Orthodox culture in people's lives. "Orthodox culture is the culture of Orthodox civilization"
Bishop of Tikhvin Konstantin (Goryanov). Rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, professor
Report at the international forum of Russian intelligentsia “Culture and society: mutual obligations on the threshold of the new millennium”
Dear forum participants!
In these bright days, when the Easter celebration continues, I would like to greet you with the words: “Christ is risen”!
This victorious call is directly related to the topic of our forum - culture and society. Why, you ask?
Many Western philosophical schools and movements began their existence with talk of the death of the Church, continued with the verdict “death of God,” and ended with a death sentence for culture and society. “The Decline of Europe”, “World Sorrow”, “Death of Culture” - this is their favorite song.
In contrast to these gloomy atheistic doctrines that bury society, culture and entire nations alive, Christianity powerfully and triumphantly proclaims: “Let no one fear death, death has freed us the Savior. Christ is risen, and life abides.” In these words, the saint blesses any and all life, if only it really is life, and not its sinful perversion, not camouflaged by death; including – cultural and social life is welcomed: in the Greek original of Chrysostom’s Easter word it says: “kai; bivoV politeuvetai” – “life is organized according to social laws.”
Unfortunately, in the public consciousness, no, no, and the old “enlightenment myth” is popping up, especially popular in the 19th and first half of the twentieth centuries, about Christianity as a dark, antisocial and anticultural force. In fact, this is far from the case. It is worth remembering that the words “cult” and “culture” have the same root, from the Latin cultus - “nurturing, care, veneration.” And this is not accidental, because both Christianity and culture follow largely similar paths - the path of growth, the path of grain, the path of Resurrection.
We can safely say that Christianity turned the world upside down. When contemporaries of St. (II century) they asked what new Christ brought, he did not hesitate to answer - everything new “omnem novitatem”. In spiritual terms, Christianity crushed all the partitions and mediastinums that divided humanity. One has only to read the words of the Apostle Paul: “... put on the new man, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.” (). Of course, this did not mean that Christianity was going to break the culture of every nation, force everyone to speak the same language, or arrange general equalization and redistribution of property, but more importantly, Christianity removed the feeling of alienation, superiority, and oppression. From now on, the Christian master before God could not regard his slave as a “two-legged talking instrument,” which was quite common and natural for some pagan like Varro. Under the obvious influence of Christianity, slavery was first softened and then abolished in the Mediterranean world. A woman ceases to be perceived as a man’s property and receives certain rights. The life and freedom of children now receive independent rights, independent of the will of their parents. In general, a person ceases to be considered as a thing, as an object, an object and begins to be perceived as a person. These are just some of the results of the influence of Christianity.
What was the attitude of early Christianity to culture? For all the criticism of the immorality of the pagan world, for all the sober vision of its religious and philosophical errors, the early Christians did not intend to destroy its culture, they were not cultural nihilists. Back in the second century, a great apologist proclaimed the following principle: “Every good thing that is said or written by men belongs to us Christians.” He taught that even the pagans had access to some knowledge of the Word, the Logos, albeit vaguely indefinite, and therefore they were excellent in that they spoke in agreement with the Logos. Later, speaking about the Christian attitude towards pagan education, he recalls the example of the ancient Jews, who, leaving Egypt, took with them the gold and silver of the Egyptians. Likewise, Christians, leaving the pagan world, must take with them everything truly valuable from its education, philosophy, and culture. As a result of this attitude, Byzantium largely preserved the ancient tradition, ancient education, and a brilliant Christian culture was created, the fruits of which were transferred to Rus'.
Without exaggeration, we can say that Rus' was born in the waters of the Dnieper more than a thousand years ago, through the gift of baptism we received a true spiritual Resurrection, and this was clearly felt by the first generations of baptized Orthodox Russian people. From now on, once and for all Russian consciousness, the image of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, enters into Russian culture, and the Russian Land is perceived as the second Holy Land, the lot of the Mother of God. And at this time, the basic concepts and foundations of the Russian mentality, Russian spiritual life, and Russian culture begin to be developed.
The image of the Holy City is inextricably linked with such a special Russian concept and the phenomenon as conciliarity, implying joint action on the basis of internal spiritual unity. It was impossible in the typically pagan situation of fragmentation and war of all against all. Thanks to Orthodoxy, such a concept as “truth” entered the Russian consciousness. It differs significantly from the European concept of “right, justice” - jus, justitia, because along with justice it also implies “righteousness”, holiness, not only human truth, but also God’s truth. This concept of “truth” is focused not so much on the written, but on the unwritten law, on internal righteousness, and not so much on general legislative provisions, but on personal trust.
It was thanks to this consciousness that even in the last century, deals worth tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles were concluded “on parole.” This concept of “truth” organically incorporated mercy into itself: Russian people were convinced that “mercy is exalted over judgment.”
Orthodoxy introduced an ascetic principle into Russian life. Christian asceticism is an exercise in goodness, in good deeds, thoughts, feelings and the cutting off of evil thoughts and desires. This is the development of reasoning and selectivity, selection, something without which one dies modern culture suffocating in omnivorousness. And moreover, this is an attitude toward an active, ascetic, active life: without this attitude in our national consciousness, we would not have created a great state and a great culture, we would not have reached Alaska and we would not have built St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
The Russian man developed a sober, courageous attitude towards life and a calm, decent attitude to death.
With the adoption of Christianity, Russian people developed a love for beauty, or more precisely, for transformed, purified beauty. Often this beauty is simple and achieved with few means: let's look at the Intercession on the Nerl (1164): it would seem - nothing special. But it is so harmonious, so amazingly inscribed in the landscape that it represents an image of unearthly beauty, an image of a mountain city.
I deliberately do not speak here about obvious things, that without Orthodoxy there would be no ancient Russian architecture, painting, finally ancient Russian literature. The written language itself, the Cyrillic alphabet, was brought to Rus' by Orthodox missionaries. For us now it is more important to highlight the characteristic features of ancient Russian culture, which later became firmly entrenched in Russian culture.
The late D.S. Likhachev spoke about the “anthropocentrism” of ancient Russian culture. I would put it a little differently: this is a theo-anthropocentric culture, Divine-human, rooted in the Divine-humanity of Christ. Further, this is a culture built on a feeling of gratitude and what Likhachev called “surprise at the world.” Here is a characteristic passage from the teaching: “Who does not give praise and glorify the power of God and the great miracles and blessings created in this world: how the sky is structured, or how the sun is, or how the stars, and darkness and light.”
Further, this culture was practical and didactic, teaching. She was least busy analyzing herself, or thinking about thoughts. Her task was to instruct, teach, save: “A believer learn to act piously, maintain purity of thoughts, encouraging himself to good deeds For God's sake." It goes without saying that she was morally oriented; our ancestors simply would not have understood decadent or postmodern immoralism, or immoralism - “beyond good and evil.” This culture was repentant and confessional. Finally, all of it was popular, because its fruits were useful and needed by everyone, in demand by all layers of society, it could not be divided along class lines. And all these features were a consequence of the beneficial influence of Orthodoxy.
