In no other
Churches are there so many
repetitions, in no other so many
symbols, as in the Orthodox Church.
The whole worship is a continual
repetition for thousands of years.
In Byzantium was fixed the image of
Christ, His mission, His worship.
The whole system of belief and
worship came, fixed and
accomplished, over to us Slavs. To
keep that system intact forever was
the first duty taught us by those
who brought it. Its tendency was to
impress the image of Christ in the
imagination and heart of the
generations as much as possible and
always in the same way.
We are living in
a world of evil; Christ is leader of
the struggle against this evil. Men
lived thousands of years wavering
between good and evil, worshiping
good and evil. Now they must be for
good. They are educated and
accustomed to weighing things for
themselves. Therefore it has become
necessary to ask them every day,
every hour even, to confess that
they are with Christ. They must
repeat it again and again, in
prayers, in signs, in symbols, until
it becomes a new custom, a new
education, a new blood and spirit, a
new man, a new earth. They must be
reminded in every place and at all
times that they are soldiers of
Christ and not of Perun. Churches,
shrines, chapels, icons, candles,
processions, priests, bells,
monasteries, travelling preachers,
every day’s saints, fast seasons —
everything is the repetition of the
same idea, namely, that Christ is
the ruler of life and we are His
followers. Christ must be expressed
everywhere, indoors and outdoors.
Many Englishmen
have remarked that the Bible is read
very seldom in the home in Russia
and Serbia. That is true. People
read the Bible more in symbols,
pictures and signs, in music and
prayers, than in the Book. Our
religion is not a book religion, not
even a learned religion. It is a
dramatic mystery. The Bible contains
the words, but in this dramatic
mystery there is something higher
and deeper than words. Slav
Christianity is something greater
than the Bible. Looking at an icon,
a Russian mujik perceives the Bible
incarnated in a saint’s life-drama.
Mystery of sin, mystery of
atonement, mystery of heroic
suffering, mystery of the daily
presence of Christ among us in holy
wine, in holy bread, in holy water,
in holy word, in holy deed, in every
sanctified substance, even in matter
as in spirit, mystery of communion
of sins and of virtues — all are
recorded once in the Bible, and all
are recorded and repeated also in
our daily life — that is what we
call our Slav Orthodoxy. We take the
mystic outlines of the Bible and do
not care about the details. In those
mystic outlines we put our daily
life, with its details of sins and
sufferings. We conceive the
Christian religion neither so
juristic as the Roman Catholics, nor
so scientific as the Protestants,
nor even so reasonable and practical
as the Anglicans, but we conceive it
rather as dramatic.
From The
Religious Spirit of the Slavs
(1916)
In no other
Churches are there so many
repetitions, in no other so many
symbols, as in the Orthodox Church.
The whole worship is a continual
repetition for thousands of years.
In Byzantium was fixed the image of
Christ, His mission, His worship.
The whole system of belief and
worship came, fixed and
accomplished, over to us Slavs. To
keep that system intact forever was
the first duty taught us by those
who brought it. Its tendency was to
impress the image of Christ in the
imagination and heart of the
generations as much as possible and
always in the same way.
We are living in
a world of evil; Christ is leader of
the struggle against this evil. Men
lived thousands of years wavering
between good and evil, worshiping
good and evil. Now they must be for
good. They are educated and
accustomed to weighing things for
themselves. Therefore it has become
necessary to ask them every day,
every hour even, to confess that
they are with Christ. They must
repeat it again and again, in
prayers, in signs, in symbols, until
it becomes a new custom, a new
education, a new blood and spirit, a
new man, a new earth. They must be
reminded in every place and at all
times that they are soldiers of
Christ and not of Perun. Churches,
shrines, chapels, icons, candles,
processions, priests, bells,
monasteries, travelling preachers,
every day’s saints, fast seasons —
everything is the repetition of the
same idea, namely, that Christ is
the ruler of life and we are His
followers. Christ must be expressed
everywhere, indoors and outdoors.
Many Englishmen
have remarked that the Bible is read
very seldom in the home in Russia
and Serbia. That is true. People
read the Bible more in symbols,
pictures and signs, in music and
prayers, than in the Book. Our
religion is not a book religion, not
even a learned religion. It is a
dramatic mystery. The Bible contains
the words, but in this dramatic
mystery there is something higher
and deeper than words. Slav
Christianity is something greater
than the Bible. Looking at an icon,
a Russian mujik perceives the Bible
incarnated in a saint’s life-drama.
Mystery of sin, mystery of
atonement, mystery of heroic
suffering, mystery of the daily
presence of Christ among us in holy
wine, in holy bread, in holy water,
in holy word, in holy deed, in every
sanctified substance, even in matter
as in spirit, mystery of communion
of sins and of virtues — all are
recorded once in the Bible, and all
are recorded and repeated also in
our daily life — that is what we
call our Slav Orthodoxy. We take the
mystic outlines of the Bible and do
not care about the details. In those
mystic outlines we put our daily
life, with its details of sins and
sufferings. We conceive the
Christian religion neither so
juristic as the Roman Catholics, nor
so scientific as the Protestants,
nor even so reasonable and practical
as the Anglicans, but we conceive it
rather as dramatic.
From The
Religious Spirit of the Slavs
(1916)
