Religion plays a huge role in the life of society and the state. It compensates for the fear of death with faith in eternal life, helps to find moral, and sometimes material support for the suffering. Christianity, if we talk briefly about religion, is one of the world's religious teachings, which has been relevant for more than two thousand years. In this introductory article, I do not pretend to be complete, but I will certainly name the key points.
Origin of Christianity
Oddly enough, Christianity, like Islam, is rooted in Judaism, or rather in its sacred book - the Old Testament. However, only one person gave a direct impetus to its development - Jesus of Nazareth. Hence the name (from Jesus Christ). Initially, this religion was another monotheistic heresy in the Roman Empire. Christians were persecuted just like that. These persecutions played an important role in the sacralization of Christian martyrs, and Jesus himself.
Once upon a time, when I was studying history at the university, I asked the teacher of Antiquity during the break, and they say, how was Jesus in reality or not? The answer was such that all sources indicate that there was such a person. Well, questions about the miracles that are described in the New Testament, everyone decides for himself whether to believe them or not.
Speaking, abstracting from faith and miracles, the first Christians lived in the form of religious communities on the territory of the Roman Empire. The original symbolism was extremely simple: crosses, fish, etc. Why did this particular religion become a world religion? Most likely, the matter is how the sacralization of the martyrs, in the teaching itself, well, of course, in the policy of the Roman authorities. So she received state recognition only 300 years after the death of Jesus - in 325 at the Council of Nicaea. The Roman emperor Constantine the Great (himself a pagan) called to peace all Christian movements, of which there were many then. What is worth only the Arian heresy, according to which God the father is higher than God the son.
Be that as it may, Constantine understood the unifying potential of Christianity and made this religion the state religion. There are also persistent rumors that, before his death, he himself expressed a desire to be baptized ... All the same, the rulers were smart: they would do something at random until the pagans - and then bam - and before death convert to Christianity. Why not?!
Since then, Christianity has become the religion of all of Europe, and then of a large part of this world. By the way, I recommend a post about.
Fundamentals of Christian Doctrine
- The world was created by God. This is the first position of this religion. It doesn't matter what you think, maybe the Universe and the Earth, and even more so life appeared in the course of evolution, but any Christian will tell you that God created the world. And if he is especially knowledgeable, he can even name the year - 5,508 BC.
- The second position is that a person has a spark of God - a soul that is eternal and does not die after the death of the body. This soul was originally given to people (Adam and Eve) pure and unclouded. But Eve plucked an apple from the tree of knowledge, ate it herself and treated Adam, during which the original sin of man arose. The question arises, why did this tree of knowledge grow at all in Eden? .. But I ask this, because, ultimately, from the kind of Adam)))
- The third proposition is that this original sin was redeemed by Jesus Christ. So all the sins that are now are the result of your sinful life: gluttony, pride, etc.
- Fourth, in order to atone for sins, one must repent, observe church regulations, and lead a righteous life. Then, perhaps, you will earn your place in heaven.
- Fifth, if you lead an unrighteous life, you will perish in hell after death.
- Sixth, God is merciful and forgives all sins if repentance is sincere.
- Seventh - there will be a terrible judgment, the Son of Man will come, arrange Armageddon. And God will separate the righteous from the sinners.
Well, how? Scary? There is, of course, some truth in this. You need to lead a normal life, respect your neighbors and not commit evil deeds. But, as we see, many people call themselves Christians, but behave in the exact opposite way. For example, according to surveys by the Levada Center, in Russia 80% of the population considers themselves Orthodox.
But how I don’t go out: everyone eats shawarma in fasting, and they do all kinds of sinful things. What can you say? Double standards? Perhaps people who consider themselves Christians are a little hypocritical. It would be better to say that believers, not Christians. Because if you call yourself such, it is assumed that you behave accordingly. How do you think? Write in the comments!
Sincerely, Andrey Puchkov
). This is the most essential thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.
In other religions, the founder was none other than a preacher of the teachings of the new or old and long forgotten. Therefore, in all other religions, the founder does not have the exclusive significance that the Lord Jesus Christ has in Christianity. There, the founder is a teacher, a herald of God, announcing the path of salvation. And no more. The teacher is only the trumpet of God, the main thing is the teaching that he transmits from God. Therefore, the founder in other religions is always in the background in relation to the teaching he proclaims, the religion he founded. The essence of religion does not depend on him, he is, so to speak, replaceable. Religion would not suffer in the least if another teacher or prophet had proclaimed it. For example, Buddhism could easily exist if it were proved that there never was a Buddha, but that there was another founder. Islam could easily exist if there were someone else instead of Muhammad. This applies to all religions, because the function of the founders of these religions was their teaching, which they offered to people. Teaching was the essence of their ministry.
Could Christianity have been founded, for example, by Saint John the Baptist? He could have spoken about moral teaching, about some truths of faith, but there would have been no most important thing - the Sacrifice! There is no Christianity without the Sacrifice of the Cross of the God-Man Jesus Christ! One can now understand why all the fire of negative criticism was aimed at the abolition of Christ as a really existing person! If He did not exist, if there was not One who suffered for us. Who accepted death on the cross - Christianity crumbles right there. The ideologues of atheism understood this very well.
So, if we want to express the essence of Christianity not just in one word - Christ, then let's say this: it consists in the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection, through which humanity finally received the possibility of a new birth, the possibility of rebirth, the restoration of that fallen image of God, of which we are bearers. . Since, according to the so-called natural nature, we are not capable of uniting with God, because nothing damaged can be involved in God, then for unity with God, for the realization of God-manhood, a corresponding re-creation of human nature is necessary. Christ restored it in Himself and gave the opportunity to do the same to each of the people.
Another important aspect that constitutes the essence of Christianity is the correct spiritual dispensation of a person. And here Christianity offers something that fundamentally distinguishes it from the teachings of all other religions. Firstly, the doctrine of God, and secondly, the understanding of the essence and purpose of the spiritual life of man, then the doctrine of the Resurrection, and much more.
So, the first thing that is unique to Christianity, and not to other religions, is the assertion that God is love. In other religions, the highest that the religious consciousness has reached in the natural order is the idea of God as a righteous, merciful judge, just, but no more. Christianity asserts something special: that God is love and only love. Unfortunately, this Christian understanding of God finds its way to the consciousness and heart of man with difficulty. God-love is in no way perceived by the "old" human consciousness. Moreover, the image of God the Judge is found in the Gospel, in the epistles of the apostles, and in patristic writings. But what is the specificity of the use of this image? It has an exclusively edifying-pastoral character and refers, according to the words of the saint, "to the understanding of more rude people." As soon as the question concerns the presentation of the essence of the understanding of God, we see a completely different picture. It is affirmed with complete certainty: God is love and only love. He is not subject to any feelings: anger, suffering, punishment, revenge, etc. This idea is inherent in the entire Tradition of our Church. Here are at least three authoritative statements. Reverend: “God is good and passionless and unchanging. If anyone, recognizing as benevolent and true that God does not change, is perplexed, however, how He, being such, rejoices over the good, turns away the evil, is angry with sinners, and when they repent, is merciful to them, then this must be said that God neither rejoices nor is angry, for joy and anger are passions. It is absurd to think that the Divine was good or bad because of human deeds. God is good and does only good things. To harm no one harms, remaining always the same. But when we are good, we enter into communion with God by our likeness to Him, and when we become evil, we separate ourselves from God by our dissimilarity with Him. By living virtuously, we are God's, and by becoming evil, we become rejected from Him. And this does not mean that He had wrath on us, but that our sins do not allow God to shine in us, but they unite with tormenting demons. If later, by prayers and good deeds, we gain permission in sins, this does not mean that we have pleased or changed God, but that by means of such actions and our turning to God, having healed the evil that is in us, we again become able to taste God's goodness. So to say, "God turns away from the wicked," is the same as saying, "The sun hides itself from the blind."
Saint: “For that it is impious to consider the nature of God subject to any passion of pleasure, or mercy, or wrath, no one will deny this, even from those who are little attentive in the knowledge of the truth of Being. But although it is said that God rejoices over His servants and is angry with rage at the fallen people, because He has mercy (see:), but in each, I think, from such sayings, the universally recognized word loudly teaches us that through our properties God's providence adapts to our weakness, so that those who are inclined towards sin, through fear of punishment, keep themselves from evil, who were previously carried away by sin, do not despair of returning through repentance, looking at His mercy.
Saint: “When you hear the words “rage” and “anger” in relation to God, then do not understand anything human by them: these are words of condescension. The divinity is alien to all such things, but it is said in this way in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of more rude people.
You can quote as many as you like. They all say the same thing as the apostle James: “In temptation, no one says: God is tempting me; because God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone, but everyone is tempted, carried away and deceived by his own lust.
This is a completely new understanding of God, unique in the history of mankind. Truly, only the Revelation of God could give such a teaching about God, for nowhere in natural religions do we find such a thing. In natural religions this was unthinkable. And although Christianity has existed for two thousand years, even among Christians this is hardly acceptable. The old, passionate man, ruling in our souls, seeks earthly truth that punishes the evildoers and rewards the righteous, and therefore the greatest revelation of God that God is love and only love is in no way accepted by human consciousness. Out of love and only out of love, and not for the "satisfaction" of the so-called Truth of God, not for the "ransom", God sent His Only Begotten Son.
The second feature of Christianity (at present it is more correct to say - Orthodoxy) concerns the essence of a person's spiritual life. Christianity is entirely focused on healing the soul, and not on earning bliss and paradise. The monk points out: "The careful fulfillment of the commandments of Christ teaches a person (i.e. reveals to a person) his infirmities." Let us pay attention to what St. Simeon emphasizes: the fulfillment of the commandments makes a person not a miracle worker, a prophet, a teacher, not worthy of any rewards, gifts, supernatural powers - which is the main consequence of the “fulfillment” of the commandments in all religions and even the goal. No. The Christian path leads a person to a completely different path - to seeing the deepest damage to a human being, for the sake of healing which God the Word incarnated and without knowing which a person is in principle incapable of either a correct spiritual life or acceptance of Christ the Savior.
How different is Christianity from other religions! How short-sighted are those who speak of a common religious consciousness, that all religions lead to the same goal, that they all have a single essence. How naive this all sounds! Only a person who does not understand Christianity at all can talk about it.
In Christianity, "deeds" reveal to a person his true state - the state of the deepest damage and fall: from whatever side you touch me - I'm all sick. Only in the consciousness of this weakness does a person have the right spiritual strength. Then a person becomes strong when God enters into him. How strong did the apostle Peter feel? And what? What does the apostle Paul write about himself? "Three times prayed to God." Result: "My strength is made perfect in weakness." It turns out that only through knowing oneself as I really am, the Lord enters into a person, and then the person really gains strength: “If the sky also falls on me, my soul will not tremble,” said Abba Agathon. But what is promised to man? St. John Chrysostom says: “God promises to lead us not into paradise, but into heaven itself, and he proclaims not the Kingdom of Paradise, but the Kingdom of Heaven.” The monk writes: "The crowns and diadems that Christians will receive are not the essence of creation." The renewed man does not receive something created, he receives God Himself! Deification is the name of our ideal. It is the closest union of man with God, it is the fullness of the revelation of the human personality, it is that state of man when he becomes truly the son of God, God by grace. What a colossal difference between Christianity and other religions!
Perhaps the most important thing that Christianity talks about and what distinguishes it from other religions and without which it is impossible for Christianity to exist is its greatest dogma, expressed in the main Christian holiday, Easter, the dogma of the Resurrection. Christianity says not simply that the Christian soul unites with God, that the soul will experience certain states. No, it asserts that man is a soul and a body, a single spiritual and bodily being, and deification is inherent not only in the soul, but in the soul and body. In a renewed man, everything changes, not only the soul, mind, feelings, but the body itself.
Christianity speaks of the resurrection as a fact that will follow as a result of the Resurrection of Christ. Every Christ cannot but resurrect! Remember how defiantly the sermon of the Apostle Paul sounded in the Areopagus about the Resurrection. The sages took it as a fairy tale, a fantasy. But Christianity claims this as one of its central dogmas. The message of the Resurrection has permeated the entire Christian consciousness for all 2000 years. The greatest saints, who have attained the illumination of God and enlightenment of the mind, affirmed this truth with all their force and categoricalness. It is unique in the history of the religious consciousness of mankind.
