Metropolitan Hilarion’s Sermon on Law and Grace as an Example of Giving Meaning to the Past in Kievan Rus’

Abstract

In terms of ideational history and in accordance with the postmodern semiotic and discursive method, the article deals with The Sermon on Law and Grace authored by Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev (d. 1054/1055). The text at hand is analysed as an important narrative historical source from the Kievan period of East Slavic mediaeval history or as an example of a theological and patriotic interpretation of the recent (secular) past in Kievan Rus’. The article highlights three main findings: firstly, The Sermon on Law and Grace aims to place the specific East Slavic historical experience into the broader framework of the history of redemption; secondly, Hilarion’s theological and patriotic conception of salvation history is fundamentally defined by the image of Grand Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich; thirdly, the cul- tural and historical “inferiority complex” that links East Slavic elites’ notions with the reli- gious and literary tradition of other mediaeval Orthodox Slavs is revealed under the surface of the patriotic self-affirmation.