The article makes an attempt of psychological interpretation of "Confessions of a Beautiful Soul" - the sixth book of Goethe's famous novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship". The author examines the text of German writer in line with hermeneutical and phenomenological traditions of contemporary psychology of religion, using the ideas of L. Vygotskij ("The Psychology of Art") and L. Ginsburg ("On the Psychological Prose") while analyzing the artistic component of the artwork, elements of contemporary Russian developmental psychology. Questions of Goethe's authorship and his attention to the world of religious experience of the female character of the novel are under discussion. Three main elements of psychological investigation of the novel are examined: the artistic method of Goethe; stages of formation of religious life of the character, the role of religion in the processes of socialization and individuation of her person; interaction of religious sense with other spheres, forms and functions of psychical life. The article comes up with a number of conclusions concerning patterns of personal religious life in the modern times.

Key words: Goethe, "Confessions of Beautiful Soul", psychology of religion, developmental psychology, psychological prose, religious sense.

The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant 14-18-03771 "Modern Western Psychology of Religion: Adaptation in the Russian context", the recipient organization of funding-St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the Humanities.

Antonov K. Religious personality of the New Age in psychological prose ("Confessions of a Beautiful Soul" by I.-V. Goethe) / / State, Religion, Church in Russia and abroad. 2016. N 4. pp. 29-50.

Antonov, Konstantin (2016) "Religious Personality in the Modern Era in Psychological Prose: ‘Confessions of a Beautiful Soul' by Goethe", Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 34(4): 29-50.

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"CONFESSIONS of a beautiful soul "(hereinafter referred to as "Confessions") - Book VI of the famous novel by J.-W. Goethe "The Years of Wilhelm Meister's Teaching "(1795) is an outstanding example of "psychological prose" (L. Ya.Ginzburg) at the end of the XVIII century. This is the story of religious self-education of the individual, inserted in the classic novel of education. Goethe simultaneously gets used to the spiritual world of his heroine and constructs this world in its development, trying to grasp the basic laws of the formation of religious individuality. Using a first-person narrative, he presents an "autobiographical" self-description of the development of his heroine from childhood to full maturity. To what extent did this text embody the writer's own religious experiences and beliefs? How was the real religiosity of the era reflected in his work?

The purpose of this text is to draw attention to Goethe's text as a source for the psychology of religion, to offer a preliminary interpretation of it based on a number of approaches developed during the twentieth century in psychological science, and on this basis to try to understand the meaning of the great writer's thought experiment.

Methodological framework

This work is carried out at the intersection of hermeneutical and phenomenological trends in modern psychology of religion. Accordingly, it attempts to analyze a particular text in order to identify the structure of religious experience revealed in it.

The hermeneutical approach - in which not only the text is understood as part of culture, but culture is also understood as a system of symbols that refer to intentional states and shades of their meanings1-fits well with the "indirect phenomenological study of religion".-

1. In the psychology of religion, this approach is presented, for example, in the article: Popp-Baier, U. (1997) "Psychology of Religion as Hermeneutical Cultural Analysis. Some Refections with References to Clifford Geertz", in J.A. Belzen (ed.) Hermeneutical Approaches in Psychology of Religion, pp. 195-212. Amsterdam: Brill. The author forms the program of his research, identifying the points of contact between the interpretive theory of culture by K. Geertz and the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics by M. Heidegger, G.-G. Gadamer, P. Riker.

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experience" (Wolfe). From this point of view, religious experience is not so much hidden or distorted as revealed in the text in its specific historical and cultural originality.2 These approaches have something in common with the direction in the history of culture, which can be called "psychological historiography". The latter focuses on "psychologically significant phenomena" (emotions, perceptions, personality), their cultural characteristics, and "changes over time"3. The psychological interpretation based on these approaches focuses on the religious aspect of "conditioned culture, taken from the historical perspective of the human psyche"4, since it is recorded in specific texts.

The text under consideration is artistic in nature, which requires the use of appropriate analysis techniques. As such, elements of Vygotsky's psychology of art and the idea of "psychological prose" by L. Ya. Ginzburg are used. Finally, since the consciousness of a religious person is represented in the text in formation, its analysis may not be useless from the point of view of such a traditional topic as "the role of religion in personal development". This, in turn, makes it necessary to involve analytical tools in such subdisciplines as" age psychology"," developmental psychology "and"personality psychology" 5.

2. См. Wulf, D. (1995) "Phenomenological Psychology and Religious Experience", in R. Hood (ed.) Handbook of Religious Experience, pp. 188-189. Birmingham, Alabama: Religious Education Press. From this point of view, the attempts of some authors to distinguish the "levels" of experience and interpretation, emphasizing the "distortions" of its content that occur during the transition from one level to another, seem problematic. For an example of this approach, see Geels, A. (1997) " Mystical Experience and Interpretation. A Hermeneutical Approach", in J.A. Belzen (ed.) Hermeneutical Approaches in Psychology of Religion, pp. 213-232. Amsterdam: Brill.

