The main theme of this issue plunges us into the innermost depth of all the problems of the sacred and its ambivalent energy, where worship borders on damnation, delight with fear, greatness with laughter, and praise with blasphemy. Blasphemy-or in the old blasphemy, which goes back in meaning to the ancient and then Christian βλασφημηα, blasphemia - is a complex phenomenon that only seems universal and unchangeable: its content has varied infinitely in different cultures and at different times. Blasphemy is a fundamentally borderline phenomenon, a crossroads of meanings and cultural forces, but these boundaries and meanings could be different. Medieval manuals for inquisitors discussed the line between blasphemy and heresy. In Modern times, blasphemy has increasingly shifted towards freethinking and unbelief. Current discussions about insulting the feelings of believers, about the reactions of religious radicals to works of modern art or cartoons are taking place within the framework of the opposition to blasphemy (blasphemy) and freedom of speech. Disputes about blasphemy are disputes about the limits of what is permissible in statements about the sacred; about the boundaries of different physical and social spaces, or even role frameworks within which the same statements are acceptable or unacceptable. What is considered blasphemy in one context is not only permissible in another, but also" canonized " - as a way of affirming the sacred, a reminder of its immutable power, or even a way of renewing it. Such, for example, is the renewing power of pious transgression, virtuous provocation, when the" teasing " of the norm serves to affirm true holiness as opposed to hypocritical piety - as, say, in medieval Byzantine foolishness - page 7"madness for Christ's sake"1. Similar examples of subversive, denouncing "anti-behavior" are also found in Russian religious history2. If you think about it, was not the behavior of Jesus himself a challenge and provocation, deliberat ... Read more