In this paper the notions of studying and understanding is differentiated within the modern humanities. This differentiation is used both in the interpretation of the history of Russian literature and in the interpreting of works of Russian literature. Well-known in cross-cultural psychology etic and emik approaches are considered as methodologically important poles of interpretation of ‘one’s own’ and ‘another’s’ culture in general and literature in particular. For example, the terrestrial life of Christ can be explained very differently depending on whether we are looking at it from the apostolic point of view or as legalists and Pharisees. The same can be said about the description of evangelic texts in Russian culture. Examination of a literary text in the context of the Christian tradition is an important task of the historical poetics that addresses Russian literature. New categories of the literary criticism are declared, those that are supposed to emphasize in the analysis the presence of the Christian tradition in the subtext. The Christian tradition has undergone transformations, metamorphoses and pseudomorphoses, which cannot be ignored while constructing the new history of Russian literature.