The ideals of Orthodoxy in Russian culture. The role of Orthodoxy in the history of Russia
Introduction 3-4
1. Orthodoxy: its origin and role in history 4-19
Findings 19-20
References 21
"Orthodoxy is a non-false opinion about God and creatures, or a true concept of everything, or a doctrine about beings as they are."
Saint Anastasius of Sinai
Introduction.
The purpose of this work, on the basis of the studied methodological and periodic, educational literature, is to describe the process of the origin of Orthodoxy and its role in history.
Orthodoxy (from Greek - literally “correct judgment” or “correct teaching”) is one of the three main Christian denominations, along with Catholicism and Protestantism. It is in this sense that this word has been used since the era of the Ecumenical Councils (IV-VIII centuries), when representatives of all churches, protecting Christian teaching from ideas and doctrines distorting it (religious and philosophical), formulated the position of the original faith. These formulations expressed the Orthodox teaching, and the churches containing it were also Orthodox.
Christianity is a collective term for three main trends: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism. Each of these major areas, in turn, is subdivided into a number of smaller denominations and religious organizations. But all of them are united by common historical roots, certain provisions of the dogma and cult actions.
In order to make this work more complete, we will give a brief historical background on the emergence and spread of Christianity.
The history of the Christian religion dates back more than two thousand years, Christianity itself has the largest number of supporters in the world and is now perhaps the most widespread world religion, dominating in Europe and America, having a significant position in Africa and Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand), as well as in several regions of Asia.
Christianity (from the Greek. christos - "anointed one", "Messiah") is the second in time of emergence from world religions. It originated as one of the sects of Judaism in the 1st century. AD in Palestine. This original relationship with Judaism - extremely important for understanding the roots of the Christian faith - is also manifested in the fact that the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, is the sacred book of both Jews and Christians (the second part of the Bible, the New Testament, is recognized only by Christians and is for the most important of them). The New Testament consists of: four Gospels (from Greek - “gospel”) - “The Gospel of Mark”, “The Gospel of Luke”, “The Gospel of John”, “The Gospel of Matthew”, the Epistles of the Apostles (letters to various Christian communities) - 14 of these Epistles are attributed to the Apostle Paul, 7 - to other apostles, and the Apocalypse, or Revelation of John the Theologian .
The Church considers all these teachings to be divinely inspired, that is, written by people under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a Christian must respect their content as the highest truth.
1. Orthodoxy: its origin and role in history.
The basis of Christianity is the thesis that after the fall, people themselves could not return to communion with God. Now only God himself could come out to meet them. The Lord goes out in search of a person in order to return himself to us.
Christ, the son of God, born by the Holy Spirit from the earthly girl Mary (Virgin Mary) the God-man, took upon himself not only all the hardships of human life, having lived among people for 33 years. To atone for human sins, Jesus Christ voluntarily accepted death on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day, foreshadowing the future resurrection of all Christians. Christ took upon Himself the consequences of human sins; that aura of death with which people surrounded themselves, having isolated themselves from God, Christ filled with Himself. Man, according to Christian teaching, was created as the bearer of the "image and likeness" of God. However, the fall, committed by the first people, destroyed the god-likeness of man, imposing on him the stain of original sin. Christ, having accepted the pains of the cross and death, "redeemed" people, having suffered for the whole human race. Therefore, Christianity emphasizes the purifying role of suffering, any restriction by a person of his desires and passions: “by accepting his cross”, a person can overcome evil in himself and in the world around him. Thus, a person not only fulfills God's commandments, but also transforms himself and makes an ascent to God, becomes closer to him. This is the purpose of the Christian, his justification of the sacrificial death of Christ. Connected with this view of man is the notion of a sacrament, characteristic only of Christianity, of a special cult action designed to really introduce the divine into a person's life. The sacraments were introduced gradually, with the creation and strengthening of the Christian church organization. Moreover, initially the Christian church introduced only two sacraments into its cult - baptism and communion, since only they are mentioned in the text of the canonized Gospels. Only later, among the Christian rites, do the remaining five sacraments appear, as indicated in the epistles of the apostles and in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as in the testimonies of the apostolic tradition preserved in the writings of the fathers and teachers of the Church of the first centuries of Christianity (Justian Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen , Tertullian, Cyprian).
1. Baptism - immersion of the person being baptized in water or pouring water over him, performed on a person as a sign of his communion with the Church and cleansing from sins;
2. Chrismation - the consecration of a person by lubricating him with an aromatic mixture (myro);
3. The Eucharist (communion), during which believers, according to Christian doctrine, partake of Christ and thereby are freed from sins (in the Orthodox Church, both the laity and the clergy partake of bread and wine, in the Catholic: the clergy - bread and wine, laity, as a rule, only bread);
4. Confession (repentance) - disclosure by believers of their sins to a priest and receiving forgiveness, "remission of sins", on behalf of Christ;
5. Marriage (wedding) (in the Catholic Church is not subject to dissolution);
6. The consecration of the sick (unction) of the sick (according to Orthodox teaching, the sick are forgiven the sins that he forgot or did not have time to confess);
7. Priesthood (ordination) - consecration to the clergy, performed by the bishop (has developed in the process of formation of the clergy class). In addition to performing the sacraments, the Orthodox cult system includes prayers, worship of the cross, icons, relics, relics and saints, participation in worship.
Holidays are one of the most important elements of the Orthodox cult. In addition to the most solemn of them, dedicated to the resurrection of Jesus Christ - Easter - the Orthodox Church solemnly celebrates the twelfth and great holidays, church and anniversary memorable dates. Among the twelve feasts is the Nativity of Christ; The Trinity, or Pentecost, is dedicated to the New Testament story of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the fiftieth day after Pascha; the Presentation of the Lord, the main plot of which was the gospel story about the blessing of the born Jesus in the Jerusalem temple as God; Baptism of the Lord (Theophany) - established in honor of the baptism in the Jordan of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist; The Transfiguration of the Lord - dedicated to the gospel story about the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain in the presence of his disciples; The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) - which is based on the gospel story about the visit of Christ and his disciples to the Jerusalem temple, from where he expelled the money changers and merchants; Ascension of the Lord - celebrated as the ascension of Christ to heaven on the fortieth day after the resurrection; Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord - dedicated to the found cross, on which Christ was crucified at Calvary; The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Annunciation and Assumption of the Mother of God are the four twelfth feasts dedicated to the mother of Jesus Christ. Among the great holidays, the Orthodox Church includes the Circumcision of the Lord, the Nativity of John the Baptist, the apostles Peter and Paul, the Beheading of John the Baptist, the Protection of the Mother of God.
Christianity develops the idea of a single God that has matured in Judaism, the owner of absolute goodness, absolute knowledge and absolute power. All beings and objects are his creations, everything is created by a free act of the Divine will. The two central dogmas of Christianity speak of the trinity of God and the Incarnation. According to the first, the inner life of a deity is the relationship of three "hypostases", or persons: the Father (the beginning without beginning), the Son, or the Logos (the semantic and shaping principle), and the Holy Spirit (the life-giving principle). The Son is "begotten" from the Father, the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father. At the same time, both "birth" and "proceeding" do not take place in time, since all the persons of the Christian Trinity have always existed - "eternal" - and are equal in dignity - "equally honored".
Christianity is a religion of redemption and salvation. Unlike religions where God is seen as a formidable Lord (Judaism, Islam), Christians believe in God's merciful love for sinning mankind.
Spreading among the Jews of Palestine and the Mediterranean, Christianity, for the first time in decades of its existence, won adherents among other peoples. Even then, the universalism characteristic of Christianity was revealed: the communities scattered across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire, nevertheless felt their unity. Members of communities became people of different nationalities. The New Testament thesis "no, not a Greek, not a Jew" proclaimed the equality before God of all believers and predetermined the further development of Christianity as a world religion that knows no national and linguistic boundaries.
When Christianity arose, it encountered the greatest opposition on its way. Judaism immediately rebelled against him. Pagan philosophy was a strong opponent. Gnostic influences sought to distort the inner meaning of Christianity. At the same time, the state put forward restrictions on the rights of its adherents and the most severe persecution of an exterminating nature against the new faith. All this turned out to be powerless to stop the development of the new life brought by Christianity, because it gave the human soul more than all the forces that opposed it.
Georg Schuster gives an excellent description of this historical moment. “Numerous secret cults,” he says, “skillful deceptions of Eastern sorcerers could not maintain their prestige for a long time. These empty ghosts, born of superstition, have robbed the believers of the last ray of hope and, having deceived them, filled their souls with hopeless despair. And when the last attempt to bring light into the ancient worldview through Christian ideas and to enrich the human spirit with the new Christian, Egyptian, and Persian wisdom, and the Chaldean astronomical teaching about the stars and Syrian magic, failed, then the timid conscience began to seek the last refuge in the Christian communities where the eternal desire of the human spirit to merge the divine with the human could find solace. In particular, all the oppressed, the suffering and the burdened, the poor and the slaves listened with delight to the joyful news of a new religion that brings joy and consolation and rushed to meet it with all their hearts, because with its teaching on freedom, on brotherly love and the equality of all people, she led them away worthy place in civil society”.
Incited by rumors, the Roman plebs repeatedly staged mass beatings of Christians. From historical sources, we know the martyrdom of individual Christian preachers: the aforementioned Justin the Martyr, Cyprian and others. Under these conditions, the early Christian authorities sought to encourage their adherents, to inspire them with the idea of their special position, being chosen by God. Fanatic self-sacrifice, suffering for the faith they presented as the most charitable deed. However, these persecutions only led to the falling away from Christians of part of the vacillating elements, while the church itself and its organization were strengthened and tempered in the struggle against the state.
Individual emperors and governors of provinces in their activities sometimes tried, and not without success, to rely on Christian communities. At first, this happened on a case-by-case basis, in 311 the Roman emperor Galerius ordered the persecution of Christians to be canceled. Two years later, by the Edict of Milan, Constantine and Licinius, Christianity was recognized as a tolerant religion.
According to this edict, Christians had the right to openly perform their worship, communities received the right to own property, including real estate. And in 324 Christianity was recognized as the state religion of the Roman Empire.
After that, Christianity completely ceased to be the religion of the slaves and the oppressed: it turned into the dominant religion, supported by the state. By the 10th century, almost all of Europe had become Christian.
