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← Letters on the Christian Life/Book 1 · Письма о христианской жизни
Chapter 88FeofanPisma.1.88

Письмо 88

The Illusion of Earthly Pleasure

The author addresses the common misconception that earthly pleasures are the intended purpose of human life after the Fall.

And here is something else people keep saying among us: "When the Lord made man, He brought him into paradise and gave him everything so he could enjoy it to the full." After the Fall, even though man was driven out of paradise, the capacity for enjoyment and the means to enjoy remained: flowers to delight the sense of smell, fruits for taste, the starry sky and water for sight, birdsong for hearing; and later, following this same logic, man invented music.1 Indeed, everything in nature speaks of the Creator's goodness! But then people appear who, against His good will, want to restrict everything and put obstacles in the way of it all. They do violence to nature and present God as someone other than He is!"2 So that's where this was heading! And when I wrote you last time that even laypeople shouldn't refuse the austerities of monastic life if they want to be true Christians, I thought I'd already convinced everyone and settled every confusion. What a muddle of ideas this is! And why have you hit a dead end, as if the truth were already on their side? You should have told them: well then, go enjoy yourselves, friends!3 Throw open every gate to pleasure and delight!✦ And revel in the feast of life. .4

The Narrow Path to Life

The Gospel teaches that the path to salvation is narrow and requires active struggle, not a life of ease.

. No one is holding you back, and no one is putting any barriers in your way. Live however you want. You're only being told by the Lord's word that there are two paths the sons of men walk — the narrow path and the wide path — and that the first leads to life, while the last leads to ruin.5 Why not read for yourself what the Gospel says about this: "Enter through the narrow gate," the Lord says, "for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to ruin, and many enter through it." "But the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and few find it!"6 (Mt. 7:13–14). If you want to listen, then listen; if you don't, do as you please. . . This isn't a human invention, but the Lord's commandment. And how!7 The Lord says elsewhere, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for I tell you, many will seek to enter and will not be able" (Lk. 13:24). Strive.8 . . That is,9 is,10 hurry as if you were racing, contending with others for this narrow path and the strait gate, pressing for them against the rest, snatching it from them: "Let me through! Let me through!"✦11 as if you're afraid that even these doors might shut.✦ . . It's not for us to reason why it's this way. The Lord commanded it, and that's that. . . And what kind of Lord is this? ! The kind who, for our salvation, Himself went ahead of us along this narrow path and, after sufferings of every kind, from the Cross committed His spirit to the Lord, saying to the robber crucified with Him: "Today you will be with me in paradise."12 For He is our Savior!

Following the Savior's Footsteps

Salvation requires imitating Christ by taking up the cross, a path followed by all the saints.

. . And everyone who wants to be saved must follow in His footsteps. . . But you can't follow in His footsteps any other way than with the cross: "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mk.13 8:34). And so all who longed for salvation streamed after Him by the narrow and sorrowful path: the Apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs, the monastic saints, and all the saved who now inhabit the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.✦14 Well, what can you do? It's true—there's no other way to be saved, since not a single person among the saved reached eternal rest except by the narrow path. Isn't it better to submit to this necessity, even if it isn't so sweet? After all, suffering forever is worse. Those who want salvation should somehow compel themselves, without making excuses. It's hard—but what can you do? That's why this kind of life is called a struggle, just as the Apostle says of himself: "I have fought the good fight."✦15 And as for those who don't want to—let them do as they please. . . Just let them know that these various constraints aren't a human invention, but a commandment from God. One could add some explanation of why this or that restraint is needed. . . why, for example, why fasting, solitude, the labor of prayer, and so on are necessary. But I’ll set that aside. . .

The Purpose of Present Life

The present life is a temporary vestibule meant for purification and preparation for eternity.

