Normation of the Priest in Modern Russia: the Genesis of the Process and the Main Stages

Abstract

This article examines the problem of the development of the narrative about the norm in relation to the priest, using the example of the context of the modern Rus­sia. The concept of the norm is key for the modern state and society that is emerg­ing in the modern era, and despite the fact that this concept itself is not found in domestic sources, the value of the corresponding concept has been consis­tently growing since the 17th century. The author proposes to see the genesis of the process of normation of the Orthodox priest in the era that followed the Schism, when for the first time a functional reading of the liturgical activity of the clergy is revealed as an activity capable to ensure the piety of the people. The discovery of the priest as the subject of normation activates the development of discursive resources capable of supporting this process. At the first stage, it is a collective concept of the clergy, allowing to fix the subject of the norm itself. The hitch of the figure of a priest with the key modern ethical concept – “duty” – expands the possibilities for developing a norm. Finally, the discipline of “pas­toral theology”, which undergoes the swift development in the second half of the 19th century, becomes the predominant “place” for the normation of the priest – a process that reached its apex during the counter-reforms of Alexander III.