Starting from the 4th century, the Christian Church periodically gathers the higher clergy for the so-called ecumenical councils. At these councils, a system of doctrine was developed and approved, canonical norms and liturgical rules were formed, methods of combating heresies were determined. The main provisions of the Christian doctrine of 12 dogmas and seven sacraments were adopted at the first (Nicene) Council in 325. The First Ecumenical (Nicene Council) was an extremely large, important and unparalleled phenomenon in church life. There was nothing like it in the church history of previous centuries. This was the first open, solemn meeting of bishops, a meeting not only permitted by the state authorities, but officially approved by it. At the call of the emperor Constantine the Great, the bishops of not one particular region, but of all countries and peoples, bishops of the entire world of that time, from the extreme borders of the upper Thebaid to the countries of the Goths, from Spain to Persia, gathered. The most important result of the dogmatic activity of the First Ecumenical Council was the compilation of the Symbol, known with the name of Nicene, which affirmed faith in the truly Divine essence of the Son of God. At the second council in 381, (both in the East and in the West it is also recognized as Ecumenical), the dogma was approved about the descent of the Holy Spirit from the Father, about the equality and consubstantiality of God the Holy Spirit with the other persons of the Holy Trinity - God the Father and God Son; supplemented and approved the Creed in the edition, called Niceno-Constantinople (Niceo-Tsaregradskaya).
In the period from IV to VIII centuries. there was a strengthening of the Christian church, with its centralization and strict implementation of the instructions of senior officials. Having become the state religion, Christianity also became the dominant worldview of the state. Naturally, the state needs a single ideology, a single doctrine, and therefore it was interested in strengthening church discipline, as well as a single worldview.
Many different peoples were united by the Roman Empire, and this allowed Christianity to penetrate into all its remote corners. However, the differences in the level of culture, the way of life of different peoples of the state caused a different interpretation of the contradictory places in the doctrine of Christians, which was the basis for the emergence of heresies among the newly converted. And the collapse of the Roman Empire into a number of states with different socio-political systems elevated the contradictions in theology and religious politics to the rank of irreconcilable.
Division of Christian churches.
One of the largest divisions of Christianity was the emergence of two main directions - Orthodoxy and Catholicism. This split has been brewing for several centuries. It was determined by the peculiarities of the development of feudal relations in the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire and the competitive struggle between them.
Christianity was not a single religious movement. Spreading through the numerous provinces of the Roman Empire, it adapted to the conditions of each country, to the prevailing social relations and local traditions.
The threat of schism, which in Greek means “split, division, strife,” became real for Christianity already in the middle of the 9th century. Usually the causes of schism are sought in economics, politics, in the personal likes and dislikes of the Roman popes and the Patriarchs of Constantinople.
Researchers perceive the peculiarities of the dogma, cult, way of life of believers in Western and Eastern Christianity as something secondary, insignificant, preventing them from explaining the true reasons, which, in their opinion, lie in the economy and politics, in anything but the religious specifics of what is happening.
Meanwhile, Catholicism and Orthodoxy had such features that significantly influenced the consciousness, life, behavior, culture, art, science, philosophy of Western and Eastern Europe. Between the Catholic and Orthodox worlds, not only a confessional, but also a civilized border has developed. In the III century. the Church of Alexandria and Antioch stood out (Syria, Lebanon), then Jerusalem. In the 5th century the leading position is acquired by the Church of Constantinople. At the end of the III century. Eastern Christianity was adopted by Armenia, in the 4th century. - Georgia, in the IX century. - Moravia and Bulgaria. The Cypriot and then the Georgian Orthodox Church separated from the Antiochian Church.
However, the matter was not limited to the division of Christian churches. Some refused to recognize the decisions of the ecumenical councils and the dogma approved by them. In the middle of the 5th century Armenian clergy did not agree with the condemnation of the Monophysites by the Council of Chalcedon. Thus, the Armenian Church placed itself in a special position, adopting a dogma that contradicted the dogma of orthodox Christianity.
The prerequisites for the split arose as early as the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century. Having become the state religion, Christianity was already inseparable from the economic and political upheavals experienced by this huge power. At the time of the Councils of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople, it looked relatively unified, despite internal strife and theological disputes. However, this unity was based not on the recognition by all of the authority of the Roman bishops, but on the authority of the emperors, which also extended to the religious area. Thus, the Council of Nicaea was held under the leadership of the emperor Constantine, as mentioned above, and the Roman episcopate was represented by presbyters Vitus and Vincent.
As for the strengthening of the power of the Roman episcopate, it was connected, first of all, with the prestige of the capital of the empire, and then with the claim of Rome to possess the apostolic throne in memory of the apostles Peter and Paul. Monetary handouts from Constantine and the construction of a temple on the site of the “martyrdom of Peter” contributed to the exaltation of the Roman bishop. In 330 the capital of the empire was moved from Rome to Constantinople. The absence of the imperial court, as it were, automatically brought spiritual power to the forefront of public life. Deftly maneuvering between the warring factions of theologians, the Roman bishop managed to strengthen his influence. Taking advantage of the situation, he gathered in 343 in Sardica all the western bishops and achieved recognition of the right of arbitration and actual primacy. Eastern bishops never recognized these decisions. In 395 the empire collapsed. Rome again became the capital, but now only the western part of the former empire. Political turmoil in it contributed to the concentration in the hands of the bishops of extensive administrative rights. Already in 422, Boniface I, in a letter to the bishops of Thessaly, openly declared his claims to the primacy in the Christian world, arguing that the attitude of the Roman Church to all others is similar to the attitude of the “head to the members”.
Starting with the Roman Bishop Leo, called the Great, the Western bishops considered themselves only locum tenens, i.e. actual vassals of Rome, governing the respective dioceses on behalf of the Roman high priest. However, such dependence was never recognized by the bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch.
In 476 the Western Roman Empire fell. On its ruins, many feudal states were formed, the rulers of which competed among themselves for primacy. All of them sought to justify their claims by the will of God, received from the hands of the high priest. This further raised the authority, influence and power of the Roman bishops. With the help of political intrigues, they managed not only to strengthen their influence in the Western world, but even to create their own state - the Papal States (756-1870), which occupied the entire central part of the Apennine Peninsula.
Starting from the 5th c. the title of pope was assigned to the bishops of Rome. Initially, in Christianity, all priests were called popes. Over the years, this title began to be assigned only to bishops, and many centuries later it was assigned only to the Roman bishops.
Having consolidated their power in the West, the popes tried to subjugate all of Christianity, but to no avail. The Eastern clergy were subordinate to the emperor, and he did not even think of giving up at least part of his power in favor of the self-proclaimed “Vicar of Christ”, who sat on the episcopal chair in Rome.
Quite serious differences between Rome and Constantinople appeared as early as at the Council of Trula in 692, when out of 85 canons Rome (the pope) accepted only 50. more and more clearly emphasizing the line of split.
In 867, Pope Nicholas I and Patriarch Photius of Constantinople publicly cursed each other. The reason for the discord was the converted to Christianity Bulgaria, since each of them sought to subordinate it to his influence. After some time, this conflict was settled, but the enmity between the two highest hierarchs of Christianity did not stop there. In the XI century. she flared up with renewed vigor. Patriarch of Constantinople in the middle of the XI century. was Michael Cerularius and in 1053, in connection with the increase in the number of services according to the Western model, Cerularius ordered the closing of Roman churches and monasteries in Constantinople. Pope Leo IX sent legates to Constantinople, led by Cardinal Humbert. Neither Cerularius nor Humbert sought reconciliation. Cerularius declared the legates heretics. In turn, the legates cursed the Patriarch of Constantinople; On July 16, 1054, there was a final break between Western and Eastern Christianity. The Western Church began to be called Roman Catholic, which meant the Roman world church, and the Eastern - Orthodox, i.e. true to dogma.
Thus, the reason for the split of Christianity was the desire of the highest hierarchs of the Western and Eastern churches to expand the boundaries of their influence. It was a power struggle. Other discrepancies in dogma and cult were also found, but they were rather the result of the mutual struggle of church hierarchs than the cause of the split in Christianity.
At present, Orthodoxy is represented by a number of autocephalous (independent) churches: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch (Syria, Lebanon), Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, Helladic (Greek), Polish, Romanian, Czechoslovak, American, etc. , there are autonomous Orthodox churches.
For all Orthodox churches, the dogma, cult, and canonical activity are common.
A distinctive feature of Orthodoxy is that, since the time of the first seven ecumenical councils, it has not added a single dogma to its doctrine, unlike Catholicism, and has not abandoned any of them, as was the case in Protestantism. This is what the Orthodox Church considers one of its main merits, testifying to fidelity to the original Christianity.
Orthodoxy - one of the three main directions of Christianity - has historically developed, formed as its eastern branch. It is distributed mainly in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Balkans. The name "Orthodoxy" is first found among Christian writers of the 2nd century. The theological foundations of Orthodoxy were formed in Byzantium, where it was the dominant religion in the 4th-11th centuries.
As mentioned above, on May 11, 330, an event took place that determined the course of European, and hence world history, for millennia ahead. On this day, the Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Constantine the Great solemnly announced the transfer of the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, immediately renamed Constantinople and later known as Constantinople in medieval Russian texts. Constantine the Great not only recognized Christianity and adopted it as the official religion of his empire. He did much more. The transfer of the capital from the Eternal City, mired in paganism, to the marrow of the bones, corrupt, dirtyly cynical and corruptly depraved Eternal City to a new place laid the foundation for building a new empire.
Byzantium adopted the banner of the civilized, cultural and, thus, educational tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman world. She, this tradition, was never interrupted in Byzantium - neither in philosophy, nor in art, nor in literature, nor in education. This made possible the very existence of a properly arranged education in European countries, Eastern and Western, and laid its foundations for millennia to come. In our civilization, all education was built, moreover, our entire civilization is built on the basis of Greek and Latin languages, Greek and Latin authors. Apparently, it is far from accidental that the well-known fact is that for two millennia in all countries that alternately emerged as world leaders, the formation of the national elite was based on the study of the ancient Greek language and Latin.
Byzantium had its own historical destiny, which it fulfilled to the end and thus went down in world history as the greatest empire and invincible stronghold. Of course, we are talking about Orthodoxy, cherished by Byzantium and handed over to the world to move towards the Way, Truth and Life. Byzantine statehood rested on three pillars, three unshakable foundations: the Roman political tradition, the Greek language and the Orthodox faith. Each of these three components was an integral part of Byzantine civilization. Its level was extremely high - Byzantium could rightfully be called the most civilized state in the world.
Until its fall, the Byzantine Empire was the largest center of culture and education in medieval Europe. People from many European countries came here to join the preserved ancient heritage and the original Byzantine culture created on its basis.
The Byzantine Empire played a multilaterally important role in world history. She defended a large, tastiest part of Europe from the barbarians and from such eastern invaders as the Arabs and the Turks. The Byzantines preserved ancient Greek literature and philosophy, as well as the Roman state and legal traditions. Christianity, Greek culture and Roman customs flourished in an empire that thus served as a surprisingly strong connecting thread between ancient and modern European civilizations. In the possible complete preservation and reasonable development of everything Roman, in the early Middle Ages, the advantage of Byzantium in comparison with other countries of Europe. The Roman continuity of Byzantium was so strong that this empire carried out the reception of Roman law, and long before the first barbarian truths of Western Europe were written down.
