Dukhovnoe - the Spiritual. A History of a Concept in the 17th - 19th Centuries

Abstract

The concept of duhovnoe (“spiritual”) is widely used in contemporary Russian socio-political discourse. Concepts like “spiritual values” and “spiritual culture” are used at the official level, even in legislative documents, while “being spiritual” for many Russians is associated with the richness of the inner world and personal potential. At the same time, the lexicon associated with the history of the Russian Orthodox Church has preserved a specific institutional understanding of “spiritual”, in such expressions as dukhovnaia seminaria (theological seminary), dukhovnoe soslovie (“ecclesiastical estate”) or dukhovenstvo (“clergy”). This article undertakes the reconstruction of the concept of “spiritual” as it developed in the early modern period, from the second half of the 17^th until the first half of the 19^th century. It shows the formation of an “institutional” understanding of the “spiritual,” initiated by the modern state. At the same time, the archaic category of the “spiritual” has being developed within the framework of the ascetic church discourse, where the “spiritual” is placed in opposition to the “secular”, in a response to the formation of secular culture. In turn, within the framework of secular culture as such, the spiritual was reformulated under the impact of the Western mystical tradition, meaning an individual relation to God. Finally, some members of the clergy forged their own idea of “truly spiritual,” paradoxically inspired by the secular discourse.