‘If we do not worship idols, then we worship sin in every possible way’: The topoi of pagan sacrifice in a late 17th century sermon

Abstract

This article examines the specificity of late 17th century preachers’ employment of the topoi of sacrifice to a demon/idol/devil, which have their roots in biblical and Church Fathers’ denunciations of paganism. The article mostly focuses on sermons from the little-studied handwritten collection Statir, created by an unknown author in the Kama Region, and on sermons from the collection Spiritual Dinner (Rus. Obed Dushevnyi) by Simeon Polotsky. The works of Dimitry Rostovsky are also used to reconstruct the multidimensional context of polemics. These authors are united by their increased focus on contemporaneousness, and by their desire to offer the listener/reader by means of homilies an ideal of salvation (including ‘everyday martyrdom’), contrasting it with ‘sacrifice to idols’. The study identified sources of the topoi chosen by the authors: biblical books, the works of John Chrysostom, and sermons from the Didactic Gospel (1619) by Cyril Tranquillion-Stavrovetsky. The article shows that the circumstances which prompted the preachers to turn to these common places were the church schism and the increasing opposition of the church and state to superstition and other ‘pagan matters’. In the atmosphere of an age of change, scholars sought to combat sin through spiritual enlightenment of the flock, appealing to the inner world of man while avoiding unnecessary formalisation of their work by adapting topoi to current circumstances.