An example of the creative development of the ancient heritage in the further development of the theory of Roman law is the famous code of Justinian - evidence of the greatest take-off of legal thought in the 6th century. There is an opinion that the Napoleonic Code, the quintessence of bourgeois law, is to a large extent inspired by the Justinian Code, even if it does not rely on it.
The Eastern, Byzantine Empire, was destined to exist until the middle of the 15th century. The Byzantines themselves called themselves "Romans", their state - "Roman" power, and Constantinople - "New Rome". From the time of its foundation until the second half of the 12th century, it was a powerful, richest and most cultured state in Europe. The Byzantine Empire, spread over three continents - in Europe, Asia and Africa - included the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, part of Mesopotamia and Armenia, the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, possessions in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Its emperors tried to act as supreme overlords of Christendom. There were legends about the wealth and splendor of the Byzantine imperial court. Byzantium from the moment of its birth was a "country of cities" (with an almost completely literate population) and a great maritime and trading power. Its merchants penetrated the most remote corners of the then known world: India, China, Ceylon, Ethiopia, Britain, Scandinavia. The Byzantine gold solidus played the role of an international currency.
Until the 7th century, the official language of the empire was Latin, but there was literature in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian. In 866, the "Thessalonica brothers" Cyril (c.826-869) and Methodius (c.815-885) invented the Slavic letter, which quickly spread in Bulgaria and Russia.
Byzantium gave the Slavic world an invaluable gift, the creation of the Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic. The simple and elegant graphics of the Cyrillic alphabet made it easy to memorize the alphabet and just as easy to read the statutory letter of a thousand years ago, as we easily read the modern font, which undoubtedly facilitates communication with the sources of our antiquity.
The appearance of the Slavic alphabet opened the way for the development of national written literature. The Orthodox Slavs were able to create literary monuments of world significance, Metropolitan Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace" and "Igor's Campaign of the Tale". Literature has become a form and means of expressing national identity, and in this capacity it still exists, once again confirming the divine meaning of the word and the spirituality of the literature of the Slavic peoples.
Finally, Cyrillic writing, together with the Greek alphabet in Europe, for a long time clearly separated Orthodoxy from Catholicism and, later, Protestantism. It was a manifestation of the belonging of the language and the people to the Orthodox world, facilitating the mutual understanding of peoples.
Byzantium was not only the heir of ancient culture and Roman statehood. Having enriched itself with the Orthodox faith, Byzantium enriched the world with Orthodox culture. Thanks to Byzantium, Orthodox culture became the property not only of Ancient Russia, but also of Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and many other countries. Since the beginning of the second millennium of the Christian era, Orthodox culture has already acquired universal significance.
The main center of artistic life was the city of Constantinople, however, in the Byzantine provinces of that time, important art monuments were also preserved - the Church of Skrip (874) in Boeotia; a group of churches on Mount Athos dating from the 10th to the beginning of the 11th century; church of st. Luke Stiris in Phocis (beginning of the 11th century); the church of Nea Moni in Chios (mid-11th century); church of Daphne monastery in Attica (late 11th century). In Asia Minor, numerous rock churches in Cappadocia have preserved a large number of very interesting frescoes, some of which date back to the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries.
And what ascetics and spiritual warriors overcame temptations and built an impregnable Orthodox stronghold! One list of names strikes with the power of the spirit that the Byzantine Empire possessed: Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Maxim the Confessor, John of the Ladder, John of Damascus, Roman the Melodist, Ephraim the Syrian, Gregory Palamas, Simeon the New Theologian, Mark Ephesian.
And how many saints, confessors, mentors, preachers, prayer books gave Byzantium to the world as a witness to Orthodoxy and its triumph! The empire was truly a state that nurtured Orthodoxy and helped to establish the dogma. In the struggle against heresies and deviations in Byzantium, dogmas, rites and Orthodox theology of that depth and that perfection were approved, which even centuries later remain unshakable, indisputable and irrefutable.
However, “Byzantium cannot in any way be considered only the past, the completed chapter of Church history. It not only continues to live in the Orthodox Church, but, in a certain sense, still defines Orthodoxy itself, constituting its historical form” .
The glorious feat of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril, Methodius and Prince Vladimir contributed to the formation of a great Orthodox culture in pre-Mongol Russia. This culture was life-affirming, philanthropic, warm and bright, possessed some amazing ability to spread in breadth and depth, created great works of world significance and provided incomparable happiness of human communication to thousands of ordinary people.
Constantinople in the middle of the ninth century launched an unprecedented missionary activity outside the Byzantine Empire, in which researchers rightly see the merit of St. Photius. Saints Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius successfully operated in Khazaria (c. 860) and Great Moravia (from 863); along with the Bulgarians, another dangerous neighbor of the empire was also introduced to the Christian faith - the people of the “growing”, who had threatened Constantinople itself shortly before (860); the first Baptism of Russia under Patriarch Photius (before 866/7) marked the beginning of a long process of Christianization, which ended a century later under the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir (Basily) Svyatoslavich.
Also in the middle of the 9th century, according to the “Book of Ways and Countries” by the Arababian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 846/7), Rus merchants (“ar-Rus”), one of the types of Slavs (“as-sakaliba”), deliver hare skins, skins of black foxes and swords from the most remote outskirts of the country of the Slavs to the Rumian Sea; the ruler of the Romans (“Sahib ar-Rum”) takes tithes from them. Arriving for trade in Baghdad, "the Rus called themselves Christians" .
Kostomarov N.I. in the book "Russian history in the biographies of its main figures" writes that:
In the middle of the ninth century, after an unsuccessful campaign against Byzantium, when a storm destroyed their ships, the Russians were baptized, but after that paganism took over in the country; however, even after that, many of the Russians served in the service of the Byzantine emperors in Greece, adopted Christianity there and brought it to their fatherland. In the middle of the 10th century, Princess Olga of Kyiv received holy baptism. All this, however, was only preparatory moments.
The adoption of Christianity was a revolution that renewed and revived Russia and showed her the historical path.
This coup was accomplished by Vladimir, who received the name of the Saint, a great man in his time.
In 988, Vladimir converted to Christianity. Vladimir was baptized and at the same time married the Greek princess Anna, sister of the emperors Basil and Constantine. His baptism, in all likelihood, took place in Korsun, or Khersones, a Greek city on the southwestern coast of the Crimea; and from there Vladimir brought to Kyiv the first clergy and the necessary supplies for Christian worship. In Kyiv, he baptized his sons and people.
Vladimir was actively engaged in spreading the faith, baptized the people in the lands subject to him, built churches, appointed spiritual ones.
In order to firmly strengthen the newly adopted faith, Vladimir set out to spread book education, and for this purpose in Kyiv and other cities he ordered children to be recruited from significant householders and given for literacy education. Thus, in Russia, in some twenty years, a generation of people has grown up, in terms of the level of their concepts and the horizons of their knowledge, who have stepped far ahead of the state in which their parents were; these people became not only the founders of a Christian society in Russia, but also the conductors of education that passed along with religion, fighters for state and civil principles. This feature alone shows in Vladimir a truly great man: he fully understood the surest path to a stable establishment of the principles of a new life, which he wanted to instill in his semi-savage people, and carried out his intention, despite the difficulties he encountered. In that complex hierarchy of states that the medieval world represented, Russia after baptism occupied a new, high place.
In a completely new way, in a wider stream, the blessings of Byzantine Christian culture pour in and penetrate deeper into the life of Christian Russia. The eternal foundations of European culture, those ancient - Roman and Hellenic - beginnings, the guardian of which was Byzantium, are revealed to Russia along with Orthodoxy adopted from Byzantium. With him, Russia perceives from Byzantium the fundamental principles of theological and philosophical thought, the first elements of education, literature and art, basic legal norms and political ideals.
The churches erected in the 11th century are still the architectural centers of the old cities of the Eastern Slavs: Sofia in Kyiv, Sofia in Novgorod, the Savior in Chernigov, the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, etc. No subsequent churches and buildings overshadowed what was built in the 11th century.
None of the countries that bordered Russia in the 11th century could compare with it in the grandeur of its architecture and in the art of painting, mosaics, applied arts and in the intensity of historical thought expressed in chronicles and translation chronicles.
The only country with high architecture, complex both in technology and in beauty, which, apart from Byzantium, can be considered the forerunner of Russia in art, is Bulgaria with its monumental buildings in Pliska and Preslav.
One of the greatest shrines of Byzantium - the most ancient icon of the Mother of God - was brought from Byzantium to Russia in the XII century. Today, this most precious shrine of the Russian land is known throughout the world as the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
From 988 to 1448, the Russian Orthodox Church was the metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and most of the Kyiv metropolitans of that period were Greeks. The Metropolitan of Kyiv was always elected or at least confirmed in Constantinople. Of the twenty-three metropolitans of Kyiv, whose names are mentioned in the annals of the pre-Mongolian period, seventeen were Greeks. During this time, only two metropolitans of Kyiv were Russians - Hilarion (since 1051) and Kliment Smolyatich (1147–1155). Thus, the cultural influence of Byzantium in Russia was also strengthened by the church-administrative dependence of the Russian Church on Constantinople, as Constantinople was called in ancient Russia.
In 1448, after the independent election of St. Jonah by the Russians to the chair of the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church actually becomes autocephalous, that is, it is governed by an independently elected metropolitan. In 1589, the head of the Russian Church, the Metropolitan of Moscow, received the dignity of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. This dignity was recognized by all Orthodox patriarchs - Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Being the fifth Orthodox patriarch in the historical and canonical order, the Moscow Patriarch actually occupied the most important place in the Orthodox world, because, on the one hand, he led the Local Orthodox Church, the largest in terms of territory and number of flocks, and on the other hand, all the Eastern patriarchates, being under the yoke of Turks, turned to the Moscow Patriarch for material support. During the period of Turkish domination over the Orthodox population of the East, the Russian Church, helping her Orthodox brothers, paid her daughter's debt to the Orthodox East, from where she received her faith.
In Russia, among the immigrants from Byzantium, the builders of churches, icon painters, writers, and scientists were famous. The greatest contribution to the formation of the Orthodox culture of Russia was made by the Greek masters who built the Assumption Church of the Kiev Caves Monastery in 1073-1089, the great icon painter Theophanes the Greek, who painted icons in the churches of Novgorod and Moscow in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, the great writer and translator Maxim the Greek (died in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in 1556), as well as the great teachers, the Likhud brothers - Ioanniky and Sophrony (in the world - John and Spiridon).
Orthodoxy was the cement, thanks to which the grains of different cultures, strengthened and multiplied, became a unifying foundation for many nationalities.