In this high assembly it is impossible not to remain silent about political culture, in particular – about the relationship between the Church and the state. Despite the fact that at times their relationship was quite complex and even tragic, they were built on the principles set out at one time in the 6th story of Emperor Justinian: “There are two great gifts that God, in his love for man, bestowed on him from above - the priesthood and the kingdom . The first serves the divine, the second governs human affairs, but both come from the same source and adorn the life of humanity. Therefore, if the priesthood is free from vice and has access to God, and if kings govern the state entrusted to their care with justice and balance, then from this a beautiful symphony (or blissful consonance) arises and prosperity is granted to the human race" If the Church sought in word and deed to support the state in its difficult times (in the fight against the Tatar-Mongol yoke, as well as during the Time of Troubles), then the state also tried to provide the Church with the most favorable treatment in its educational and preaching works. In contrast to the atheistic concept of the separation of Church and state, the goal of which is to drive the Church to the margins of society, the concept of the symphony implies a living interpenetration of the Church and the state, mutual participation in the life of society, naturally within the competence and authority of each party. Thanks to this symphony, consonance, we have the richest Russian church architecture, iconography, and literature. But much more importantly, this symphony made it possible to ensure social peace. So, unique to Rus' were such situations when, at the request of the tsar, entire classes renounced claims to each other and to government officials.
Peter's reform, despite all the need for change, was a heavy blow and shock for Russia and for Russian culture in particular. The fact remains that the Russian folk style of architecture dies down for a long time in Peter’s barracks, Russian painting loses its originality for a long time, Russian music for some time becomes a makeweight of Italian music. What was much more difficult was the fact that now Russian culture and tradition are divided into noble and folk, the upper class is being torn away from its roots and even from its language. It is from the time of Peter the Great that this terrible duality has entered into Russian society: “noble-folk”, “Russian-foreign”, and as a result: “Orthodox-non-Orthodox, religious-atheistic”. The Church, to a certain extent, loses its independence and becomes one of government agencies. In the reforms themselves, and especially in the manner of their implementation, there was a challenge to Russia. Not right away, but she answered him: in the spiritual sphere - , in the cultural sphere - Pushkin. Despite all the upheavals, Russian culture, in its best representatives and best creations, has retained its core.
Firstly, St. Petersburg, despite all the efforts of Peter, never became the “new Amsterdam”; it is still a Russian city, bearing the features of the same urban planning image as Kyiv and Moscow, namely the New Jerusalem . This is expressed in many ways, in particular - in the main city dominants, the central churches of St. Petersburg - St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Admiralty Church, forming the city center, between which the Neva flows - a living symbol, reminiscent of the river of life from the Revelation of John the Theologian.
Further, Russian literature for a long time retained its religious character, its religious warmth, as well as “surprise at the world.” Let us at least remember “Morning Reflection on the Majesty of God” by Mikhail Lomonosov, the father of Russian science and poetry:
Creator! Covered in darkness for me
Stretch out the rays of wisdom
And anything before You
Always teach to create
And looking at Your creature
Praise You, Immortal King.
Or let us turn to Derzhavin’s grandiose poem “God,” written by him after Easter Matins:
I am your creation, Creator,
I am a creature of your wisdom,
Source of life, Giver of blessings,
The soul of my soul, and the King,
Your truth needed it
So that the abyss of death passes
My immortal existence
So that my spirit is clothed in mortality,
And so that through death I return
Father! into Your immortality.
One can argue a lot about Pushkin’s religiosity, but one thing is clear: starting from his period of life in Mikhailovskoye, he turned to the life of the people and to Orthodoxy. You can give many illustrations, one of them is the drama of Boris Godunov. In it we see the tragedy of an unblessed, unpleasing government, the torment of a bad conscience that does not find a way out in repentance. It is paradoxical, but true: power in tragedy is determined by the attitude towards the religious, in particular, towards monasticism. Oddly enough, Theodore Ioannovich turns out to be the ideal king, who “on the throne sighed about the peaceful life of the silent man”:
God loved the humility of the King,
And Rus' with him in serene glory
I was consoled...
On the contrary, Boris Godunov’s humanistic activism only leads to disaster for him, his family, and all of Russia.
The result of my creative life Pushkin sums it up in “Monument”, where he says:
By the command of God, O Muse, be obedient,
Without fear of insult, without demanding a crown...
And it is no coincidence that Gogol says that in Pushkin “Russian nature, the Russian soul were reflected in such purity, in such purified beauty, in which the landscape is reflected on the convex surface of optical glass.” Orthodoxy gave Pushkin this purified beauty.
In the West, many love Dostoevsky, but for his depiction of passions and conflicts, and not for what he was truly great at, namely his gift of repentance. Let us remember the words of Sonya Marmeladova to Raskolnikov: “Get up, go, kiss the ground that you desecrated and say: “I killed.” Dostoevsky's great gift of repentance and his heightened sense of resurrection and Easter inspire his works. Dostoevsky preached that Easter joy, without which “it is impossible for man to exist, and for God to exist, for God gives joy.” He foresaw the coming revolution in his novel “Demons,” and, nevertheless, believed and hoped that “Russia, our great, dear sick man, will be healed and sit at the feet of Jesus, and all the demons and imps will come out of him.” I would like to hope that we are present at the beginning of this process.
Finally, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who left the Church in his later years, at the beginning of his work fed on its juices. And his words sound completely ancient Russian: “For us, with the measure of good and evil given to us by Christ, there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”
Further, great Russian science has largely retained the religious charge that Lomonosov put into it. One can list many names of scientists who glorified our fatherland and who were ardent believers. Here are at least a few: V. O. Klyuchevsky, D. M. Mendeleev, I. P. Pavlov. That syntheticity, the ability to make broad generalizations, which is characteristic of Russian science, is largely associated with the influence of Orthodoxy - a religion focused on conciliarity, gathering, synthesis.
However, despite the beneficial influence of Orthodoxy, we could not avoid the tragedy of atheism of the 19th and 20th centuries and, as a consequence, the tragedy of the Russian revolution. They are associated with a change in the moral ideal, or more precisely, with its darkening, when, in the words of F. M. Dostoevsky, “the human heart became clouded, when phrases are quoted that blood is refreshing, when all life is preached in comfort.” By the beginning of the 20th century, among the elite of Russia, its so-called intelligentsia, Orthodox moral ideal spiritual courage, including patience and humility, the ideal of spiritual work and gradual, patient conscientious construction of life, sobriety and undemandingness, modesty, non-acquisitiveness, gentleness, this ideal was replaced by an impatient thirst for success (at any cost), comfort (for some - for everyone, and more often - for the elite), social anger, thirst for revenge, fantastic dreams of universal prosperity (even if it is built on blood), in short - the ideal imposed on us from the West. We paid a terrible price for this change of values - three revolutions, two lost wars, a civil war, two artificial famines (each - 6 million people), collectivization, constant terror - in total, Russia gave up 65 million people for the socialist experiment, not counting military casualties at 27 million. During the years of revolution, civil war and communist terror, the Church did everything it could to turn society and the people to repentance, to sober up from the bloody dope that hung over Russia. The Church called the lost world to Christ, to conscience and life, not only in word, but also in deed - through the lives of thousands and thousands of martyrs and confessors who suffered for the Orthodox Faith. At last count, at least a million people were involved in church affairs and suffered; in 1937-1938, at least 150,000 clergy and active parishioners were shot, those who preferred death to renunciation. During the Great Patriotic War, when the facade of socialist internationalism temporarily collapsed and the true foundations of the existence of the Russian people and Russian statehood were exposed, Russian Orthodox Church made an invaluable contribution to the victory over occult pagan Nazism. Despite the persecution and closure of churches during the time of Khrushchev, oppression during the time of Brezhnev, the Church survived and survived until the time of “perestroika”. For in sub-Soviet existence, “under the boulders”, bright streams, bright principles of Orthodox culture, Orthodox morality, and Orthodox faith were preserved. Without them we would not have prevailed fascist Germany with all of Europe, they would not have reached Berlin. Evidence of this is the names and deeds of many, in particular Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Nesterov, Pavel Korin, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Archbishop Luke (V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky), Vladimir Soloukhin, Valentin Rasputin and many others.