3. Belzen, J. (1997) "The Historicocultural Approach in the Psychology of Religion: Perspectives for Interdisciplinary Research", Journal for the Scientifc Study of Religion 36(3): 364-365.

4. Belzen, J. "The Historicocultural Approach in the Psychology of Religion: Perspectives for Interdisciplinary Research", p. 358.

5. See for example: Folieva T. A. The role of religion in the development of personality: a few theoretical remarks//Vestnik PSTGU. Ser. 1.Bogoslovie [Theology]. Philosophy. 2014. Issue 6 (56), pp. 89-100. The author considers the combination of religious psychology with developmental psychology as an optimal research strategy.

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Preliminary remarks

Without claiming to be a full-fledged literary analysis of "Confessions", I would like to draw attention to some features of the organization of the artistic fabric of the narrative, without which the answers to the questions posed cannot look convincing.

Goethe is known to have made extensive use of autobiographical material inherited from his mother's friend and partly from his spiritual mentor, Susanna Katharina von Klettenberg (1723-1774).6, a prominent figure in the Pietist movement in 18th-century Germany, and personal impressions of her acquaintance 7. The text is written in the first person, which raises two questions: (1) To what extent is Goethe himself the author of the Confessions? (2) What is his personal attitude to the religiosity referred to in this text?

(1) It is now generally accepted that the author of the Confessions is Goethe himself, 8 who significantly transformed the von Klettenberg narrative: pietistic autobiography as a "history of conversion" turned into a "history of individual moral formation of the individual"9. Thus, we are talking not just about a peculiar complication of the memoir genre, but about the formation of a reflexive structure of a qualitatively new level. Pietistic autobiography itself implies a high level of reflection, that is, on the one hand, the artistic design of the eventful everyday canvas, and on the other - a deep penetration into its semantic basis.10 A highly distinctive personality, Von Klettenberg,

6. On their relations, see: Goethe I.-V. Collected works in 10 vols. Vol. 3. From my life. Poeziya i pravda [Poetry and Truth], Moscow, 1976, pp. 286-287, 533, 550. For biographical information about her, see: Wilmont N. Comments // Goethe. Sobr. Soch. T. 3. P. 686.

7. As Goethe himself wrote, " such an image would have been impossible if I had not collected sketches from nature for it earlier." Correspondence in 2 vols. Vol. 1. Moscow, 1988. p. 94. This should also include Goethe's communication with the circle of Frankfurt pietists, Lavater and Jung-Stilling.

8. For references to the relevant literature, see: Kemper D. Goethe and the problem of individuality in the culture of the Modern Era, Moscow, 2009, pp. 242, 256 in footnotes.

9. Misch, G. (1969) "Geschichte der Autobiographie". Bd. 4, 2, s. 815. Frankfurt a. M., cit. in: Kemper D. Goethe and the problem of individuality in the culture of the Modern era. p. 259.

10. On the specifics of "direct conversation about a person" in the memoir genre - "the combination of freedom of expression with non-freedom of fiction" - see: Ginzburg L. Ya. On psychological prose, Moscow, 1999, p. 118.

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the"free-thinking Christian woman" 11 transforms the pietistic canon, giving the experience depicted in the autobiography a new degree of vitality, emphasizing and structuring what is special in it. The next authorial transformation, already carried out by Goethe, takes us to a new level, offering an "ideal structure" within which poetic fiction gains "the highest freedom to organize the elements it needs into the most perfect, most purposeful and expressive units" 12.

(2) To answer the second question, it is necessary to understand the meaning of "Confessions" for both the artistic and ideological structure of the novel as a whole. From an artistic point of view, the reading of the manuscript by the main character plays an important role both in his spiritual development and in the development of the main plot lines of the novel. Once in Wilhelm's hands at a critical moment in his life, the manuscript of the Confessions inspires him, but does not turn him to religion. He sees the heroine's life path not as evidence of the work of God in human life, but as an example of the "immaculate purity of being" (427) 13. The manuscript describes events that took place many years before the main character's "years of study" began, and it throws light on a number of mysterious events that happened to him. 14. Reading the manuscript calms the "ardent and self-willed temper" (290) of his friend, the actress Aurelia. Wilhelm carries Aurelia's suicide letter to her unfaithful lover, and the completion of this task introduces him to the circle of the "Tower Society" - a mysterious educational organization that resembles a Masonic lodge - forcing him to finally break with his imaginary theatrical vocation.15 Thus, reading the manuscript prepares the hero for a new stage of his education (Bildung), and the reader receives the information necessary to understand the further twists and turns of the plot.