Christianity is a religion that is not outside of us and which we can contemplate as a kind of speculative object, considering the similarities and differences between it and other objects. Christianity is human by nature. But a person becomes a Christian only when he sees that he cannot get rid of the passions and sins that torment him. Remember, in Dante's "Hell": "My blood burned with envy, that if it was good for another, you would see how I turn green." Here it is, torment. Any passion brings suffering to a person. And only when he embarks on the Christian life, then he begins to see what sin is, what passion is, what horror it is, he begins to see the need for God the Savior.
In human consciousness there is a constant struggle between the old and the new man. Which God will man choose: the God of Christ or the God of Antichrist? One God will save and heal me, will give me the opportunity to become a true son of God in union with the Son of the Word incarnate. Another falsely promises me all the blessings of the earth for a moment of time. What do you choose, man?
But in any case, remember that not rose-colored glasses and not the “wisdom” of an ostrich burying its head in the sand in case of imminent danger will save you from the world of passions (i.e. suffering) living in the soul, but only a courageous and honest look at oneself yourself, to your so-called strengths and the realization of your deep spiritual poverty will reveal to you true salvation and the true Savior - Christ, in whom all your blessings of eternal life are contained.
LECTURE 2
Today I am thinking with you to consider a question that, of course, can never be considered, but we will try anyway. About, what is christianity? The question that you all know so well, you probably already got tired of before and suddenly the same thing again. But you know, we really study so many disciplines, so many different issues related to Christianity, and when they ask: well, could you state the essence. Still, what is the essence of your faith? Here, perhaps, a difficulty may arise. Now in our time, it is especially important to talk about what is interesting about our faith? What is its core? What follows from this belief? Why is ours exactly like this, based on this faith? So, today I will try to talk about the most important thing. Then we will talk about other things. And now, for now, I’ll say this: so our topic today is “The Essence of Christianity.”
Still, however, he did not say one remark. The essence of Orthodoxy, if possible, and we will talk about this as a topic, is different from the essence of Christianity. Not at all because different things Initially, these are not different things at all. Same. However, now, after two thousand years, Orthodoxy began to be considered as one of the directions of Christianity. One of the branches, along with many others, and precisely in this perspective, we already have to talk about the specific features of Orthodoxy, but this is natural another time. And now let's try to talk about the essence of Christianity. What do all religions talk about? What are they calling for? And what do all worldviews say in general?
To answer this question, I think you just need to look at yourself a little. To look at others from this point of view, but what is a person looking for, what does he aspire to, what does he want? I'm not talking about our momentary desires, of which we have countless. It's not about that at all. And if we still think about the most important thing, that these are our every minute desires and desires, from where do they come from? And where are they going? Where is our whole soul striving by itself? I think there is a word to express it. Here, from the very beginning to the very end of it, i.e., humanity and man. He always seeks and strives for what is called, if we take a philosophical term, then we can say that he strives for the good. If you take the term, so to speak, well, worldly or something, he always strives for happiness. This blessing, happiness, bliss in the religious lexicon is often called the Kingdom of God. And remember, by the way - the Kingdom of God is not paradise. Where is the Kingdom of God? According to the Gospel, there is inside you. In philosophy, this idea was expressed in various ways - the good. I don't want to talk about it now, I'll just mention it. Philosophers always talk about searching for truth, but what is truth? I hope you know, Pilate did not know this, well, how could he know. You know the truth, what it is, what really is, this is the truth, what is and what is not, then what kind of truth is it, if not. This is a hoax, not the truth. Truth is what "is".
But what is "is"? You will notice that when we come to some complex machine there, we want to know how it works. And what needs to be done here and how to do the right thing so that it works in the right direction, and not against me. And then I’ll press something else and she will go to me, and even crush me. That's the truth, what it is, is the knowledge of the right, well, the direction of life, if we touch life, the right functioning, when we touch the operation of some machine. Correct, i.e., correct knowledge of the laws as they are, so as not to be mistaken. For, acting according to the law, i.e., following the laws of our being, I will apparently not only feel good, but I can get a lot of things useful for myself as a result of this right life. If I suddenly suddenly, not knowing, start to act contrary to the laws, it is quite clear what consequences can take place. Look, for example, all the crises that exist, for example, the most vivid and understandable, the environmental crisis, what is the reason? Human. Wrong way of development, what we call progress. We treat nature incorrectly, we use it incorrectly, we develop our civilization incorrectly, we do something wrong, we poison the atmosphere, water, pump out resources, harm ourselves, violate the ozone layer, etc. It turns out that when we act not true, we can expect, and it will certainly be, the most negative consequences. Oh, how great is the knowledge of truth!
Knowing what really is, and how it is when we know it. Imagine if we really all know well: what is being? What is in line with our nature? What is our nature? Then, apparently, on this path, we can only achieve good, because satisfaction, the correct satisfaction of human needs brings him good. I have been talking about these things for so long, for a very simple reason, I want to show that the philosophical search for truth, the human desire for truth and justice, the desire of every living being for pleasure, and, ultimately, everything that is called these concepts. It is one and the same. It all lies in the idea or concept of goodness, bliss, happiness. Here is that center, that main point, to which everything is directed, the forces of the human soul. And so every human worldview, take the history of philosophy, every religion, it is precisely this that has its center, focus, core, I think that no one will object to this at all. This is just a property of human nature, but on the other hand, proceeding from this, and this is very important, proceeding from this, we can discuss with you how this issue is resolved and, i.e., as this Christianity understands, this is happiness, this is good, to which man aspires with his soul.
What is special about Christianity, how does it differ from other views? There are things in Christianity that we will not find anywhere, and things are not some, you know, elements, cogs, no - no, fundamental things, so serious that it is impossible to overestimate them. The first thing with which this is connected is not even with the idea of God, no - no, the idea of God is present in many religions, not even with the idea of eternal life, this thought is present in different forms. There are other things, and the first thing I would like to say is the understanding of man.
That's just what I was in Dubna, some kind of there, apparently a follower of the Sikhs gave me just such a collection with a large portrait, one of the saints of the Sikhs of our time. Now he is in Moscow and would very much like to meet here and with us, I say, well, it would be possible, but we'll see. A certain Baba Sikh and another third word, well, in general, Babaji, so, simply put. I looked, so something, some articles, his appeal to the peoples of Russia, his appeal to the whole world (this is quite interesting. Can you imagine, a person all over the world addresses), to the peoples of Russia and, in particular, what does he write there? Actually, there is nothing surprising for me. But I would like to draw your attention to what is fundamental, perhaps the doctrine, from which all subsequent conclusions flow. This is a statement that, by its nature, a person is that person, a real person is healthy, but a number of factors of a different order interfere with the implementation of this soundness. Moreover, they violate this sanity and make him unhappy in this world. Why am I talking about this? Christianity presupposes an unprecedented understanding of man, in the history of all-religious consciousness, if this Baba Sikh says that religion is one, and all other religions, i.e., the whole set of religions, is something else, as soon as disciplines, separate some school. That the leaders, organizers, founders of religions, they are all one, and this is the conclusion, then I will tell you he is deeply mistaken, so they do not know. You know, it was interesting to read it, why, this is what we call natural understanding of God. They are natural religions, having no revelation of how they think, what they feel: “in general, we are good, but we don’t know how to live, we need to know how to live and he tells us how, so that we become all good.” Christianity asserts something else, by the way, a very unpleasant thing, and I fully understand why Christianity is not so often accepted sincerely, for the most part it is accepted as usual, but very rarely accepted sincerely with full understanding. Here is one of the reasons. Christianity claims that man was created by God. Many religions acknowledge this with pleasure and say that he was created beautifully - magnificently! But further, that they claim that due to the fall, the nature of man has changed profoundly, to put it mildly, to put it more strongly - the nature of man is struck at the root. Her life is smitten at the root, she has become mortal, and the fact that we see the manifestation of death in ordinary life, in fact, is nothing but a visible expression of that defeat of human nature that has occurred in general, in man. This defeat, this damage, this distortion is called by various terms. Well, in theology, the term “original sin” has been adopted, which means that in this case we are talking not about sin as an act committed by the forefathers, but as about the state into which our human nature fell as a result of falling away from God. For more such, well, perhaps a vivid perception of this moment, I give such an example, what will happen to a person, with a diver who plunged into the waves of a beautiful sea and who is connected by a hose, with a ship so that he can breathe and eat oxygen? What will happen to him if he is indignant at the fact that he is required to rise from above or do both. Take a knife and cut the hose to become free. "Oh, give me, give me freedom." This is exactly what happened, says Christianity, there was a rupture of the living connection between man and God, what kind of connection? Spiritual! To understand what is spiritual? You know how sometimes a break with a person happens, we know everything seems to be nothing, the break is suddenly, he becomes alien.
This, unfortunately, sometimes happens in marriage, when people suddenly feel that they are completely strangers, they were relatives and suddenly happened, well, it doesn’t matter about the reasons, we don’t talk, they suddenly become completely strangers. This feeling is internal, it cannot be expressed in words, but it is a fact and they say that this fact is terrible. So here there was a violation of the internal connection between man and God. This hose that connects a person to the source of life turned out to be broken. What follows? We can imagine that irreversible processes are taking place in the body, I emphasize irreversible, beyond a certain limit they are not reversible. And then it's already a disaster. Christian doctrine describes what happened to a person, it says that there was a splitting of the properties of the soul into independently functioning parts. In particular, they talk about the three most important properties: mind, heart and body. For some reason, here, a number of fathers point out this most of all, although he writes that humanity turned out to be, human nature, fragmented into thousands of parts. That's right - everything is fragmented. But the main components, we will say, are these three, sometimes they are divided into two, as spiritual, or soul and body. The fact itself, in general, is such that this teaching of the fathers does not come from some kind of philosophical, I would say, speculation, no, our life itself, real life, testifies that in our human nature there is some kind of radical and strange flaw. This is splendidly evidenced both by the history of mankind and the life of each individual person. What is the history of mankind? I will now try to show that the teaching of the fathers about the splitting of human nature is not just some kind of idea, it is not an idea, but if you want, it is a fact confirmed by the entire history of human existence on earth, as far as we know it. What, I repeat, is humanity always striving for? well, of course, fortunately, naturally, in what it sees happiness in prosperity, in peace, in harmony, in justice, injustice always causes indignation, however, it is quite obvious what has been happening to humanity throughout history, just the opposite, brother kills brother, Cain kills Abel already, why? What's the matter? Envy, wow, envy, what is it? Little earth, full, only this is paradise, it was still earthly, envy is a terrible thing, about which, after how many millennia, he writes: “And no more pernicious passion was born in the souls of men than envy.” Kills his own brother, then - more.
It is enough to read to us the history of the ancient world, the Bible, which speaks of nations, then of the Jewish people, it is enough to read the stories of other peoples: it is amazing that incessant wars, terrible exploitation, violence, slavery, murders. My God, civilization replaces civilization, in what way, through violence and wars. Humanity, where is the mind? It turns out that everyone is looking for happiness, in what way? Creepy. And if we take the life of an individual, in my opinion, there’s nothing better to say here, everyone knows when these passions and passions completely darken our life, completely destroy it, from nothing everything seems good for a person - no, he envies and suffers, conceited (he is not praised), and suffers. Well, you eat to your health, no, you have to overeat so that the poor man does not know what to do. They carry him out on a stretcher, sorry, is it that a smart person does this?
