Imagining a Modern Nineteenth-Century Priest: (Based on the Novel by A. Sturdza “Letters on the Offices of the Holy Order”)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the extent to which the fiction can have predictive potential in describing the religious life of the modern era and, in particular, the figure of the Orthodox priest in the Russian Empire. The focus is on the epistolary novel by Alexander Sturdza “Letters on the Offices of Holy Orders” (1840– 1841). The priest depicted by Sturdza must meet the requirements of modernity, be a “priest of the 19th century.” Moving away from the situation of estate‑based social structure, Sturdza depicts a priest who overcomes all cultural and social differences, excludes himself from the market interactions and triggers gift economy and early religious socialization of the children. All this allows him to “become the conscience of the Christians,” regardless of the social barriers separating them. The priest himself, in turn, cannot be imagined without a confessor, who allows him to withstand the stress of intense relationships in modern society. The priest image in Sturdza’s novel is significantly ahead of his time: many changes can be found in both normative narratives about the Orthodox priesthood and the social processes in Russian society. In this sense, we can say that the author’s “imagination” in this case was an artistic development of his historical anticipations that allowed him to predict the further course of development of the Russian religious life.