We live in an amazing time. After a merciless war against Christianity for many years, we finally began to understand that every person has the right to make his own choice in matters of faith and religion. But for such a choice, a person needs to know what he chooses. Now many people baptize their children and themselves, as adults, are baptized. But often their participation in the life of the Church ends with the sacrament of baptism. But Baptism is only the beginning of the path of a Christian. This is just a birth. A newborn needs food, warmth and much more. And spiritual maturation requires prayer, life in the Church, participation in worship, in the sacraments, knowledge about faith, Holy Scripture, Holy history, about all the spiritual wealth that the Church has accumulated over almost twenty centuries. The beginning of this path is the knowledge about the Founder of our Christian faith - Jesus Christ. When we learn about Christ, we learn about God. Jesus Himself said of Himself: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; I and the Father are one."
To say that these are difficult times is almost an understatement. Today, at the turn of the millennium, an extremely painful and unresolvable process of changing the worldview paradigm that underlies all modern culture and the very way of life has intensified. We recall the words of Christ: "Now is the judgment (crisis) of this world" (John 12:31). Is it possible now to imagine the world as an organic whole, despite the terrible catastrophic processes of the 20th century, the future will show, which does not in the least relieve us, as the center of the created world, of universal responsibility.
Today, human rights and freedoms (which are based on freedom of conscience, worldview) are only beginning to be recognized (with great difficulty and with periodic setbacks) as an initial value in our society. But the immensity and anguish of freedom, its apophaticism, need the One Who said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
Christianity is the force that will help Ukraine in the revival of the spiritual state of its people. The entire history of the Ukrainian people is inextricably linked with Christianity. For many centuries Ukraine has been faithful and reverent to the Orthodox faith. And this Great Faith, in turn, helped both the people themselves and so many of its leaders. So Christianity helped Danila of Galicia significantly in the fight against the Mongol-Tatar invasion; with weapons in his hands defended the Ukrainian people Orthodoxy during the years of Polish rule and Catholic expansion. Orthodoxy has always had a huge impact on the formation and development of statehood, political and legal ideas, and the social system. But these two institutions have different tasks. The main task of the Church is to take care of the souls of believers, to educate them in the spirit of Jesus Christ, to bring them closer to Christ, to unite them with Christ. The state must take care of peace and prosperity in society, protect the rights and freedoms of citizens, ensure that all people are provided with equal rights and obligations, that everyone be equal before the law, take care of the material well-being of citizens. Church and state differ in the scope of their activities. The state is limited by territory, the Church is universal. There is also a difference in the ways of influencing the population. The state often uses coercive measures, but the Church should never use violence, should act only by persuasion and example. However, despite the significant differences, the Church and the state throughout the history of Ukraine have always existed in an interconnected way.
Orthodoxy in Ukraine today is split into three church organizations. The primates of two of them have patriarchal dignity, the third - the largest - canonically associated with the Moscow Patriarchate. The statesmen of Ukraine in the majority adhere to the idea that Orthodoxy in Ukraine should be the only one. The first president of Ukraine, L. Kravchuk, wrote in a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew that the ideal solution would be to grant complete canonical independence (autocephaly) to the Orthodox of Ukraine, united within a single church organization.
However, the Orthodox Churches of Ukraine have diverged greatly in their views, although they represent three links of the past single church. They are united by their desire to work for the benefit of independent Ukraine and to receive canonical autocephaly. But the story is not over.
We must strive for Christian unity. Orthodoxy is favorable for Christian unity. But Orthodox Christianity was the least subject to secularization and therefore it can give immeasurably much for the Christianization of the world. The Christianization of the world must not mean the secularization of Christianity. Christianity cannot be isolated from the world, and it continues to move in it, not separating and remaining in the world, it must be the conqueror of the world, and not be defeated.
conclusions
The scientific study of Christianity began in the 18th century and continues to this day. Attention to religion as the most powerful ideological means of the state is unlikely to dry up as long as interstate, interethnic conflicts unleashed on religious grounds continue, as long as religion itself exists.
If we look at the result of the influence of Christian ideas on society and the state, then, perhaps, no one will doubt that the power of their influence on humanity turned out to be unparalleled. This tells us that the whole history after Christ became qualitatively different under the influence of Christian ideas. That is, the political and legal nature of these ideas is revealed in their impact on humanity.
We need to summarize. The Orthodox Church is important today. It is necessary, first of all, for instilling moral and moral qualities in a person, it is necessary as a shelter for those tired of the vulgarity of life, it is necessary for the simplest thing, for which the Orthodox Church was created, for faith.
At the beginning of the third millennium of modern civilization, all five billion people living on earth believe. Some believe in God, others - that he does not exist, people believe in progress, justice, reason. Faith is the most important part of a person's worldview, his life position, conviction, ethical and moral rule, norm, custom, according to which, or rather within which, he lives, acts, thinks and feels.
Faith is a universal property of human nature.
The whole experience of the XX-XI centuries. showed the inconsistency of unilateral forecasts regarding the future fate of religion: either its imminent and imminent extinction, or the coming revival of its former power. Today, it is clear that religion plays a prominent role in the life of society and that it is undergoing profound and irreversible changes.
Religion as a moral spiritual force has got the opportunity today to enter into a dialogue with the world, the fate of which turned out to be dependent on its moral viability in the face of real problems of social development. The basis of cultural values shared by most religions are universal human values, such concepts as love, peace, hope, justice.
Does religion encourage goodness, or are many of the problems of mankind rooted in it? Perhaps God himself is deeply offended by religion, which incites hatred, makes the conscience insensitive, arouses fantasies that are far from reality and sows in people prejudices, superstitions, hatred and fear! There can be only one way out - to look for the true religion, one that does not contradict his commandments. Faith has the right to be called true only if it prompts compassion in action. Everyone must decide this question for himself - in reflection, in research, in search.
List of used literature:
1. Polikarpov V.S. History of religions. Lectures and reader. M., 1997., p.164
2. Bible. - M.: Publishing House "Russian Bible Society", 2000
3. Deacon A. Kuraev. Protestants about Orthodoxy. - Klin: Publishing House "Christian Life", 2006, p. 398.
7. Kudryavtsev V.V. Lectures on the history of religion and free thought. Tutorial. M., 1997., p.58
8. Kudryavtsev V.V. Lectures on the history of religion and free thought. Tutorial. M., 1997., p.58
9. Eryshev A.A. Religious studies. Kiev.2003.p.140-141.
10. http://www.mirasky.h1.ru/byzhst/brief.htm A brief excursion into the history of Byzantium. From Constantine to Constantine.
11. Vasiliev A.A. History of the Byzantine Empire. Time before the Crusades. SPb., 1998.
12. http://www.voskres.ru/kolonka/dar.htm Eduard Volodin Russian Resurrection: Commentator's Column: Byzantine Gift: Legacy of the Byzantine Empire.
13. Prot. Alexander Schmeman "The Historical Path of Orthodoxy", Chekhov Publishing House, New York, 1954, p. 243-244.
14. Ibn Khordadbeh. The book of ways and countries / Per. N. Velikhanova. Baku, 1986, p. 124.
15. Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures.-M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2006.p.8.
16. Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev The Baptism of Russia and the State of Russia New World. 1988. No. 6. pp. 249-258.
17. "Light of the world"; Men, A.; Publishing house: M.: "Alexander Men Foundation", 2003, p. 94.
18. o. Veniamin Novik "Orthodoxy. Christianity. Democracy". Digest of articles. Publishing house "Aleteyya" (St. Petersburg) - 1999, pp. 49-51.
19. Nikolay Berdyaev. Truth of Orthodoxy "Bulletin of the Russian Western European Patriarchal Exarchate", Paris; No. 11, 1952, pp. 9-11.
Traditionally, in domestic historiography, the significance of the adoption of Christianity was reduced to the development of writing and culture, while in foreign literature this fact was recognized as decisive and paramount for the formation of Kievan statehood. Modern historians consider this event in line with the synthesis of civilizational and class approaches and emphasize the special role of Orthodoxy in the formation of the East Slavic civilization. In ancient Russian society, for a long time there were customs and rituals associated with the cult of nature and the dead, but gradually they gave way to a more organized cult with its inherent internal hierarchy of various deities. The pantheon of the gods of the Slavs included the patron of warriors, the god of Thunder and Lightning, Perun, the gods - the embodiment of the Sun - Khors and Dazhbog, the god of Wind and Breath - (spirit) Stribog, the gods of fertility and earth - Simargl and Mokosh. Each union of tribes had its own "main" god. But the process of creating an ancient Russian unified state objectively required the establishment of a certain religious and ideological community and the transformation of Kyiv into the religious center of the Slavs. In 980, Prince Vladimir made an attempt to officially switch to monotheism based on the cult of Perun, but due to the resistance of the allied tribes who worshiped other gods, the reform failed. After that, the prince turned to world religions: Christian, Mohammedan and Jewish. After listening to the representatives of these cults, the prince, as the chronicler Nestor wrote, made a choice in favor of Christianity, given that this gave access to both Byzantium and Rome. During the period under review, the Christian, Mohammedan and Jewish confessions fought for influence in the Slavic lands. Choosing Christianity, the Kyiv prince took into account that the Roman church demanded the subordination of secular rulers, while the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople recognized a certain dependence of the church on the state, allowed the use of various languages in worship, and not just Latin. The geographical proximity of Byzantium and the adoption of Christianity by the Bulgarian tribes related to the Russians was also taken into account. The specific historical process of the adoption of Christianity was lengthy. In 987, the Byzantine emperor Basil II begged Vladimir to help him put down the uprising of Vardas Fokas and Vardas Skleros in Asia Minor. The prince provided assistance on the condition that the emperor's sister Anna would be given to him as his wife. This condition was accepted in exchange for a promise to convert to Christianity. In 988, Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity and it acquired the status of a state religion on the territory of Kievan Rus. The spread of Christianity in Russia proceeded both by persuasion and by coercion, meeting the resistance of those converting to the new religion. For a long time, the Slavs, along with Christian rites, secretly celebrated pagan rites and retained faith in the ancient gods. The adoption of Christianity changed the status of Russia in the system of international relations, making it a civilized entity adhering to generally recognized norms and rules of conduct. In general, the adoption of Orthodoxy was of great importance, since Kievan Rus entered the Byzantine ecumene and began to assimilate the ancient Judeo-Christian culture. Christianity greatly contributed to the flourishing of the Kievan state and the spread of a new culture, which was manifested in the construction of churches and the acquisition of writing. An important role was played by the presence of educated Bulgarians who fled to Kyiv after the conquest of their country by Byzantium. By introducing the Cyrillic alphabet into practice, they also passed on their knowledge. Old Church Slavonic became the language of worship and religious literature. Based on the synthesis of this language and the East Slavic language environment, the Old Russian literary language was formed, in which Russkaya Pravda, chronicles, and The Tale of Igor's Campaign were written. Russia was not a passive object of application of Byzantine culture, it itself had a strong influence, transforming the Byzantine heritage in the spirit of local traditions. Orthodoxy had a huge impact on the formation of the mentality of ancient Russian society. Unlike Catholicism, it was more of an artistic, cultural, aesthetic value system than a political one. The Orthodox Church was characterized by the freedom of its inner life, its aloofness from secular power. The Orthodox worldview is the desire to unite the Existent and the Due, understanding the meaning of life not in worldly wealth, but in internal spiritual unity, collective movement towards a better future, social justice. The secondary importance of rationalistic and political elements in the knowledge of the world by the Slavic ethnos and in Orthodoxy contributed to the strengthening of the unity of this branch of Christianity and the public consciousness of the ancient Russian people.