However, we cannot be complacent about the glorious historical past and rest on our laurels. Society's attitude towards the Church has certainly changed over the past ten to twelve years. From hostile-contemptuous or frightened-surprised, it became either neutral or benevolently neutral, and in some cases even positive. Of course, this phenomenon is gratifying; society has given a significant credit of trust to the Church, and, nevertheless, it should be noted that a decisive spiritual revolution in our society has not yet occurred. In many ways, the attitude towards the Church is pragmatic and consumerist: and on the periphery of society the priest is perceived as a demand-corrector, a bearer of the “religious factor”, social worker, satisfying certain “religious needs,” but many no longer listen to him as a teacher, as a prophet. Anyone is now making a claim to teaching, to prophecy, to “rule over thoughts” - the media, politicians, artists (as Hieromonk Roman sings - “The fidgety tribe has become dignified”), writers (now in the last place). Certain forces in society are trying to deny the priest the right to teach. They demand from the priest to consecrate an office, a car (as they say in the rank - a chariot), - to baptize a child so that he does not get sick, in the best case - to marry post factum, but often they no longer listen to him when it comes to life and death, about the truth of God , both on a personal and social level. And this is upsetting, first of all, for society. If the warring parties in October 1993 had listened to the opinion of the Church and its prohibition to start bloodshed, many hundreds of lives would have been saved. They will tell the truth about the shooting of the “White House” and present the account.
Yes, of course, according to statistical data, our society is quite religious: even in our city, about 57% of residents consider themselves Orthodox. Nationwide, the percentage is even higher: 61%. The trouble is that this religiosity is often not morally and dogmatically oriented; people who call themselves Orthodox often adhere to the grossest superstitions of an occult nature. If we take such a key moral issue for determining Orthodoxy as the attitude towards abortion, then of those surveyed only 34% consider abortion a sin and murder, 36% disagree with them, the remaining 30% have not decided on their attitude to this problem. Meanwhile, 10,000 children die from abortion every day, these are front-line losses from the Second World War. Three out of every four pregnancies are terminated. As a result, the death rate now exceeds the birth rate, and we are facing a twenty-five-year population decline Russian Federation up to one hundred million people and below. And this is already a problem of national security, if we take into account the factor of Russia’s neighborhood with such densely populated countries as China, Japan, and the Central Asian republics. Siberia and the Far East are already being quietly populated by the Chinese, what will happen tomorrow? Will Vladimir Solovyov's prophecy come true?
O Rus', forget your past glory!
The double-headed eagle is crushed,
And for the yellow children's fun
Shreds of your banners have been given!
Here is just one example of how a lack of moral orientation, an installation on the artificially high living standards of the West (the vile expression “producing poverty”) threatens the very existence of Russia. At the same time, we see how Europe at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries in the person of its political organizations, such European Union The Council of Europe remains the most pro-American region in the world. This was confirmed by the active support of Western Europeans for even the most aggressive and adventurist actions of the United States, such as the American-NATO attack on Yugoslavia.
The lack of morality, the lack of moral principles is acutely felt in all spheres of society. This is partly due to the unscrupulousness of some government officials and corruption, partly due to the persistent preaching of cynicism and immoralism imposed by the media, which is explained by both selfish commercial interests and the undeclared information war waged against Russia by certain Western forces interested in the demoralization of the Russian people , its robbery and the reduction of its numbers. And as a consequence of such a lack of morality, economic and social reforms are stalled, Turgenev’s words are fully fulfilled: “All our enterprises are bursting solely from a lack of honest people" Now the error of the “young reformers” is obvious; they were counting on naked monetarism, “shock therapy”, the market, without proper social, moral and religious support, without long-term education of the people, without instilling in them immunity to the diseases of a market society. As a result, instead of a market, we got a wild oriental bazaar, controlled by a Chechen-type mafia, where, without proper sanitary control, they sell, for the most part, damaged and rotten goods.
And the question naturally arises about the future of Russia. There are two possible scenarios. The first and most pessimistic. If everything goes on as it went before, that is, the state will continue to withdraw from all social problems, the economy will stagnate and follow the path of consumption and distribution rather than production, capital will be siphoned out of the country, and society will be controlled by criminal circles and If bandit morality is held in high esteem, then the collapse of Russia with unpredictable consequences for the whole world is inevitable. The second option: the state and society mobilize, begin to work purposefully and build a vertical of power, cease to exist in debt and feed the West with their resources, cease to be morally and religiously indifferent, and adopt Christian Orthodox values. Only a turn to a national-conservative policy in Russia, not aggressive, but at the same time firm in protecting its own national interests, may after some time even change the orientation of the European elites. Then Russia will not only survive, but also achieve significant prosperity, and perhaps peacefully integrate a number of former Soviet republics (primarily Kazakhstan and Ukraine). The restoration of a strong power in the place of the collapsed USSR, which does not seek dominance in Europe, but wants an equal partnership with the largest European powers, can change the entire modern geostrategic situation on the European continent.
Now the question arises: what values should we take into the twenty-first century and what should we cultivate first in our people? First of all, these are the values of Orthodox patriotism, love for the Motherland, for the earthly Fatherland, understood as an image of the heavenly. Of course, we must love Russia soberly, not turning a blind eye to our troubles, vices, and disasters, but it is necessary to forcefully stop and suppress the mockery of our Motherland, its past and present. The real Russophobic campaign launched in part of the media is not accidental; behind it are the processes of globalization and the desire of certain forces in the West to deprive Russia of national identity, so that it would be easier to rob and manipulate it. Global unequal exchange presupposes not only the economic robbery of the world periphery, but also spiritual power over it - the very power that can be given authority and prestige or discredited. Experience has already shown that global world- this is not so much an interdependent world, as the new liberals assured us, but a dependent one - controlled from a single center.
Further, what should be cultivated in society is selflessness, non-covetousness and the principle of reasonable sufficiency. Corruption, the pursuit of profit, the greed of an insignificant minority are putting our country on the brink of economic and political catastrophe: the situation is absolutely abnormal when several of its annual budgets are exported from Russia to the well-fed West, and officers of the Russian army shoot themselves in the forehead from poverty and hopelessness, when children in class faint from hunger, and pensioners stand at the metro with outstretched hands. Of course, the convictions of the Church and part of the intelligentsia alone will not correct the matter; appropriate legislative measures are needed. And, nevertheless, the preaching of non-covetousness on the part of the Church can and should bear fruit, provided that it does not remain only within the walls of churches, but goes out to schools and the media.
