“There can be no repentance without sin”: on the paradoxes of salvation in Rus’ and Byzantium

Viktor Zhivov developed the idea that there existed in Orthodox Christian culture a perception of Salvation as a result of pure chance, luck or a trick. The extreme example of such attitude is the following paradox: “If you don't sin — you cannot repent, if you do not repent — you are not saved, consequently, if you do not sin, you cannot be saved”. Although such sophistry is a Russian invention, we can trace some vivid illustrations thereof among Byzantine “spiritually beneficial tales”.