Yes... Where is the mind, where is the mind? Why, what, but there is no mind at all, the most insane turns out to be the most intelligent creature. You perfectly understand that there are countless illustrations here. All of them testify to the same amazing madness of the human mind. About the amazing heartlessness of the human heart, about the amazing mockery of our body over our mind, over our conscience. Indeed, like a pike, cancer and a swan, our mind, heart and will turned out to be. The human being turned out to be really fragmented, sick. Christianity claims a terrible thing. The one about whom they say: "Man - it sounds proud," turns out to be not only not proud, but ashamed to talk about this creature, he is naked, and poor, and miserable. And the saddest thing is that this is even worse than what has been said, the saddest thing is that a person does not see this, he sees himself as good, he sees himself as healthy and proves this at every step with all his behavior, all his reactions to any remarks, to any remark to be made to him. Christianity says that this is the state of defeat of man, of human nature, and each of us is the bearer of this nature. After all, we are not talking about personal sin, but about the defeat of nature. And now Christianity says that each of us, each of the people, being the bearer of this defeat, finds himself in such a state that he is not able to change it. You can hold back, you can decorate something, something for a while, maybe for a long time, but all this lives in me, if I don’t get annoyed now, it doesn’t mean that in a moment I won’t be a completely different person. So that even no one can know, that's what Christianity says. Here is what it claims. It can be said that this damage that occurred as a result of the fall of man, it is already hereditary in nature. Christianity says - yes, this is the sting of death, this is a figurative expression, or rather, that bad nature that arose in Adam and Eve in the first people, after the fall, it has already become the norm of each of their subsequent descendants. It is a fact. A fact, on the one hand, of the Christian creed, on the other hand, confirmed by the whole life of the world.
That's what Christianity is about. This distinguishes it from all religions. And of all systems of thought, this idea of original sin is completely absent in other religions. She is not. It is completely unacceptable to a non-religious consciousness, this thought does not exist, but you think, just imagine, a person is already stricken with a deadly disease, but he does not believe in it, he makes grandiose plans, what will come of it all? A philosopher looks from the side and says: “Yes, you are a poor person. You have nothing left to live, and what are you doing? And imagine if the psyche is affected and he is delirious there, this patient, and God knows what he is saying, but what will a healthy person say? "My God, what are you doing?" Our progress, which humanity is so proud of, finally led us to that state, which is now spoken of with great tension, spoken of as something terrible. If humanity is now unable to move to other rails of life, then we face inevitable death, in many ways of life. That's the situation. Not a single person can change himself, to remake - no, it is impossible to heal. That is why Christianity claims that in order to change this situation, not human, but superhuman forces are already required. If the Divine does not come and help us get rid of this hereditary disease, then humanity will face death, death, not just bodily death, but spiritual death. Who can deliver me from passions? So what can you do to not be jealous? It's easy to say don't envy, but how can I not envy, well, how can I not envy if he was awarded, look how, but I'm not. Well, if you don’t envy here, you will turn green, however, it’s all easy to say, but difficult to do. So, the first thing Christianity proceeds from is the understanding of a person of his present state, as a damaged being. And this is where the most important Christian dogma comes from. Which expresses the whole essence of Christianity and on which Christianity stands and without which Christianity simply does not exist. Christianity claims that Christ the God-Man is none other than God, God the Word, or the Son of God. He incarnates, i.e. He takes upon himself, (you hear upon yourself!), this very human nature, sick, mortal. And through suffering, through death, restores this human nature. In myself. This restoration in oneself has colossal consequences for all for all subsequent life, for a possibility opens up that was not in humanity until that time. He gives the possibility of spiritual birth, to every person who understands who he is, who accepts Him: to receive the seed of new life in himself.
If our present state, deeply painful and mortal, was, so to speak, well: a natural consequence of the fall of the first people, and we are born in it without any consent and our will and our will. That is already a birth, a new spiritual birth, it is associated with the consciousness and will of a person. It is connected with his personality, with his personal conversion and with what he recognizes as truth, and only if he recognizes the truth in Christ, if only he sees the Savior in him, then this spiritual birth can take place. Then the process of rebirth begins in this person, the process of spiritual restoration, the process of that life, which makes it possible for a person to join the true good. After all, the good or the happiness that humanity is looking for, it turns out to be simply amazingly insane. Here is one more proof of, perhaps, a deep damage to a person. Astonishingly insane. Look at what strengths of soul and body, mental and spiritual, people spent on achieving so-called happiness, how many crimes they often commit in order to achieve happiness. Don't they really understand such a simple thing: man, you don't know at what moment you will leave this earth, this world. Who knows? Name it? No one knows. So where is your mind? When you know for sure that you will die, knowing for sure, you will give all your strength, breaking the laws, both human and Divine often, to acquire what bursts in the blink of an eye, like a soap bubble, where is such a mind? Every day you bury people and you know. Madness. It is impossible to name the state of a person before execution, before the death penalty, when someone gives him candy, wow, what bliss, incredible. Isn't this what humanity is doing when, before death, it wants to acquire that, the other, the third, it wants to enjoy that, the other, the fourth, before death! Where is the mind? It is clear that there are only two, fundamental worldviews - there is God and eternal life, or there is no God and there is no eternal life, but if in the first case the meaning is revealed, then in the other case everything is closed, and only gloomy nonsense remains. Remember, we talked with you, the credo of atheism “Believe a person, eternal death awaits you” and you don’t know at what point. So, Christianity, in contrast to this madness, (truly madness!) Now you begin to understand why the apostles write that “the wisdom of this world is madness before God”, really madness. Christianity speaks of a completely different thing, it says yes, there is good, there is this happiness, life and the meaning of life can only be in life, and this life opens here when there is an opportunity to conquer death. Now we do not touch on those moments, how, what and why we are now talking about the essence. Christianity proclaims that Christ conquers death in Himself, with His Resurrection He testifies to this and gives every person the opportunity to partake through Himself of eternal life. If there is a prospect of eternal life, then I believe: there is happiness. If eternal life is happiness, if they tell me that I, now they gave me to hold a piece of gold, hold it, well, hold it, now in a minute we will take it away from you.
And who calls this happiness? I'll say, excuse me, what kind of sadist is he who mocks me. They put the royal crown on you, well, how good, yes, well, that's enough, my dear, and now let's head along with the crown. Christianity, speaking about eternal life and speaking about Christ, as the source of this immortality, opens the way for a person to the source of goodness, to the source of happiness, and it turns out that it does not lie in these things, this world, for all this will pass, it lies in the depths of human souls.
The kingdom of God is within you.
Here is how it is achieved, how this happiness is acquired, this is a blessing, what means are required for this, what is given by Christ, what is required, this is a different question about this, I hope we will talk with you, but now I would like just this , to tell you about this, that Christianity is unique in the sense that it speaks of a completely different nature of understanding and happiness itself and the means to achieve it. Christianity also warns every person, look at yourself, know that your nature is sick. Know, do not trust your thoughts to everyone. The only rule you should have is treat the other person as the gospel says, by doing so you will do the right thing. By doing this, you loosen the soil in your soul, on which the fruits of the good that every person strives for can grow. That's the whole point of Christianity, and you know how many misinterpretations there are. Oh - oh, I think that it will be interesting for us to talk about them, because sometimes a positive disclosure of the issue, it turns out, is not psychologically sufficient and then it sometimes cannot point out all those sides that simply need to be seen for a better understanding of it . So I want to name you now and talk a little about some things that are connected with a misunderstanding of the essence of Christianity. I would name you several such things, each of which deserves, it seems to me, attention. The first, historically the first, and which remains important in the sense of its knowledge, remains to this day a deep delusion regarding Christianity as a kind of continuation of the Old Testament religion, even Judaism. You remember, Christianity was called a Jewish sect, Roman historians understood Christianity in this way. And in the beginning, it was really difficult, because all the preachers, in the majority of cases, turned out to be Jews, Jews. At the very beginning, literally, they even, many of them, remember the apostles, even visited the Temple in Jerusalem, even made sacrifices, the process was still in its infancy. There was not yet a clear understanding and a distinctly expressed idea of what had happened. And many saw in Christianity something other than the continuation and development of the Old Testament religion. However, further history showed very interesting things. Firstly, and the most unpleasant thing can be: Judaism rebelled against Christianity, rebelled with all the means that only it had at its disposal. Not only there, in Palestine, but the ambassadors from Palestine reposed in all nations, wherever there were scattered Jews. There are very interesting things, in his conversation with Tryphon the Jew, rabbinic Judaism is reported sending messengers everywhere and these messengers reach not only the Jews of the Diaspora, they go further, go to the rulers, the cruel destruction of Christianity. By the way, about what, now for some reason they don’t talk, you see, it’s not customary, they only talk about something else from the oppression of the Jews by the Christian church. There were terrible persecutions of Christianity. A conflict arose, Justin the Philosopher says that “nevertheless, we do not hate you, we do not hate you either, and we pray for you that God will nevertheless reveal the truth to you,” but the fact remains so. At present, the situation remains very strange.
When the Reformation took place, Judaism raised its head, you know that Protestantism was its own ... by the way, one of the first was the fight against icons, with images of Calvinist churches, and now if you go in, I just went in, they are no different from a synagogue, just nothing, an appeal to the Old Testament is intensifying and now it can already be stated that Western Christianity is completely and completely under the influence of the Old Testament, all Christian truths are interpreted through the Old Testament, especially moral truths, you will not find “irina” in the West, you will not find only “shalom ", well, peace, both, and "shalom" peace and "Irina" peace. Christian organizations called “shalom” are not “irine”, but these things are completely different things, completely different concepts. The Old Testament world is earthly prosperity, “shalom” is earthly prosperity, what kind of prosperity if there is war, no prosperity. “Irina” speaks of the spiritual world, thanks to which only true and earthly prosperity is possible, not pagan, but true, completely different things, at present there is a very strong Judaization of Christianity in the West in this regard, the Pope of Rome is especially zealous, the impression is that he is at the head of all. Some of his statements are simply amazing even what he says: either a person does not want to think, or he bows before that financial force, but it is simply pitiful and not pleasant. Under the Vatican, there are papal councils, one of the papal councils for Christian unity, another papal council for dialogue with other religions. There are two papal councils dealing with these issues; a dialogue is being conducted with Judaism; in the papal council for Christian unity, i. again it turns out: Christianity and Judaism, it turns out one and the same. We return to the first century, but the question arises, why? The answer is, we have one Bible, so sorry, is it just the Bible? The essence of Christianity is Christ. For Judaism, Christ, that is, who is he? false mission, do you hear? With one Bible, so how then can we reason here, it's a completely different religion. Babaji says that Jesus is a prophet, it is clear that these are other religions, they do not say that he is a false mission, it even says here - a false mission or from the speech of John Paul 2 in the Vatican in October 1997. there was a symposium “Roots of anti-Judaism in the Christian environment” and this is what he said there: “this people is called and led by God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Therefore, his existence does not belong only to the sphere of natural or cultural phenomena, in the sense that man, through culture, develops his natural resources. (that is, it means, like all, all other peoples), the existence of this people. This fact is supernatural, this is the people of the covenant and it always remains so, and no matter what, even when people are not faithful, what is it?
Poor Christ, when he says: "They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and the sons of the kingdom will be driven out." He did not understand anything, it is clear when he said: “here is your father the devil and you create the lusts of your father,” how he was mistaken. Or the parable of the vinedressers who understood what was at stake, that the Pope of Rome does not know this, right? Have you ever read Holy Scripture? When such terrible things, even if the people are not faithful, then the crucifiers of Christ, it turns out, still remain?
Judas means that he who betrayed Christ does not care for him, is God faithful to him? What he says? So this is one of the deep misconceptions. I don't know if it's really a delusion or if it's just a conscious act. It is God to judge him, but we are talking about a delusion now, one of the deepest delusions: to understand Christianity as some kind of continuation of the Old Testament. The Old Testament was only “a shadow, hear, an image of future blessings”, an imperfect image, therefore John Chrysostom says: “The Old Testament lags behind the New, like the earth from the sky.” But the fact is that in the 20th century, again after two thousand existence of Christianity, it is again, in the West, at least, we do not yet have this, but it will be, but not yet. Christianity is again regarded as a Jewish sect, with which I congratulate you. The second understanding of Christianity, the wrong understanding, is connected with its philosophical perception, Christianity is considered simply as a new doctrine, a new teaching, which informed mankind of a mass of new ideas that it simply did not know. We'll talk about this later. Indeed, this teaching is a unique fact in relation to so many truths proclaimed by Christianity. The mere understanding of God as one God in the Trinity already speaks of something, i.e. Christianity, this is the new teaching that should transform the world. Why is this perception of Christianity wrong? For a very simple reason, the biggest fact is what?
