Пожилой Державин: Ода ‘Христос’ (1814)

This paper is about Derzhavin's ode ‘Khristos’, which he wrote in 1814, two years before his death and thirty years after his ode ‘Bog’. These two odes represent two stages of Derzhavin's religious thought. ‘Bog’ represents a time in his life when he was striving to reconcile Western European Enlightenment with the traditional Russian faith. An analysis of the later poem ‘Khristos’ indicates clearly that in his old age, Derzhavin renounced his version of the religious Enlightenment. He now put faith above reason and the Scripture above modern science, thus returning to his religious roots.