Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/514

488 the soul itself is regarded as but a refined form of matter; belief in immortality retains the quality of primitive animism, and is a belief in ghosts. Hence the anthropomorphic insistence upon the characteristics of the God-man (this is seen already in Origen, as shown in ); hence the delight in materialistic ritual and materialistic symbolism. Typical are the purely formalist and materialistic doctrines and customs which find expression in the raskol; and typical, too, is the fact that the state church, despite hesitations and vacillations, has not definitely repudiated and expelled the raskol (§ 4). Mysticism is itself materialistic.

In practice, living faith in transcendence leads to asceticism. The Russian monk is nothing but an ascetic, a hermit, one who despises the life of this world, whereas Roman Catholic monks have often been attendants on the sick, doctors, teachers, and the like. When Herzen speaks of Christianity as the religion of death, he is thinking chiefly of religion in Russia. Nevertheless, the saying is true also of the Russian monk: contemptor suaemet ipsius vitae, dominus alienae.

The passivist demeanour of the Russian is thoroughly consistent; he blindly accepts the revelation and the practice of the church; for these derive from the God-man. There can be no progress, no development, for God has revealed in the God-man the highest truths and those that are most important to men. Man can add nothing to these truths, he must simply accept them unquestioningly as a means for moral improvement. Even Augustine considered that, properly speaking, history had come to an end with the appearance of Jesus; and Solov'ev therefore felt it incumbent on him to seek justificatory reasons for historical development after the days of Christ.

Russian religion and the Russian church are unprogressive on principle. Religious doctrine and religious practice must remain exactly as they were established as early as the third century by the great Greek (Alexandrian) dogmatists.

Homjakov was opposed to this "Byzantinism" no less than Solov'ev; but Leont'ev unreservedly accepted it, and was not unwilling that Russia should remain petrified.

It was natural that the Greeks, philosophically trained,