Князь Владимир выбирает православие, или Три спора в «Сказании об испытании вер»

Философский журнал. 2026. Т. 19. № 1. С. 147–162.

Lisanyuk E.

We apply five classifications of argumentative dialogues to the three disputes in the “Tale of the Test of Faith” from the ‘Tale of Bygone Years’ for demonstrating their contribution to solving key problems of argumentation analysis – its detection, reconstruction and evaluation. We employ the classifications of Aristotle, S.I. Povarnin, E. Krabbe and D. Walton, E. Barth and E. Krabbe, I.B. Mikirtumov. Each of them allows us to reveal certain formal, rhetorical, dialectical and pragmatic features of argumentation and dialogues where it is implemented. The results of prince Vladimir’s dispute with the ambassadors of Islam, Judaism, and Catholicism, where the prince rejects their arguments in favor of their faith, and the dispute with the ambassador of Byzantine Christianity, who calls on Vladimir to accept Orthodox baptism, are not enough to substantiate the thesis that Orthodoxy is the best faith for Rus’, because it was not discussed in them and therefore could not prevail. We compare the results of applying five classifications to all three disputes, including the dispute of the chroniclers convincing their readers of the rightness of the choice of Orthodoxy, and show how the argumentation in the first two disputes becomes part of the argumentation in the third dispute, and the chroniclers’ narratives about the values of preserving traditions, the unity of the people, the images of prince Vladimir and princess Olga, become elements of argumentation in support of the idea that rather Orthodoxy is the right choice for Rus’ than the Vladimir’s decision in favor of Orthodoxy.

Keywords: Повесть временных лет, аргументация, убеждение, argumentation, persuasion, споры, Сказание об испытании вер князем Владимиром, dispute theory, The Tale of Bygone Years, теория споров