The next thing to cultivate is family values– respect for parents, love for children, as well as – a sense of chastity, rejection of sexual licentiousness instilled by the media, advertising, printed publications, and now, unfortunately, penetrating into schools through the so-called. sex education program. This propaganda is associated with the following position of political psychology: if the state or social structures are interested in increasing the population, then the cult of romantic love and a happy family is implanted. If they are interested in reducing the population, then “free love”, sex and, above all, various sexual perversions are promoted. If we are to stop the population decline, this propaganda must end, and it appears that some moral censorship in the media and in the press will be required. For freedom of speech is not freedom for bestiality, it is not permissiveness, since then it turns into the cruelest dictatorship of an unscrupulous minority over public consciousness. By the way, 70% of the residents of our city are in favor of such control, who are simply tired of the streams of moral filth gushing through our media.
And first of all, it is necessary to cultivate a feeling of love for God and for man, as the image of God, a living person, and not an abstract object of some virtual “human rights.” This sense of the brotherhood of man in God should lead to social peace and social harmony. The instinct of competition must be replaced with a sense of corporate spirit, cooperation, and interaction. From the competitive model of society, from the war of all against all, it is necessary to move towards a synergetic model. Russia, as a country placed in extreme climatic and geopolitical conditions, will simply perish if it exists according to competitive laws, suitable only for prosperous Western countries.
In this educational process, of course, it is necessary to use the best achievements of classical culture, primarily Russian and domestic. To the best of our ability, the expansion of the so-called mass culture, which often manifests itself as pseudoculture and anticulture. One should adopt truly academic science, remembering the words: “Little knowledge removes you from God, great knowledge brings you closer.” The union of the Church and science is currently very relevant due to the widespread spread of pseudosciences of occult and neo-pagan content - astrology, “extrasensory perception”, “alternative medicine”, etc., which are equally hostile to both genuine faith and genuine knowledge.
The Church is ready to cooperate with the state and society in this educational process; the whole question is whether the state and society are ready for this. Currently, this cooperation is hampered by both the old prejudices of communist times and the imposition of the worst Western legislative models, implying the alienation of the state from the Church, and society from the faith. Such a model is disastrous for Russia, since it interferes with social consolidation, state building, and provokes the growth of destructive, anti-cultural, anti-social and anti-religious forces. The Church is not afraid of such a separation; in the course of history it has survived both the persecution of the Nero and the genocide of Lenin and Stalin; it is terrible for the state and society. The Church is ready to come to their aid - are they ready to accept this help? Time will tell. What we cannot give now is immediate profit, an “envelope of dollars”; sectarians and Western missionaries can provide this. But we should remember that they will extract from Russia, from all of us, ten times more than they gave. I express the hope that common sense will prevail, and the interaction of Church and state, Church and society in our country will at least strive to be carried out according to the principles of a “beautiful symphony,” which in turn will lead to social harmony and prosperity in Russia.
I.G. Sharkov, M.S. Leonova
Orthodox
Culture
in the disciplines “History of Religion”, “History of World Civilizations”, “Cultural Studies” for students of specialties 080111 “Marketing”, 032401 “Advertising” and other full-time and part-time departments
Published with the blessing of His Eminence Panteleimon, Archbishop of Rostov and Novocherkassk
Approved by the Theological Commission of the Rostov-on-Don Diocese
GOU VPO "YURGUES"
UDC 261.6(075.8)
Reviewers:
Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Head. Department of Philosophy and History
Don State Agrarian University
A.F. Polomoshnov
Doctor of Science, Professor, Head. Department of Humanitarian and social sciences» Shakhtinsky Institute of the South Russian State
technical university
O.V. Bondarenko
Doctor of Science, Professor, Head. department " Social technologies»
South Russian State University of Economics and Service
E.L. Shilkina
candidate of theology, dean of the parishes of the Shakhtinsky district
Rostov-on-Don Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Archpriest
Georgy Smorkalov
Sharkov, I.G.
Ш280 Orthodox culture: textbook. allowance / I.G. Sharkov, M.S. Leonova. – Mines: GOU VPO “YURGUES”, 2009. – 252 p.
ISBN 978-5-93834-497-6
Given training manual developed for students of specialties 080111.65 “Marketing” and 032401.65 “Advertising” and others, intended for studying the main issues in the courses “History of Religion”, “Cultural Studies”, “History of World Civilizations”. It reveals the content of the Orthodox Christian culture, lecture material, a terminological dictionary, a list of basic and additional literature are given, topics of abstracts, as well as applications are given.
Knowledge of the fundamentals of Christian culture helps to increase the level of general humanitarian training of students, broadens their horizons and enriches the thesaurus. The materials of the manual are aimed at developing a holistic worldview in students, as well as an awareness of religious values in the spectrum of public attitudes towards religion as an integral part of spiritual culture.
UDC 261.6(075.8)
On the cover is the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery of Fr. Balaam.
ISBN 978-5-93834-497-6© Sharkov I.G., Leonova M.S., 2009
© State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "South Russian State
University of Economics and Service", 2009
Introduction........................................................ ........................................................ 4
1. The origins of Orthodox culture in Russia.................................................... .5
Security questions............................................................................ 10
2. The Bible in Russian written culture.................................................... .. 10
Test questions........................................................ ............................... 34
3. Orthodox church.................................................... ........................... 35
Test questions........................................................ ............................ 47
4. Religious fine arts. Icon................................... 48
Test questions........................................................ ............................ 70
5. History Christian symbolism. Cross........................................ 70
Test questions........................................................ ................................... 93
6. Symbolism of liturgical vestments.................................................... .94
Test questions........................................................ ........................ 104
7. Bells and bell ringing.................................................... ............... 105
Test questions........................................................ ............................ 119
8. Russian church singing art.................................................... .... 119
Test questions........................................................ ............................... 125
9. Monastic culture of Rus'.................................................... ............... 126
Test questions........................................................ ........................ 141
10. Church year: holidays and fasts of the Orthodox Church........... 142
Test questions........................................................ ............................ 173
11. Orthodox traditions................................................................... 173
Test questions........................................................ ........................ 190
12. Church art of small forms.................................................... ....... 191
Test questions........................................................ ............................... 209
13. Easter eggs................................................... .................................. 209
Test questions........................................................ ........................ 220
14. Charity as a sociocultural phenomenon.................................... 221
Test questions........................................................ ............................... 226
Topics of reports and abstracts.................................................... .................... 227
Terminological dictionary (glossary)................................................... .228
Bibliography................................................................ .................... 243
Appendix 1. Chronological list of Byzantine emperors. 247
Appendix 2. Primates of the Russian Church.................................................... 250
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INTRODUCTION
Spiritual culture, being formed over centuries and millennia, was oriented towards fulfilling at least two social functions - identifying the objective laws of existence and preserving the integrity of society. IN modern society In this consciousness, there is a process of rethinking the role of religion and the Church, and there is a clear departure from the stereotypes of vulgar atheism. Today, society re-understands the original meaning of the word “culture” itself - cultivation, cultivation, veneration - and recognizes that the words “cult” and “culture” have the same root.
