2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Optina Pustyn' and Studies of Spiritual Culture in Russia
| Project/Area Number |
11610547
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
その他の外国語・外国文学
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| Research Institution | Kobe City University of Foreign Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
SHIMIZU Toshiyuki Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Associate Professor, 外国語学部, 助教授 (90305673)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2002
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| Keywords | Russian Orthodox Church / Starchestvo / Optina Pustyn / Paisii Velichkovsky / Ivan Kireevsky / Work of mind / Asceticism / Monasticism |
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| Research Abstract |
This work showed, that Russian monasticism or spirituality are based on Slavic translation of "Filokalia"- paragon of monasticism introduced from Athos in Greek, "Work of wisdom" - a method of monastic prayer and "Starchestvo" - eldership system as the education of monks, and these elements are accepted as a traditional spiritual training by Russian Orthodox Church. But in respect of how they ate reflected in secular culture, we went no further than recognizing enough signs in the life of Ivan Kireevsky, famous Russian slavophile thinker. The followings are same points concluded in already published essays on this theme.
1) A progress of Russian monasticism has started from the introduction of Filokalia" - the second Holy Writ only after the Bible. This monastical paragon, which was translated by Paisii Velichkovsky and had a wide circulation in Russia, gave a definitive course to the stagnated monasticism after the period of Peter the Great
2) The substance of prayer as a basis of monasticism in the Orthodox Church was called "Work of Wisdom" based on dogmas of the Eastern St. Fathers, and had a quite original technique. This prayer is a type of monasticism, which came from Byzantine Hesychasm. We pointed out that the it had been mixed with a world view of "Narod" after its introduction to Russia and formed a unique cosmology of a man and the God.
3) It was traced, that Ivan Kireevsky, the founder of Slavophilism in Russia, changed his major belief from Westernism to the Orthodox thought, based on some archives about spiritual exchanges with his wife Nataria and with starets Makarii, her spiritual father.
4) The concept of "Starchestvo" in Orthodox Church was summarized by using writings of St. Fathers and Russian starlets, and the history of "Starchestvo" in Russia, inherited by pupils of Paisii Velichkovsky, and the circumstances of its introduction to Optina Pustyn in the 19th century were traced.
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