We are scorched by unbelief and dried up. Psychology of personality rebirth

“Our Century” Fyodor Tyutchev

It is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days,
And the man is desperately sad...
He is rushing towards the light from the shadows of the night
And, having found the light, he grumbles and rebels.

We are scorched by unbelief and dried up,
Today he endures the unbearable...
And he realizes his death,
And he longs for faith... but doesn’t ask for it...

Will not say forever, with prayer and tears,
No matter how he grieves in front of a closed door:
“Let me in! - I believe, my God!
Come to the aid of my unbelief!..”

Analysis of Tyutchev’s poem “Our Century”

Every man experiences a midlife crisis differently. However, if we're talking about about poets, then this state of internal disharmony is certainly reflected in poetry. Dissatisfaction with oneself and the world around us, irritability and attempts to find the meaning of life - similar motives are found in the works of many Russian writers. Among them is Fyodor Tyutchev, a romantic and philosopher who early years often looked for answers to the question of why a person comes into this world, and how he should go his way.

In 1851, he published the poem “Our Century,” in which he discusses the topic of morality modern society. A mature 48 year old man who has been through many life trials, comes to the conclusion that “it is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days.” This phrase can also be regarded as the poet’s personal response to numerous reproaches against him. The thing is that at that time the affair between Tyutchev and Elena Denisyeva, a young lady from a noble and wealthy family, had already been made public, after which it broke out loud scandal. Anticipating reproaches against himself, the poet points out that these relationships are dictated not by a thirst for carnal pleasures, but by high and pure feelings, which, unfortunately, for many of his contemporaries remain incomprehensible and unattainable.

It is for this reason that the author is convinced that “man is desperately yearning” because he is deprived of some kind of spiritual foundation. For some, it lies in communication with a woman, for others – in communication with God. However, in both cases, people are driven by the two most important feelings - faith and love. It is precisely these, according to Fyodor Tyutchev, that his contemporaries lack, many of whom realize that their lives are empty and worthless. Internal protests give rise to absurd and sometimes inexplicable actions, but few people, according to the author, have the courage and strength to turn to the Lord for help. Modern man, as the poet believes, “thirsts for faith... but he does not ask for it.” And this is not due to natural stubbornness, but to a lack of understanding of the simple truth that any of us must believe in at least something. Lack of faith, according to Tyutchev, creates chaos in thoughts and souls, makes a person doubt his abilities and often pushes him onto the wrong path, from which it is sometimes impossible to leave. However, in order to avoid such internal contradictions, you just need to let God into your heart, feel his care and love, which, according to the poet, are the guiding stars in the life of every person.

O. Andrey Tkachev o spiritual state our society, about the fight against the dark world of unbelief in ourselves and about the bright world of faith, which fights the darkness in ourselves. Modernity is characterized by spiritual corruption: modern man sins out of curiosity, sins out of self-hatred. “It is not the flesh, but the Spirit that has been corrupted in our days. And man is desperately yearning,” are Tyutchev’s brilliant lines. A corrupt spirit corrupts the flesh. Man is a smart creature, he needs a smart program. When the Spirit is corrupted, a person is seized by mortal melancholy. Modern man, who has everything that medieval kings did not have, often does not want to live. “He strives for the light from the shadows of the night, but having found the light, he grumbles and rebels.” Christ - the Light of truth - came into the world. It would seem, go to him with “cheerful feet”! But it is difficult to lead a person to Christ: opening the doors of the heart to Christ is a great mystery and hard work. A lost person often does not want to go to Christ. He does not want to repent, humble himself, or admit his sins. As soon as the source of Light approaches a person, he, like bat, hides in a corner. Often, before coming to Christ, he checks all the dry wells, tries out all the false beacons - sects, esoteric practices, profane teachings, and only then, if he remains alive, turns his gaze to Christ. “And he is aware of his destruction, and thirsts for faith, but does not ask for it.” A man wanders through the desert of unbelief. He experiences, endures the experience of the desert. Sultry desert. "Under Satan's Sun" Hell is an aggressive reality, which is crowded in the traditional localization zone, and hell is fighting for new territories. Man is very deep, terribly deep, he is a mystery. “People endure the unbearable,” living in the sultry desert of passions. Seek, knock, ask and you will find! Lord, open to us! Believers should take heartfelt concern for those who live and die next to us, and go into the abyss of hell. Everyone's soul should ache for someone! The thought must expand and the heart must expand! Nearby are those who walk along the edge! We must set ourselves a pressing task - missionary work! John of Kronstadt wanted to preach in Japan! But what kind of Japan is there - here in Russia there are beggars, drinkers, the sick, the suffering, prostitutes, drug addicts. All of Indo-China is here. We must set ourselves great goals! You can approach Christ through Beauty, Thought, Wisdom, Holiness, obedience - through everything. As soon as the task is set and voiced, it begins to be fulfilled! The men must be returned to the temple! We ask for faith, we knock and seek! We pray for complete and whole faith. We must all be in a state of radical struggle. The truth is not completely entrusted to one person, the truth is entrusted to the Church, which is like the ark of the covenant. Faith is a gift that is given to the Church. Christians should fight in the Spirit. And victory must be in the Spirit. We need to multiply the Light!

And the man is desperately sad...

He is rushing towards the light from the shadows of the night

And, having found the light, he grumbles and rebels.

We are scorched by unbelief and dried up,

Today he endures the unbearable...

And he realizes his death,

He longs for faith... but doesn't ask for it...