One of the oldest forms of culture is religion. In the history of world culture, the emergence of three world religions was of particular importance: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. These religions made significant changes in culture, entering into complex interaction with its various elements and aspects. The central, core moment of any religion is faith. Satisfying one of the basic needs of human nature - to have an ideal and an object for worship, faith was, is and remains one of the main means of sociocultural integration. Being the most important connecting element of any society, the religious worldview and belief in higher values generally visibly manifest themselves in such basic areas of human spiritual life as science, art and morality. The history of each country, while remaining part of the whole, has its own specific characteristics, its own individuality, its own uniqueness. According to academician D.S. Likhachev, “culture is what largely justifies before God the existence of a people and a nation... Culture is the shrines of the people, the shrines of the nation.” A modern person living in Russia and interested in its culture needs a comprehensive and objective understanding of the history and cultural traditions of our Fatherland. For our country it has become a culture-forming Orthodox Christianity, which has nurtured and created the beautiful and powerful tree of Russian culture. And today in Russia the majority of believers are adherents of Orthodoxy. The spiritual culture of Russia is a system of values created by the grace-filled creativity of people in the bosom and the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many phenomena of the secular culture of our homeland (literature, painting, architecture) cannot be adequately understood without analyzing their close connection with the phenomena of spiritual culture and the traditions of Orthodoxy.
Since ancient times, our land has been fertile soil, where foreign cultural values, as equals, ripened on this tree of our original culture, morality, and existence. Tolerance - respect for a person of other beliefs, a different position, a different way of thinking - is the same characteristic feature of our people as kindness and openness. Now all over the world there is a great attraction to spiritual values. And when we talk today about the creation of a civilized civil society, then, of course, we also mean spiritual renewal, when, from under the layers of everything alien, unnatural to human nature, what is original to human nature comes to life: pain, compassion, tolerance.
More than a thousand years of Orthodox cultural tradition is a rich heritage that we are called upon to preserve, study and enhance, passing on to future generations.
Every patriot should love and honor their ancestors, know and be proud of their history. But at the same time, we must respect other peoples, their history, their cultural values. Christianity has always called and calls for mutual understanding, for communication, and therefore for mutual enrichment.
Religion, and especially Christianity, has always been a symbol of spiritual search, service to goodness and the affirmation of morality. At the same time, religion consoles, reassures those who are lonely and bad in this world, provides examples of the lives of ascetics of the Church who have risen above the vanity of everyday life and devoted themselves to serving the highest ideal, God, and selflessly helping people. Thus, religion is inextricably linked with morality.
The impact of religion as one of the forms of spiritual culture on society is carried out directly and indirectly. On the one hand, religious orientations and norms directly regulate the spheres of production and consumption, on the other hand, they indirectly influence them through other areas of culture (moral and ethical consciousness, artistic and aesthetic orientations and scientific views).
The origins of Orthodox culture in Russia
Religion is an integral part modern world, since it performs three blocks of social functions. Firstly, religious institutions provide spiritual nourishment to believers, which is manifested in the education of religiosity and citizenship, in saturating a person with good and overcoming evil and sins. Secondly, religious organizations are engaged in religious and special secular education, mercy and charity. Thirdly, representatives of churches actively participate in social activities, contribute to the normalization of political, economic and cultural processes, interethnic and interstate relations, and the solution of global problems of civilization.
In the history of social thought, the problem of the connection between religion and culture has been understood in different ways, but the importance of religion has always been assessed very highly. Religion, of course, is one of the determining factors in changing the forms of human society and changing civilizations.
Since Rus' adopted Christianity in its eastern, Orthodox form, the Church has played a vital role in the history of Russia. Orthodoxy permeated the entire Russian culture. It was Orthodox Christianity that created that great and rich national culture, which we have the right to be proud of, which we are called upon to carefully preserve, worthily increase and study. Monasteries set an example of both piety and prudent, exemplary management, and were sources and centers of education and enlightenment. The Metropolitan, and later the Patriarch of All Rus', was the second person in the country after the Sovereign and, in the absence of the monarch or during his minority, sometimes exercised a decisive influence on governing affairs. Russian regiments went into battle and won under Orthodox banners with the image of Christ the Savior. They woke up from sleep with prayer, worked, sat down at the table and even died with the name of God on their lips. Rus' owes its written language and bookishness, as well as its full-fledged statehood, precisely to Christianization, to the Church. Russian paganism, unlike Hellenic or Roman, was very poor and primitive. There is and cannot be a history of Russia without the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Church tradition connects the beginning of the spread of Christianity in Rus' with the name of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called - one of the twelve disciples of Christ, according to church tradition, who undertook a “walk to Rus'” back in the first century. Ancient authors report missionary activity Apostle “in Scythia,” and Russian chronicles say that St. Andrew the First-Called reached the Kyiv mountains. Here he erected a cross and predicted to his disciples that “on these mountains the grace of God will shine and there will be a great city” with many temples. Further, the legend tells of Andrew the First-Called’s visit to the place where Novgorod later arose. Most modern historians consider this tale to be a later legend.
Reliable information about the spread of Christianity in Rus' dates back to the 9th century. The “District Epistle” of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Photius, in 867 speaks of the baptism of the “Russians,” who shortly before had undertaken a campaign against Byzantium. Russian chronicles contain a story about the campaign against Constantinople in 866 by princes Askold and Dir. Then Saint Photius, seeing hordes of pagan barbarians at the walls of Constantinople (Constantinople), began to pray earnestly and made a religious procession with the robe of the Mother of God around the city. When did St. Photius immersed the holy robe in the waters of the Bosphorus, a strong storm began in the strait and scattered the enemy ships. Frightened by the elements and God's wrath, princes Askold and Dir adopted Christianity. In this regard, a number of historians suggest that the first baptism in Rus' took place under these princes. Other, later chronicles also confirm this fact.
Similar story also occurred during the reign of Emperor Leo the Philosopher (886–912): the appearance of the Mother of God in the Blachernae Church of Constantinople (Protection). Then the frightened and admonished Russians also returned to Kyiv as Christians.
Around 944, the chronicles mention the conclusion of a treaty between Byzantium and Kievan Rus, which, in particular, mentions the church of Elijah, called the main one, it follows that already in 944 there were several churches in Rus'. Moreover, according to the custom of that time, the agreement was sealed with religious oaths. The Greeks, naturally, made a Christian vow to fulfill the contract, and among the Russian oaths with pagan Peruns, Khors and others there were also Christian vows. That is, there were already Christians among the Russian nobles. It is known that Princess Olga, the wife of Prince Igor, became a Christian. Thus, even before the baptism of Rus' under Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Christianity on Russian soil had a history of more than a century.
With the name of St. Princess Olga, most people personify such historical facts as the strengthening of princely power, the subjugation of rebellious tribes (Drevlyans), the beginning of collecting tribute from the inhabitants of Novgorod, Pskov, etc. Princess Olga also tried to increase the prestige of Rus' through skillful and wise diplomacy. And in this regard, Olga’s baptism acquired special significance. According to the chronicler, she “from an early age sought with wisdom what was best in this world, and found a pearl of great value—Christ.” But the point is not only that the princess, disposed towards Christianity, found true faith, despite its pagan surroundings. Her baptism became not only a private affair of a pious elderly woman, but acquired important political significance and contributed to the strengthening of international situation Rus'.
Historians are still arguing when and where exactly this event took place - in Kyiv or Constantinople.
According to the chronicle, in the mid-50s of the 10th century she went to Constantinople and there “loved the light and left the darkness,” accepting the “Greek law.” The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenet (Porphyrogenet), struck by Olga's beauty and intelligence (in fact, she was about sixty years old at the time), allegedly invited the princess to become his wife. But the Russian princess, showing wisdom and cunning, deceived him: at her request, the emperor became Olga’s godfather, which, according to Christian canons, excluded the possibility of marriage between them. Rather, it's beautiful legend, proposed ancient Russian chronicles: after all, Olga was no longer young, and the Byzantine basileus was married.
