The gospel motif in the works of N. S. Gumilyov

Historically, the Gospel motif (a message about salvation of the mankind) appeared in various genres of Christian literature. Today in literary studies it becomes urgent to study not only the textual parallels with the Gospel, but also the world model embodied in a literary text. The subject of this study is the Gospel motif and artistc tools of its embodying into the corpus of the N. S. Gumilyov's works. While analyzing Gumilyov's works (poem “Prodigal Son”, poetic drama “Gondla”, poem “The Second Сanzone” and “The townlet”) the debate between the representatives of Russian modernism is taken into account. Having mastered the school of symbolist poetics, Gumilyov in his works implements another conception of earthly existence, not opposed to spirituality. Gumilyov's “Poetic sermon” of the enlightened existence is analyzed in the context of his polemic with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The article shows that the Gospel motif has become one of the key motifs of Gumilyov's works since 1911. It affects the choice of stories and images, brings together the writings of different genres, reveals in their aesthetics the Christian image of the world, values and ethics. In the poetics of the works one can see a conceptual meaning of a newfound Eden as an element of the worldview.