'A Russian Fléchier': Gedeon (Krinovskii) in the Elizabethan Cultural World.

• In Event: Orthodox Enlightenments

Abstract

Gedeon’s listeners never wished him to stop speaking, so eloquent and persuasive was his rhetoric; the published collection of his sermons went through four editions, two in his own time (1750s), and again in 1828 and 1855. This paper is based on a reading of the six volumes of sermons, with two main foci: the art of preaching itself, with an emphasis on moral persuasion and public appeal; and a theological shift that reintroduced the teachings of Stefan Iavorskii and especially the Kamen’ very (Rock of Faith) while arguing against Lutheranism. Enlightenment themes thread through the sermons and mark a key avenue for communication with Gedeon’s audience at Elizabeth’s court, and possibly his eventual nineteenth-century readers.

Author

• Catherine Evtuhov, Columbia U