In all likelihood, Olga was familiar with Christianity back in Kyiv, there were Christians in her squad, and she was accompanied to Constantinople by the Kiev priest Gregory. But the baptism of Princess Olga in Byzantium acquired a pronounced political overtones: having received the title of “daughter” of the Byzantine emperor, which distinguished her from other sovereigns, having received baptism from his hands, Olga thereby unusually increased the prestige of the secular power of Kyiv internationally. The Byzantine emperor still had the crimson glow of the glory of great Rome, and part of this glow now illuminated the throne of Kiev.
However, Olga's baptism did not entail mass distribution Christianity in Rus'. But the baptism of the times of Princess Olga, whom the Church called saint and equal to the apostles for her piety and preaching zeal, became the dawn that anticipated the sunrise - the baptism of Rus' under Prince Vladimir.
Having come to power, Vladimir initially tried to strengthen paganism. By his order, idols of Perun, the patron saint of the prince and his squad, as well as idols of Dazhdbog, Stribog, Khors and Mokosha, the gods of the sun and air elements, were placed on a hill near the princely palace in Kiev. That is, he made an attempt to create a Russian pagan pantheon based on the Hellenic or Roman model. The states neighboring Kievan Rus professed monotheistic religions. Christianity dominated in Byzantium, Judaism in Khazaria, and Islam in Volga Bulgaria. But Rus' had the closest ties with Christian Byzantium.
The Tale of Bygone Years tells that in 986, representatives of all three of these countries appeared in Kyiv, inviting Vladimir to accept their faith. Islam was rejected outright because it seemed too burdensome to abstain from wine, as well as the unacceptable and “vile” circumcision. Judaism was rejected due to the fact that the Jews who professed it lost their state and were scattered throughout the earth. The prince also rejected the offer of the envoys of the Pope. The sermon of the representative of the Byzantine Church made the most favorable impression on him. Nevertheless, Vladimir sent his ambassadors to see how God was worshiped in different countries. Having returned, the Russian ambassadors declared that Muslim law was “not good”, that in German church service there is no beauty, and the Greek faith was called the best. They enthusiastically noted that in Greek temples The beauty is such that you cannot understand where you are - on earth or in heaven. The latter circumstance strengthened the prince’s choice of faith.
The story of his marriage to the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of the emperors - co-rulers Vasily II and Constantine VIII, is closely connected with Vladimir’s decision to accept the Christian faith. The chronicle reports that in 988 Vladimir besieged Korsun and, having taken it, sent messengers to the emperors Constantine and Vasily to tell them: “I heard that you have a maiden sister. If you don’t give it for me, then I will do to your capital the same thing that I did to this city.” Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the Byzantine basileus demanded that Vladimir be baptized, since according to Christian laws it is not permissible for Christians to marry pagans. Vladimir, who had earlier decided to be baptized, demanded that Anna come to him in Korsun, accompanied by priests, who would baptize him in the city he captured. Seeing no other way out, the Greeks agreed, and Vladimir was baptized in Korsun with the name Vasily.
The narratives of Russian chronicles are supplemented by Byzantine sources. They report that Emperor Vasily II turned to Vladimir for military assistance against the rebellious commander Vardas Phocas, who laid claim to the imperial throne. The Kiev prince agreed to help, provided that the princess was given in marriage to him, and, in turn, promised to be baptized. For Byzantium this was something new, because even the son of the German emperor, the future Otto II, was refused when he wooed the Greek princess in 968. Moreover, the then emperor Nicephorus Phocas contemptuously declared that one born in purple could not be the wife of a barbarian. And everyone gradually began to forget about the treaty, except for Prince Vladimir, who reminded himself of himself by besieging Korsun. Byzantium had to remember the concluded agreement.
Returning from Korsun to Kyiv, Vladimir ordered the destruction of pagan idols. Overthrown, they were burned or chopped into pieces. The statue of Perun was tied to a horse's tail and thrown from the mountain into the waters of the Dnieper, and the people of Kiev had to push the idol floating along the river away from the shore until it was beyond the thresholds of Rus'. The prince sought to demonstrate to his subjects the powerlessness of the pagan gods. After the defeat of pagan idols, Prince Vladimir began converting the people of Kiev to Christianity. Priests who came from Constantinople and Korsun baptized the residents of Kyiv in the Dnieper in 988; according to other sources, this happened on a tributary of the Dnieper - Pochaina.
There is another hypothesis according to which Christianity came to us not from Byzantium, as is commonly believed, but from Bulgaria. Historians have noticed that the Byzantine chronicles are silent about such a seemingly important event, like the baptism of Rus'. Hence they put forward a version from which it follows that Prince Vladimir, seeking independence from Byzantium, was baptized somewhere on the territory of Bulgaria, which had its own Ohrid archbishopric, independent of Rome and Constantinople. In confirmation of this fact, historians cite the mention in Russian chronicles of Metropolitan John, who, in their opinion, was the Archbishop of Ohrid. Historians also point to the fact that Princess Anna died before her husband. And the chronicles say that Vladimir married a second time to a certain Bulgarian woman, who became the mother of Boris and Gleb, as well as the stepmother of Yaroslav. But still, the first hypothesis is more plausible, since it has more evidence in chronicles and historical facts.
It is difficult to say how long-lasting our Russian civilization would have been if, at the end of the 10th century, the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich had not begun the Christianization of Rus'.
The history of the spread of Christianity throughout Rus' and the history of the Russian Church are traditionally considered according to periods associated with the characteristic periods of the history of the state. Typically distinguished: the pre-Mongol period (988–1237), the period from the Tatar-Mongol invasion to the division of the metropolis (1237–1458), the period from the division of the metropolis to the establishment of the patriarchate (1458–1589), the patriarchal period (1589–1589). 1700), synodal period (1700–1917), Recent history Russian Orthodox Church (from 1917 to the present).
Security questions:
1. Which holy apostle does church tradition call the patron of Rus' and why?
2. The names of which Kyiv princes are associated with the first Christianization of Rus'?
3. What chronicle sources report the Baptism of Rus'? How reliable are they?
4. With what name did the Kyiv prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich convert to Christianity? What is this connected with?
5. What impressed the Russian ambassadors in Constantinople, sent by the Prince of Kyiv to explore the world different faiths?
6. Tell us about the two most substantiated hypotheses of Russia’s perception of Christianity. Bishops of which lands baptized and enlightened Russians in the 10th century?
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Time from the middle of the 14th century. until the middle of the 15th century. was the heyday of Christian Orthodox culture in Rus'. This period is sometimes called the "Orthodox Renaissance". The main trend that determined the character of churchliness was Byzantine hesychasm - a mystical-ascetic teaching about man’s path to unity with God. Hesychasm was based on the constant repetition in the mind of “silent” prayer (“work of the heart”, “mental prayer”) leading to prayerful self-deepening and, as a result, internal vision of Divine energy, which is incorporeal, but penetrates all things. The practice of hesychasm is sometimes compared to meditation.
This teaching united almost all Orthodox Christians at that time: Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Russians, Georgians and Romanians.
