Fundamentals of the Orthodox Church. The exact presentation of the Orthodox faith - st. John of Damascus. What is dogma

Articles of Faith

Dogmas- these are indisputable doctrinal truths (axioms of the Christian dogma), given through Divine Revelation, defined and formulated by the Church at the Ecumenical Councils (as opposed to private opinions).

The properties of dogmas are: doctrinalism, revelation of God, ecclesiastical and obligatory nature.

Doctrine means that the content of dogmatic truths is the doctrine of God and His economy (that is, God's plan to save the human race from sin, suffering and death).

revelation characterizes dogmas as truths revealed by God Himself, for the Apostles received the teaching not from men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12). In their content, they are not the fruit of the activity of the natural mind, like scientific truths or philosophical statements. If philosophical, historical and scientific truths are relative and can be refined over time, then dogmas are absolute and unchanging truths, for the word of God is truth (John 17:17) and endures forever (1 Pet. 1:25).

Churchness dogmas indicates that only the Ecumenical Church at its Councils gives dogmatic authority and significance to the Christian truths of faith. This does not mean that the Church itself creates dogmas. It, as “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), only unmistakably establishes behind this or that truth of Revelation the meaning of the unchanging rule of faith.

obligatory dogmas means that these dogmas reveal the essence of the Christian faith, necessary for the salvation of man. Dogmas are the unshakable laws of our faith. If there is some originality in the liturgical life of individual Orthodox Local Churches, then in dogmatic teaching there is strict unity between them. Dogmas are obligatory for all members of the Church, therefore she endures for a long time any sins and weaknesses of a person in the hope of his correction, but does not forgive those who stubbornly seek to muddy the purity of the apostolic teaching.

Orthodox dogmas were formulated and approved at 7 Ecumenical Councils. A summary of the basic truths (dogmas) of the Christian faith is contained in.

Being the result of Divine Revelation, dogmas are indisputable and unchanging definitions of the saving Christian faith.

Dogmatic definitions are not so much a revelation of the doctrine of God, but rather an indication of the boundaries beyond which lies the realm of error and heresy. In its depths, every dogma remains an incomprehensible mystery. Using dogmas, the Church limits the human mind from possible errors in the true knowledge of God.

As a rule, Orthodox dogmas were formulated only when heresies arose. The acceptance of dogmas does not mean the introduction of new truths. Dogmas always reveal the original, unified and integral teaching of the Church in relation to new issues and circumstances.

If any sin is a consequence of the weakness of the will, then heresy is "persistence of the will." Heresy is stubborn opposition to the truth, and as blasphemy against the Spirit of Truth is unforgivable.

Thus, dogmas are designed to help every person to have an accurate, unambiguous idea about God and his relationship with the world, and to clearly understand where Christianity ends and heresy begins. Therefore, the dispute about dogmas is of the most important and acute significance in Christianity, and it is precisely the differences in the understanding of dogmas that entail the most serious and almost insurmountable schisms. These are precisely the disagreements between Orthodoxy, Catholicism and the Protestant churches, which are more or less united in so many questions, but in some they absolutely contradict each other, and this contradiction cannot be overcome by diplomatic compromise, because they argue not about tastes or politics, but about Truth itself, as it really is.

But mere knowledge of God is not enough for a believing person: prayerful communion with him is also necessary, life in God is necessary, and this requires not only rules of thought, but rules of behavior, that is, what is called canons.

Canons of the Orthodox Church

Church canons - these are the basic church rules that determine the order of life of the Orthodox Church (its internal structure, discipline, private aspects of the life of Christians). Those. in contrast to the dogmas in which the dogma of the Church is formulated, the canons define the norms of church life.

One can just as well ask why the Church needs canons as one can ask why the state needs laws. The canons are the rules by which members of the Church must serve God and organize their lives in such a way as to constantly maintain this state of service, this life in God.

Like any rules, the canons are designed not to complicate the life of a Christian, but, on the contrary, to help him navigate the complex church reality and life in general. If there were no canons, then church life would be complete chaos, and in general the very existence of the Church as a single organization on earth would be impossible.

Canons are the same for all Orthodox people of all countries , approved at the Ecumenical and Local Councils and cannot be canceled . Those. the authority of the sacred canons is eternal and unconditional . The canons are the indisputable law that determines the structure and government of the Church.

Canons of the Church are a model for every believer, on the basis of which he must build his life or check the correctness of his actions and actions. Anyone who moves away from them - moves away from correctness, from perfection, from righteousness and holiness.