Those who walk the path of salvation know how necessary all this is, and the rest of it too—but for those who are turning away from that path, you might as well not even speak. As for the twisted interpretations you've set down, I think I've already written to you about that.16 In paradise, to be sure, there were many things that could give a person pleasure; but those were only the outer, incidental adornment of paradise life, not the purpose of the human person. The purpose was something else: remaining in Communion with God through freely doing God's will. If paradise had remained the dwelling place of humankind forever, everyone would certainly have enjoyed themselves outwardly as well—but no one would have given it a thought or taken any care about it; that would have been the inevitable shadow of a life pleasing to God.17 So you see, even in paradise they wouldn't have gone on about pleasures or fretted over them; yet among us, having lost paradise, people want to make enjoyment the chief purpose of life. For if enjoyments could lawfully have been the lot of fallen humanity, the Lord would not have driven our fallen first parents out of paradise. And when He did drive them out, He showed by that very act that a life of ease and comfort is not fitting for the fallen.18 For by the Fall the whole order was changed! A brief span of present life, full of sorrows and hardships, has been added to human existence—meant to instruct, correct, and purify a person so as to make them worthy of everlasting enjoyment in another paradise, the eternal one.19 A person's true life lies beyond the grave—or, more precisely, after the resurrection—and the present life is only its vestibule, or a preparation for it. The Lord has also set various outward sorrows and troubles into its order, and various constraining rules have been prescribed for it as measures of purification.20 They used to scrape the martyrs with iron claws, and by that, they prepared them for paradise. This is an image of a person's present life, in which everyone is prepared for blessed eternity by purifying straits, as if by scrapings.21 From this it follows: let a person thoroughly understand and take to heart how short the present life is, and how much fruit its straits and constraints yield for the future life—the endless one—and they won't just stop shunning them; on the contrary, they will ask for them and seek them out as a kind of good. And that is just what everyone who rightly understands the meaning of the present life does. . .

Providence in the Midst of Trials

Hardships and constraints are not signs of God's absence, but tools of His providence to heal our fallen nature.

From the fact that even after the expulsion from paradise some pleasant things have still been left that one can enjoy, it does not follow that constraint of any kind is out of place in the order of this present life. By way of explaining this, the words of our dear mentor Ya.22 K. Amphiteatrov. I happened to be walking through a grove with him. As if in passing I asked: "Why are there such irregularities among the things of nature and the phenomena of the air—and unpleasant irregularities at that?23 Here is a pleasant flower, and beside it a nettle or thorn-apple.✦24 . . And in the sky it's sometimes bright, sometimes overcast?» "What an odd fellow you are!" he answered. These uneven things are a great matter in the economy of God's providence for our salvation.25 Merciful God says this to you: It would be fitting that sweat never be wiped from your worn and exhausted face—but I sometimes let you taste the joy of life; I allow your eyes to brighten, your brow to clear, and a smile to appear on your lips, so that you won't lose hope and fall into despair. It would be fitting that the earth yield you only thorns and thistles—but look, I sometimes command the earth to give you everything in abundance for your enjoyment, so that you won't lose the assurance that it is still possible to recover the bliss you lost. It would be fitting that only storms with thunder and lightning fill the air over your head and around you—but look, you often see the clear sun, with the pleasant cool of morning and the delightful stillness of evening, so that you'll remember that heaven is not altogether closed to you, that My arms are stretched out toward you, and that I am ready to receive you into the heavenly dwellings. That is why some pleasant things in nature have been left even outside paradise—not so that you can make a lifelong merry feast out of these scraps, or build a temple of happiness on earth out of these fragments! But those who love comfort and seek pleasure understand all this differently.26 In their view, any constraint or barrier to pleasure is violence against human nature and contrary to God's will. That it is not contrary to God's will I already said at the start, for the Lord commanded us to walk the narrow way; and that there is no constraining of human nature in this, you'll understand from what follows.✦ When man fell, he not only sank below his intended calling but also took into himself certain principles foreign to his nature—like seeds of every evil that flows from him.27 So, in fallen man, we must distinguish what belongs to his nature from what is foreign to it, even though that foreign element is also present in the human person. All the constraining rules and measures prescribed and arranged by the Lord are aimed solely at these alien evil seeds, meant to crush them, choke them out, and thereby free true human nature. So, constraints aren't violence against our nature, but a beneficial aid to it. They're the same as surgery that cuts off a harmful limb, or a plaster that draws out harmful matter.✦ Our nature is in captivity. By constraining what holds it captive, the Lord wants to set it free—yet we cry out, "Don't touch! Don't constrain!"28 And so, instead of standing up for ourselves, we turn against ourselves.29 And those comforters—what pitiful, lost people they are! It's not that comfort is never fitting in life—no, let us receive everything with thanksgiving from the Lord's hand. The point is that we shouldn't chase after comforts, still less make them the chief aim of life, and least of all rebel against every constraining precept while refusing even to acknowledge that the Lord Himself prescribed it.✦ In that last case, beyond a failure to understand the matter, there is clear hostility toward God.30 Look how far this has gone! And they all still take it lightly. Well, for now nothing much has come of it yet. But what will it be like in the next world? !31 There will be constraint there too—and against your will: bitter, comfortless constraint, because it is useless!32 Lord, have mercy and save us!

