The aim of this article is to answer the question, “How Philaret Drozdov understood God’s holiness and human holiness and how both the ideas were displayed in his writings?” The research material constitutes selected homilies and a catechism. In the first place, the author discusses the definition of holiness and its understanding by the Orthodox Church with regard to the issue of deification. Also, he familiarizes the reader with the concept of holiness in its various aspects. Subsequently, the homilies and the catechism of Philaret Drozdov are analysed. The article shows the Moscow Metropolitan’s beliefs about the essence of human holiness as well as about the eschatological dimension of temporality and the pneumatological aspect of holiness, the issue of grace and a human seen as a vessel of God’s energy. The author proves that the Moscow Metropolitan continued in his works the traditions of the Church Fathers and creatively developed the most important assumptions of Orthodox anthropology and soteriology and, hence enriching Russian spiritual thought.

The article is an attempt to interpret selected works by Fyodor Sologub ( Церковь, В моей лампаде ясный свет..., Опять сияние в лампаде..., Моя верховная Воля), characterized by the lyrical I’s gradual departure, a turning away from God towards the forces of evil, deism and demonic solipsism. These works display the complex motifs typical of modernist aestheticism; inspired by the philosophical thought of A. Schopenhauer: his pessimism, disillusionment with the world, despair, existential emptiness, complete loneliness etc. The lyrical subject finds himself in a certain spiritual wilderness. His relationship with God undergoes a drastic change. The hitherto Christian figure of the merciful Father is replaced by the strict and cruel judge, the evil demiurge. The poet gives him the name of the Old Testament God – Adonai. However, by his actions (evil, insidious and vengeful), he rather resembles the Gnostic Jaldabaoth or Satan – the opponent of Christians. The interpreted texts also reveal the authorial lyrical speaker as fascinated with “the new genius” – Lucifer, whose image becomes positively redefined. He gains the status, as well as the features and powers traditionally ascribed to the Christian God.