The schism on canonical issues in the Church is just as fundamental as on dogmatic ones, but it is easier to overcome, because it concerns not so much the worldview - what do we believe how much of our behavior - how we believe . Most schisms on canonical issues relate to the topic of church authority, when for some reason some group suddenly considers the existing church authority “illegal” and declares its complete independence from the Church, and sometimes even considers only itself to be the “true church”. Such was the split with the Old Believers, such are today's splits in Ukraine, such can be very many marginal groups that call themselves "true" or "autonomous" Orthodox. Moreover, in practice, it is often much more difficult to communicate with such schismatics of the Orthodox Church than with dogmatic schisms, because people's thirst for power and independence is very often stronger than the desire for Truth.

However, canons can change in history, retaining, however, their inner meaning . The Holy Fathers kept not the letter of the canon, but precisely the meaning that the Church put into it, the thought that she expressed in it. For example, some canons that did not relate to the essence of church life, due to changed historical conditions, sometimes lost their significance and were abolished. Lost in their time and the literal meaning and instructions of the Holy Scriptures. Thus, the wise teaching of St. app. Paul about the relationship of masters and slaves lost its literal meaning with the fall of slavery, but the spiritual meaning lying in this teaching has, one might say, an enduring meaning and the words of the great Apostle and now can and should be a moral guide in the relationship of Christians standing on different steps of the social ladder despite the proclaimed principles of freedom, equality and fraternity.

When trying to apply church canons to modern circumstances, it is necessary to take into account mens legislatoris - the intention of the legislator, i.e. the meaning originally invested in the canon, historical and cultural aspects.

Modern revolutionary church reformers and renovationists of various types, trying to make changes to church canons, refer to the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon in their justification. But this reference can hardly justify the present reformers. Suffice it to point out that under Nikon the continuity of the Apostolic hierarchy was not violated. In addition, then there was no encroachment on either the dogma or the moral teaching of the Church. Finally, the reforms that took place under Patriarch Nikon received the sanction of the Eastern Patriarchs.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, all canons are published in "Book of Rules" .

The "Book of Rules" is a set of laws that came from the Apostles and St. Fathers of the Church - the laws approved by the Councils and laid the foundation for Christian society, as the norm of its existence.

This collection contains the rules of St. Apostles (85 rules), rules of the Ecumenical Councils (189 rules), ten Local Councils (334 rules) and rules of thirteen St. Fathers (173 rules). Along with these basic rules, several canonical works of John the Faster, Nicephorus the Confessor, Nicholas the Grammar, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and Anastasius (134 rules) are still valid. - 762 .

In a broader sense, all decrees of the Church are called canons, both relating to doctrine and concerning the structure of the Church, its institutions, discipline and the religious life of church society.

Theological opinion

Of course, the experience of Christianity is broader and more complete than the dogmas of the Church. After all, only the most necessary and essential for salvation is dogmatized. There is still much that is mysterious and unrevealed in Holy Scripture. This gives rise to the existence theological opinions .

Theological opinion is not a general church teaching, like a dogma, but is a personal judgment of one or another theologian. Theological opinion must contain truth, at least not contradicting Revelation.

Of course, any arbitrariness in theology is excluded. The criterion of the truth of this or that opinion is its agreement with the Holy Tradition, and the criterion of admissibility is not a contradiction with it. Orthodox and legitimate theological opinions and judgments should be based not on logic and rational analysis, but on direct vision and contemplation. This is achieved through a prayer feat, through the spiritual development of a believing person...

Theological opinions are not infallible. Thus, in the writings of some Church Fathers there are often erroneous theological opinions, which nevertheless do not contradict Holy Scripture.

According to St. Gregory the Theologian, questions of creation, redemption, and the last destinies of man belong to an area where the theologian is given some freedom of opinion.

The main provisions of the Christian doctrine are 12 dogmas and 7 sacraments. They were adopted at the first and second ecumenical councils in 325 and 381. The 12 dogmas of Christianity are called the Creed. It reflects what a Christian believes in: in one God the Father, in one God the Son, that God the Son came down from heaven for our salvation, that God the Son was incarnated on earth from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin, that God the Son was crucified for us, resurrected on the third day and ascended into heaven to God the Father, at the second coming of God the Son for judgment on the living and the dead, in the Holy Spirit, in the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, in baptism and finally in the resurrection and the future eternal life.
The seven Christian sacraments are currently recognized by both the Orthodox and Catholic churches. These sacraments include: baptism (acceptance of a person into the bosom of the church), chrismation, communion (drawing closer to God), repentance (or confession), marriage, priesthood and unction (to get rid of illness).

In Orthodox dogma, the following properties of dogmas are distinguished:

1. Theological(doctrination) - the property of dogmas in content, that is, that the dogma contains only the doctrine of God and His economy. Doctrine, liturgical, historical, natural-scientific truths, etc., are not defined in dogmas.