Will not say forever, with prayer and tears,

No matter how he grieves in front of a closed door:

“Let me in! - I believe, my God!

Come to the aid of my unbelief!..”

F. I. Tyutchev

PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY REVIVAL

And a wise spherical building
It will outlast nations and centuries.
O. Mandelstam

REVIVAL ELEMENT

O. Mandelstam I really disliked and was afraid of the word “development”. IN " Travel to Armenia“he wrote: “Boring, bearded development.” Nadezhda Mandelstam, clarifying this position of her husband, writes that he “was afraid of this word because it was combined with the concept of progress” 1.

And the point is not only that the word progress evokes, at best, condescension in any believer. The point is also that when we talk about dynamics mental processes- attention, sensation, memory, then here, apparently, it is normal and appropriate to talk about development. But when applied to personality, the concept of “development” formalizes, generalizes and emasculates the depth and mystery of the inner personal growth or, on the contrary, falling.

V. Nepomnyashchy writes: “Pushkin resolves this problem artistically. His gaze is not focused on “development” in the sense of “progress,” but on the plan; what is given in the plan does not “change,” does not “progress,” does not “improve,” but opens ("revelation")... The wheel is stable, although it moves." 2 If we are talking about ontogenesis, then in this case, in my opinion, we could talk about education, the maturation of personality.

MAKING A COVENANT WITH GOD

It makes sense to talk about rebirth when a person experiences some kind of existential conflict with himself, with God, with the world. This, as they say, “spiritual tightness” often defies reflection at all. God, the world, myself are generally indistinguishable. They just say: “the soul hurts.” This is well expressed by the poet.

The sky is dim, with a strange glow,
Worldwide, foggy pain.

The feeling that you are not at home yourself is a phenomenon of the Gospel prodigal son, who left something cherished, infinitely his own, to a “far away country.” In addition, a living person, being in the state described above, seeks, cannot help but seek (!), a way out, a way. In these searches, she willingly or unwillingly expands her semantic field. The crisis is in many ways a blessing. For suffering loosens the hard, graceless soil of the soul. But expanding the semantic space is not at all a step towards revival. And here it is possible to escape from oneself through (so to speak) the “back door” of the personality. There are many people known who have escaped from suffering and, through subtle inner passages known only to them, have transferred and sublimated the suffering into despondency, into constant but mild melancholy. And if a sincere thirst for Truth is not preserved in suffering, then gradually and not suddenly despondency begins to possess the soul. Skepticism, vital melancholy, cynicism and despair are the stages of moral decline in the emotional-volitional and spiritual structure of the individual.

Dejection is not a clinical condition. Against! Many of our contemporaries find themselves in this state today. In this state, they get married, defend dissertations, get divorced, try to raise their children, etc. We can say that this is a moral and psychological state. When things become completely unbearable, each despondent person knows what to do: one drinks, another jogs, a third writes, a fourth implements the ancient principle: “cherche la femme,” etc. and so on. M. K. Mamardashvili wrote that a person, in order to escape from himself, is ready to strengthen himself in a state of “stubborn cunning, ready to do anything, just not to set himself in motion and not to question himself.” 3

Apparently, here we are talking about the most important, most important fact of the internal, invisible biography of the soul - the conclusion or non-conclusion of a covenant with God. Below we will talk about the mysticism of direct speech. But now it is appropriate to talk about the reality of some dialogue with God, where a person either rejects his Creator and God, or (not without internal struggle) enters into an agreement. It seems that all people go through this fact of spiritual self-determination, even those who have been traditionally raised in God since childhood. The fact of realizing their faith is realized no less dramatically among them than among neophytes.

The soul itself mysteriously knows the meaning and quality of this call of God and knows how it disposed of this call.

ABOUT THE SERMON

Any preacher must, first of all, overcome the internal barriers within himself that the modern multifaceted world creates on the path to God; and this overcoming does not consist in angry words to the world (although it lies in evil), but in the birth in the soul of the preacher himself of that new man created according to God, in whom, according to the Apostle Paul, every Christian, and first of all, must put on shepherd. Then, having gone through temptations, you can help those who are tempted.

To preach Christ means to be everything to everyone, i.e. know and feel and comprehend the measure of spirituality and receptivity of the most different people standing in the temple in this moment. We must ask the Apostle Paul and St. John Chrysostom for this gift, so that, on the one hand, we do not give “solid food” to babies, and on the other, we do not indulge the sinful infirmities of those listening. Such is the narrow gate of preaching. It is useful for the modern preacher, in today's language, to feel like a mine detector, sending out radio waves and waiting for the signals to return.

A sermon is a dialogue: one speaks about Christ, while others not only listen to the word, but respond internally. The dialogue is always incomplete, you want to continue it, so the topics and reasons for the sermon are different, but the outline is the same - a conversation about the Truth, about Christ, about salvation. It is no coincidence that one type of sermon is called a conversation, although only one preacher speaks.

If a priest, being part of the people of God and expressing their thoughts and feelings, caught the prayerful mood of the people and returned it in words to those who, knowing how to feel, find it difficult to express their feelings in words, such a sermon can be called a revelation, albeit a small one, but a revelation of what how to save your soul in Christ for Eternal Life. Amen.

It is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days
From the poem “Our Century” (1951) by Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (1803-1873):
It is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days,
And the man is desperately sad...
He rushes towards the light from the shadows of the night,
And, having found the light, he grumbles and rebels...
Quoted: regarding spiritual decline, loss value guidelines, moral degradation.

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.

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