Ideologically, the manuscript presents the idea of Bildung, an alternative to the central concept of the novel. The main character of Confessions is portrayed by Goethe with unconditional sympathy-

11. See: Kemper D. Goethe and the problem of individuality in the culture of the Modern Era, p. 254.

12. Ginzburg L. Ya. On psychological prose, p. 28.

13. Here and further, "The Years of Wilhelm Meister's Teaching" are quoted from the publication: Goethe I.-V. Collected Works in 10 volumes. Vol. 7. Moscow, 1978.

14. Wilmont N. Comments // Goethe. Collected Works, vol. 7, p. 515.

15. See: Ibid., p. 512.

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However, her project of reflexive self-education based on personal religious experience conflicts with the practically oriented educational project of the Tower Society. In this conflict, Goethe, with his "idea of objective-oriented pragmatism as the only normal way to improve the individual"associated with the concepts of service and creativity, 16 is more likely (but not completely) on the side of "Society". Even the person closest to the heroine, both spiritually and in everyday life, is her niece Natalia, who admires the beauty of her spiritual appearance and notes her "excessive concentration on herself and at the same time a morbidly developed moral and religious sense" (427).

Thus, Goethe distanced himself not only from the real religious beliefs and experiences of von Klettenberg, but also from the ideal religiosity of the owner of a "beautiful soul", which he sees as based on "the noblest errors and the subtlest confusion of the subjective with the objective"17, portraying it "as evidence of a one-sided, although with charming beauty expressed position"18.

Psychological interpretation of "Confessions"

It was this combination of distance and involvement that allowed Goethe's "pagan" to portray the spiritual path of a Christian believer with sympathy and deep insight into the inner world, which makes the text of Confessions an ideal object of psychological and religious interpretation. Below I will focus on its three main elements: Goethe's creative method; the stages of the development of the heroine's religious life; and the interaction of religious feeling with other forms and functions of psychic life. This, in turn, will allow us to understand how the author thinks about the place of the form of religious life that he has chosen.

16. Frank S. L. Goethe and the problem of spiritual culture. 1932. N 35. P. 85. The central theme of Goethe's work in Frank's understanding: spiritual culture as " the dual unity of cultural creativity and the improvement of the personal spirit "(Ibid., p. 90). Projecting this idea on the material of the Wilhelm Meister Years of Teaching, we can see in the position of the Tower Society the expression of the first, and in the position of the heroine of Confessions, the second member of this antinomy.

17. Goethe I.-V., Schiller F. Correspondence in 2 vols. Vol. 1. p. 94.

18. Kemper D. Goethe and the problem of individuality in the culture of the Modern era. p. 204.

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depicts, in culture, how he understands its relation to other forms of spiritual life of the era.

1. Elements of the creative method

Schiller described Goethe's creative method as "revealing the heroine's slow comprehension of the holy principle in her soul." 19 Such immersion in subjectivity allows us to (re)construct a system of internal movements, motives, and experiences, and show this system in its formation, despite the fact that we are talking about a representative of the opposite sex, a different era, and other beliefs.

From the very beginning, the fundamental structure of this subjectivity is outlined: after the catastrophe of the first illness, the heroine's soul "turns into feeling and memory "(293) - and the interaction of these two moments determines her entire future life, including the writing of the autobiography that the main character of a large novel reads.

This sets the logic for further development. Each new experience is formed by being included in the system of memories, occupying a certain place in it, enriching it, becoming a condition for the possibility of new experiences. Rather, external events play the role of occasions for the unfolding of elements of the structure of the soul's life as a whole.

First-person narration provides the dynamics of this structure through the three angles of subjectivity presented. This is, first, the "I" experiencing; second, the" I "directly reflecting on the experience just experienced, noticing the shades of experiences, continuously integrating them into the system of its life elements; finally, third, the" I " writing about its own life, reliving it in a reflective memory, and so on. thus, re-formalizing it from the position of an observer. At the end of the story, these three selves seem to converge at a single point, where the unity of a unique individual life discovered in reflection becomes the main experience, the content of which appears with absolute clarity. The heroine reaches the fullness of self-understanding, self-identity and inner freedom, after which the story of her soul in a sense ends-

19. Goethe I.-V., Schiller F. Correspondence in 2 vols. Vol. 1. p. 119

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then real life begins. Empathy for this completeness and integrity determines the cathartic effect produced by the book (which is also emphasized by the fact that the reader empathizes with the impressions of the novel's characters reading the manuscript)20.