In this era they lived and worked: Sergius of Radonezh (before becoming a monk - Bartholomew) - one of the revivalists of Russian monasticism, founder of the Trinity Monastery (later named the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in his honor), the inspiration of Dmitry Donskoy to fight Mamai; Stefan Permsky - educator of the Permians (Komi), creator of the Permian alphabet; icon painters: Theophanes the Greek - a native of Byzantium, heir to the richest traditions of Byzantine icon painting; Andrei Rublev is the greatest of all Russian icon painters, the author of the “Trinity” - an icon that conveyed the entire depth of Christian spirituality; refined Dionysius; writers: Epiphanius the Wise - author of “The Lives of Sergius and Stefania” and Pachomius the Serb (Logothetus).
Religion is a carrier of cultural values, an important element of any culture. The Christian faith shaped the picture of the world of ancient Russian man. At its center were ideas about the relationship between God and man. The idea of love as a force dominating in the lives of people and in their relationships with God and among themselves organically entered into Russian culture. The most important for Christian faith the idea of personal salvation oriented a person toward self-improvement and contributed to the development of individual creative activity.
The influence of Christianity on Russian culture was extremely multifaceted. From church books Old Russian people they learned about new standards of morality and morality, received historical and geographical information, information about living and inanimate nature (books “Physiologist”, “Six-day”). The works of the “Church Fathers” - John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, John of Damascus, John Climacus and others - organically merged into Russian spiritual culture. The images they created through books firmly entered into Russian art and served as a source for the poetic revelations of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov, F.I. Tyutcheva, A.K. Tolstoy, A.A. Feta.
Christianity not only stimulated the formation Old Russian writing and literature. Prominent figures Orthodoxy made a huge contribution to the enrichment of the culture of the ethnic group, expanding the spheres of artistic creativity.
With Orthodoxy the art of eloquence came to Rus'. Old Russian orators and preachers in their speeches affirmed the spiritual and moral values of faith, united people, taught powerful of the world this. Church preaching - oral and written - was a school for introducing people to high cultural values and contributed to the formation of national self-awareness.
In general, starting from late XVII V. in Russian culture, as in the culture of other European peoples, the process of secularization begins. On Russian soil it was not carried out painlessly and was accompanied by complex conflicts.
The separation of art and religion that occurred at the beginning of the 18th century. as a result of the reforms carried out by Peter I, it became the largest tragedy of Russian culture. It had sad consequences both for the Orthodox Church (it alienated itself from a significant part of the Russian intelligentsia) and for art - literature, painting and music (which lost some of the positive values expressed in religious ideals).
Throughout the 19th century. There was a gap both between church and society, and between official official Orthodoxy and Orthodox spirituality, the exponents of which were the monks of Optina Pustyn (monastery) and such representatives of the monastic tradition as: Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Feofan (Govorov).
Christian ideas permeated the work of the great writers N.V. Gogol and F.M. Dostoevsky, as well as L.N. Tolstoy, who fiercely criticized the Synodal Church, but built his ethics on the basis of the Gospel commandments.
In the XIX-XX centuries. Russian religious philosophy is developing. The most significant Russian Christian thinkers are: Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Trubetskoy, his brother Evgeniy Trubetskoy, Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Nikolai Berdyaev, Ivan Ilyin, Lev Karsavin.
In the 19th century In Russian culture, two ideological trends have clearly emerged. One was associated with traditional spiritual values embodied in the Orthodox faith; another - with liberal values Western culture. The first trend oriented society towards slow, gradual development, based on the observance of national traditions; the second - for rapid modernization, reforms that were supposed to bring Russia closer to Western Europe.
Late 80s-90s. XX century was marked by a rapid growth of interest in religion in Russian society. An increase in the number of believers, the return to the Church of destroyed churches and monasteries, their restoration and the construction of new ones - all these are characteristic signs of Russian life at the end of the second millennium. Various products began to be published in large quantities religious literature. The works of Russian religious philosophers were republished (N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, I.A. Ilyin, D.S. Merezhkovsky, V.S. Solovyov, P.A. Florensky, G.V. Florensky, etc.), works of Russian religious writers (B.K. Zaitsev. I.S. Shmelev), works by classical writers (N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.S. Leskov, L.I. Tolstoy), raising questions religion. The influence of religion on creativity has also increased modern writers, whose works touch upon biblical parables (Ch. Aitmatov) and biblical symbolism.
Russian cultural tradition and education.
Culture is the basis of human life. In culture he lives, develops, improves, and creates. The values of a person’s creative path can remain in the culture for other people even after his life. Every nation has its own national culture . The most valuable of it is included in the treasury world culture. It is people who are the guardians of their culture. They pass it on to their children, that is, to the next generations. To know, love, appreciate and understand your culture means to be worthy of your ancestors, to understand your history in the past, present and future. It means to be educated.
Our native world Russian culture- huge and unique. a fundamental part of it is Orthodox culture. Without knowing it, it is impossible to understand Russian literature, Russian painting and architecture, Russian music, and historical events in Russia.
Contents of modern Russian education and the system of state, municipal and non-state education itself must be identical to the cultural tradition of Russia and be a mechanism for the creation and continuation of this tradition. A child, regardless of his national or religious affiliation or ideological orientation, has the right to be involved in the cultural and social space of his homeland - Russia, as well as in the culture of his region. Multinationality and multiconfessionalism are reflected in Russian culture, and this is as indisputable a fact as the fact that Russia is a traditionally Orthodox country.
It is also undeniable that Orthodox culture had a decisive influence on the formation and character of the entire Russian culture, Russian national-cultural identity, the specifics of Russian culture in the world cultural-historical space during the entire thousand-year period of its existence. Having accepted Baptism, Rus' destroyed pagan temples and radically changed family traditions. Orthodoxy became for our ancestors a soul, a family, a community, a home.
A new architecture appeared, directed towards the heavenly heights, and images-like faces that amazed the Slavs with their amazing eyes. The image of the Mother of God, who was considered the patroness of Rus', was especially close to the Russians; her eyes are full of love, tenderness for her baby and pain, she knows his purpose, but without doubting the divine will for a moment, she humbly goes into the world with him. So the Russian woman knew the purpose of her sons, who often gave their lives for their Fatherland.
Orthodox culture also includes a rich Church Slavonic language. This is the only language in the world in which, from the day of its creation to this day, only soul-helping books have been written. Every word of it is a sum of meanings. The thought expressed using it is short, but very capacious in content. This language did not allow verbiage. Along with the Cyrillic alphabet came literacy training, which was facilitated by church schools.
Spiritual choral singing has an extraordinary sound, the manner of sound production is strict and covered (singing “into the dome”). Initially, only men and boys participated in the performance (36).
The traditions of Orthodox culture, being deeply rooted in the history of the Russian people, help the younger generation to find a spiritual and moral ideal, which for many centuries has been the main criterion for the moral and ethical behavioral norms of a person on our land, and which can now become the starting point in the education of youth .
The study of the foundations of Orthodox culture is an expansion, first of all, of general historical and social science education, as well as philological and art history education in terms of knowledge about traditional religion your land as a sphere public life. The study of the foundations of Orthodox culture cannot replace other educational fields. On the other hand, historical, social science, philological, art history and other educational aspects of knowledge cannot replace Orthodox cultural education.
Introduction
2.1 The concept of religion
2.2 Origin of religion
2.3 Revelation
2.4 Old Testament religion
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Orthodoxy, as one of the main directions of Christianity, finally took shape in the 11th century as the Eastern Christian Church. Today in Russia many people want to learn the basics of the Orthodox faith. Orthodoxy is called “the science of sciences” - more complex than all sciences. This is a special worldview, based on many of its concepts, without consciousness of which it is not possible to perceive the faith of our ancestors.