To determine the role of religion in society, it is necessary first of all to establish where the line between the area of "sacred" and "profane" is drawn? Fundamental research in this direction was carried out by such scientists as E. Durkheim, M. Eliade, M. Jurgensmeyer. Thus, Emile Durkheim in his work "Elementary Forms of Religious Life" writes: "The division of the world into two areas, one of which includes everything that is sacred, the other - everything that is secular - such is the hallmark of religious thinking." Also, M. Eliade in his work “The Sacred and the Worldly” writes that for religious consciousness, only the world of the sacred really exists, and this world is manifested through the world of the “profane” (earthly). He notes that “Regardless of the historical context in which homo religiosus lives, he always believes that there is an absolute reality, a sacred, which not only rises above this world, but also manifests itself in it and makes it real.” From this we can conclude that the events of the earthly or profane world contain a sacred meaning and are a kind of reflection of the sacred world. His assumption coincides with the opinion of Blessed Augustine, who speaks of the "earthly City of God" as a reflection of the "heavenly City of God." It is this approach that helps to connect the world of politics with the world of the sacred (religious). For example, the head of state is understood as the vicar of God on earth, war is understood as a reflection of the war between good and evil, and so on. Following this logic, religious politicians such as Ayatollah Khomeini believe that the struggle between good and evil takes place in the socio-political plane. Therefore, they correlate everything that happens in socio-political life with the sacred.
Obviously, different religions, while differing in their dogmatic teaching, often coincide in the context of their political paradigm. In other words, the dogma of each religion is unique in its kind, but the religious ideology generated by it is quite universal.
Religion is always a total worldview that determines the economy, politics, and the very way of life of the individual, based on basic cultural values. Orthodoxy in Russia can serve as a striking example of the influence of religion on the socio-political sphere of society.
No material, visible, logically expressible characteristic is suitable as a definition of Russia and, consequently, its essence is non-material and rationally incomprehensible. F.I. Tyutchev perfectly felt this, saying: “Russia cannot be understood with the mind.” To determine the place and role of Orthodoxy in the formation of the social culture of Russia, it is necessary to clearly define what it is.
Any social culture is a historically established system of norms and values passed down from generation to generation. The formation of a social culture is part of the process of socialization and adaptation of people to a changing external environment. Almost all public institutions take part in this process, but the most significant among them are the state, the family, the media, parties, the army, educational institutions and the church.
These institutions contribute to the formation of a national mentality as a certain way of thinking and, thus, a common culture. The Orthodox Church as a social institution is the most important source of values and ethical norms that form a special worldview that determines our behavior in society and way of thinking.
As you know, a worldview is a holistic view of nature, the world, the state and society in their unity, about a person and his place in the world, about the meaning of being, etc. But this idea can be characterized as a worldview only when it becomes a form of social self-consciousness, determined by the totality of self-consciousness of the individuals that make up the community. This means that in the worldview it is necessary to take into account both the social and personal aspects, in which it is the highest level of the individual's self-consciousness and acts as a kind of reflexive understanding of life, being in the world.
The worldview, formed under the influence of Orthodoxy, allows a person to find answers to all possible meaningful and practical questions, which subsequently determines the individual's behavior. Orthodoxy contributes to the formation in a person of systems of life values - virtues, the possession of which, from the point of view of this religion, helps to solve the most important task for the human soul - personal salvation through theosis, which is possible only in the church, which also determines the transformation of the entire universe. An Orthodox person, as it were, ascends the ladder of perfection of the spirit, the steps of which are his virtues, and thereby contributes to the improvement of everything around him. Thus, Orthodoxy, being, on the one hand, a religion of personal salvation, on the other hand, appears as a deeply social worldview that resonates with universal views, ideas, beliefs, values in general and acts as a socio-political, cultural and historical entity.
Orthodoxy has historically become a state-forming religion in Russia, it has formed the basic ideas about values, norms of behavior, social goals, means of achieving them, which are also characteristic of today. Orthodoxy also influenced the formation and development of the national character of the Russian superethnos.
In modern science, a nation is defined as a historically established community of people that arose in the process of forming their territory, economic ties, the unity of the literary language, and certain features of culture and character. This generally accepted definition basically goes back to the work of I.V. Stalin “Marxism and the national question”, written in 1912. Neither the Marxists of the beginning of the century, nor the democratically minded scientists of our time have included and do not include the confessional community of people in the definition of a nation. However, any objectively thinking philosopher cannot ignore this factor. It is clear to everyone that an Orthodox Jew-Israeli and an Arab-Muslim think differently and cannot agree among themselves, although in principle they know both Arabic and Hebrew. The realities of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries have shown how important the religious systems that dominate in their areas of residence are in the life of all nations. Therefore, the problem posed is not only theoretical, but also of great practical importance.
A serious approach to the problem of the nation, and especially national identity, leads to the understanding that Orthodoxy, being the only state religion of Russia for over a thousand years, has entered the deep foundations of the mentality of the Russian people.
St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir turned to Orthodoxy, because it, to a greater extent than other religions, corresponded to the Russian character. Historians and hagiographers cite various reasons for his choice.
This is the beauty of the cult of the Greeks, and the kindness of Orthodoxy, this is the love for fun, for drinking and eating, which Orthodoxy does not prohibit. And, of course, the cheerfulness of the new faith, which Metropolitan Hilarion wrote about in his treatise “The Sermon on Law and Grace” in 1051.
Of certain importance was also the fact that Orthodoxy was less formalized than other cults, such as Judaism and Islam (if we are talking about formal law).
If Judaism and Islam were strongly rejected, then the choice between the two Christian denominations was more difficult. The chronicler Nestor mentions a number of factors that influenced the adoption of Orthodoxy. So, Orthodoxy allowed worship in the national language, in Russia - in Church Slavonic, understandable to the people. Catholic worship is still performed in Latin. The Cyrillic script, adopted in Russia for church and secular literature, corresponds to the phonetic structure of Russian speech. The Latin alphabet, adopted by the Western Slavs, who became Catholics, required a significant revision of the graphics in order to bring the alphabet in line with the phonetics of these peoples. A certain positive role was played by the example of Bulgaria, brotherly in language and culture, which in 864 also adopted Orthodoxy.
Formally, Orthodoxy and Catholicism in their teaching proceed from one source - the New Testament, which is the same for all Christian denominations. But in practice, both confessions are strikingly different from one another. Catholicism grew up on the traditions of the bureaucratic, imperial ideology of "Eternal Rome", which over time created a special psychological type of a tough, pragmatic, formalized individualist person who proclaimed the cult of money as the highest value pleasing to God. In contrast to the Roman Catholic and especially the Protestant churches, the Russian Orthodox Church in sermons, epistles, on the personal examples of its saints asserted other spiritual values - catholicity, love for one's neighbor, mercy, help to the poor, sick and destitute.
Christian humility is characteristic of the Russian people, but the antinomian nature of its character also determines the reverse side of this trait. As N. A. Berdyaev wrote, “... the Russian soul is a rebellious, searching, wandering soul ... never satisfied with anything average and relative ...”. That is why Russia so often rushed to socio-political extremes.
The ceremonial side of Orthodox religious life also had a significant influence on the formation of the mental properties of the Russian people, since the rite is the most accessible and most effective means of bringing the feelings of the believer into action.
The Russian Orthodox believes with his heart: “In Orthodoxy, any contemplation of the heart is primary, on the basis of which a strong-willed attitude is formed ...”. The priority of feelings over will and reason leads to the fact that the Russian people in their religiosity "live with Christ suffering." Christian love in the Orthodox sense elevates the human being to a conciliar and holistic perception of the world. The principle of solidary responsibility of people through Orthodoxy also penetrates into the mentality of the Russian people, where, superimposed on communality, collectivism, it contributes to the formation of "a unique attributive quality of the Russian mentality -" we "-psychology, according to which everyone is responsible for everyone and everyone lives for everyone."
Russian people have always been dear to both the Orthodox faith itself and its fruits. Orthodoxy rallied them into a single nation. It was for the Orthodox faith that they went into battle against numerous enemies. This is evidenced by the milder attitude of Russia towards the Golden Horde, which only imposed tribute and did not interfere in matters of religion, than towards the Swedes and Germans, who were ready to help financially, provided that the Russians converted to Catholicism. The teaching of Christ transmitted by Byzantium intact and the culture and way of life generated by him determined the special way of life and life of Russians, which influenced the formation of a worldview different from the Western one.
Over the millennium of its existence in Russia, Orthodoxy has contributed to the creation of a civilization that can rightly be called "Orthodox". And now, on the threshold of the third millennium, Orthodoxy, as before, is one of the main forms of society's worldview, woven into its spiritual and material life. It is worth noting that the Orthodox religion sanctifies social values and goals that are significant for a Christian, thereby directly influencing behavioral attitudes and norms, forming the most complete form of worldview, which determines a person’s future life.
Russian philosophers and theologians A. V. Elchaninov and P. A. Florensky directly wrote that “... an Orthodox is Orthodox not only in dogmas and, perhaps least of all in them, but in the fact that he does not eat before he listens to the early mass that on a holiday he eats pies, that without crossing his forehead he will not sit down at the table, that on Saturdays he takes a steam bath in a bathhouse, in a word, lives in a certain way of life, that he is the son of Orthodox culture. For example, N. Zernov believed that before the time of Peter the Great, the Orthodox were characterized by the combination of religion with everyday life, which is reflected in Domostroy. The Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev also argued: “Orthodoxy is, first of all, the orthodoxy of life, and not the orthodoxy of doctrine. Heretics are not so much those who profess a false doctrine, but those who have a false spiritual life and follow a false spiritual path. Another philosopher, L. Karsavin, wrote that "... for the Russian soul, everything is Divine."
In order to trace the formation of Orthodoxy as a state-forming religion in Russia, which shaped the worldview and social culture of its citizens, it is necessary to conduct a historical, psychological and chronological analysis of the interaction of religion and other public institutions through a retrospective of the past, an analysis of the present, followed by a forecast for the future.
