“Sacred horror” of the poet Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin

RELEVANCE. The outstanding Russian poet Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin is one of the few authors who, in his artistic work, theologically comprehended human existence, man’s place in the world and his relationship to the Creator and Creator of the world. The object of study in the article is the spiritual poetry of G.R. Derzhavin; The subject of the study is the poet’s religious ideas about man and his relationship with God and the world around him, reflected in the genre of spiritual ode. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the expression of the Orthodox worldview of G.R. Derzhavin in episodes of his biography and poetic creativity using the example of a spiritual ode.MATERIALS AND METHODS. In accordance with the interdisciplinary nature of the research, the author used a combination of philological, historical and theological scientific methods, the most important of which were historical-biographical, intertextual and hermeneutic.RESULT AND DISCUSSION. The analysis of G.R. Derzhavin’s biographical facts and the memoirs of his contemporaries made it possible to characterize the poet as a person deeply rooted in the Orthodox faith striving to get aware of Divine truths, as well as to convey the highest moral law to a wide circle of his readers through verbal creativity. A review of works written in the genre of spiritual odes and based on a number of psalms, as well as a theological and philological analysis of the ode “God” made it possible to identify semantic and ideological connections of the author’s worldview with the dogmatic and anthropological teaching of the Orthodox Church. By revealing the theological content of the lexemes “slave” – “king”, “worm” – “God”, the author of the article resolves the apparent antinomy and gives an interpretation of these words from the point of view of Orthodox anthropology.CONCLUSION. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that the pinnacle of G.R. Derzhavin’s poetic creativity is the ode “God”, which fully reveals the features of the poet’s Orthodox worldview, in particular, its anthropological and soteriological aspects. The main theme of the ode is the greatness of God, in whom man is called to believe, who he must constantly thank, humbly and lovingly magnify and glorify, treading in the steps of King David, the Old Testament psalmist.