The structure described here is reminiscent of the great histories of consciousness created by German idealists - younger contemporaries of Goethe, primarily Schelling (The System of Transcendental Idealism, 1800) and Hegel (Phenomenology of the Spirit, 1807). In contrast, the central driving force of the heroine's consciousness is precisely the religious feeling. His memory-mediated self-disclosure becomes the main subject of the story.

2. Formation of religious consciousness

Modern hermeneutical psychology is based on the thesis of cultural and historical conditionality of human subjectivity. 21 Accordingly, the problem is the historical distance that separates us from the era of the heroine's life - the first half and middle of the XVIII century. In the light of this problem, the data of modern age psychology need a certain correction: the increasing complexity of culture entails the transformation of socialization and individualization processes, the complication and formalization of personal educational trajectory, and, accordingly, the transformation of the structure of ages and manifestations of mental functions.22
The heroine's religiosity first manifests itself around the age of 8 during a long illness, which had a decisive influence on her development as a whole: "my spirit was first taught the means to promote its independent development" (293). The disease appears here as a kind of initial catastrophe, which gives an impetus to the development of individuality.-

20. Concerning catharsis, the meaning of affects and co-affects, see: Vygotsky L. S. Psychology of Art, Moscow, 1986, pp. 142, 150-151.

21. См. Belzen, J. "The Historicocultural Approach in the Psychology of Religion: Perspectives for Interdisciplinary Research", p. 361.

22. On the historicity of the concept of "age", see: Mukhina V. S. Phenomenology of personality development and existence. Izbrannye psikhologicheskie trudy [Selected Psychological Works], Moscow, Voronezh, 1999, pp. 128-129; Slobodchikov V. I., Isaev E. I. Psikhologiya razvitiya cheloveka [Psychology of human development]. Development of subjective reality in ontogenesis, Moscow, 2013, pp. 183, 384.

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Her " I "seems to crystallize for the first time (including for herself) against the background of the family as a" co-being community","being-we" 23, in which it was originally included. The impression of the disease and this first experience of the " I " is such that all the previous "healthy" life seems to be erased, but the basic mechanism of interaction between "feeling" and "memory"mentioned above is triggered. The latter preserves for her from this period of life two main experiences: "I endured and loved" (293). It is against this background that the heroine first enters "into a lively conversation with the Invisible" (294). At the same time, her mother tells her bible stories, the influence of which, however, is not emphasized. A little later, the "attraction to the Invisible" was reinforced by the reading circle. However, the heroine herself describes such a "gravitation" at this stage as "vague" and closely intertwined with an interest in the miraculous in general.

The heroine's more systematic education begins at the age of 12, and although most of her education remains at home, she enters a new circle of "being-us", a "children's community": "a crowd of boys and girls" (296) who were engaged in dancing. The circle of study, of course, includes the "Law of God". The latter awakens in her "new feelings and thoughts", but from a reflexive position, she regards his teaching rather negatively. It develops the ability to "talk" about God and religion, but it does not" touch the soul":" I never once thought about how things are with myself " (295). This training, therefore, leads rather to the extinction of religiosity as a feeling and, in parallel, to the development of a "false ego" based on identification with the "crowd", on the vain imitative reproduction of the formalized commonplaces of the "discourse on religion" of that time. The description shows elements of the modern "childhood crisis" associated with the transition to school, the transition from a "symbiotic community" with parents to a "personal attachment" to them: the independent formation of a reading circle, the assignment of the role of a "young student" in relations with his father, the appearance of the first extra-family authorities (a French teacher)24.

23. See: Slobodchikov V. I., Isaev E. I. Psychology of human development. Razvitie subjektivnoi real'nosti v ontogeny [The development of subjective reality in ontogenesis]. p. 388; Frank S. L. Neposchizhimoe [Incomprehensible] / / Frank S. L. Sochineniya, Moscow, 1990, pp. 378-385.

24. Slobodchikov V. I., Isaev E. I. Psychology of human development. Development of subjective reality in ontogenesis. p. 275.

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In this situation, the heroine turns to God at the time of the illness of the boy who became the subject of her passion: "And should I forget the tears that I shed while praying for the boy who continued to get sick "(297). Teenage infatuation produces an impression similar to that produced in childhood by illness: "I became quiet and withdrew from noisy joys." Religious feeling is again associated with the process of self-isolation: "A tender soul was looking for solitude, and then I remembered God" (297). It is included in a complex of individualizing experiences, which, as the heroine herself admits from a late reflexive position, "contributed a lot to the development of my soul" 25.