So, as already stated, the Orthodox worldview had a significant, even dominant influence on the formation and development of Russian statehood. And this influence began to be felt soon after the adoption of Christianity by Russia. The complex and lengthy process of the formation of Russian culture affected not only the ruling elites, but also penetrated into the people's consciousness. The duration of the formation of the Orthodox worldview covers the period approximately from the end of the 9th to the 15th centuries. This process proceeded unevenly and therefore has ambiguous assessments by researchers. However, without a doubt, the result of this process was the creation of a state famous for its greatness not only by the size of its territory, but also by the historical manifestations of the political, economic and spiritual culture of the society that inhabited it. The reason for this was the creation of a unique form of political organization of the state, in many respects consistent with the Byzantine ideal of the “symphony of authorities”.
As noted, Orthodoxy became the spiritual, even to some extent the ideological basis of the socio-political structure of the Russian state, as a result of which almost all processes of understanding the essence and purpose of the state took place, first of all, among the Orthodox clergy. The clergy enjoyed at that time undeniable authority among public figures. The Christian passion for the rejection of everything sinful set a high standard for statesmen - the construction of socio-political life "on the principles of truth." Therefore, the maximalism inherent in Orthodoxy of that period demanded "a truly strong state - both in terms of internal cohesion and in terms of foreign political power."
To solve this problem, to strengthen the state in line with the Orthodox worldview, numerous attempts were made to comprehend the situation both orally and in writing, as well as in the form of teachings from clergy to statesmen. It is in them that we can trace the connection of social norms with the dogmatic prescriptions of the Orthodox Church. The most famous literary monuments written by Orthodox theologians of that period include the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by the first Russian Metropolitan Hilarion, “Readings on Boris and Gleb” by St. Nestor, “Sermon on the Christian and Latin Faith” by Theodosius of the Caves, “Word” Daniil Zatochnik and many others.
The content side of these works speaks of the highest degree of social culture and spirituality of their creators. It is no coincidence that these literary monuments, which are carriers of a high culture, both secular and spiritual, are today subjected to serious scientific analysis. Thus, Metropolitan Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace" was ascribed all the features of "political speech", "political treatise" and "political program of the Russian state". For the first time in Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion raised a number of questions affecting all spheres of society. It is also noteworthy that most of them have not lost their relevance, and most importantly, their substantive meaning. It is the content side of the work "The Word of Law and Grace" that shows that in different eras the problem of interaction and correlation of social policy and religion remains a very burning topic. Hilarion sees the key to solving this problem in resolving the relationship between law, grace and truth.
Comprehension of the socio-political foundations of Orthodox statehood eventually attracted not only the clergy, but also statesmen, which in turn was the beginning of a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of autocracy. In the very idea and practical embodiment of autocracy, a high spiritual and moral content, a “categorical moral imperative”, and a political and legal form were combined. It should be noted that this merging is carried out with the priority of morality, which concerns both power and its bearers and, above all, the king.
As proof of this, treatises of statesmen of that time can be cited. For example, already in 1076, in his Izbornik, Svyatoslav Yaroslavovich writes: “how to live in this life without a bow, how to be honest and loved by everyone”, “do not reproach anyone, do not harm, and do not slander anyone, I don't envy anyone." Further, he writes: “do not despise the poor, do not leave the strange and sad, never despise even those in prison”, “The wretched poseshtait, the widow of the zashtishtait, the weak miluita and the condemned demons of truth will take away”, - it is obvious that with these words Svyatoslav claims that love, mercy and compassion are the basis of morality in Orthodox society. Thus, the autocratic tsar, as head of state, acts as a guarantor of the protection of the weak and the poor from the arbitrariness of the rich and strong. Only this moment, according to the researchers, gives meaning to the political institution as such. Svyatoslav Yaroslavovich also writes about this: “More than all, and in the desert and in caves and in the abysses of the earth, do good.”
The outstanding statesman of Russia Vladimir Monomakh in his works also touches on a huge range of political problems. For example: the relationship between church and state, the scope of the powers of the Grand Duke, the principles of the administration of justice in the country. The very purpose of his treatises is to instruct descendants, future princes "... to act piously", not to do "iniquity" and "untruth", "in truth" to judge. Monomakh appeals to his heirs: "... help out the offended, give judgment to the orphan, justify the widow", "neither right nor crooked kill and do not command to kill him."
It should be noted that Vladimir Monomakh directly indicates the source of his socio-political views. He is the Orthodox worldview, which is clearly manifested in his words: "... my soul is dearer to me than all this world."
Thus, over time, the supreme princely power began to realize its purpose and, based on this, began to define itself as autocratic power, which was limited only by the highest spiritual and moral law. The "Word on the Life and Presentation of the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsar of Russia" indicates three sources of the prince's power. Firstly, inheritance law, secondly, “grace from God”, and, finally, thirdly, “patrimonial possession”, which requires the prince to rule “according to honor and glory”. A very important socio-political aspect of this historical evidence lies in the realization that the unity of the state is inextricably linked with a single supreme power, which corresponds to the Christian principle expressed by Daniil Zatochnik: “The head of the wife is the husband, and the husband is the prince, and the prince is God.” In this statement, for the first time, the idea of divine blessing of autocratic power is expressed in full clarity.
The fact that the prince's charter for ruling was signed by St. Sergius of Radonezh gave a special spiritual significance to the approval of Dmitry Ivanovich as the first Russian autocrat. From this period, one can begin to establish the principle of autocratic power, which, under the influence of Orthodoxy, began to be based not just on ancestral law, but primarily on the birthright, which was explained by Divine will.
The end of the 15th century was marked for Russia by the period of the final formation of autocratic state power. With the advent of autocratic power, disputes are intensified regarding the origin of the Russian state, the relationship between church and state, the form of organization of the supreme power and the methods of its organization, the genealogy of its princes, and a number of other problems. Therefore, without resolving the issue of correlating autocratic and ecclesiastical power, it was not possible to resolve the above disputes. In a detailed study of literary monuments, we found two theological points of view on resolving this problem, namely Joseph Volotsky and Nil Sorsky.
According to the views of Joseph Volotsky, the royal power was established on earth by God, and with some universal functions. As he writes, "God put a place in himself on his throne ... the king is similar in nature to all people, but in power he is like God." It is worth adding that Joseph Volotsky in his writings largely expressed the attitude of Orthodoxy towards state power, which has evolved from the moment it was established in Russia as a state-forming religion.
Another theory proves the divine origin of power. So, for example, in the life of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, the following is said: “... by the nature of the earth, the Caesar is like every man, but by the power of the dignity he is like God.” These words prove that the direct duty of the kings was the moral education of the people, which ensured their salvation. This assumption is confirmed by I. A. Dyakonov, who cites the following appeal of Joseph Volotsky to the Moscow sovereigns: save and keep his flock from the wolves unharmed, and be afraid of the sickle of heaven, and not give free rein to evil-doing people, who destroy the soul with the body, filthy verbs, and blasphemous heretics. This example directly states that the mission of the state, first of all, comes down to the protection of morality and piety. It is obvious at the same time that in the teachings of Joseph Volotsky, the state is higher than the church. We find confirmation of this in his words: "... both church and monastic, and all Orthodox Christianity, power and care." Whence it follows that the church does not have the right to condemn and veto decisions made by the state power. The king in the concepts of the Josephites is a sacred person, a protege and representative of God on earth, standing above all estates, issuing laws and monitoring their implementation. Father John of Kronstadt says: “Who places the kings of the earth on the thrones? - The kings of the earth are given royal power from him alone, he crowns them with a royal diadem", "only God can empower a chosen person to reign and give him autocratic power, investing him with glory, majesty and power."
It should also be noted that not only the “Josephites” spoke about the power of God in the state, but the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Orthodox Church also shared this teaching: “God governs the kingdoms of men and sends them kings and other authorities.”
With this approach, the question of the relationship between secular and spiritual power was solved with the help of the theory of the “Symphony of Powers”. It came to Russia along with Christianity and was recorded as a legal document in chapter 42 of the Slavic Pilot. In the future, this theory was subjected to deep reflection and development among theologians. As a result, Orthodox theologians for many centuries developed in Russia the idea of a symphony, the main task of which is the harmonious combination and subsequent interaction of religion and state secular power. The main principle of the “symphony of authorities” is the principle of the inseparability and inseparability of the divine and human nature, which comes from the dogma of the incarnation. It should be noted that in the Orthodox teaching, sovereigns and patriarchs symbolize various incarnations of Jesus Christ. The Tsar Autocrat is the image of Christ in the service of the state, and the Patriarch is the image of Christ in the service of the Church. Each of them has superiority over the other within the limits of his power. But if we consider the conceptual side of the problem, then the King cannot be higher or lower in rank than the Patriarch, since both of them are a living image of God.
However, it cannot be considered that in Russia there was only a “Josephite approach” to the question of the relationship between secular and spiritual power. “Josephism” took root only after a stubborn struggle with opponents, the so-called Trans-Volga elders headed by Nil Sorsky, who considered themselves to be the guardians of the truly Orthodox spirit, calling for a complete separation of the church and secular spheres, as was commanded by Jesus: “God of God, but Caesar's is Caesar's." It should be noted that the ideological differences between Joseph Volotsky and Nil Sorsky do not lose their relevance to this day.
Although the socio-political views formed among the Trans-Volga elders did not represent any radical, republican, democratic ideas, they were not accepted by the authorities. Considering in more detail the ideas of the Trans-Volga elders, it can be confidently asserted that they, like the "Josephites", stood on the God-established royal power. This is evident from the literary writings of the 16th century: “I say many things in the world, as if God created this world without will of man; if God created an autocratic man in this world, and he would not set the kings and grand dukes and other authorities, he would not separate the hordes from the horde. It also speaks of the rejection of human autocracy. God created kings, great princes and other authorities "to control this world and for the salvation of our souls." The shade of the difference consisted only in the fact that the Trans-Volga elders and their followers were characterized by the conviction that every earthly state lies in sin and therefore it cannot be a prototype of the divine order. The Trans-Volga elders explained this by saying that the state is part of the secular world, while God's kingdom, on the contrary, represented the "out-of-the-world" world. Therefore, they believed that following the path of the state, one cannot come to the divine kingdom, but one can be saved on condition of a complete renunciation of everything earthly and worldly, by accepting monasticism. This marks the main "watershed" of the two Orthodox movements on the problem of relations between the state and the church.
Summing up, it must be said that for the "Josephites" salvation consists in the establishment of a state that will merge itself entirely with the Church. Moreover, church dogmas and rituals will become directly state laws. And the Church itself will become part of the state apparatus. So, for example, royal service to the state is equated with church service and is limited by the limits of the Supreme Law. The essence of this teaching is that observing obedience to the authorities, a person fulfills religious precepts, living a righteous life within the framework of the state, he gains salvation. This is seen as a kind of compromise between the spiritual, religious life and the secular, worldly.
For the second approach, outlined in the teachings of the Trans-Volga elders, salvation cannot be achieved only by the fact of serving the religious law, but, first of all, it requires a deep personal spiritual achievement. This is the irreconcilable difference in the question of the relationship between church and state of two fundamentally different directions.