Read the original Russian

Да вот что еще беспрестанно говорят у нас: «Господь, сотворив человека, ввел его в рай и наделил всем, чтоб наслаждался вдоволь. По падении хотя человек и был изгнан из рая, но способность наслаждаться и способы к наслаждениям оставлены ему: цветы – услада обоняния, плоды – вкуса, звездное небо и вода – зрения, пение птиц – слуха; далее, по сим мотивам человек изобрел музыку. Да и все в природе говорит о благости Мироздателя! Но являются люди, которые, вопреки благой воле Его, все хотят стеснить и всему положить преграды. Они насилуют природу и представляют Бога не тем, что Он есть!»

Так вот оно куда пошло! А я, написавши вам прошлый раз о том, что не следует отказываться от строгостей монашеских и мирянам, если они хотят быть настоящими Христианами, думал, что всех уже убедил и все недоумения порешил. Какая тут путаница понятий! Да вы-то что ж стали в тупик, будто уж на их стороне и правда! Сказали бы им: ну, и гуляйте, други! отворяйте настежь все ворота утех и наслаждений! И ликуйте на пиру жизненном. .

. Никто вас не стесняет и никаких преград вам не полагает! Живите, как хотите. Вам только говорят словом Господним, что есть два пути, коими ходят сыны человеческие – путь тесный и путь широкий, и что первый ведет в живот, а последний ведет в пагубу. Не угодно ли самим прочитать, как сказано о сем в Евангелии: «внидите узкими враты», говорит Господь, «яко пространная врата и широкий путь вводяй в пагубу, и мнози суть входящии им. Что узкая врата и тесный путь вводяй в живот, и мало их есть, иже обретают его!» (Мф. 7:13–14).

Хотите послушать, послушайте, а не хотите, как хотите. . . Ведь это не человеческая выдумка, а заповедь Господня. Да еще как! «Подвизайтеся внити сквозе тесная врата», говорит Господь в другой раз: «яко мнози, глаголю вам, взыщут внити, и не возмогут» (Лк. 13:24). Подвизайтеся.

. . т. е. , спешите, как бы на перегонки, споря с другими за сей путь тесный и узкия врата, добиваясь их наперекор другим, отбивая его у других: пустите меня, пустите меня! как бы опасаясь, чтобы не затворились и эти двери. . .

А почему это так, не наше дело рассуждать! Так Господь повелел, вот и все! . . Да и какой Господь? ! Такой, Который для спасения нашего Сам впереди нас прошел по сему тесному пути и, после всесторонних страданий, со Креста предал дух Свой Господу, сказав распятому же разбойнику: «днесь со мною будеши в раи». Ведь Он Спаситель наш!

. . И все хотящие быть спасенными должны идти в след Его. . . Идти же в след Его иначе нельзя, как со крестом: «иже хощет по мне идти, да отвержется себе, и возмет крест свой, и по Мне грядет» (Мк. 8:34). И вот все возжелавшие спасения потекли в след Его тесным и прискорбным путем: Апостолы, мученики, святители, преподобные и все спасенные, населяющие теперь град Божий, Иерусалим небесный.

