BOOK REVIEW: SHEVCHENKO V. DEDICATION TO HRYHORII SKOVORODA: ON THE OCCASION OF THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE GENIUS SON OF UKRAINE. KYIV, 2024. 79, [1] P., ILL.

Abstract

The book under review is a rhymed interpretation of the creative work of the prominent philosopher, poet, fabulist, teacher, musician, and religious thinker Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda. In parallel with the remarkable artistic and poetic advantages of the work and the melodiousness of its sound, it is worth noting the high culture of presenting the material and its intellectual level. The ‘Dedication...’ distinctly reveals such structural elements of the creative self of the outstanding religious thinker as ‘Hryhorii Skovoroda and Jesus Christ’, ‘Hryhorii Skovoroda and the Bible’, ‘Hryhorii Skovoroda and ancient philosophy’, ‘Skovoroda’s image of the fountain’, etc. A major place in the work is occupied by the ‘horizontal’ theme. It focuses on the complicated spectrum of Skovoroda’s relations with his community, which consisted primarily of people with whom fate brought Hryhorii Skovoroda together during his time as a private teacher and teacher at the Pereiaslav and Kharkiv colleges. The concluding part of the rhymed ‘Dedication...’, in which the celebrant appears in the ranks of the chosen of God as a prayerful and heavenly intercessor for Ukraine, is a real hymn to the life and glorification of the thinker’s memorable works. The most striking is the heuristic interpretive approaches and the rich arsenal of artistic and poetic means of expression. Skovoroda’s philosophy in all its problematic and thematic diversity is a much deeper phenomenon than it might seem at first sight. It stimulates deep theological reflection and is able to meet the most sophisticated spiritual and intellectual demands of the time and its iconic expressors. In any case, the iconic theology of the great thinker, the language of his symbols, intertextual readings of the biblical narrative, and efforts to overcome the exclusivist psychology of Orthodox theology and other aspects of Skovoroda’s philosophy provide much material and grounds for this statement. By considering Skovoroda as a man of God who acquired a mystical experience and chose as his life credo the pious attainment of the mountain of holiness, where happiness is without measure and love without end, Taras Shevchenko succeeded in ‘catching’ the wave of immortality. In any case, his ‘Dedication’ can be perceived both as a confessional story about the Eternal, about the everlasting and about eternity, and as a personal confession about what H. Skovoroda was an ardent expressor and zealous advocate. I am convinced that the book under review can take a prominent place among the best achievements of national Skovoroda studies.