The inclusion of the heroine in the secular court society again simultaneously calls into question the achieved level of individualization and makes her religious life freeze. Post factum, the heroine sees this period as being "on the edge of death". However, it is not by chance that Goethe puts this statement in such a position that it refers simultaneously to the" eternal death " from breaking communion with God in the theological sense, and to the risk of losing your virginity (and with it your health) in the traditional moralistic sense, and to the loss of the achieved level of cultural development, and to the loss of your own individuality in "dispersing"," dragging along "the rapid flow of" a lively crowd " (298-299). Thus, the new, more complex personal structure is initially shown to the reader in a negative way - as something that experiences the pressure of the next "we-being", which at the same time acts as a condition for the possibility of further development.

The moral strength of the heroine plays only a defensive role in this conflict. A positive factor is the establishment of the "I-you" relationship, which determines the isolation from the crowd and the resurrection of the sphere of cultural interests. In a situation of deadly danger, friendly communication develops into love, and fear for the life of a loved one starts the process of gradual return and a new development of religiosity. However, the reflective" I " of the heroine evaluates this renewal of communion with God rather coldly and even with irony: how

25. Goethe only hints at the possibility of the" crisis of adolescence "as an adolescent conflict with the world of" adults " - a clash with a French teacher about the described infatuation. As a characteristic phenomenon of our culture, such a conflict is a later neoplasm.

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"an official visit' to God ' in the tinsel glitter of one's own virtue "(304). Nevertheless, "Earthly love seemed to bring together the forces of my spirit, stirred them up, and communion with God did not contradict it" (305).

The further development of religious feeling follows the line of its clarification and increasing intertwining with the habit of introspection: "I felt and thought, and developed the ability to converse with God about my feelings and thoughts" (306). As a result, religiosity becomes a powerful driving force of the heroine's character, an important factor in growing up and individualizing, gaining personal identity and independence. If earlier religiosity, although considered as a force contributing to development, always appeared as part of a certain set of factors, then at this moment it appears completely independently for the first time, determining the behavior of the heroine and the course of her personal development.

This is most clearly shown in the detailed description of the personal crisis, the successful overcoming of which means the transition from" youth "to"adulthood". The crisis begins at the age of about 22, when the heroine suddenly discovers obstacles in prayer. Goethe describes in detail and, as it seems, psychologically accurately the process of introspection, the internal and then external struggle that the heroine has to fight for "authorship in her own life" 26.

Turning to God and receiving effective consolation from him, after the news of the groom's official failure, gives her strength and gives her the opportunity to comfort the Narcissist. This is accompanied by an awareness of the role of communion with God in human life: "I realized that with this kind of help, you can survive anything." However, appeals for support are not always heard, and in search of reasons, the heroine undertakes a study of her own life, in which introspection is closely intertwined with the struggle of motives: striving for religion with its "higher joys", she does not want to admit to herself attachment to secular pleasures. The internal struggle is complicated by the fact that

26. Slobodchikov V. I., Isaev E. I. Psikhologiya razvitiya cheloveka [Psychology of human development]. Development of subjective reality in ontogenesis. p. 314 sl. The difference is significant not only in the biological age, but also in the obstacles that the heroine has to overcome, in comparison with modern young people: defending her right to social self-determination, she, in the conditions of a class society, can afford to be completely carefree about the professional one.

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her fiance also has a penchant for social life: the desire to please him additionally tied the heroine to the world of entertainment and"stupidity".

The" dispute in the soul " of the heroine is resolved "without her knowledge." Religious motivation becomes so powerful that it is very easy to openly announce new principles in your life: "I threw off my mask and did what my heart told me to do from now on" (310). A short period of external struggle for "complete freedom of action" and the right to coordinate one's actions with one's beliefs ends in victory both in the family and in the"light". And, despite the breakup with the groom and social gossip, from the point of view of personal development, the results are certainly positive. The heroine gains social recognition in a new, "adult" capacity as a canoness. It finds and largely forms itself a new community of "we-being", no less significant than "light": "Instead of a large circle of acquaintances... a smaller circle was formed around me, but much more interesting and valuable" (313). Finally, in her religious life, "something new is emerging, quite different from the previous one "(303) - a high intensity, awareness, concreteness of communion with God. The heroine's reflexivity is reflected in the constant self-examination of the experience for authenticity. In addition, this religious experience takes place in the context of the heroine's involvement in the life of a certain community: "I was looking for and found a direct path from my heart to God, as well as the joy of communicating with the beloved ones, and this served as a great support for me. As a traveller longs for the shadow, so my soul, when everything was so painful outside, longed for this refuge and never returned from it empty-handed " (317).