For nine centuries, the Orthodox Church has been the main creative, protecting, invincible spiritual force in our country thanks to the education of morality and love for the Fatherland among the people.
The Orthodox faith gave everyone who acquired it an awareness higher meaning life, helped to grow best qualities– kindness and beauty of the soul, creative and constructive abilities, perseverance and heroism. This force gathered and united disparate peoples into a single Russian nation, created the Great Russian culture; basically peacefully took possession of a huge territory (one-sixth of the land on the planet) and successfully defended it from being captured by other peoples.
The phenomenon of spiritual strength can only be felt through comprehension of the multilateral spiritual power of Russia, which is created thanks to several factors:
Church Sacraments of Baptism, Repentance, Communion, Wedding;
the patronage of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints through the heartfelt prayers of the people to them;
selfless love for God, neighbors and the Fatherland;
beautiful temples with miraculous icons, holy relics and bell ringing;
veneration of the Cross of Christ and its life-giving power;
the best works of Russian literature and art, imbued with Orthodox spirit and content.
Russia had and still has such special invincible spiritual power. The strength of Rus' was that it invariably believed in God. Now Russia is again experiencing the scourge of a multilateral crisis. As in previous times, the Orthodox Church is becoming and should be the main force in overcoming the next historical crisis.
The current state of Russia and the path to its salvation were deeply and accurately expressed in 1990 by the famous Orthodox poet Hieromonk Roman (Matyushin):
Without God, a nation is a crowd,
United by vice
Either blind or stupid
Or what’s even worse – she’s cruel.
And let anyone ascend to the throne,
Speaking in a high syllable.
The crowd will remain a crowd
Until he turns to God!
In the 90s in Russia, many people who had a godless, atheistic upbringing awakened spiritually. They developed respect for the faith of their ancestors and for God, or they accepted Baptism, began to wear a pectoral cross, put on themselves sign of the cross or assisted in the revival of faith and the Church. They took the first step towards God, but have not yet reached the temple, because they do not have the necessary strength for this. Today, the majority of the people of Russia belong to them. They require special missionary education and spiritual nourishment. And yet, for a person who has always been in the darkness of unbelief and lack of faith, the first step towards God is a real spiritual feat.
The Gospel says about this: “And Jesus sat opposite the treasury and watched as the people put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in a lot. When a poor widow came, she gave two mites. Calling His disciples, Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who put into the treasury.” For they all contributed out of their abundance; but out of her poverty she put in all that she had, all her food” (Mark 12:41-44). This refers to the scarcity and richness of the faith and deeds of people who have taken the first step towards God, compared to those who constantly pray and go to church.
The Orthodox faith has its own system of fundamental concepts, its own worldview. Without knowing them, it is difficult to gain heartfelt faith in God. Here are some of them.
The Sacrament of Baptism is the spiritual birth of a person for eternal life, when the person being baptized is cleansed of the sins of a past life, is fully united with God and can have comprehensive protection and patronage from him.
The body cross is a shrine that connects a person with God and conveys his strength and help; protecting and protecting us from dark forces and demonic attacks; comfort and support in sorrows and sorrows; evidence of God's love for us, Christ gave himself up on the cross for us. Every worthy person carries his own cross of good deeds and trials throughout life. And the pectoral Cross of Christ helps to cope with them. Therefore, our ancestors never took off the cross.
The sign of the cross is the making of a cross over oneself or someone else. It sanctifies a person, gives him protection and help in various circumstances.
Prayer. Our ancestors in complex life circumstances resorted to protective prayer. They asked God, the Mother of God or the saints for help and often received what they asked for.
Orthodox priest-doctors claim that almost all diseases begin with sins. And if sin is not the root cause of the illness, then violations of God’s commandments during illness make recovery difficult. In order for the treatment to be successful, it is necessary, firstly, to be cleansed of committed sins at Confession, and secondly, to refrain from violating God’s commandments. According to priests, the following sins are common in modern society:
Judging people when we say bad things about a person, even if it is true;
Evil words and thoughts about someone, the presence of resentment, anger, hatred in the heart (all this affects oneself first of all);
Disrespectful attitude towards God, saints, parents, the Church, obscene language;
Unchastity and adultery;
Reading corrupting books, watching similar television and theater shows, etc.
From the point of view of Orthodox priests, the disease takes on an ambiguous interpretation. In the book by Polovinkin A.I. “The ABC of Orthodoxy” says: “You need to know and remember that illness is also a benefit for a person. The Lord allows it for protection from future possible sins or cleansing from violations of God’s commandments already committed in the past, in order to justify a person at the Judgment.”
The Orthodox faith and the Church are the most great wealth Russian person. Acquiring faith and an Orthodox lifestyle helps strengthen conscience, correct sins and, accordingly, increase kindness and love for people. Regular reading of the Gospel and Psalms increases a person’s wisdom. The sharpening of faith contributes to the discovery and growth of the highest kind of creativity. A person needs Orthodox faith in order to perceive Russian culture more fully and deeply and continue it best traditions. Orthodoxy is a culture-forming faith - the basis of Russian culture. Therefore, it is not possible for a non-believer to deeply and fully perceive and feel the works of Dostoevsky and Pushkin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov and other famous creators.
2.1 The concept of religion
Modern man is surrounded by a large number of different faiths and ideologies. But they all ultimately unite around two main worldviews: religion and atheism.
Speaking about religion, we can immediately point out one significant logical difference from atheism. The main subject of their disagreement, as is known, is the question of the existence of God. From here, depending on the approach to solving this issue, one can already draw very serious conclusions about the logical validity of both worldviews.
Religion can be considered from two sides: external (as it appears to an outside researcher) and internal (which is revealed only to a person living religiously). The etymology of this word itself gives an understanding of religion.
There are several points of view on the origin of the word “religion” (from the Latin religio - conscientiousness, holiness, piety, and so on). The origin of the word “religion” indicates its two main meanings - blessing and union, which speak of religion as a mysterious spiritual union, a living unity of man with God.
From the outside, religion is a worldview defined by several specific characteristics, without which it loses itself, degenerating into shamanism, occultism, Satanism, and so on. All these pseudo-religious phenomena, although they contain individual elements, in reality are only products of its decay.
One of the first and main truths of religion is the confession of a personal, spiritual Principle - God, who is the source (reason) of the existence of everything that exists, including humans. Recognition of God in religion is always combined with belief in spirits, good and evil, angels and demons, and so on.
Next the most important element, inherent in religion, is the conviction that a person is capable of spiritual unity with God, but the special character of the entire life of a believer, corresponding to the dogmas and commandments of a given religion.
An important feature of religion, which directly follows from the previous ones, is its assertion of the primacy of spiritual and moral values compared to material values. History shows that the weaker this principle sounds in a religion, the rougher and more immoral it is. And on the contrary, the more forcefully the need for the dominion of the spirit over the body, the power of the individual over his lower animal nature is affirmed, the purer, higher and more perfect the religion is, the more humane it is.
2.2 Origin of religion
The question of the origin of religion is one of the main ones in the debate between religion and atheism. In response to the assertion of religious consciousness about the original religion in humanity and the supernatural nature of its emergence. Negative criticism has presented many different versions of the so-called natural origin of the idea of God.