Ну, что ж делать-то! Верно, нельзя спастись иначе, когда между спасенными нет ни одного, который бы достиг места вечнаго упокоения не тесным путем. Не лучше ли покориться сей необходимости, хоть она и не так сладка? Вечно-то мучиться ведь хуже. Уж как-нибудь пусть понудят себя желающие спасения, не отговариваясь. Трудно, да что ж делать! За тем ведь жизнь такая и называется подвигом, как говорит о себе Апостол: «подвигом добрым подвизахся». А те, кои не хотят, как хотят.

. . Только пусть ведают, что разные стеснения не суть выдумка человеческая, а заповедь Божия.

Можно бы приложить какое-нибудь пояснение, почему то или другое стеснение нужно. . . почему, наприм. , нужен пост, уединение, молитвенный труд и проч. Но оставляю сие. . .

Идущие путем спасительным знают, как сие и другое все необходимо, а удаляющимся от него хоть не говори! Что до прописанных вами кривотолкований, то, чай, я вам об этом уже писал. В раю, точно, много было предметов, могущих доставлять удовольствие человеку; но оные составляли прикрасу жизни райской внешнюю, стороннюю, а не цель человека. Цель была другая: пребывание в общении с Богом чрез свободное исполнение воли Божией. Если б рай остался навсегда жилищем человека, то все люди, точно, наслаждались бы и внешно, но никто и думать бы не думал и заботы никакой не имел бы о том: это была бы неизбежная тень Богоугодной жизни. Так видите, и в раю не толковали бы и не хлопотали бы об удовольствиях; а у нас, потерявши рай, хотят поставить наслаждение главною целию жизни. Ведь, если б наслаждения законно могли быть уделом падшаго человечества, не стал бы Господь изгонять из рая падших прародителей. А когда изгнал, то тем показал, что утешная жизнь не к лицу падшему.

Ведь падением изменился весь порядок! К жизни человека прибавлен краткий срок настоящей жизни, полной скорбей и бед, с целию вразумлять, исправлять и очищать человека, чтоб соделывать его достойным наслаждаться вечно в другом, вечном раю. Истинная жизнь человека – за гробом или, вернее, по воскресении, а настоящая жизнь есть только преддверие ея или приготовление к ней. В порядок ея и вложены Господом разные скорби и беды внешния, и предписаны для нея разные стеснительные правила, как меры очищения. Мучеников когтьми железными строгали и тем подготовляли их в рай. Это образ настоящей жизни человека, в коей всякий очистительными теснотами, как бы строганиями, приготовляется к блаженной вечности! Отсюда вот что следует: дайте человеку хорошо понять и приложить к сердцу мысль, как коротка настоящая жизнь и как много плода от ея теснот и узкостей для жизни будущей – нескончаемой, и он не только не станет чуждаться их, напротив, будет просить их и домогаться, как какого блага. Так и делают все, надлежащим образом понимающие значение настоящей жизни.

. .

Из того, что и по изгнании из рая оставлены еще некоторые приятные предметы, коими можно наслаждаться, не следует, что уж никакое стеснение неуместно в порядке настоящей жизни. В объяснение на это припомнились мне слова дорогаго нашего наставника Я. К. Амфитеатрова. Случилось мне ходить с ним по роще. Я будто мимоходом спросил: «за чем это есть такия неровности между предметами природы и воздушными явлениями и неровности неприятные? Вот приятный цвет, а с боку крапива или дурман. .

. и на небе то светло, то пасмурно?» – Экой ты чудак! отвечал он. Эти неровности – великое дело в экономии промышления Божия о нашем спасении. Милосердый Бог говорит тебе сим: следовало бы, чтобы пот никогда не стирался с лица твоего, изможденнаго и утомленнаго, но Я даю тебе иногда вкусить радость жизни, позволяю просветлиться очам твоим, открыту быть челу твоему и являться улыбке на устах твоих, чтоб не потерял ты надежды и не пал в отчаяние; следовало бы, чтоб земля только терния и волчцы произращала тебе, но вот Я повелеваю иногда земле давать тебе все обильно в наслаждение, чтоб ты не потерял уверенности, что есть еще возможность возвратить потерянное блаженство; следовало бы в воздухе над главою твоею и вокруг тебя быть только бурям с громами и молниями, но вот ты нередко видишь ясное солнце с приятною прохладою утра и с восхитительною тишиною вечера, чтоб ты помнил, что небо не совсем заключено для тебя, что объятия Мои простерты к тебе и Я готов принять тебя в небесные обители. Так вот за чем оставлены и вне рая некоторыя приятности в природе, а не за тем, чтобы из сих крупиц составлять веселый пир на всю жизнь, или из сих обломков строить на земле храм счастия! А наши утешники и удовольственники иначе все это понимают.

