The ideology of le College Universitaire

In Moscow, the French University College has been successfully operating at Moscow State University for about five years. Professors from France (there are some brilliant ones among them) come to Russia for a few days and so, in turn, throughout the academic year they give lectures to Moscow students and in general to everyone who expresses a desire to listen to these lectures. Recently, a very educated lady complained to me that the word individu plays an unjustifiably large role in the life of the college, and consequently the extreme individualism which is preached there, and from her point of view is the antipode of Christianity. In fact, it is what the college does that prepares a person (though I am sure the professors who lecture here are unaware of it) for the encounter with Jesus.

Why? For the simple reason that only through extreme individualism, as was the case at the time of the preaching of Jesus and His direct disciples, can one come to true Christianity. In order to become a Christian, it is necessary first to grow out of the collective consciousness, to break away from the "world," for the world of which the Apostle says that it lies in evil is not a world in the sense of monde or world, but a society. That is, society, the world of human relations that have developed without God, outside of God and contrary to the will of God.

Only when he finds himself in the abyss of individualism, only on the verge of death, can a person who grew up both in the Greek polis and in the USSR understand what his "I" is. Both in the Greek polis and in the conditions of any traditional way of life, as well as under the Soviet regime, in any system where the sense of one's own "I" is blurred in the collective consciousness, a person really perceives himself as a "wheel and a cog" (as Lenin aptly put it, who demanded that everyone become such a wheel). Under the Soviet regime, no one felt and simply could not feel responsible for the situation around them, because they understood that they could not change this situation, and therefore did not realize themselves as a person. In the USSR, many of us worked almost day and night, but at the same time, under no circumstances could we earn more than 140, for example, rubles, because part-time work was forbidden for many – in these conditions, a person felt obliged to work, but did not realize his responsibility for the well-being of the family simply because he knew perfectly well that it was impossible to ensure this well-being by honest means, while he saw that his family lived badly, but still did not die of hunger, and therefore put up with the circumstances. No one could quit their job, go to the mountains or the taiga for three months, believing that when they returned, they would find a job again, because they knew that, firstly, they would immediately be declared a parasite, and secondly, they would have a break in their seniority, with which they would not be hired, they would not be paid 100% of their sick leave salary, and then (after 25 years!) they would not be given that pension. what he would be entitled to. Naturally, in such a situation, a person did not feel like a person and seemed to forget that he had his "I", his uniqueness and originality. However, at the same time, he (a Soviet person) felt comfortable in these conditions in his own way, because it is not so necessary to go to the mountains for three months, strictly speaking, and life is bad, despite the fact that there is no roof over his head and a minimum of money remains before the salary, and it is not necessary to pay for the apartment (the main thing is to pay for the phone so that it is not turned off!). In general, it is possible.

But you can't feel like a person in such a situation. To do this, it was necessary to break out of the system. This was the tragedy of Soviet society. Man did not see his "I" in himself and therefore could not feel God, but on the other hand, he hardly thought about death—it existed as if outside his consciousness.

Only by realizing one's own uniqueness, one can discover the uniqueness of God, discover one's "I", and then find oneself face to face with His "I". Only after passing through the jungle of despair and feeling that you are standing above the abyss ("My whole life is standing above the abyss," Jurgis Baltrušaitis once exclaimed), can you feel God and His presence in this world. That is why Horace, a weak, effeminate, immoral, and capricious individualist, was much closer to Jesus (not in a chronological sense, of course) than the honest, bold, and moral Tell of Athens. The latter felt himself to be a "wheel and cog" of his native polis and could not imagine himself outside of it. God can only be met in the desert, and he could not leave the polis, tear himself away from the body and collective in which he grew up, for him the polis was a god.

It was a different matter for Horace, who in his individualism had reached the limit, the world in which he lived was for him no less a desert than the places where the Forerunner began to preach. As the spokesman for the sentiments of the people of His time, He, like no one else, spoke frankly about what was going on in the hearts of the people to whom Jesus came. He came, for His coming was absolutely necessary – humanity was already perishing.

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В начале XX века новоевропейский интеллигент, оказавшийся подобно Горацию и его современникам в пропасти индивидуализма, именно там встретил Иисуса — так пришли в Церковь Н.Бердяев, о.П.Флоренский, архиепископ Иоанн (Шаховской) и их современники. В их эпоху уже не Гораций, а другой поэт, Иннокентий Анненский, певец тоски и отчаяния, думаю, что не менее тонко, чем его римский предшественник, рассказал о тех муках, которые в безднах индивидуализма переживали его современники.

Сегодня история почти повторяется еще раз, мы вновь, как путники на дороге в Эммаус, встречам Иисуса, и среди нас тоже есть поэт, подобный Горацию или И.Анненскому, прошедший именно по их дороге, такой же, как они, языческий Предтеча Иисусов Иосиф Бродский. Не случайно он так любил Горация и во многом принадлежал к школе Анненского.

Христос лучше любого социума объединяет людей воедино, но на совсем другой основе: не вокруг принципа или идеи, а вокруг Себя. Но чтобы встреча наша с Ним по-настоящему состоялась, необходимо помнить, что Свою пасхальную победу над смертью и над всеми живущими в нас страхами Он разделяет лишь с теми, кто осознал, что такое смерть, с теми, кто пережил ужас одиночества и побывал в бездне индивидуализма. Тот же, кто живет в мире, похожем на Афины времен храброго Телла, в мире, где мое «я» растворено в коллективном «мы», увы, просто не заметит приближающегося к нему Иисуса и примет Его за случайного путника на дороге. Религия, которую он будет исповедывать, быть может, и покажется кому-то чисто внешне похожей на православие, но на самом деле это будет язычество в христианской оболочке, обычная племенная религия, возможно, добрых. Но еще не повстречавших Христа людей.