As you know, Ivan the Terrible, being a spiritual student of Joseph Volotsky, continued the search for his teacher and became the author of the theory of Russian autocracy, built in the spirit of "Josephism" and expressed in correspondence with Prince Kurbsky. An analysis of the correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and A. Kurbsky shows that Ivan the Terrible went much further than his predecessors and formed a theoretical justification for the Russian autocracy. So, for example, in his letters to Kurbsky, he cites arguments proving the legitimacy of his right to possess supreme power, arising from royal birth: “As we were born in the kingdom, so we will be brought up and grow up and reign by God’s command and our forefathers and parents with blessings.” That is why Ivan the Terrible, believing in his God-chosenness and recognizing mentoring only in the image of Christ, is so zealous about teaching him to others. Thus, emphasizing, on the one hand, the absolute nature of the earthly power of the autocrat, he at the same time understood its limits, determined by obedience to God. Perceiving his power as given from God, and not from the people, Ivan the Terrible understands that his destiny is to save not only his own life, but the life of all his subjects: "... it is another thing to save a soul, but another thing to care for many souls and bodies."
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, not only did autocratic power finally take shape, but also its ideological justification arose. According to V. V. Zenkovsky: “The exaltation of royal power was not just a utopia, but was an expression of a mystical understanding of history.” Thus, the consciousness of a Russian person already then received an impulse that determined its Orthodox content, which in the future could change in form, but not in essence.
Thus, the perception of the tsar as God's vicar actually became a fundamental element of the national consciousness of the Russian people. The very idea of a “supra-world” kingdom and its importance for Russia has always been the main obstacle to the possible transformation of an autocratic monarchy into a constitutional one. Any reformist attempts immediately raised the problem of the inviolability of the religious principle in the state, which was not subject to reform.
Following such a state and public policy, in the spirit of the “symphony of authorities”, is a consequence of the work of the conciliar Orthodox Church, which acts as the most important factor in the formation and establishment of the national and spiritual consciousness of the Russian state. Therefore, the whole idea of autocracy in Russia was based on Christian postulates that determined the foundations of state power and shaped the Orthodox worldview of both the sovereign and the entire people. This was not just a "Russian state outlook", but precisely the people's perception of power. So, for example, G. P. Fedotov authoritatively noted: “The people treated the tsar religiously. The king was not for him a person or a political idea. He was the anointed of God, the bearer of divine power and truth."
Therefore, after the October Revolution of 1917, the replacement of the Orthodox core with communist ideology became a real disaster for Russia. The state-forming idea was replaced by a deliberately false secular ideology, which has all the attributes of the former. So, for example, the Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev noted that “in socialism, as a religion ... there is something superhuman, the last, religiously disturbing, religiously not indifferent. Appears socialist-religious pathos ... ". This ostensible religious spirit emanating from communist ideology led many religious groups to initially support the Great October Revolution, despite its officially declared anti-theomachism. On the one hand, Marxist-Leninist materialistic atheism denies religion, and especially Christianity, on the other hand, it imitates it. All the basic elements of the spiritual, emotional, practical and religious complex that we see in Christianity find their counterpart in communism. For example, the communists have their own "eschatology, the idea of the kingdom of heaven (a classless harmonious society), their own dichotomy of good and evil (the proletariat and the bourgeoisie), their great prophets and apostles (Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin), their saints and martyrs ( fiery revolutionaries), their shrines (Smolny, the Kremlin, Lenin's mausoleum), their rituals and prayers (party congresses, anniversaries of great events, commemorative events, slogans), their own church (party) with the corresponding church hierarchy (Central Committee) and even their heretics ( evaders).
In addition, in modern Russia there is an active movement for the official recognition of communism as a religion, whose representatives directly declare: “... our religion is the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist doctrine of building socialism and communism. Our ideal is communism. Our prophets are Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin. Our saints, heroes and martyrs - here they are lying there, on Red Square.
Over the centuries that have passed since the baptism of Russia, significant changes have taken place in the minds of the Russian people under the influence of Orthodox Christianity. Before the revolution of 1917, the vast majority of Orthodox in Russia attended church, participated in the sacraments, and observed rituals. He was characterized by piety, piety, humility, mercy and compassion.
The degree of religiosity at the beginning of the 20th century, according to the data cited by B. Mironov, was very high, and the church had a huge impact on people's behavior. According to S. Yu. Witte: “It can be said that the Russian people, if only they were not a Christian and Orthodox people, would be a perfect beast; the only thing that distinguishes him from the beast is those foundations of religion that are mechanically transmitted to him or implanted in him by means of blood. If this were not the case, then the Russian people, with their illiteracy and lack of elementary education, would be completely wild.
For more than 70 years of powerful anti-religious propaganda, religious faith, despite the efforts of the communists, has not become a prejudice and a relic of the past.
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia in an interview expressed the idea that “the Orthodox Church in Russia cannot be separated from the people – this has been repeatedly proven by history, including the history of unrest and persecution. In a country where the vast majority of citizens are baptized in Orthodoxy or are connected with it by spiritual and cultural roots, the difficulties and successes of the people cannot but be the difficulties and successes of the Church. The Church is the Orthodox people, and not just the clergy.” That is, we can assume that both at the beginning of the 20th century and in the coming century of the 21st century, the national mentality of the Russian people continues to determine Orthodoxy.
The fate of modern society largely depends on the moral level of the population. Under these conditions, Orthodoxy, like any other religion, being a spiritual and moral force, acquires cardinal significance. It enters into a dialogue with the world, and this becomes possible because at its core this religion has universal values: love, peace, hope, justice.
Thus, we can say that Orthodoxy had a multifaceted impact on the fundamental foundations of the character of the Russian people. Orthodoxy gives inner certainty to the self-consciousness of the Russian people and determines its spiritual potential. This is an inexhaustible spring that satisfies the spiritual thirst of the Russian people in its difficult and often tragic history.
It should be said that, in contrast to the Orthodox, Western Protestant tradition, the culture of society is characterized by an aggressive desire to spread their own values and way of life, the belief in their own superiority. In the period of modernity, and even in the light of recent political events in the postmodern era, Western civilization has aggressively spread and is spreading throughout the world, destroying the identity of the countries it conquers. This exuberant expansion of a single culture indicates that it has certain values that feed it. Thus, abstract values disappear from social and political life, in the name of which it is necessary to sacrifice something, which has always been characteristic of the Orthodox model and which is so rejected by the Western Protestant model. “In the modern political world, only the blessings of everyday life are endowed with true value: the preservation of one’s own life, health, comfort, good relations with loved ones.”
Not without reason, one of the characteristic features of the postmodern period is the reorientation of social policy from action in the name of abstract principles to action in the name of the well-being of the individual. Self-sacrifice is not perceived in modern Western society as something justified, since in the West everything is accepted and forgiven, except for a firm position and strong will. In the West, a hedonistic society is emerging, consisting of atomized individuals, each of whom strives for his own well-being. The capitalism that has reigned in our country naturally pushes Russia closer to the capitalist world of the West, and, having barely overcome Marxism, we were subjected to a new onslaught of Westernization. Therefore, we need to understand that the only correct policy for Russia is the one that is prompted by the Orthodox worldview and theological understanding of the place of our civilization among other modern civilizations.
Western civilization is close to leaving the historical stage. V. S. Solovyov said that a person is characterized by three features inherent only to him: the presence of a sense of sacredness (this is his attitude towards his higher self), compassion for his neighbor (attitude towards his equal) and shame (attitude towards the lower in himself). Shrines were abolished by the French Revolution back in the 18th century, compassion and the tradition of mutual aid that followed from it were replaced by competition in the development of capitalism in the 19th century, and shame was abolished in the 20th century by Dr. Alfred Kinsey, who “proved” that polygamy and sexual perversions are natural. human properties. Thus, it should be concluded that the path of Western society is disastrous, and the popularization of Protestant principles, which are the initial step for the further "evolution of morals" in society, should be resisted in every possible way.
It is obvious that the root cause of such a moral decline in Western society was the departure from the Orthodox, catholic teaching, i.e., the introduction of changes in dogma. By adding the word filioque to the Creed, meaning that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son, the Western Christian Church laid the foundation for a self-willed alteration of the dogma left by Christ, explained by the great theologians of the first centuries and confirmed by the Ecumenical Councils. And this retreat from Orthodoxy, which inevitably entailed others, was made out of purely pragmatic considerations of strengthening the authority of the Pope of Rome, because if the Holy Spirit comes from Christ, then He can come from the Pope, who was declared by the Catholics to be the vicar of Christ on earth. In the future, Catholics have new dogmas about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, about purgatory, as well as the doctrine of super-due merits, justifying the sale of indulgences and the most important dogma - about the infallibility of the Pope. Initially, this led to the concentration of great power in the hands of the Church and the accumulation of wealth, which ultimately led to the Protestant revolution and the secularization of society.
Now we can already say that culture in modern Russia, under the influence of Westernization, is beginning to come into conflict with Orthodoxy, as a result of which people subconsciously lose the meaning of life, that core idea that has united them for centuries in the bosom of Orthodox civilization. It can be stated with certainty that even now the Protestant "Western" civilization is rapidly spreading in Russia. According to V. N. Trostnikov, its goal is, under the guise of an Orthodox protective “shell”, to try to kill the old core and begin to regenerate the nutritious pulp, that is, the culture, worldview and mentality of the entire nation. Thus, Protestantism gives birth to a different culture, which is irreversibly in conflict with our Orthodox belief.
Summing up, we can state that the concept of the Orthodox monarchy was not only an idea, but became in the full sense of the word the dominant, state-forming worldview already in the era of Muscovite Russia. Due to the fact that one of the most important dominants of Russian culture was its introversion (paradoxically accompanied by Western extroversion), in difficult times the Russian people managed to preserve their original culture. The principle of the identity of the Russian people prevailed in the socio-philosophical concept of Russian conservatism, which affirmed the need to preserve the socio-political forms that have developed historically, summarizing them with the well-known formula of the Minister of Education, Count S. S. Uvarov: “Orthodoxy. Autocracy. Nationality".
One of the most prominent representatives of Russian conservatism, K. N. Leontiev, wrote that “personal morality ... and even personal valor, taken by themselves, do not yet have anything organizing and state in themselves. It is not personal virtue, not a subjective sense of honor that organizes, but objective ideas, standing outside of us, primarily religion. For Russian statehood, the philosopher considered the idea of Byzantism as a formative idea, consisting of "several private ideas - religious, state, moral, philosophical and artistic."