2. revelation- the property of dogmas according to the method of their receipt. This means that dogmas are not deduced in a logical way, but come from Divine Revelation, that is, they are given to man by God Himself.

3. Churchness- property of dogmas according to the way of their existence and preservation. This means that dogmas can exist only in the Universal Church, and outside of it dogmas, as based on the Revelation given to the whole Church, cannot arise. It is the Church, at the Ecumenical Councils, that has the right to assign to certain doctrinal truths the naming of dogmas.

4. obligatory- the property of dogmas in relation to them members of the Church. Dogmas act as rules and norms, without recognizing which one cannot be a member of the Church.

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The main provisions of the Christian Church - the dogmas - are defined in the 12 members of the Creed. Among them, the most important tenets are: dogma about the essence of God, about the trinity of God, about the incarnation, redemption, ascension, resurrection, etc.
The First Ecumenical Council (Nicea, 325) was convened to discuss the views of the Alexandrian presbyter (elder) Arius, who taught that God the Son is not consubstantial with God the Father, and to create dogmas (basic provisions of the dogma) that are mandatory for confession by all who consider themselves a Christian. The teachings of Arius were condemned, he himself was declared a heretic and excommunicated from the church. The Council dogmatically stated that God is the unity of three hypostases (persons), in which the Son, eternally born from the Father, is consubstantial with him.
At the Second Ecumenical Council - Constantinople (Tsaregradsky, 381) - was drawn up single "creed"- a confession that includes all the main tenets of Christianity and consisting of twelve members(its first five members were approved at the Council of Nicaea, and in the final version, the “Creed” is called Niceo-Tsaregrad).
“The Creed” reads: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, everything visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, light from light. True God from, true God, begotten, not created, consubstantial with the Father, through whom everything happened, for the sake of us, people, and for the sake of our salvation descended from heaven and incarnated from the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin and incarnated, crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, who suffered, and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and comes again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, proceeding from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets. Into one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. Tea of ​​the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the future age. Amen".
Numerous heretical teachings were also condemned at the council, which interpreted the Divine essence in a different way, for example, the Eunomians, who denied the divinity of Christ and considered him only the highest of the beings created by God.
There were seven Ecumenical Councils in total. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Second Nicaea) was held in 787. It adopted decisions that were supposed to put an end to iconoclasm, which provoked discord in the church.
The enumeration of the 12 paragraphs of the “Creed” is the main prayer in Orthodoxy: “I believe in one God the Father, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages…”.
Consider the fundamentals of the Creed mentioned in this prayer. Orthodox Christians believe in God as creator of the world(the first hypostasis of the Holy Trinity), in Son of God - Jesus Christ(the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity), who is incarnate, i.e., remaining God, at the same time became a man, having been born from the Virgin Mary. Christians believe that by His sufferings and death Jesus Christ atoned for human sins (primarily Original sin) and resurrected. After the resurrection, Christ ascended to heaven in the unity of body and spirit, and in the future, Christians are waiting for His second coming, in which He will judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will be established. Christians also believe in Holy Spirit(the third hypostasis of the Divine Trinity), which comes from God the Father. The Church in Orthodoxy is considered a mediator between God and man, and therefore has a saving power. At the end of time, after the second coming of Christ, believers are waiting resurrection all the dead for eternal life.
The Trinity is one of the main tenets of Christianity. The essence of the trinity is that God is one in essence, but exists in three forms: God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. The term appeared at the end of the 2nd century AD, the doctrine of the Trinity was developed in the 3rd century AD. and immediately caused a sharp long discussion in the Christian church. Disputes about the essence of the Trinity have led to many interpretations and have served as one of the reasons for the division of churches.

MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA

STATE BUDGET EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA

"Crimean University of Culture, Arts and Tourism"

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Dogmatics and the cult of Christianity

1st year students of correspondence course

specialty "Choreographic art"

Vavrik A.A.

Lecturer: Mikitinets O.I.

Simferopol - 2015

Dogmatics- a section of theology, which provides a systematic presentation of the dogmas (provisions) of any religion, in this case, Christianity. The Russified word dogma is the Greek noun δὁγμα, from the verb δοχἑω, from its past perfect tense - δἑδογμαι. Both in the Greek language itself and in other languages ​​that have borrowed the word dogma from it, this latter has always meant and now means precisely an indisputable truth, a firmly established proposition, something in the nature of a mathematical or logical axiom, proclaimed moreover publicly and therefore universally binding, i.e. universally binding. That is, in practice, one of its secondary meanings was retained behind it. A brief outline of the use of the word dogma among classical writers, in the Bible, in the works of the fathers and teachers of the church and among theologians will clearly show what meanings this word had and now has.

