The Temple Consciousness and Iconic Mindset in the Dimension of Ancient Rus Culture

The article deals with the organisation of the sacred space of the temple-icon and the city as a temple on the example of ancient Rus monuments in the context of the Byzantine cultural and religious tradition. Previously, the positivist model of describing the world did not see the organisation of sacred space as a subject of research. However, in many cases, the analysis of theological concepts or visual forms is insufficient, because some phenomena can be understood only at the level of ideal images (eidos). The structural design of sacred space is a hierotopic project that encompasses all its visible and tangible forms. Icons (A. Rublev’s “Trinity”), churches (Sophia of Constantinople, Sophia of Kyiv, the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery), and cities (Jerusalem, Kyiv) are considered as hierotopic constructs in the article.In the Sermon on Law and Grace by Metropolitan Hilarion, Saint Sophia in Kyiv directly correlates with the Temple of Jerusalem – symbol of New Jerusalem. This correlation is confirmed with dedication over the figure of Mary, Orans of Kyiv, – the quote from King David’s psalm about New Jerusalem where God is, in conch of Sophia Cathedral (Ps. 45:6). Jakob the Monk, an author of Memory and praise to Prince Volodymyr (11th century) calls the capital of Kyivan Rus country the second Jerusalem: ‘Miracle! As 2nd Jerusalem – Kyiv appeared, and 2nd Moses – Volodymyr appeared’. Prince Volodymyr is compared here to prophet Moses who created the Tabernacle with sizes God defined (Exodus 25:9). But the main message is the unambiguous number ‘the second’, which excludes any other mediation. Kyiv directly correlates with Jerusalem and gets its holiness this way.It is concluded that St. Sophia Cathedral, the House of the Wisdom of God, extrapolated its holiness to the sacred city of Kyiv, the Second Jerusalem, and this, in turn, to the sacred state, the Christianised Rus as the country of Sophia, a category not ethnic or state, but cosmic / gracious. In this focus of perception, Kyiv, the Second Jerusalem (profane present), was imagined as a connection between the First Jerusalem (sacred past) and the Heavenly Jerusalem (eschatological future), as declared in written monuments of the time and reflected in the architectural and mural scheme of St. Sophia of Kyiv.