По их мнению, всякое стеснение и всякая преграда утехам есть насилие природе человека и противно воле Божией. Что воле Божией оно непротивно, я сказал в начале, ибо Господь заповедал идти тесным путем, а что в этом нет стеснения природе человека, уразумеете из следующаго. Когда человек пал, то не только стал ниже своего назначения, но и принял в себя некоторыя чуждыя его природе начала, как бы семена всякаго исходящаго зла. Стало быть, в человеке падшем надо различать то, что свойственно его природе, от того, что несвойственно ей, хотя тоже есть в человеке. Все стеснительные правила и меры, предписываемыя и устрояемыя Господом, направляются исключительно против сих пришлых злых семян, чтоб подавить их, заглушить и тем дать свободу истинной человеческой природе.

Так, стеснения – не насилие природы, а благодетельное пособие ей. Они тоже, что операция для отрезания вреднаго члена или пластырь, вытягивающий вредную материю. Природа наша в плену. Господь, стеснением пленивших, хочет высвободить ее, а мы кричим: не трогай, не тесни! и таким образом, вместо того, чтоб за себя стоять, наветуем на себя. Утешники-то ведь жалкие люди – пропащие! Не то, чтоб уж никакое утешение не было уместно в жизни; да приемлем все со благодарением от руки Господней; но то, что гоняться за ними не следует, тем менее поставлять их главною целию жизни и еще менее восставать против всякаго стеснительнаго предписания, и знать не хотя того, что оно предписано Самим Господом. В последнем, кроме непонимания дела, видно даже Богоборство.

Вот оно куда зашло, дело-то! А они все легко думают. Да теперь пока еще ничего. Что на том свете будет? ! Будет же там теснота и – против воли, теснота горькая и безотрадная, ибо бесполезная! Господи, помилуй и спаси нас!