In the future, the religious consciousness of the heroine deepens, concretizes and acquires new significant elements - she describes in detail her experiences related to the disclosure of such concepts as sin, faith, and redemption in her inner life. Children's "conversations with the Invisible" unfold in a complex structure that includes a variety of emotions that pass into each other, dogmatically specific subject contents, and volitional aspirations determined by them. Based on the model of religious experience outlined by R. Otto, we can say that in the image of the "Invisible Friend" of the heroine, "completely different" is revealed not so much as a misterium tremendum, but as a relationship between majestas and fascinans, that is, as a helping good,

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27. The "sacred" is revealed here in a way that evokes awe, reveals to man his utter unworthiness, but does not inspire him with absolute horror, elevates the person who addresses him, but does not destroy him. Each discovery in religious life is accompanied by overcoming external obstacles, self-knowledge, an act of choice that frees from external dependence, the growth of the heroine's internal independence, the degree of her freedom. Relying on the support of an "invisible friend" ensures her self-esteem and absolute self-sufficiency (but not alienation) in relations with others, the ability to courageously overcome life's difficulties.

The question arises: how did this exceptionally intense religious life relate to other aspects of personal development?

3. Religion and personality structure

The psychological authenticity of the image is achieved largely due to the fact that the narrative structure itself is built on the description of the mutual relations between the heroine's religiosity and the development of basic mental functions and related aspects of spiritual life. Even the first childhood appeals to the unseen occur against the background of the interweaving of various life interests: her mother tells her Bible stories, her father awakens in her an interest in learning about nature, her aunt, who tells "love stories and fairy tales" (294) - an interest in the miraculous. The heroine evaluates the latter from a retrospective position (not without irony, of course) as " the voice of the prince of this world." Thus, an active cognitive activity and a rich imagination are awakened with the beginning of her religious life and are closely intertwined with it from that moment on.

Almost from the very beginning, the development of the imagination is closely linked to the development of sexuality: initially in the form of children's fantasies about princes and angels. Goethe draws attention to the connection of these fantasies with the subsequent infatuation of the girl, which in turn contributes to the strengthening of religious feelings. On the other hand, reading " the pious ones

27. See, for example: Otto R. The Sacred. St. Petersburg, 2008, pp. 68-69.

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love stories "also guided the imagination and thus strengthened the" attraction to the Invisible." However, the very designation of God as "Invisible" emphasizes the distance between religious experience and the work of the imagination. The latter, despite all its power, always remains as if on the periphery, plays a service role.

The heroine's acceptance of her own body is an important moment in the development of her sexuality: in a tense situation associated with the injury of the future groom, at the very moment of the birth of love, she is undressed to wash away the blood, and then, as she writes, "I accidentally discovered for the first time in the mirror that even without covers I can consider myself beautiful" (301). Following Schiller, Goethe emphasizes the feminine grace of the "beautiful soul"28. Contrary to both the "spiritualist" religiosity that dates back to the Middle Ages, and to those critics of religion who considered "hypocrisy" a necessary feature of it, the motif of "fighting the flesh" is not part of the heroine's harmonious religiosity.

Equally harmonious is the intellectual development of the heroine, which manifests itself both in the desire for knowledge of the external world and in the tendency to introspection, which become a powerful factor in her spiritual development: "My active mind did not tolerate either hibernation or dreams" (306).

The desire for knowledge is evident in the heroine from childhood and largely determines the specifics of her position in a culture where " learned women were ridiculed, enlightened ones were also barely tolerated, considering it indecent to shame so many ignorant men "(300). Paradoxically, the heroine's fiance, on the one hand, contributes to her intellectual development, on the other - indicates the need to hide their education in society, but at the same time - in every possible way flaunts it. In the conflict with the rudeness of court mores, religion and education are on the same side of the barricades, the conflict between them in the mind of the heroine is impossible. In addition, in the tendency to check one's own experiences, religious feeling gets an additional support. It is the reflexivity of religious life that makes it possible to combine it in harmony with the well-developed world.-

28. Cf. Schiller F. On grace and dignity. Collected Works in 7 vols. Vol. 6. Theoretical articles, Moscow, 1957, p. 150.

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She has a high level of imagination, education, an increased sense of self - esteem, and other features of the "modern personality" characteristic of the heroine, first of all, sociability.

In this respect, the image created by Goethe again breaks out of the template idea of a religious person in the world of Enlightenment. Despite her penchant for solitude, the heroine is sociable and highly socialized. At the same time, it is characterized by a peculiar individualism, which manifests itself in a constant readiness to defend its intellectual, personal, and spiritual independence. Just as she overcame her family's resistance to social life, she is free to reject pietistic religious authorities at a more mature age. At the same time, the basis of its individualism is precisely the religious life: "The decision to get rid of the advice and influence of friends in spiritual matters led to the fact that in external circumstances I also had the courage to go my own way" (319). The only leader to whom it appeals, overcoming the resistance of society and independently building its own life path, is God Himself. This, however, does not mean rebellion or escapism. On the contrary, at the critical moment of the collapse of the community, it is the heroine who becomes the intermediary between the "archpastor" and the Gernguters who have rebelled against him: not belonging to any camp, she is, precisely because of this, able to appreciate what is significant that is inherent in each of them.