That most Christians simply don't know anything about this doctrine. They know about Christ Jesus, they know the Cross, they know something, the very little, they don’t know any theological subtleties, and they don’t even see a special, some kind of meaning, or something deep, philosophers and thinkers admire, the people simply believe. How many martyrs we know have become saints without knowing any of these intricacies of the doctrine at all. The point is not at all in the teaching, but in the fact of this supernatural appearance in the world of God himself. Behind the manifestation of God the Word of the Incarnate, another equally colossal manifestation of God, the Holy Spirit, took place, an action which was and remains amazing. Do you remember what happened after the descent of the Holy Spirit, what gifts of the Holy Spirit people received? To the most amazing, they spoke foreign languages, well, this is a different question. I want to say that of course the essence of Christianity is not in teaching. If this were so, Christ would not differ in any way from the same Buddha, from the same Confucius, from the same Mohammed, from the same Zarathustra, from the same Pythagoras or Socrates, etc., or Moses, all the teachings could to present John the Baptist. The essence of Christianity is in the Sacrifice of Christ, which is why the Cross remains the symbol of Christianity. The cross, for it is a symbol of the Sacrifice, is not a doctrine at all. The teaching is what is necessary for the acceptance of this Sacrifice of the Cross, which is combined with the understanding of this Sacrifice of the Cross. We could not understand this Sacrifice of the Cross, if it were not revealed from God to the Trinity, we could not simply understand it. Those. teaching is secondary and Christ is not a Teacher at all in the first place, is he a Teacher? Yes, but not in the first place, first of all, he is the Savior, and the Teacher in the second place, so any other teacher and founder of religion can be replaced, no matter who was the founder. Mohammed or Buddha or another, some disciple, Moses or Joshua there, and in the end what's the difference, no difference. God can speak through everyone. In Christianity, if you say that Jesus Christ did not exist, everything fell apart instantly, it's not about teaching. They would say there was no Christ, but the teaching was presented by Paul, there is no all Christianity, because I repeat once again, the Sacrifice of Christ is the essence of Christianity, and not the teaching of people, any of the prophets could teach. How wrong is the perception of Christianity as the new Law of God, this is the ritual-legalistic perception of Christianity, it is nothing but inertia coming really from the Old Testament and not only from it, from Judaism, but also pagan religions. You know, a person is very impressed, what? Do you want to be saved? I want to. But as? Christianity says that a person needs to change in the image of Christ. It is very difficult, as we have said. I can't beat envy or vanity there, but there is another way. The Church, to help a person, gives a lot of means to help him.
Churches are being opened, divine services are being held, traditions of various divine services are being held, there are prayers, requiems, akathists, all sorts of troparia, rites, and so on. Posts are set, individual rules and so on. All these are means that should have helped a person, in what way? In changing yourself. And so there is such a tendency, these means, means of help, salvation, to be perceived as necessary and sufficient conditions for the salvation of a person, i.e. if I am baptized, I go to church, and there I confess and take communion when necessary, I submit notes, I receive prosphora, I serve prayers, I keep fasts - that's all. And if I still read morning and evening prayers, yes, everything is as it should be. And then don't approach me, why? Because I am the right person, not like the others. I have such a good phrase, I liked it so much, I can’t: “I myself am rubbish, rubbish, but everything goes on like other people.” Amazing. This is a ritual-legalistic perception of Christianity, the reduction of its essence and the fulfillment of this set of all means, forgetting that this is established by the church as auxiliary means for the fulfillment of the commandments, and the commandments are something else. “Antony, you eat little, but I don’t eat at all, you sleep little, and I don’t sleep at all,” the devil says to Anthony, “that’s not how you defeated me,” and Christ said something completely different: “Blessed are the pure in heart,” the pure in heart. This is the ritual-legalistic perception of Christianity, a terrible thing that is especially striking, this is such a primitive popular consciousness, it literally kills a person. It’s easy to become a righteous person here, then trouble sets in, such righteous people are a terrible thing, the main thing is that you can’t do anything with them, it’s not for nothing that they say, holy Satan, exactly, exactly, he does everything, everything is as it should be and don’t go near him. I'll tell you, this is one of the terrible threats to the Christian consciousness, one of the terrible diseases that unfortunately exists in every church, moreover, in every religion, even. We must fight this with all the strength of the soul. You should always know the commandments of Christ. This is what we must fulfill, all church regulations are only aids. Which turn out to be useful only when we consider them precisely as a means for fulfilling the commandments. And what good is it if I fast, eat a minnow, and bite a man to death. What it is? Another misperception of Christianity, do you look meek or not yet meek? Meekness shines from your faces, well then, until the next time.
The Truth of Christianity
Christianity is the only religion that has precisely objective arguments that testify to its unearthly origin, its Divine origin, and therefore its truth, because if it is Divine, then it is true. And so I would like to present the arguments, more or less in full and in a single, whole picture. I have already told you that, in my opinion, and as far as I know, other religions simply do not have such arguments. And therefore, it is precisely the emphasis on this issue that has a very great apologetic, I would say, simply preaching significance for you and me. So, what are the arguments that support the thesis of the Divine origin of Christianity?
historical argument
Christianity arose under conditions of the most severe persecution, its ancestor - the founder - was subjected to the most severe execution and death. What impression this made on the disciples, the Gospel describes well enough. For the sake of Jewish fear, they even gathered in a separate room so that, God forbid, someone would hear or find out.
What's next? Then the same line was continued. We see: the followers of Christ are being persecuted, arrested, tormented, executed, and in the end they achieve that the emperor of the central Roman power adopts the most cruel laws in relation to Christianity. It must be admitted that it is simply amazing, almost unbelievable, because the Roman Empire is the empire of all religions. The religions of the conquered peoples were incorporated into the Roman Empire. The statues of the gods were brought to Rome in a special building, which was called the Pantheon, and in which representatives of these religions could come and worship; everything was allowed, the most disgusting religions existed there. Only in relation to Christianity were such harsh measures taken.
It is often said that this happened only because the Christians refused to sacrifice in front of the statues of the emperors, that they did not recognize the religious cult of the Caesars. So writes, for example, Bolotov, which surprises me greatly, since he was a very prominent historian. But after all, the Jews also did not recognize this cult, they also did not make sacrifices, they also did not bow to the emperors and did not honor them, and they were not subjected to any repressions for this. After all, Christianity was originally considered by the Roman authorities as a kind of Jewish sect - and nothing more.
And suddenly a law comes out, according to which Christianity was considered as the “religion of the Illicite”, i.e. religion is forbidden, i.e. illegal. And on the basis of this law, only for the reason that a person was called a Christian, he was subjected to execution. This is how Christianity spread. This law, with small intervals, was valid until 313, for about three centuries the beating of Christians continued. But this persecution ended with the triumph of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire. How could this happen?
It is amazing how religion could survive and exist in such conditions. It is enough to transfer this situation to the conditions of our time, which will become clear - this is simply unthinkable. It is clear that someone was hiding, someone did not identify himself, someone secretly existed, but soon everything would stop, because people accepted Christianity under the fear of a cruel death penalty. “Christians to the lions!” Do you remember this motto? This is what it meant to embrace Christianity. This is now only possible: “Perhaps I will get married in the Elokhov Cathedral ...”. to be baptized? Please. They paid, they baptize you, although he does not know how to baptize himself. And before - the death penalty threatened everyone, terrible torture. The question arises: what could have caused the spread of Christianity, its preservation and even the acquisition of a dominant position in the Roman Empire? What human could help here? Let them call. Oh, how interesting it would be to hear what these historians have to say. Just read the lives of the martyrs. After all, it was not just the death penalty, but the terrible torture that always accompanied the execution, because forced renounce Christianity. They didn't give up. The same story happened already here in Russia, in connection with the revolution in 1917. Soloukhin writes that by 1922, 390 thousand of the clergy had been destroyed, i.e. monastics and having dignity. I repeat that they could, they could declare that they renounce God, Christ, and they would immediately become an example for everyone, newspapers would write about them, talk on the radio, but they would not renounce.
We will not find a single religion in the world that has been preserved and spread under such conditions. There are small groups, sects, nothing more, and these sects existed under conditions of far less persecution. There is simply nothing like it. Take any sects now, even in the West: they calmly move to other countries where the laws allow them. And about the death penalty, and even with torture, there is no question.
As our ancient apostles wrote: “Why are you judging us? We are the most loyal citizens of the empire, loyal not out of fear, but out of conscience.” Indeed, the Christians could well “boast” that they were the most decent people in the empire. They served in the army, were commanders, met in all spheres of society. The pagans even said, "Look how they (Christians) love one another." Can we say the same now? And not only each other. In Alexandria, plague patients were thrown out into the street, afraid to touch them. And only some strange people walk around the city and collect these corpses, clean the street and take them somewhere for burial, then they themselves die, they themselves get sick. “Who are these strange people?” – “These are some Christians…” This is in relation to the pagans, and not only to each other.
How to explain this phenomenon? The book of the Acts of the Apostles reports some amazing things that do not fit into the framework of ordinary consciousness. Those who accepted Christianity were baptized, often they simply did not know what was beginning to happen to them. They were filled with great joy, nothing special seems to have happened to them; just something - they were immersed, baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, nothing special, it seems. Moreover (and this amazed everyone), they acquired special talents that really shocked everyone. They began to speak in foreign languages, never learning them, they healed the sick, cast out demons, with just one word, one touch. They predicted events, became prophets. These people were no longer afraid of any death and no torture. “These torments are the joy of Thy servants,” is the leitmotif that sounds, runs like a red thread through a mass of martyrdom. What it is? Fanaticism? On such a scale, why would he be? What paralyzed the fear of death, torture? There are no natural explanations for this fact, you hear, no. There is only one explanation - the supernatural. Yes, what the Acts of the Apostles write about, in the simplest, artless language, without any pathos, without enthusiasm, is simply reported and nothing more, as reported by the subsequent history of the Christian Church, narrating in the lives of great saints, directly testifies: “Yes, everyone, who accepted Christianity, who consciously accepted it, was filled with what in Christianity is called the Holy Spirit. filled with the Spirit of God."
This Spirit of God acted both on the person himself and on those around him. We know a lot of facts when the executioners-torturers threw down their tools and declared in the face of the judge: "I am a Christian." How did it happen? They were shocked, like weak women, sometimes children (remember? - Faith, Hope, Love), even children showed such amazing examples of courage. Let them explain it by some natural causes and find a religion that could stand next to Christianity in this way. Look at other religions, how they have arisen. This is either paganism, coming in a natural stream from the distant depths of the consciousness of human history; if it is a new religion, let us see how they usually arose. Quite calmly, well, the same Buddhism. A vivid illustration: Buddha was a revered figure everywhere, who was accepted with pleasure, considered it an honor to communicate with him. Or let's take Islam, how did it spread? Fire and sword.
No, in fact there is no one to put next to Christianity. It is simply impossible to explain how, during almost 300 years of persecution, Christianity not only was not destroyed, but became the religion of the majority. This is one of the very bright, objective moments that testify that Christianity does not live by a human idea, not just a philosophical conviction that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, the Savior, this is not an opinion that Christianity is “perhaps” true. No. Because only a few will die for an opinion, but millions will never.
doctrinal argument
This argument was devoted to the main part of the read course. Its essence consists in pointing out the decisive difference between the dogmatic truths of Christianity, both from the whole complex of ideas that form the content of the consciousness of the pagans, and from the root principles of the philosophizing mind. We are talking, I repeat, about a sharp divergence, sometimes reaching incompatibility.
