Christian concept that all people are born sinful and hope for redemption, and that confession of sin and repentance are the basis for forgiveness. According to the plot, the first chapters of the novel tell us that the main character, Chen Busen, has fallen into the abyss of sin. Being abandoned by his parents, he becomes a criminal and a murderer. In the final chapters, Chen Busen's soul finds redemption through comprehension, sincere repentance, and even love for the victim's relatives. Thus, by describing the contemporary realities of Chinese society in his works, Bei Cun introduces Christian ideas and values into the Chinese picture of the world and tries to bring Christianity and Chinese culture together.

The doctrine of kenosis as the basis of Buddhist-Christian dialogue in the works of the philosophers of the Kyoto school

The article is devoted to the consideration of one of the episodes of the Buddhist-Christian dialogue, which was actively held in the last decades of the 20th century. The immediate cause of the discussion was the work of the Japanese thinker Abe Masao (1915–2006) “Kenotic God and Dynamic Sunyata”, where Abe compared the Buddhist concept of emptiness and the Christian idea of kenosis, “the self-emptying of God”. Abe Masao was one of the representatives of the Kyoto School of Philosophy, which existed in Japan since the beginning of the 20th century, and the idea of comparing the concepts of emptiness and kenosis was also considered by other members of this philosophical community. The philosophers of the Kyoto School developed methods of interpreting kenosis using the paradoxical Mahayana logic of “simultaneous identification and differentiation” (soku-hi). This logic can be described by the formulas: “A is not A, and therefore A” or “A is if and only if A is not A”. The first paradoxical logic of soku-hi was formulated by D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966). Nishida Kitaro (1870–1945), the founder of the Kyoto School of Philosophy, and his followers used this idea in comparative studies of the basic concepts of Buddhism and Christianity. In conclusion, one of the ways of perception of Christianity by Japanese thinkers through the prism of Buddhist philosophical approaches is shown.

My “Anti-Bakhtin”: (on the Issue of Interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s Story “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”)

The article demonstrates in detail the numerous inaccuracies allowed by Mikhail M. Bakhtin in his interpretation of Dostoevsky’s “fantastic story”. The stress on the role of the “menippea” and consequently on the ambivalence of “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” makes him overlook the main import of the story. The meaning of the story might be grasped only by taking into account Dostoevsky’s artistic use of a set of Christian ideas. Striving – though rather inaccurately – to account for auto-intertextuality of “The Dream” in relation to many other previous and subsequent works of Dostoevsky, Bakhtin fails to recognize the specifically Dostoevskian formulation of the theme. And, accordingly, he skips the motives of the ruinous universal “indifference” (Russ. “ravnodushiye”), the impossibility of preserving the “integrity” (Russ. “tselostnost’”) of consciousness in the modern world and all the consequent imperfections of man. Meanwhile, a detailed tracing of the inner affinity of Zosima, Alyosha and even Ivan with the “ridiculous man” makes it possible to point out some recurring motives and, accordingly, the key stages of formation of the late Dostoevsky’s concept of the renewal of the world and the techniques of its artistic embodiment. The work also shows how the shortcomings of the Bakhtinian approach to Dostoevsky occasionally surface in modern Dostoevsky studies impacting the interpretation of “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”.

«ДНЕВНИК ИНОРОДЧЕСКОГО МИССИОНЕРА»: ЖИЗНЬ ВОCПИТАННИКОВ КАСЛИНСКОГО БАШКИРСКОГО ПРИЮТА В ЗАПИСКАХ ПРАВОСЛАВНОГО КЛИРИКА

The article analyzes educational activities of the Kasli Bashkir Orphanage, established in 1891 by the Ekaterinburg Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society. The source for the analysis was the “Diary of an inorodtsy missionary”, published in 1911–1913 in the diocesan newspaper. The diary’s author is Archpriest Alexander Stepanovich Miropolsky, who was educated at the missionary department of the Kazan Theological Academy. On the basis of the priest’s diary, the strategy of his educational and missionary activity is determined. Miropolsky, like many other missionaries, was confident in the beneficial power of Christian ideas, the truth of which he tried to convey to the Orphanage inmates. In polemical conversations with Bashkir children, he tried to refute the notion that had developed in the Muslim environment about Christianity as superstition and polytheism and to prove the inconsistency of Islam. The results of Miropolsky’s polemical missionary work among the pupils were minor. His diary tells of only one case of the conversion of a Bashkir teenager to Christianity. It is revealed that the Orthodox clergy of the Ekaterinburg diocese pursued a very cautious policy towards the Muslims of the region. Despite the general line of Russification and Christianization of non-Russian peoples and the sharpness of polemical rhetoric, no coercive actions were allowed to convert Bashkir children to Orthodoxy. The Kasli Bashkir Orphanage can be attributed to the acculturation model of an educational institution. Its inmates were introduced to Russian culture, preserving the identity and faith of their fathers.

Pedro and Pita Built Peter Priesthood's Mansion and Now They Work the Grounds: Whose Masc Does “the Lamanite” Wear?

Pedro and Pita Built Peter Priesthood's Mansion and Now They Work the Grounds: Whose <i>Masc</i> Does “the Lamanite” Wear?

Художественное воплощение принципов христианского религиозного учения унитариев в творчестве Элизабет Гаскелл

The paper deals with the origins and major principles of the Unitarian religion that began to spread in Great Britain in the 18th century. The author aims to reveal the impact of the ethics of this Non-conformist (Dissent) Christian religious thought on the literary works of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865), whose family background was largely Unitarian. The study shows the way that ethical principles of the Unitarian doctrine influence the problem-theme facet of her novels, which is evident in the artistic interpretation of the idea of strengthening the role of women in the Victorian society, in the author’s new approach to the solution to ‘the fallen woman’ problem, based on the possibility to atone for the sin through the service to the good of people and maternal love. The article focuses on the artistic depiction of the evil nature of a lie, the ideas of pacifism, religious tolerance, social justice, and resolution of social problems on the basis of the Christian idea of mutual dependence of humans, as presented in the novels written by Gaskell. The characters of her works, being new for Victorian literature, are also developed on the moral principles of Unitarianism. They are a socially active young woman from the middle class whose efforts are aimed at the resolution of the social conflict and a church minister (a dissenter) suffering from religious or moral doubts. The latter circumstance determines the shift from the depiction of the external social conflict to the internal one, which results in the in-depth psychological insight into the character in Gaskell’s narration. Particular attention is also given to the artistic interpretation of the key Unitarian idea of moral development and perfection of humans and continuous social progress in the novels Ruth (1853), North and South (1855), Sylvia’s Lovers (1863).