Περὶ οὐρανοῦ: the sky in the works of Vasily Rozanov
The article considers some aspects of the Russian writer V.V. Rozanov’s interpretation of the sky (οὐρανός) as a special area of human reflexive practice. The sky as a visible element of being has been and is of interest for man since ancient times, which enabled Rozanov to compare the modern conception of sky with that of ancient times. The defference between the ancient and Christian attitudes to sky is demonstrated. Rosanov’s articles, included in the books “In the World of the Unclear and Unresolved” and “Reviving Egypt”, which are valuable for researchers of Rozanov’s worldview, are taken as the basis for the study. Rozanov’s deconstruction aimed at the “restoration of rights” of people to participate in real life, in which gender and heaven are key, is addressed mainly to readers, so it seems difficult, if possible, to grasp “Rozanov’s cosmology”. The publicistic style and transient nature of his literary style present an objective difficulty. However, Rozanov’s outlook is interesting because it fits into the search for the former meanings carried out by a number of Russian philosophers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author has attempted to point out several subjects that shed light on the logic of Rozanov’s existential inquiry realized in the question about sky. Rozanov did not develop a special metaphysics of sky, comprehending the heavenly through the problem of gender and sexual love and striving not so much to depose the religions that hid the sacredness of heaven behind the sacredness of the Divine, but to undermine the belief of contemporaries that the world can be grasped in the logic of modern discourse.