We see this in a number of examples. Take the doctrine of the Trinity. We compared it with the ideas that were in the Roman Empire - nothing in common. Completely different ideas even about salvation: not here, not in this world, not material well-being, not a state social paradise on earth, no, no, but “the Kingdom of God is within you.” The Savior is not Augustus, not a monarch, not an emperor, not a conqueror, not a virtuous man who in all his glory and majesty reigns over the world and gives prosperity to everyone, no, no, but this is the ghost of a slave: “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews temptation, Hellenes - madness"
That is, for the pagan consciousness, there is simply no worse option to find - how unnatural it is for him. Temptation and madness are in all Christian truths, specifically, specific Christian ones. Take, for example, the Incarnation. In paganism, there are as many incarnations of various gods as you like. However, when compared, there is nothing in common. Or rather, there is also little in common, as between a doll and a child. Is there something in common? Yes… there is something. But a doll is only a doll and will remain a doll.
In the same dogmatic way, the truths of Christianity are decisively different from the ideas by which mankind lived, contemporary to the epoch of its inception. What common characteristics characterize these Christian truths?
There are a number of very important points here. First of all, one should emphasize the fact of the logical inability to derive Christian truths from philosophical and religious ideas, both Jewish and pagan. The dogmas of the Christian dogma are neither the result of a logical conclusion from previous worldview attitudes, nor the fruit of any "refinement" of the corresponding forms of consciousness. Neither the dogma of the Trinity, nor the dogma of the Incarnation, nor the dogma of salvation through the cross and suffering, much less the thesis about the union in Christ of the human and Divine natures, find any significant similarity in the pictures of pagan theogony and philosophical speculations. And when they started talking about the Resurrection, the pagans reacted as they should: “Go, Paul, we’ll listen to you another time, just go away from here, don’t bother us, we’ve heard enough of these tales already.” All Christian ideas are just “wild” ideas, they are really “crazy” for all these forms of consciousness. Of course, I'm talking about "madness" in quotation marks, but that's what I said: "Credo qui absurdo est", i.e. I believe because it is absurd, insane, i.e. logically unrelated. That is, the truths of faith do not contradict logic, but they do not follow logically, they cannot be logically justified somehow, that's the point. By the way, not just anyone but Engels said the wonderful words: “Christianity has come into irreconcilable conflict with all the religions surrounding it.” Into what contradiction, what irreconcilable contradiction is he talking about? What, the Christians took sticks, swords, spears and let's fight with everyone? Nothing of the kind, just Christianity was distinguished by a surprisingly peaceful character. There is an irreconcilable ideological contradiction, a religious contradiction. Engels expressed this perfectly, he specifically dealt with questions of Christianity, and this phrase speaks volumes. He said what all atheistic propagandists actually said, until they came to their senses and understood: how did it come about then? And here they had a different train of thought: Christianity, they say, then and there arose from there.
But in fact he spoke the truth. Yes, all the basic Christian truths really came into irreconcilable contradiction with all the ideas of the world around him. I would also say that Christian truths are not only not logically deducible, they are not only fundamentally different from all the ideological analogues of the religious thoughts of that time, but they do not repeat these ideas either. Christian truths are not a repetition of what has taken place, there are no such ideas.
But there is another interesting point worth noting. Bohr (this is a well-known physicist, one of the creators of quantum mechanics) has a distinction between two types of judgments: trivial and non-trivial judgments. Trivial are those judgments, the opposite of which are simply false. For example, white is black, courage is cowardice. We can find any number of opposing judgments and statements. These are trivial judgments, i.e. ordinary. Non-trivial ones differ in that their opposites are just as true as the first ones. That is, we do not meet with a logical inconsistency when 2x2=4 and 2x2=5. Here, the opposite statements are just as true. This is well shown in the theory of relativity. Is the train moving or not moving? And it depends on the position from which we consider it. If we say it is moving, then we are standing still; if we say it is not moving, then we ourselves are in motion. Or take it in the field of elementary particles: it is at the same time a wave, that is, something opposite to a particle. These are completely incompatible phenomena. A stone thrown into the water - and a wave that comes from the stone. For a better understanding of this phenomenon, which we do not know what to call it, in some cases we will consider it as a particle, and in others as a wave, and this will be equally true. Christian truths have the same property of non-triviality. True - these are non-trivial judgments. Take, for example, the Christian dogma of God the Trinity. In fact, Christianity believes in what kind of God, one or not one? "I believe in One God." Christianity is a monotheistic religion, isn't it? Then, excuse me, three Faces, or not? But three is not one. Is this a rejection of unity? True - this is the opposite judgment, Christianity affirms both. Why claims? After all, you can approve anything. In this case, the assertion does not stem from some kind of voluntarism - what I want, then I affirm, no. As in the field of elementary particle physics, why do we say “particle and wave”? Because they observe both – this is a reflection of real facts.
And in Christianity we observe absolutely the same thing, because it is natural fact of revelation. Christianity, on the one hand, while maintaining pure monotheism, claims that God is one, and at the same time, affirms His Trinity.
Strikingly, from this one point, a picture suddenly opens up: yes, monotheism and suddenly trinity. Before that, at most we knew, monotheism is associated with mono-hypostaticity, if monotheism means mono-hypostaticity. Here, an amazing abyss opens up: the Father, the ever-begotten Son, the eternally outgoing Holy Spirit. Moreover, we never know what “eternally born” or “eternally born” means? Don't know. What is outgoing? Don't know. And what's the difference between that? Don't know. All I know is that it's different. A distinction is made, although we do not know what is happening. How it is eternally born and how it eternally proceeds, we cannot know. This is truly a non-trivial statement. I think that N. Bor, if he would have thought a little about this, he would have been simply delighted with the amazing, but, by the way, it is possible that he spoke about this as well.
It is curious that when they talk about the history of the Church (as a scientific and educational discipline), then almost all the time they are talking about stories heresies. What's the matter here? The thing is, you always want to correct Christianity. After all, what it says does not climb into any gates, and therefore they begin to correct it ... How could God incarnate in reality? And they begin to invent ... no, it only seemed that He was incarnated, it only seemed that He suffered, nothing like that. In fact, God did not incarnate at all; He cannot incarnate like you. Thus arises the heresy of docetism. Then another correction of Christianity comes: no, no, the man Jesus was born, of course, as it should be, he was born, but God, the Logos, who dwelt in Him, indwelled Him, for His virtues, for His holiness. Sometimes he stayed and sometimes he left. Remember the Nestorian heresy? Everything seems to be "reasonable", but the Fathers rebelled - heresy! Why heresy? For a very simple reason: it did not correspond to the facts that are stated in the Gospel. On this basis, various heretical points of view were rejected. You see, paganism has constantly tried and is still trying to “correct” Christianity, to place it in the Procrustean bed of our logic, our thinking, philosophical ideas. Hence, heresy after heresy. Heresy is an attempt to "correct" Christianity.
But what kind of sages were they who could come up with such truths that all the philosophers of the world cannot cope with them? Fishermen - and that says it all, nothing more needs to be said. So, fishermen - and such amazing depths. So, did they come up with all this on their own? Of course no. This is not their teaching, these are simple people, not bookish, they only conveyed what they heard .. They conveyed as witnesses: “what we heard, what we touched,” writes John the Theologian, “we tell about the word, life to you". Tell me, is this not a serious argument? Where could such a doctrine come from? From the lips of such simple people, but they only had Paul and was educated, and he was not among the twelve. Where does all this come from? This reasoning alone is sufficient to recognize the supernatural origin of Christianity.
I would also stop at scientific and philosophical argument. It boils down to the fact that the truth of Christianity, like any other religion, like any scientific theory, can be confirmed by two things:
1. It is necessary to have facts that confirm its main installations;
2. It must be possible to verify these statements. This is the so-called “principle of verifiability”.
For example, many elementary particles were discovered decades before they were finally recognized as a scientific fact. More precisely, theoretical predictions about their existence were made, but the issue was considered finally resolved only when these predictions received experimental confirmation.
So, if we formally consider Christianity from a purely scientific point of view, a very interesting picture opens up. There is a huge, incalculable multitude of facts testifying to his supernaturalness. Let's remember the names of Xenia of Petersburg, and ask ourselves: did those huge mountains of facts, eyewitness accounts of the miracles they performed really take place or not? Or maybe it's better to just deny them?
Is there any way to make sure that God exists, this supernatural world, how to make sure that the Kingdom of God is within us, how to make sure that the Spirit, the God that Christianity speaks of, transforms a person, i.e. . from greedy, envious, conceited, proud, glutton and drunkard makes a person pure, merciful, meek, temperate, etc.? Is it possible for a person to experience in himself that joy that Christianity speaks of? Yes, there is such a possibility. Christianity says that there is a real path, not a purely speculative or theoretical path, but a path that has been tested, tested by a huge number of people. Many saints known to us showed amazing facts of this transforming action of God on man in themselves. This transformation touched everything: their mind, heart, body, even body. That is, if approached from a purely formal point of view, then Christianity as a scientific theory satisfies two basic requirements for any scientific theory. It turns out these facts exist, I repeat, there are indisputable facts.
Let's pay attention to another point, also related to the scientific - philosophical argument. Christianity, despite the undoubted fact of its supernatural origin, does not at all lead a person away from all life's problems, into the realm of illusions and the ideal world. Christianity just opens the possibility of a correct approach to these problems for a person. It provides a clear answer to all the most fundamental and vital questions of human existence. Christianity gives a whole worldview to a person, and such a worldview that does not distract a person from all the vital problems and tasks of this life; it gives a person extraordinary courage, joy and strength. Just think about this idea - "God is love" - what does it mean? This means that everything that happens to me (I'm not talking about the positive things that happen - we accept it with pleasure - I'm talking about the negative when we are scolded, offended, insulted, etc.), - all this is done not because this person, these people are such villains, God is their Judge, for me this is done because it is useful to me. All this is done according to the most wise and loving providence of God, i.e. some good is done for me; what I accept as very unpleasant, bad, difficult, mournful, suffering, is actually good. For example, we sometimes do not know that we are sick, i.e. that we have some kind of illness, we don’t know, but during the examination the doctor says: “You know, I’m sorry, but here you need to do something. This is absolutely necessary, otherwise there may be consequences of an irreversible order and severe.” “Well, I agree. I give myself up." And you know, they begin to torment me; some injections, procedures, bitter pills, pills, and then something else, you see, they announce: “Sorry, but an urgent operation must be done.” “Yes, I am healthy, I am good, but there is no better me in the world!” “No, urgently to the operating table, and immediately!”
How do we evaluate it? .. Then we are often grateful to the doctor that he forced us into treatment. The Christian faith gives us, I would say, amazing joy, joy in all our life's troubles, sorrows and sufferings. Christianity asserts: everything that happens to us is done out of love, out of that love that none of us has, in relation to even the closest person, for this is not just great love, but true love, i.e. love. wise, who does not err, and we often err when we think that we love others. Here is unmistakable love.
Christianity is therefore an amazing religion of joy, optimism! Imagine that a dentist is treating you, or imagine that an executioner will drill your tooth - is there a difference? Probably ... When a surgeon cuts our stomach, or some bandit, is there a difference? Probably... So, all our enemies, enemies, offenders and haters are only blind tools in the hands of the all-wise and all-good, loving will of God. That's what Christianity is! What a joy!
It is also worth noting that from a purely formal point of view, Christianity does not contain any provisions in the doctrine that would be contrary to human conscience, or a reasonable attitude to human life, on the contrary, Christianity calls precisely to life according to conscience, moreover, it elevates the moral principle to man to such a high level that even people who are very far from Christianity admit that they have never seen a more remarkable image in history, a more perfect image than the image of the Gospel Jesus. This is the image of a perfect man. This is the Christian ideal, this is Whom we focus on. Jesus is an amazing ideal: love, courage, and concern for basic needs. Remember, the wedding, apparently the poor people did not have enough wine. For them, what a grief it is, what a disorder, what a reproach from those around them. What is He doing? He turns water into wine, think about what worries, even about the simplest things. No, no, Christianity does not distract, does not interfere with life. Christian commandments are not a hindrance to a free life, not at all, Christ takes care of even the most elementary human needs. Christianity does not contain any provisions, I repeat once again, that would be contrary to a reasonable attitude to life, the principles of conscience, the principles of morality, this is not the case in Christianity. This is rather an ethical argument, an argument that says directly that Christianity is a religion against which we have nothing bad to say. But how it manifested itself in history, and how it has realized and is realizing itself in concrete people, is another question. Here we see different things, from the stunning peaks of holiness and love, to Judas and the like. But this is a question of a different order. Christianity itself really surprises everyone who dispassionately begins to get acquainted with it, with its greatness, both moral and speculative, simply greatness as such.
RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD
CHRISTIANITY
16.04.04 Garnyk Viktor 8 "D"
Christianity is one of the three world religions (along with Buddhism and Islam). It has three main branches: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism. A common feature that unites Christian denominations and sects is faith in Jesus Christ as the God-man, the savior of the world. The main source of doctrine is Holy Scripture (the Bible, especially its second part - the New Testament). Christianity originated in the 1st century AD. in the eastern province of the Roman Empire, in Palestine, as the religion of the oppressed. In the 4th century it became the state religion of the Roman Empire; in the Middle Ages, the Christian church consecrated the feudal system; in the 19th century, with the development of capitalism, it became the mainstay of the bourgeoisie.
The changed balance of power in the world after the Second World War, scientific progress led the Christian churches to change course, they embarked on the path of modernizing dogma, worship, organization and politics.
(Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary)
The Bible is the speech of God addressed to people, as well as the story of how people listened or did not listen to their Creator. This dialogue has been going on for over a thousand years. The religion of the Old Testament begins from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Most of the books of the Old Testament were compiled from the 7th to the 3rd century B.C.
By the beginning of the II century. According to R.Kh. the books of the New Testament were added to the Old Testament. These are the four Gospels - descriptions of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, made by his disciples, the apostles, as well as the books of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostles. The New Testament ends with the Revelation of John the Theologian, which tells about the end of the world. This book is often referred to as the Apocalypse (Greek for "Revelation").
The books of the Old Testament are written in the Hebrew language - Hebrew. The books of the New Testament were written in a dialect of the Greek language, Koine.
More than 50 people at different times took part in writing the Bible. And at the same time, the Bible turned out to be a single book, and not just a collection of disparate sermons. Each of the writers has testified to their experiences with God, but Christians firmly believe that the One they met was always the same. “God, who at many times and in various ways spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days has spoken to us in the Son ... Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”
Another feature of Christianity as a religion is that. That it can only exist in the form of the Church. The Church is a community of people who believe in Christ: "... where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them"
However, the word "church" has different meanings. This is also a community of believers united by one place of residence, one clergyman, one temple. This community constitutes a parish.
The church, especially in Orthodoxy, is usually called the temple, which in this case is perceived as the "house of God" - a place for the sacraments, rituals, a place of joint prayer.
Finally, the Church can be accepted as a form of the Christian faith. For 2 millennia in Christianity, several different traditions (confessions) have developed and taken shape, each of which has its own creed (a short formula that has absorbed the main provisions of the dogma), its own rite and ritual. Therefore, we can talk about the Orthodox Church (Byzantine tradition), the Catholic Church (Roman tradition) and the Protestant Church (Reformation tradition of the 16th century)
In addition, there is the concept of the Earthly Church, which unites all believers in Christ, and the concept of the Heavenly Church, the ideal divine dispensation of the world. There is another interpretation: the Heavenly Church is made up of saints and righteous people who have completed their earthly journey; where the Earthly Church follows the precepts of Christ, it constitutes unity with the heavenly.
Christianity has long ceased to be a monolithic religion. Causes of a political nature, internal contradictions, accumulated since the 4th century, led in the 11th century to a tragic split. And before that, in different local churches there were differences in worship and understanding of God. With the division of the Roman Empire into 2 independent states, 2 centers of Christianity were formed - in Rome and in Constantinople (Byzantium). Local churches began to form around each of them. The tradition that has developed in the West has led in Rome to a very special role of the pope as the Roman high priest - the head of the Universal Church, the vicar of Jesus Christ. The Church in the East did not agree with this.
2 Christian denominations were formed (lat. "Confession", i.e. directions of Christianity that have differences in religion) - Orthodoxy and Catholicism. In the 16th century, the Catholic Church experienced a split: a new confession arose - Protestantism. In turn, the Orthodox Church in Russia experienced a severe split into the Old Believer and Orthodox Churches.
Today, Christianity is represented by 3 confessions, each of which is divided into many denominations, i.e. currents, sometimes very different in their beliefs. Both Orthodox and Catholics, and most of the Protestants, recognize the dogma (the definition of the Church, which has absolute authority for each member) about the Holy Trinity, believe in salvation through Jesus Christ, and recognize one Holy Scripture - the Bible.
The Orthodox Church consists of 15 autocephalous churches (administratively independent), 3 autonomous (completely independent) and has about 1200 million people in its ranks.
The Roman Catholic Church has about 700 million believers.
The Protestant churches that are members of the World Council of Churches unite about 250 million people.
("Religions of the World", "Avanta +")
Report RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD CHRISTIANITY 16.04.04 Garnyk Viktor 8 "D" Christianity is one of the three world religions (along with Buddhism and Islam). It has three main branches: Catholicism, OrthodoxyChristianity(from Greek - " anointed", "Messiah") is a doctrine based on faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah, God and Savior of man (the Greek word Christ means the same as Hebrew Messiah).
Christianity is the most numerous faith in the world, in which there are three main directions: Catholicism, Orthodoxy And Protestantism.
The first Christians were Jews by nationality, and already in the second half of the 1st century, Christianity became an international religion. The language of communication among the early Christians was Greek language. From the point of view of the clergy, the main and only reason for the emergence of Christianity was the preaching activity of Jesus Christ, who was both God and man. Jesus Christ in the form of a man came to earth and brought people Truth. About his coming (this coming coming is called the first, in contrast to the second, future) is told in four books, gospels, which are included in New Testament Bible.
Bible- a divinely inspired book. She is also called Holy Scripture And Word of God. All books of the Bible are divided into two parts. The books of the first part, taken together, are called Old Testament, the second part - New Testament. For a person The Bible is more of a guide to daily practical life, in business, study, career, everyday life, and not a book about some limitations, about the past and the future. You can read the Bible at any time in your life, in any mood, finding answers to literally all the exciting questions and requests of the soul. Christianity does not deny material wealth and speaks of the harmony of spirit and matter.
Man, according to Christian teaching, was created in the image and likeness of God and endowed with free will, was originally perfect, but, having eaten the fruit, he sinned. Having repented and baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, the person acquires hope for the resurrection. Resurrection is subject soul, but not body.
Christianity is a monotheistic belief in one God. God one in three forms: God the Father, God the Son And Holy Spirit. God gives man grace And mercy. God is love, we read in the Bible. Jesus always talked to everyone about love. An entire chapter in Corinthians is devoted to love.
Jesus showed us what love is for people. A life of love is a different life. Everything that Jesus did, he tried to get through to a person, and the responsibility for whether this love will be revealed lies with the person himself. God gives life to man and then he himself chooses how to live. The desire to please someone is the beginning of love. Touching the love of God, a person will fall and get up, he will demonstrate strength. The strength of a person's faith is determined by the strength of love. It is the love that the Bible speaks of that provides strength, faithfulness, and ingenuity. Love and faith can make a person smile when there is no reason for it. If a person is driven by love, he is ready to do everything possible and impossible. Love is an abyss that cannot run out and never ends.
Jesus Christ is considered saints whole, undivided. Holy means unchanging, it will remain when everything else has passed. Holiness is constancy. The Bible speaks of Kingdom of Heaven that a person builds within himself. And the Kingdom of Heaven means such a world that does not change.
The central concept of Christianity is faith. Faith is the work of man. Jesus was talking about practical faith, not ritual faith, which " dead without work". Faith is strength and independence in human affairs.
People go to faith, to God, to joy, to happiness in different ways. Christians They believe that God is in a person, and not outside, and each person has his own way to God.
from the Greek Christos, lit. - anointed) - one of the so-called. world religions (along with Buddhism and Islam). X. is widespread in the countries of Europe, America, Australia, and also, as a result of active missionary activity, in Africa, on Bl. East and to a certain extent in a number of areas of the Far East. Accurate data on the number of followers of X. are not available; according to official church statistics (usually overestimating the number of adherents), X. profess approx. 920 million people (70s of the 20th century). X. in all periods of its history (up to the present day) invariably appears in the form of competing directions. A common feature that unites all Christ. religions, churches, rumors, sects, is only faith in Jesus Christ, although there are disagreements between them (for example, according to the doctrine of most Christian churches, both divine and human nature are inherent in Christ; according to the version of other Christian churches ( Armenian-Gregorian, Coptic), Christ has only a divine nature). X. breaks up into 3 main. branches: Catholicism (approx. 550 million followers; especially common in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Austria, in Latin-American countries; in socialist countries, Catholics predominate among the believing part of the population in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia , in Cuba), Orthodoxy (about 140 million followers; there are 14 Orthodox autocephalous churches (see. Orthodox Church) and sects that broke away from the Orthodox Church - the Old Believers, whips, Doukhobors, Molokans, etc.), Protestantism (c. 225 million followers, includes 3 main streams (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism) and a large number of sects, of which many have turned into independent churches - Baptists, Methodists, Adventists, etc.; common in England, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, USA, Canada, Australia, as well as in the GDR, the USSR, etc.). In addition, X. has a number of smaller branches (monophysiteism, Nestorianism, etc.). According to the church version, X. arose in Palestine as a result of the preaching of Jesus Christ, who descended to earth in the form of a man and suffered for the sake of delivering people from "original sin." Science has refuted this theological scheme by establishing an ideological and socio-political. the prerequisites for the emergence of X., revealing the history of the formation and development of X., determined the essence of X., the way to overcome Christ. illusions. X. arose in the 2nd floor. 1 in. n. e. in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire in the face of a sharp aggravation of social contradictions. Heavy social and political. oppression, extreme lack of rights caused mass uprisings of slaves, free poor, subjugated peoples. After the suppression by Rome movements at the beginning 1 in. n. e. sentiments of depression, despair, and impotent hatred of the oppressors became widespread. The immaturity and weakness of the movement of the masses led to the widespread dissemination of religions. fiction. Rebellious ideas appeared in the confusion of visions, prophecies, and in the minds of the oppressed there arose hope for supernatural deliverance. The way out was found, as F. Engels wrote, in the field of religion; appeared X. created heaven and hell, promising "suffering" after death eternal paradise (F. Engels, in the book: Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 483). The religions that existed at that time could not satisfy the heterogeneous mass of the dispossessed of the vast Rome. empire. These religions differed ethnically. limitation. X. was a new, universal religion, for the first time addressed to all "suffering" regardless of what nationality Rome. they belonged to the empire, to all social strata, including slaves. X. proclaimed the abstract equality of all people (in the form of their equality before God), promising them deliverance from all troubles (in the other world). X. developed predominately. on the basis of Jewish radical sects, currents - Zealots, Essenes (social relations, life, the ideology of one of the Essene communities are revealed by Qumran finds), etc. They were intermediate links between Judaism and early X. In the formation of Christ. creeds played a big role Greco-Roman. philosophy, religions of the East (Egyptian, Iranian and even Indian traditions and beliefs). "Father of Christianity" F. Engels called the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (1st century AD): X. drew his ideas about deities. logos - the mediator between God and people, the messiah, the savior of the human race. An important ideological source of X. is the philosophy of the Roman Stoic Seneca (1st century AD), who expressed thoughts about the frailty of earthly existence and otherworldly retribution, about the equality of all people, including slaves, before fate. Christ. mythology developed under the great influence of the East. cults (for example, the cult of Isis and Osiris, the dying and resurrecting god, the cult of Mitra, etc.). X. fully incorporated the Old Testament into its doctrine. X. arose as a religion. the protest of the slaves, the oppressed strata against the existing order, against the slave-owners. state-va. The most important difference between the emerging Kh. and other religions of antiquity was the complete rejection of ethnic. and social partitions in matters of faith, from sacrifices, to. -l. rituals. Success X. contributed to his teaching about the immortality of the soul and the afterlife retribution. Explaining the general moral and material poverty ext. depravity, sinfulness of each dep. man, X. proclaimed the spiritual salvation of all people through faith in the atoning sacrifice of the divine savior as a guarantee of the deliverance of people from sin. Thus, there was a form of "...internal salvation from a corrupted world, consolation in consciousness, to which everyone so passionately aspired" (Engels F., ibid., vol. 19, p. 314). The first communities that recognized the new savior god Christ appeared in M. Asia (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Tiatira, Sardis, Laodicea) and in Egypt. Alexandria (some researchers believe that the first Christian communities arose in Palestine). Their members were recruited from the lower social classes. Early X. was "... the religion of slaves and freedmen, the poor and disenfranchised peoples conquered or scattered by Rome" (Engels F., ibid., vol. 22, p. 467). The communities were distinguished by their simplicity of organization and the absence of a clergy. At the head of the communities were elders - presbyters and prophesying preachers; members of the communities arranged joint meals, meetings, at which sermons were delivered. There was still no ordered cult even before the beginning. 