The situation of religious conversion and pastoral power in The Path to Salvation by Theophan the Recluse

   In the history of Russian Orthodoxy in the second half of the 19^th century, a significant transformation can be observed, which allows us to talk about the emergence of a fundamentally new situation, which can be defined as “modern,” that is, characteristic of the contemporary situation in the religious sphere. We are talking about the situation of “free religious choice.” Understood not as an opportunity to publicly express disagreement with official church teaching, but as a subjective opportunity to “disagree,” this situation nevertheless becomes a challenge to church theology and attracts the attention of key authors of the era and, in particular, Theophan the Recluse. The analysis of his key works allows us to assert that the starting point of his moral and theological reasoning, which even during his lifetime was highly appreciated by church intellectuals and popular among the reading public, was the initial uncertainty of the subject in relation to the dominant religion in the Russian Empire. The subject of his constructions faces the need not just to follow church doctrine, but to consciously and freely recognize himself as a Christian, either as a result of an appropriate upbringing or at the moment of “gracious excitement” – religious conversion. As a result of this recognition, a “spiritual life” begins, which consists not only in following the institution of the Church, but above all in the individual experience of rejecting the ordinary and perceiving the “spiritual.” In this situation, notions of the normative relationship between the Christian and the religious instructor undergo a significant transformation: the possibility of free religious choice implies a parity relationship in this interaction. This in turn transforms the normative view of the mentor himself (the priest in the context of the Russian Empire), bringing to the forefront not his ability to lead and mentor, but his ability to build trusting relationships and to lead by personal example to free self-determination as a Christian.

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