So, Goethe describes in detail the interaction of the main religious feeling of the heroine with such significant aspects of human life as sexuality, intelligence, fantasy, artistic development, will, sociality. This interaction is not always cloudless, but the heroine manages to successfully resolve the main conflicts in such a way that they become the starting point for internal growth and maturation of the individual.

This description of the harmonious religious personality in Goethe is internally polemical: it is directed against the idea of religion, which dates back to the Middle Ages, but is still relevant in the XVIII century, as a force that suppresses the human and natural principle in man.29 The writer's "estrangement" 30

29. Cf.: Solov'ev V. S. Sobr. Soch. Vol. 2. Kritika otkljechennykh nachali [Criticism of abstract principles]. SPb., B. G. pp. 155, 331.

30. Shklovsky V. B. O teorii prozy [On the theory of prose], Moscow, 1984, p. 15.

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the template image of a" religious person " carries a significant artistic burden: it supports the reader's interest in a narrative devoid of passion play, sharp plot twists, and personal conflicts. However, along with this, it also has a worldview significance, drawing attention to the religious theme, revealing its semantic horizon and at the same time indicating the place occupied by the heroine of Confessions in the spiritual world of her time.

4. The piety of "Confessions" in its relation to the main forms of spiritual life of the epoch

Throughout her life's journey, the heroine encounters a number of forms of spiritual life characteristic of her time (the middle of the XVIII century), and in one way or another builds her attitude to each of them, however, without completely joining any of them, but without completely rejecting any of them. The main ones can be considered: traditional Lutheran Orthodoxy, pietism (in the form in which it was formed at the university in Halle), hernguterstvo, Enlightenment thinking. A description of the attitude to each of them will further clarify the spiritual makeup of the heroine.

The heroine encounters theology and the spiritual structure of orthodoxy already in adolescence when studying the Law of God, and later-when listening to sermons (although, listening to them, she had to " find precious apples of the divine word... among ordinary vegetables" - 324). Her spiritual mentor, the "archpastor" of the city community, belonged to this trend. The heroine is repelled by the emphasis on "objective theological knowledge" 31, which opens up a wide scope for light-hearted chatter on religious topics; at the same time, she positively evaluates the traditional religious symbolism that gives food for fantasy, recognizes the "honesty and God-fearing" of the archpastor. Obviously, Goethe was aware that "the leading Orthodox theologians fully understood the practical purpose of theology, and also sought to improve morals." 32 He (and his heroine) are repelled rather by the objectivist formalization of the conditions of salvation: "What good is it to me if I am true?

31. Hegglund B. Istoriya teologii [History of theology], St. Petersburg, 2001, p. 275.

32. Ibid.

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about some event? " (322-323) - the heroine asks in a completely pietistic spirit.

However, her relationship with pietism is also very complicated. The constant appeal to personal experience, the understanding of faith as "a living force that produces concrete renewal"33, share the piety of the heroine with the ideas of Spener and his followers. The constant motif of "flight from the world" in the Confessions, and the very order in which the basic Christian truths are lived, bring it closer to the "system of conversion adopted in Halle" (317), which, however, is criticized. If orthodoxy prescribes the theoretical and historical content of faith as a system of formalized propositions, then Franke's system prescribes an equally formalized and systematized sequence of religious experiences and practical prescriptions. The latter also seems alien to the heroine:" I didn't feel any of this even remotely " (318). As a result, the system of friendships turns out to be almost more authoritarian than the orthodox hierarchy.

The heroine finds an even greater affinity with the teachings of the Gern-Guters, in relation to which, up to a certain point, she was biased. The central experience of redemption, which is connected with the acquisition of faith as a special ability of the spirit to "ascend", is very close to the Christocentrism of Zinzendorf and his followers: "My soul approached the Person Who became Man and died on the cross, and at that moment I understood what faith is" (323)34. However, the problem of alienation is not clear. he faces her here, too. Even during the period of her greatest enthusiasm for gerngutering, the heroine cannot help noticing "how few people feel the meaning of touching words and expressions, and are no more inspired by them than before by the words of church symbols" (327). The final sharp assessment of gernguters ' practices ("the game of biryulki") is associated not only with disappointment, but also with the identification of an even more significant value discrepancy.

In a number of significant issues, the heroine finds herself closer to the carriers of Enlightenment ideas, "uncle" and "doctor", and communication with them forces her to rethink important aspects of her spiritual life. Here you can update your childhood memories.