2 in. there was no single creed. Early X. is characterized by a variety of circles, currents, between which there was no agreement on a number of important issues of dogma. But united the first Christ. communities impotent hatred of Rome and a passionate hope for its imminent fall, deliverance from its yoke and the establishment on earth of the "kingdom of God" headed by Christ. This faith permeates the most ancient monuments of Christ that have come down to us. literature - Apocalypse (2nd half of the 1st century), a source that allows you to mean. measure to determine the nature of the original X. From the Apocalypse it is clear that Christ. mythology, dogmas and cult had not yet developed by this time; in it Christ is not a god-man, but a cosmic one. creature (there are no stories about his earthly life and suffering); there is no hint of the sacraments, not even of baptism; no mention of k.-l. church organizations. Apocalypse reflecting ch. arr. discontent and rebellious moods of the Israeli people oppressed by Rome. state, at the same time testifies to the presence in X. of this period and a different trend: in this work, although less clearly than the spirit of resistance, the idea of \u200b\u200bforbearance and humility is also expressed, a call for passive expectation of the denouement of the struggle of divine forces with the Antichrist and the offensive "millennium". In the process of evolution of X., changes in the social composition of communities, rebellious moods in X. gradually faded into the background (which was ultimately due to the political weakness of the mass movement). In the 2nd century the current prevailed, calling on the working people to meekly "carry their cross", relying on the supernatural. deliverance, to "God's will." In the dogma, the suffering of the savior god was increasingly emphasized, his cult became, in essence, the deification of human suffering, humility and patience. Over time, suffering began to appear in X. as a necessary condition for achieving bliss in the "afterlife" ("... through many sorrows we must enter the kingdom of God," - Acts, XIV, 22). The victory of the current, calling for reconciliation with the existing order, marked a new stage in the development of the early X. The "second coming" of Christ was postponed to an indefinite future. This stage in the development of X. can be traced by the so-called. "The Epistles of the Apostle Paul" (late 1st - 1st half of the 2nd centuries). They emphasize that every earthly authority is established by God and must be obeyed; children must obey their parents, wives their husbands, and slaves must humbly obey their masters "...with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ" (Ephesians VI, 5). The epistles express a tendency for a radical break with Judaism (for the first time, the accusation of the Jews in the murder of Christ was formulated here - see First Epistle to the Thessalonians, II, 15), accompanied by the formation of purely Christ. ideology. The appearance of Jesus Christ began to take on human features (but there are still no details about his earthly life in the epistles). X. appears as a more or less established religion (with its own dogma, creed and ritual) in the writings of the first Christ. apologist Justin (c. 150), where the biography of Christ largely coincides with the gospel narratives. Justin has already described the various Christos in detail. sacraments, formulated, albeit in an undeveloped form, the creed. The completed form of the life of Christ appears in the gospels. 4 of them (from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), recognized by the emerging Christ. church "inspired", were included by it in the New Testament and were the main. sacred books X. Canonization of the New Testament gospels in the 2nd half. 4th c. testified to the completion of the process of myth-making, the creation of a legend about the God-man, about the son of God, who endured deathly torments for the sake of atoning for the sins of the human race. The striking contradictions that exist between these gospels (written in the 1st half. 2 c.) and within each of them, not only in the presentation of facts, but also in the very sense of the sermon (for example, in the Gospel of Matthew Christ says: “Blessed are the peacemakers”, V, 9, and in another place of the same gospel - "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword", X, 34) reflected different stages in the development of X's ideology and the difference of currents that still remained in it. In the gospels, the most clearly expressed of all the writings of the New Testament is the doctrine of non-resistance to evil ("... do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other" - Matt., V, 39) and afterlife retribution bliss for earthly suffering. The preaching of the coming kingdom in the gospels loses its former anti-Roman. direction, there is a call for reconciliation with those in power, with the "language." imperial power (the saying was put into the mouth of Christ: "... give what is Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God" - Matt., XXII, 21). Over time, this made it easier for the exploiting classes to use X for their own purposes. Changes in Christ ideology in the 2nd-3rd centuries. were closely related to the change in the original composition of Christ. communities. Crisis of the slave owner. way of production increasingly affected the wealthy strata of society. In Christ. communities in large numbers began to join and rich people. If during the first century of the existence of Christ. communities, all their members were considered equal, there was no special apparatus of government, then from the middle. 2 in. organization becomes more complex. Wealthy Christians who donated part of their funds to the community funds acquired a lot. influence; b. h. they occupied those created in the middle. 2 in. positions of bishops and deacons in charge of community property, households. community affairs. Gradually, the administration of Christ was concentrated in the hands of the bishops (first elected and then appointed). communities; from the former democratic there was no trace of principle left, a monarchic arose. episcopate. Bishops and deacons became more and more isolated. To justify their privileged position, the doctrine of a special "grace" sent down by God to these officials, giving them exclusion, was developed. the right to perform religion. rituals, to be mentors to other members of the community, to decree the principles of the dogma. Thus the church was formed. an organization divided into clergy (clergy) and laity. The institution of monasticism began to take shape. Strengthening links between departments communities contributed to the process of formation of a single Christ. churches ruled by bishops. The emerging church more and more resolutely refused democratic. tendencies initially. X. and sought first to compromise with the language. imperial power, and then to a direct alliance with the slave owner. state-tion, which caused a protest means. part of the Christians and contributed to the emergence of heresies (Ebionites, Novatians, Montanists, etc.). Heretics, as a rule, defended the principles of the original Christs. communities. The most dangerous enemy of the church were the Montanists, who opposed the clergy, the dominance of the bishops. With the formation of the church organizations were more and more developed and complicated the cult, mythology and dogma of X. To develop a single dogma, the canonization of certain Christs was begun. writings. When the works were included in the New Testament, a desire was manifested to reject writings that reflected democratic. tendencies initially. X., rebellious moods. In the dogma, the idea began to be carried out that not only the poor can achieve blessedness (as was often emphasized at an early stage in the development of X.), but all those who believe in Christ, performing the church. ceremonies subordinate to the church. discipline, showing humility and patience. Initial communal meetings, suppers, suppers turned into divine services. The rituals became more and more complicated, absorbing the cult actions of the religions of the ancient world, primarily the cults of the suffering, dying and resurrecting gods Dr. East (Osiris, Adonis, and others), as well as Mithraism, Judaism, and others. developed the main Christ. sacraments, feasts, divine services performed by the clergy and preserved to this day. The formed Christ. the church began to represent political strength. Rome. emperors, considering Christ. church as a possible political rival, in the context of the intensified class struggle during the crisis of the 3rd century. brutally persecuted X., equating him with the political. unreliability refusal of the mass of Christians from sacrifices in honor of Rome. gods (persecution of Christians in the 2nd half of the 3rd - early 4th centuries under the emperors Decius, Valerian, Diocletian). However, recognizing the essence of ideology, the nature and significance of the activity of Christ. churches, imp. the authorities decided to dispose of Christ. organization to ensure the obedience of the people. wt. The church was used in the 4th century. also in the struggle for the imperial throne. One of the contenders for the throne is Constantine, seeking to win Christ over to his side. church, promised to establish X. equality with other religions. Having come to power and remaining a "pagan", Constantine I declared X. an officially permitted religion (by agreement with him, the Edict of Milan 313 was issued by Licinius on the free confession of X.). In 325, the emperor convened the first Ecumenical Council of representatives of the church. tops (Nicean Council). At the council, a "symbol of faith" was adopted (revised in the 2nd half of the 4th century; the "symbol of faith" first of all proclaimed faith in the "triune God": God the Father (who created the world), God the Son (who descended to earth, crucified, resurrected and ascended to heaven in order to come to earth a second time to judge all the living and the dead) and the Holy Spirit), an alliance between the imperial power and the church was formalized, and the emperor was recognized as the head of the church. Imp. Theodosius I (379-95) issued a decree on the closure of all languages. temples. So X. from a persecuted religion turned into a state one, consecrating all those social orders that aroused indignation and hatred among the first Christians. "... Christians, having received the position of state religion, "forgot" about the "naivety" of primitive Christianity with its democratic revolutionary spirit" (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 33, p. 43 (vol. 25, p. 392)). Christ. the church waged a fierce struggle not only with paganism, but also with dissidents within X. (heresies were condemned: Docetism, Montanism, the heresy of the agonists, Arianism, then Manichaeism). The success of X. in the fight against the tongue. religions contributed to cult borrowings from them, especially in the 4th century. In Christ. the cult spread the veneration of saints, martyrs, angels, "sacred objects". Numerous demigods were b. h. the successors of the gods of ancient religions. In the 6th c. Christ. the church introduced a new era of reckoning - from the "nativity of Christ" (conditionally the 1st year AD; in most European countries this reckoning was adopted only in the 16th century). Features ist. development app. and east. parts of Rome. empires led to differences between Christ. the churches of the West and the East, especially strengthened after the division in 395 Rom. empire into 2 states. Rome. bishops (from the 5th century - "popes") claimed a dominant position in Christ. world (see Papacy). In Vost. Rome. empire (Byzantium) they were opposed by the patriarchs of Constantinople. The rivalry between these churches. org-tions was a source of controversy on issues of dogma and cult. Separation of Christ. churches into the Catholic (Western) and Orthodox (Eastern) occurred in 1054, finally - at the beginning of the 13th century. The difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy lies in the meaning. least in their introduction to dogma, cult, church. org-tion of innovations not accepted by the Orthodox Church (adding to the "creed" filioque (about the descent of the holy spirit not only from God the Father, but also "from the son"), the idea of purgatory, the doctrine of the "treasury of abundant grace" and as a consequence - recognition of the possibility of indulgence, a sharp distinction between the laity and the clergy (for the Catholic. clergy was established celibacy, communion with wine and bread, while the laity could only partake of bread, etc.)). Church. organization in Catholicism is centralized, built on a strictly hierarchical basis. principle. At the head of the Catholic the church is pope. Main dogmatic a feature of Catholicism is the recognition of the supreme authority and infallibility of the pope, regarded as the vicar of Christ on earth. Church. the organization of the Orthodox Church, which took shape under the conditions of a centralized Byzantine state with a despotic. the power of the emperor, did not acquire such a hierarchical. and monarchy. character and was subordinate to the supreme power of the Byzantine. emperor (with the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Orthodox autocephalous (independent, independent of each other) churches arose on its territory and in neighboring states). In Rus', X. was adopted in the 10th century. However, the social role of both directions of X. in the era of feudalism was common: both of them served to strengthen the feuds. building, religion means sanctioned and consecrated the feud. way of being. Economical the basis of both churches was a large church (especially monastic) feud. land ownership. During the era of feudalism in Europe. state-wah X. became the dominant ideology. On Wednesday. centuries, the monopoly on the system of education, education was concentrated in the hands of Christ. churches. Science was fettered theological. restrictions, philosophy has become the servant of theology; Christ. the church persecuted the slightest manifestations of freethinking. Wed-century. anti-feudal movements. building, the opposition of the peasants, the plebeians, the burghers, first of all, poured out in protest against Christ. the churches that consecrated this system most often took the form of heresies (Paulicians, Bogomilism, Cathars, Waldensians, Strigolniks, etc.). The