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.7.13-Matt.7.14 — Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. Matt.7.14 — Because the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
  2. ↩Luke.13.24 — Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
  3. ↩Luke.13.24-Luke.13.25 — Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke.13.25 — Once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' he will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.'
  4. ↩Matt.7.13-Matt.7.14 — Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. Matt.7.14 — Because the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
  5. ↩2Tim.4.7 — I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
  6. ↩Gen.3.18 — And thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.
  7. ↩Matt.7.13-Matt.7.14;Luke.13.24 — Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. Matt.7.14 — Because the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Luke.13.24 — Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
  8. ↩Matt.5.29-Matt.5.30 — If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that one of your members perish than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna. Matt.5.30 — And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body go into hell.
  9. ↩1Thess.5.18 — Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩«по сим мотивам» rendered as 'along these same lines' (i.e., following those sensory prompts); could also be 'on these grounds/motives'.
  2. 2 ↩«насилуют природу» kept as 'do violence to nature' (force/violate nature), not modern 'rape' sense.
  3. 3 ↩гуляйте can mean stroll, carouse, or live it up; rendered as sarcastic permission to revel freely, matching the surrounding irony about pleasures.
  4. 4 ↩Source sentence is only a bare period with no lexical content; left empty rather than inventing wording.
  5. 5 ↩живот here is biblical/Church Slavonic for 'life' (not 'belly'); пагуба rendered as 'ruin' (destruction/perdition).
  6. 6 ↩Что (Church Slavonic) introduces the contrasting half of Mt 7:14; rendered with 'But' to preserve the contrast with the wide way.
  7. 7 ↩Russian «Да еще как!» is an intensifier stressing the force of the Lord's commandment; rendered as emphatic English «And how!» rather than a freer paraphrase such as «And what a commandment it is!».
  8. 8 ↩«Подвизайтеся» is the same imperative used in the Luke 13:24 quotation: not mere wishing, but earnest spiritual contest/effort. Rendered «Strive» to keep the echo of the quoted verb.
  9. 9 ↩Fragment of the Russian abbreviation «т.е.» (то есть, 'that is'), split across s3–s4 by sentence segmentation; rendered as the first half of that gloss.
  10. 10 ↩Second half of «т.е.» (то есть, 'that is'); with s3 yields the explanatory 'That is,' introducing the racing image in s5.
  11. 11 ↩Opening comma continues from the «т.е.» of s3–s4 after «Подвизайтеся» in the previous section: the whole sense is 'That is, hurry…'. «Узкия врата» is Church Slavonic for 'narrow/strait gates'.
  12. 12 ↩всесторонних страданий rendered as 'sufferings of every kind' (all-sided / comprehensive sufferings), not merely physical pain.
  13. 13 ↩Source Scripture quote is Church Slavonic (иже хощет…); rendered into solemn modern English rather than left in Slavonic. Citation continues into the next sentence unit.
  14. 14 ↩святители rendered as 'hierarchs' (Orthodox bishop-saints); преподобные as 'monastic saints' (venerable monastics).
  15. 15 ↩Russian подвиг is the ascetic/spiritual struggle; rendered struggle in the framing clause and fight in the scriptural quotation to match the Apostle's contest language.
  16. 16 ↩«чай» is colloquial for 'I suppose / I dare say'; rendered as natural 'I think'. «кривотолкований» = distorted/misguided readings.
  17. 17 ↩«неизбежная тень Богоугодной жизни»: external enjoyment is cast as the inevitable accompaniment (shadow) of a God-pleasing life, not as life's end.
  18. 18 ↩«утешная жизнь» = a comforting, easeful, pleasure-soothed life; rendered as 'life of ease and comfort' rather than merely 'consoling'.
  19. 19 ↩«К жизни человека прибавлен краткий срок настоящей жизни» frames this present life as a short allotted term added after the Fall, not as the whole of human life.
  20. 20 ↩«стеснительные правила» means rules that hem in / constrain, not merely formal regulations; rendered as constraining rules.
  21. 21 ↩«теснотами» and later «узкостей» are the narrow places / pressures of trial; kept as straits to preserve the sense of constriction rather than mere sadness.
  22. 22 ↩The mentor's name is split across s2–s4 as «Я. / К. / Амфитеатрова» (Ya. K. Amphiteatrov); renderings preserve the abbreviated form as segmented.
  23. 23 ↩неровности: irregularities/unevenness; the next section reuses the word for the unevenness of divine providence. Kept as 'irregularities' for consistency across the anecdote.
  24. 24 ↩цвет rendered as 'flower' (not 'color') from the parallel with крапива (nettle) and дурман (Datura / thorn-apple).
  25. 25 ↩«Экономии промышления Божия» rendered as 'economy of God's providence' (theological oikonomia of divine care), not commercial 'economy'.
  26. 26 ↩«Утешники и удовольственники» are coined pejoratives for people devoted to comfort and pleasure; rendered as 'comfort-lovers and pleasure-seekers' to keep the critical edge without archaic calque.
  27. 27 ↩«начала» rendered as principles (underlying foreign origins/seeds of evil in fallen man), not mere beginnings in a chronological sense.
  28. 28 ↩стеснением пленивших: instrumental—by constraining the captors / what has taken nature captive, not by constraining nature itself.
  29. 29 ↩наветуем на себя: older Russian for bringing harm, charge, or intrigue against oneself; rendered as turning against our own good.
  30. 30 ↩Богоборство rendered as hostility toward God (theomachy / fighting against God), not mere unbelief.
  31. 31 ↩Source sentence is only an isolated exclamation mark, likely a split from the preceding question or following exclamation.
  32. 32 ↩теснота continues the letter's theme of стеснения (constraints/pressures); rendered as 'constraint' for consistency with that thread rather than generic 'distress'.

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