The well-known Soviet scientist - philosopher, ethnographer and geologist - L. N. Gumilyov believed that in the 20th century Russia, having abandoned its previous policy, switched to European principles based on a linear progressive universalist paradigm, however, its supporters should be clearly aware of the possible consequences of this : “Of course, you can try to “enter the circle of civilized peoples,” that is, into a foreign superethnos. But, unfortunately, nothing comes for free. We must realize that the price of Russia's integration with Western Europe in any case will be a complete rejection of domestic traditions and subsequent assimilation. Do we really want this?
Today, there is an acute question about the need to preserve the national culture, which is largely distinguished by the predominance of the irrational over the rational. Spiritual contemplation did not allow uncritically accepting European traditions, both rationalistic and empirical, and this was determined in Russia by the moral and ethical roots of Orthodoxy. Also, not without the influence of Orthodoxy in Russia, the place of individualism is traditionally occupied by collectivism, i.e. striving for social unity and patriotic service to society. The Russian tradition, which has its source in the Orthodox worldview, is radically different from the Western one.
Speaking about Russian being, the Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev insisted on its antinomy. Russia, according to the scientist, throughout its history has been the most stateless and anarchist country in the world, as evidenced by the entire direction of the development of its culture; but, nevertheless, the Russian people was the creator of an unusually bureaucratic state system. N. A. Berdyaev uniquely explained the subordination of the “most anarchic people” to the bureaucracy by the special ratio of feminine and masculine principles in the character of the Russian people, more precisely, in their unconnectedness. The courageous beginning is always expected in Russia from the outside, which is the reason for the eternal admiration for the foreign. The very soul of Russia, the philosopher argued, is feminine and soiled, she is “married”, waiting for her fiancé, but only “Germans - officials” with an alien spiritual worldview come and “own it”. The thinker saw only one way out of the situation: in the spiritual depths of Russia to reveal his own formative courageous beginning, to master his own "national element".
Perhaps, due to the difficulty of solving this problem, since the end of the 18th century, attempts to resolve state and political issues in an Orthodox state using Western, Protestant-secular approaches eventually led to an absolute misunderstanding, and, as a result, criticism of the “Orthodox” state system.
The socio-philosophical analysis of the richest heritage of Russian thinkers led to the conclusion that when building social models for the development of Russia, it is necessary to take into account not only the determining historical, cultural and geographical factors, but also the general features of the mentality of the Russian superethnos, such as catholicity, communality, messianism. And since the mentality of any society is determined by ideology, it is ideology that determines the goals, the main directions of social development, both in material and spiritual terms. Therefore, religion, being the main spiritual component of any traditional society, has a decisive influence on the formation of the entire socio-cultural system.
As a result, it can be stated that socio-political culture is an integral element of socio-political life, the formation of which is significantly influenced by religion. Religion, being a part of the national and historical traditions of the people, plays a special role in its socio-cultural development, and therefore is reflected in the peculiarities of its mentality.
So, for example, one can often come across a statement about the authoritarian character inherent in the domestic political culture, which has developed due to the centuries-old influence of Orthodoxy. We see that the Orthodox model, acting as a kind of consolidating factor, can form, among other things, the political culture of the citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as act as a national idea that unites society into a single whole.
The Baptism of Russia became a turning point in the history and culture of Russia. Together with the new religion, they adopted from Byzantium writing, book culture, stone building skills, canons of icon painting, some genres and images of applied art.
It was these aspects of Orthodoxy that most of all attracted the newly baptized Russia and developed with the greatest activity and independence.
The Baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir (988) is one of the most significant, turning points in Russian culture. The choice of Greek Orthodoxy largely determined the path of Russia's development for many centuries to come.
Christianity, which developed in one of the most cultured states of the medieval world - Byzantium, absorbed a huge potential, inheriting the achievements of many civilizations.
After that, Kievan Rus experienced a rise in culture, which reached a high European level within the first century.
The purpose of the study is to reveal the role of Christianity in the development of Russian culture.
To achieve the goal, a number of tasks have been put forward:
1. Consider the influence of Christianity on the formation of the Russian school of icon painting
2. To identify the features of the formation of architecture in Russia in the X-XI centuries.
3. Reveal Christian traditions in Old Russian literature
Christianity replaced the ancient Russian paganism, typical of a tribal society. In this paganism nestled fear of the power of nature, the consciousness of man's powerlessness in front of elemental forces. Christianity, in its theological concept of the world, put man at the center of nature, and perceived nature as a servant of man, discovered in nature the "wisdom" of the world order and divine expediency.
The very first works and monuments of the Orthodox culture of Ancient Russia are filled with admiration for peace and joy from contemplation in the world and in man of the saving beauty-kindness as the most characteristic ideological sign of Orthodoxy, adopted from Byzantium.
One of the greatest shrines of Byzantium - the most ancient icon of the Mother of God - was brought from Byzantium to Russia in the XII century. Today, this most precious shrine of the Russian land is known throughout the world as the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
The art of Byzantium, ascetic and stern, solemn and refined, does not always reach the spiritual height and purity that are characteristic of the general level of Russian icon painting. It has grown and formed in struggle, and this struggle has left its mark on it. Byzantium (although it also accepted the achievements of Roman culture) is mainly the fruit of ancient culture, the rich and diverse heritage of which it was called to church.
On this path, in connection with her inherent gift of deep, sophisticated thought and words, she churched everything that concerned the verbal language of the Church. She produced great theologians; she played a large role in the dogmatic struggle of the Church, including a decisive role in the struggle for the icon.
However, in the image itself, despite the height of artistic expression, there often remains a certain touch of the not completely obsolete ancient heritage, which makes itself felt to a greater or lesser extent in different refractions, reflecting on the spiritual purity of the image.
Russia, which was not connected by the whole complex of ancient heritage, and culture, which did not have such deep roots, reached an absolutely exceptional height and purity of image, with which Russian icon painting stands out from all the ramifications of Orthodox icon painting.
It was Russia that was given the opportunity to reveal that perfection of the artistic language of the icon, which with the greatest force revealed the depth of the content of the liturgical image, its spirituality. It can be said that if Byzantium gave the world primarily theology in the word, then theology in the image was given by Russia. In this sense, it is characteristic that, up to the time of Peter the Great, there were few spiritual writers among the saints; on the other hand, many saints were icon painters, starting with simple monks and ending with metropolitans.
The Russian icon is the highest expression in the art of god-like humility. Therefore, with the extraordinary depth of its content, it is childishly joyful and light, full of serene peace and warmth. Having come into contact with ancient traditions through Byzantium, mainly in their Hellenic basis (in their Roman processing), Russian icon painting did not succumb to the charm of this ancient heritage. She uses it only as a means, churching it to the end, transforming it, and the beauty of ancient art finds its true meaning in the transformed face of the Russian icon.
Together with Christianity, Russia received from Byzantium at the end of the 10th century an already established church image, a doctrine formulated about it, and a mature technique developed over the centuries. Her first teachers were visiting Greeks, masters of the classical era of Byzantine art, who, from the very beginning, in the paintings of the first churches, such as Kyiv Sophia (1037-1161/67), used the help of Russian artists. The activities of the disciples of the Greeks, the first known Russian holy icon painters, the monks of the Kiev Caves Monastery, the Monk Alypiy (Alimpiy) (about 1114) and his collaborator, the Monk Gregory, also date back to the 11th century. St. Alipy is considered the founder of Russian icon painting. From childhood, he began to engage in icon painting with visiting Greek masters, then became a hieromonk, he was distinguished by tireless diligence, humility, purity, patience, fasting, and love for God-thinking. He was one of the ascetic ascetics who glorified the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
In the face of St. Alipius and Gregory, Russian church art from the very beginning of its existence has been guided by people enlightened by the direct knowledge of Revelation, of whom Russian icon painting later had so many.
The Kiev period of Russian church art can be judged mainly from frescoes and mosaics. The Mongol invasion, which swept most of Russia around the middle of the 13th century, not only destroyed a lot, but also significantly undermined the painting of new icons. The still remaining open icons of this period, which are very few, belong to the end of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, and almost all of them are more or less reliably attributed to Novgorod, the origins of whose art also date back to the 11th century.
The icons of the pre-Mongolian period are characterized by exceptional monumentality, characteristic of wall painting, under the influence of which Russian icon painting is still in the XIV century, and the laconicism of artistic expression, both in composition and in figures, gestures, folds of clothes, etc. Their color, in which is dominated by dark tones, restrained and gloomy. However, already in the 13th century, this gloomy coloring begins to be replaced by characteristically Russian flowery and bright colors.
The 14th, 15th, and first half of the 16th centuries represent the heyday of Russian icon painting, coinciding with the heyday of holiness, and specifically of reverence, which falls sharply in the second half of the 16th century. This time gives the largest number of illustrious saints, especially the 15th century: from 1420 to 1500, the number of illustrious who died during this period reaches 50 people.
However, in the second half of the 16th century, the majestic simplicity and the classical dimensionality of the composition, which had been held for centuries, began to fluctuate.
Broad plans, a sense of monumentality of the image, classical rhythm, antique purity and strength of color are lost. There is a desire for complexity, virtuosity and congestion with details. The tones darken, fade, and instead of the former light and light colors, dense earthy shades appear, which, together with gold, create the impression of a lush and somewhat gloomy solemnity. This is the era of a turning point in Russian icon painting. The dogmatic meaning of the icon ceases to be recognized as the main one, and the narrative moment often acquires a dominant meaning.
It reached great heights in the X-XI centuries. architecture. Its development is also inextricably linked with the spread of Christianity. Before the adoption of Orthodoxy, all buildings in ancient Russian cities were built of wood.
Along with the new religion, stone architecture came to Russia. The construction was due to the needs of the church - temples were built, first of all. The very first brick church of the Intercession of the Virgin (Desyatinnaya) was founded by Prince Vladimir immediately after returning from Korsun in 989.
Gradually, in Russia, religious architecture is developing, represented by two types of buildings - ground and underground. Both were made of stone, only some were man-made, while others were natural. Those and others were called monasteries and temples.
Of the underground monasteries, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, the Ilyinsky underground monastery in Chernigov - a unique historical and architectural monument in the thickness of Boldina Mountain (1069), the Pechora Monastery near Izborsk, Pskov Region, gained fame. Underground monasteries and complexes are common in many cultures of the world.
The first ground stone churches were built in the Byzantine style. Such is the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv. Later, a specifically Russian style was formed, the best examples of which are preserved in the temples of Vladimir, not far from Moscow. Interior decor included frescoes and icons. The main conceptual principles, techniques and artistic style were borrowed from the Byzantine Empire, which reached its peak at the moment when it began to influence Kievan Rus.
Experts believe that the Russian original style was formed thanks to the tireless experiments of architects with such an important element of a religious building as a dome. Byzantine models served Russian architects only in part as a role model when creating an original church dome. The shape of the felt tent, which was common among the Scythians, Sarmatians, Pechenegs and other nomads, with whom the Russians had to constantly come into contact, had a stronger influence. Thus, the bulbous form of the church dome came to Russia, not from Byzantium.
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