33. Ibid., p. 277.

34. Cf.: Hegglund B. Istoriya teologii [History of theology], p. 282.

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potencies of artistic taste, creativity and cognition. Uncle's Castle is presented in the novel as an exemplary center of values of secular culture organized on the basis of the idea of harmony: an architectural and park ensemble, art and natural science collections, a perfect library. My uncle's artistic taste allows us to include elements of religious culture in this form: the wedding ceremony takes on an additional solemnity, "Latin spiritual hymns sparkle like precious stones in the golden ring of an enlightened secular society" (336). The heroine conveys her impression in almost the same words used in the first half of Confessions to describe a state conducive to religious experience: "I somehow became very quiet and focused inwardly" (329).

The values of high aesthetic culture and scientific knowledge are once again revealed to the heroine, and thus her education is completed. The acceptance of these values alienates it from pietism and gernguterism, just as religiosity does not allow it to become completely at home in the circle of the emerging "Tower Society".

In the final lines of Confessions, we see a harmonious religious personality who has recognized and mastered the values of secular culture, who has been able to combine the divergent elements of the cultural life of his era: theoretical and practical, personal and social, sacred and secular.

"I remember the commandments unsteadily, I do not make anything a law; an inner gravity guides me and guides me to the right path; I freely follow my own concepts and know neither constraint nor repentance. By the grace of the Lord, I know to whom I owe this happiness, and it is only with humility that I think of the grace that has been bestowed on me... " (343).

Allowing the reader to feel the sublime structure of the" beautiful soul "of the heroine, Goethe thereby destroys her apparent loneliness in the culture of his era: concentrating, organizing in a certain way the essential features of von Klettenberg and other" religious virtuosos "(M. Weber) Since that time, her image has become a "universal historical model", an "epochal character" (Ginzburg)35, which opens the door to religion.-

35. See: Ginzburg L. Ya. O psikhologicheskoi proze [On psychological prose], p. 21.

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young people have new opportunities for more or less conscious "self-building".

Conclusion

A thorough analysis of this text-which undoubtedly requires, in addition to psychological approaches, also approaches from the field of literary studies and aesthetics-promises to be very productive for understanding the peculiarities of religious life in the middle and second half of the XVIII century.

Goethe shows the history of the development of the individual, for whom religion becomes not an obstacle, but the basis of a person who is aware of his uniqueness, who builds productive relationships with the world and other people, having a sense of self-esteem and inner freedom. The combination of these qualities allows us to speak of religious individualism as the main characteristic feature of the heroine's consciousness, which undoubtedly makes her a person of her time: having reached adulthood, realizing Kant's commandment "sapere aude", but at the same time not losing an intimate relationship with God as an"Invisible Friend". In the context of just such an attitude, outside of any external forms and associated authorities, it lives the main elements of Christian dogmatic consciousness.

It should be noted that Goethe portrays a specific type of Modern female religiosity. This type, which is characteristic of women of high social status and level of education, is quite widespread in the culture of the XIX-XX centuries, finding its embodiment both in life and in literature. Its outstanding and ordinary representatives still play an important role both in the history of religious consciousness and in the history of gender, in the implicit but significant social transformations of our time.

A number of characteristic features of the heroine's religiosity allow us to refer to her image when clarifying the genealogy of many characteristic features of modern spiritual life. A consistent attitude towards overcoming authoritarianism calls into question the value of religious tradition. The heroine actually creates her own "individual religious discourse" that serves her existential needs. Despite the fact that Eastern traditions are absent from her intellectual outlook, her willingness to see valuable traits

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It allows us to speak about the complex correlation of integrity and "patchwork" in her consciousness 36. Its religiosity is often closer to what is called "spirituality" in modern discourse, as opposed to institutionalized religions.37 A productive study of these phenomena may well include an analysis of their representations in "psychological prose" at various levels of the organization.

Not least of all, "Confessions" are important for understanding the religious life of the great writer, and through it - his era. Goethe, of course, was not an Orthodox Christian, but in this case he tried, based on his rich experience of personal communication with the most prominent representatives of the religious life in Germany of his time, to propose a model of religious life that would be acceptable to him personally, and thereby answer the question of how Christianity is possible in Germany. the modern world.

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37. In relation to the current situation, this opposition is described in: Kolkunova K. A. "Spiritual, but not religious" respondents in modern research//Bulletin of St. Petersburg State University I: Theology. Philosophy. 2015. Issue 5 (61). pp. 83-95; Stepanova E. A. New spirituality and old religions//Religious studies. 2011. N 1. pp. 127-134. Here is also the main Western literature on the topic.

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