"FROM MORAL FREEDOM TO SAVING LOVE": THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN TEXT IN A.E. Nepomnyashchy’s OUEVRE
This article is devoted to the Christian text, built in the work of the rock bard A. E. Nepomnyashchy (1964-2007). Alexander Nepomnyashchy’s attitude towards God and Church changed throughout his life, so the purpose of this article is to study the transformation of religious issues in the rock poet's work. The results are as follows. In the poet's early poetry, the main motif of the Christian text is the motif of God-abandonment: according to the poet's concept, God is not interested in Man’s earthly affairs and Man himself does not deserve God's love because of his being sinful. When elaborating this motif, A. E. Nepomnyashchy goes two ways. On the one hand, there is an indirect inclusion of this motif, when the reader/listener discovers it through intertextual links, on the other hand, the motif of God-abandonment is declared quite openly. The poet changes his view of the relationship of God and Man in his later works, the quintessence of which is his album “The Bread of the Earth”. Man is able to save himself and to find a new life precisely because of the love of God for him. For A. E. Nepomnyashchy, these symbols of God’s love are bread, the sun and the Virgin. Man, in turn, must gain faith in God, and then eternal life will be prepared for him.