greatest scope of anti-feud. movement in the form of a struggle against the Catholic. reached the church during the Reformation. In the 16th century as a result of the Reformation, a number of churches that formed in England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, partly in Germany, Switzerland, and others fell away from Catholicism; took shape third (along with Catholicism and Orthodoxy) DOS. branch X. - Protestantism. Protestantism was a religion that reflected the interests of the bourgeoisie, who opposed the feuds. churches. The Protestant varieties of X. (Lutheranism, Calvinism, the Anglican Church, etc.) are connected by a commonality of essential features of the dogma, which is permeated with the idea of a direct connection between man and God without the help of the church and the salvation of man by "personal faith", and not through the mediation of the church; Accordingly, the Protestants simplified, reduced the cost of religion. cult, the number of sacraments has been reduced, they do not worship saints, they do not recognize angels, there is no monasticism, celibacy. Sacred tradition is not recognized as "divine revelation". Protestantism was the banner of the first bourgeois revolutions and played a relatively progressive role in that period. After the English Revolution of the 17th century, which still acted under the banner of Protestantism, the latter lost its historically progressive character. Protestant churches that arose during the Reformation are turning into typical bourgeois churches. Historically connected with feudalism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy from the 2nd half. 19th century began to adapt to the conditions of capitalism. society and became the backbone of the bourgeoisie. Christ. churches began to preach the sanctity of capitalist. private property, the spread of socialist. ideas to oppose the idea of class peace, the harmony of interests of employers and workers. A striking example of the policy of Christ. churches in bourgeois conditions. state-va - the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII "Rerum Novarum" (1891), justifying and defending the capitalist. build. In his work, Christ Churches make extensive use of social demagogy, promoting the idea of X. as a spokesman and defender of universal interests, putting forward the idea of the possibility of "Christianization" of capitalism and its recovery, which is still believed by the politically backward sections of capitalist workers. countries - part of the proletariat, the petty bourgeoisie, etc. In con. 19th century in connection with the imperialist struggle. powers for the division of the world, the missionary activity of Christ intensified. churches (see Missionary work). In many countries, Christian trade unions were created (they began to be created as early as the 70s of the 19th century), parties, youth and other mass organizations on a confessional basis in order to split the class organizations of workers and propagate reaction. ideas of class cooperation. The leadership of these organizations prevented the development of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, was hostile to any manifestations of the revolutionary activity of the people, and supported the reactionary regimes in various countries in every possible way. Christ. Churchmen with hatred met the victory of the Great Oct. socialist. revolution in Russia, actively helping internal. and international reaction in its attempts to restore capitalism. reaction Christian leaders. churches are systematic ideological. and political fight against the socialist countries, communist movement, falsifying its tasks and ideals, depicting communism as a sinful doctrine, allegedly rejecting the highest spiritual values, hostile to man and civilization. In 1949 and 1959, the Vatican issued decrees excommunicating Catholics who sympathized with the communist parties and c.-l. cooperating with them. The new alignment of forces in the world after World War II, the strengthening of the world socialist system, the growth of the national liberation. movements caused a certain change in the course of Christ. churches not only in the socialist. countries (where they were forced under the influence of the masses of believers, as well as representatives of the lower clergy, to take a loyal position in relation to the state system), but also in the capitalist. gos-wah. Modern The era leaves its mark on all Christ. directions and their institutions. In the bourgeois countries, despite the desire of the ruling circles to make every possible use of X. in all spheres of the spiritual and societies. life, there is a weakening of traditions. X. impact on believers. Depreciation X. occurs under the influence of scientific. and social progress. Position X. eroded due to the growth of democratic. and socialist. movements, the participation of believers in them, who are increasingly aware that in order to achieve social justice and lasting peace, organized actions of the working people themselves are needed. The number of people who are inclined to entrust their fate to some otherworldly savior and his earthly servants is decreasing. Never since the emergence of X. so clearly manifested the opposition between the interests of the people and Christ. creed. The speeches of the working class, of all working people in defense of their vital interests, not only are not "sanctioned" by the church, but are in direct contradiction with its social doctrine, political. theories and practice. Hence the inevitable break with tradition. church settings. Modern crisis X. has dec. manifestations: the growth of godlessness, anti-clericalism and free-thinking among various sections of the population, and above all the working class. It is also expressed in the desire of believers, still under the influence of the church, to re-evaluate as their religions. ideas, as well as the entire practice and policy of the church, so that they do not clearly contradict the spirit of modernity, the vital interests of the people. Changes are observed both in the sphere of "mass" religion. consciousness, and in the official. interpretations of tradition. Christ. dogmatists. In the inner transformation of the structure of faith, in a new interpretation of the main. dogmatic the establishment of X. the main thing is most likely a new relationship between transcendental and earthly values. T. n. deteologization of religion. categories is expressed primarily in the fact that the believer is increasingly guided by real secular goals, the criteria of societies. needs. Religious devaluation. categories, the ideas of the supernatural, the spread of "theological. practicalism" lead to the fact that in X. they want to see only one auxiliary means of resolving pressing everyday issues. "Devaluation" of the divine halo X. in the minds of the masses of believers gives rise to a different approach to his servants. Believers want to see them democratic, preoccupied with earthly affairs, helping in the fight against the powers that be. Thus, creatures are introduced into the relationship "flock - shepherds - the Most High". adjustments. These moods, a turn in the minds of believers, are forcing the leaders of X. to adapt the church to the modern. era, to modernize its ideology, cult, organization, missionary activity. A new attitude towards the worker and the national liberation is being worked out. movement, communism and atheism, to modern. scientific and tech. progress, philosophy knowledge, to secular power, including to bourgeois. state-woo, to other Christs. and non-Christ. churches, etc. In the midst of Christ. clergy of various directions are increasingly distinguished by figures, groups, to-rye strive to take into account the new situation as much as possible. At the same time, however, in bourgeois. most Christian countries. churchmen continues to defend the foundations of capitalism. New, loyal positions in relation to socialism were occupied by Christ. churches in the socialist countries. In the capitalist countries there are many clergymen, figures of leftist religions. currents, to-rye sincerely believe that the creed they profess is an incentive to ensure "social welfare". They advocate anti-imperialist. positions in the international relations, stand up for the interests of the working people, for social transformations. Without taking into account these various relig.-political. directions, without a specific analysis of the contradictions between them, it is impossible to form a correct idea of the politics of modern X. As for the intra-church organization, dogma, a process is taking place in this area, which V. I. Lenin figuratively called "renovation" and "cleansing" of religion (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 45, p. 27 (vol. 33, p. 205)). Modern "erasure" is an attempt to better fit the spirit of the age of religions. doctrine and organization, so that they are not too contrary to the secular mindset, materialistic. the views of modern person, achieve max. mobility of all detachments of the church, "democratize" the complex Christ. cult. "Erasure" of X. is also manifested in the desire to dissociate "ideal Christianity" from "historical Christianity", compromised by close ties with the powerful of this world; avoid a shameful role, in which X. appears before the peoples of the liberated countries of Asia and Africa as an accomplice of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Social demagogy becomes more sophisticated. Demands are expressed to demonstrate their "closeness" to ordinary people, limiting the luxury of temples, abandoning traditions. pomposity of cult ceremonies. Supporters of the "liberal" direction under the pressure of the achievements of modern. science and history progress are forced to advocate the rejection of a literal understanding of the most ridiculous Old Testament ideas. Traditional militant obscurantism is becoming obsolete. Some representatives of Christ. intellectuals express ideas that in some cases go beyond religions. dogma. Thus, a new approach to scientific and cultural progress is observed in the optimistic and evolutionary system of the French. theologian P. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), who is expanding his position in modern times. Catholic philosophy (Teilhard de Chardin tried to replace dogmatic, middle-century ideas that did not correspond to the mental and mental makeup of modern man with religious principles that would not contradict humanistic ideas and data of science). In the non-socialist countries in the content of the social philosophy of X. more and more reflected are those forced concessions to the workers, working people, to-rye are now "recognized" in the developed capitalist. bourgeois countries. democracies. The Church sanctions what has been achieved in the tense class struggles of the working people. Thus, the constitution adopted by the 2nd Vatican Council (1962-65) "The Church in the Modern World" emphasizes the dignity of labor (contrary to the biblical interpretation of labor as a curse), speaks of the right of workers to unite, and recognizes the legality of a strike as a means of protecting rights. New stage of Christ. ideology, adopting and reproducing the canons and ideas of modern. bourgeois democracy, is also manifested in the denial, condemnation of large zem. possessions in underdeveloped countries, feud. latifundium (during the period of feudalism, Catholicism, protecting the ruling system, sharply opposed capitalist methods of management), in the use of sociological. and economic liberal concepts available in the arsenal of modern. bourgeois sociological thoughts (ideas of diffusion of property, "people's capitalism" achieved through the distribution of shares, "industrial society" as a means of eliminating social inequality, etc.). An important place in the activities of modern. Christ. org-tsy is occupied by the policy of ecumenism, aimed at alleviating inter-confessional strife, at bringing together varieties of X. and creating a united front against atheism and materialism (see. ecumenical movement). In the ideological doc-tah of various Christs. Churches increasingly can be found underlining put. the significance of the theological and cult heritage of other varieties of X. At the meetings of the 2nd Vatican Council, M. Luther was sometimes even quoted, who was once the worst heretic and apostate from the point of view of orthodox Catholicism. Dec 7 1965 simultaneously in Rome and Istanbul were read the texts of the joint statement of the Roman Catholic. churches and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople about the mutual rejection of the anathema, which the heads of these churches betrayed each other in 1054. Contacts between various Christs revived. churches. The World Council of Churches (WCC) brings together 235 Protestant and Orthodox organizations. There were mutual visits of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople (1967), and trips of papal diplomats to other Orthodox centers, including the Moscow Patriarchate, became more frequent. Cooperation between the Vatican and the WCC was established, the residence of this organization in Geneva was visited by Paul VI (1969). For the first time after the Reformation, an official trip to Rome of the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Ramsey (1966); began to practice intrastate meetings of Catholic. and Protestant bishops (in the FRG such a meeting took place in 1966). Analysis of modernism in modern. X. shows that no matter how X. "updated" with each new phase ist. development, it does not change its essence as an illusory form of social consciousness. At the same time, new tendencies of mass Christ. org-tions of a number of countries confirm the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist demand to combine a comprehensive exposure of the ideology and politics of the reactionaries. clericalism with cooperation with working-believers on topical socio-political. questions. The participation of Christian believers in the construction of a new society in the USSR and other socialist countries is growing. countries, and in the capitalist. world - in the class and nat.-liberate. fight. Any attempt at reaction forces to ignite religion. enmity in order to divert the attention of the masses from the really important and fundamental economic and political questions, communist the parties, following Lenin's precepts, are contrasted with a restrained and patient sermon, alien to any kindling of minor disagreements. solidarity and scientific worldview. Lit .: Marx K. and Engels F., On Religion. 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M., Finds in the Judean Desert (Discoveries in the Dead Sea region and questions of the origin of Christianity), 2nd ed., M., 1964; Kazhdan A.P., From Christ to Constantine, (M., 1965); Golubtsova N.I., At the origins of Christ. churches, M., 1967; Livshits G.M., The Origin of Christianity in the Light of the Dead Sea Manuscripts, Minsk, 1967; Kryvelev I. A., What does history know about Jesus Christ?, M., 1969; Robertson, A., The Origin of Christianity, trans. from English, M., 1959; Hughes Ph., A history of the church, v. 1-3, L., 1934-47; Walker, W., A history of the Christian church, N. Y., 1959; Schneider K., Geistesgeschichte des antiken Christentums, Bd 1-2, Mönch., 1954; Carrington Ph., The early Christian church, v. 1-2, Camb., 1957; Kelly J. N. D., Early Christian doctrines, 2 ed., L., 1958; Gilson E., History of Christian philosophy in the middle ages, L., 1955; Nichols J. H., History of christianity 1650-1950, N. Y., 1956; Girardi J., Marxismo e cristianesimo, Assisi, 1966. M. P. Mchedlov. Moscow.