In the Middle Ages, the word dogma was not commonly used. This word became more common in theology only in the second half of the 17th and especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Protestants in the 18th century and even a little earlier they began to use the word dogma to designate the theoretical or speculative teaching of Christianity, or dogma, in contrast to moral teaching, as it was back in the 4th century. At the same time, the science itself, expounding the Christian doctrine, began to be called dogmatic theology, in contrast to moral theology. Then the theologians of other confessions began to use the name "dogmatic theology", abbreviated as "dogmatics". At present, the word dogma to denote theological truth, as well as the word dogmatics or dogmatic theology, as the name of the science that expounds Christian dogmas, are used by theologians of all churches and confessions.

In essence, Christian dogmas are speculative truths of the Christian faith, containing true concepts about the triune God, about His attitude to the world and especially to free-reasoning beings, about the world, its origin, end and destination, about free-reasoning beings, especially about man, his origin, primordial and present state, about the final destiny and destination, carried out through the incarnated Son of God in the Holy Spirit. In other words, Christian dogmas teach about the triune God, in His essence and properties, about God as the creator, providence, savior, judge and rewarder, and about man from the side of his religious state; about his sinful state and estrangement from God and about the restoration and fulfillment of his union with God through Christ the Savior, about his grace-filled state in the church, carried out by the power of the Holy Spirit and preparing him for eternal blessed life with God.

According to their source, Christian dogmas are divinely revealed truths, contained implicitly (implicite) or explicitly (explicite) in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, extracted from there, explained and taught to people through the true Church of Christ, which, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling in it, itself contains the fullness of the true Christian faith and infallibly decides and proclaims to people how they should understand and in what words to express the dogmatic truths contained in the Holy Scriptures, and rejects incorrect dogmatic teachings, perversions of dogmas and invented dogmas, as heresy, and those who persist in heresies from themselves excommunicate or anathematize. In addition to Holy Scripture, the external basis or foundation on which the religious consciousness of the Church and its dogmatic creeds are affirmed is also sacred tradition or the religious consciousness of the Church of previous centuries, expressed in the writings of its great holy fathers and in conciliar creeds. As divinely revealed truths, the dogmas of the holy fathers are called the dogmas of God, divine, Christ's, evangelical, apostolic. The holy fathers and heretical teachings were called dogmas, of course, because they also contained provisions on the subjects of faith, and also because the heretics themselves considered them dogmas; but the fathers called them impious dogmas, or in some other way, showing by the fact that their dogmas are not real, false dogmas.

The main properties of true Christian dogmas are as follows:

a) They are absolutely true. They are drawn from Holy Scripture, which, like the word of God himself, contains only pure and unconditional truth and is completely alien not only to lies, but also free from errors. They are explained, defined and preached infallibly to the holy and true Church. They are the foundations of the Christian faith, and the Christian faith is not only the most perfect of all religions, but also the unconditionally true and unconditionally perfect religion. So, Christian dogmas are unconditionally true both in their sources and in their very essence. Dogma is not a theological opinion, even if it is true, but an unconditionally true, firm position.

b) They are unconditionally authoritative. This property belongs even to philosophical and legal dogmas. In ancient philosophy, philosophical propositions were called and recognized as dogmas by its followers, out of respect for the extraordinary wisdom of the philosophers. In the field of law, dogmas are called laws and royal decrees, which all the subjects of this king must unquestioningly execute by virtue of their allegiance to him and his supreme power over them, regardless of whether the laws themselves are good or not. But the authority of the philosopher-sage is limited, since sages can make mistakes. The authority of the tsar-legislator is also limited, because he receives his power from God, and partly from the people, as an aggregate of generations and the entire number of his fellow members. In addition, just as a philosopher can err, so can a legislator make mistakes: both of them, like people, are imperfect, and therefore the teachings of the first and the laws of the second cannot have unconditional authority. And this is clearly revealed in the fact that even the greatest creations of philosophers, after the lapse of time, no longer exert that powerful influence that they produced in their era, and even fall into oblivion, obscured by the creations of new great philosophers; likewise, laws, even good ones, are over time repealed or forgotten and replaced by new ones. Such are not the dogmas of the Christian faith, the dogmas of the theology. They are not the fruit of the human mind, even if it is brilliant, but still imperfect, but the essence of divine truth. They were revealed to people by the prophets and apostles, who spoke not from themselves, but from the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the God-Man and even by His human nature is sinless, He is the way, the truth and the life. The Church, through which dogmas are proclaimed to people, has Christ as its head, is enlivened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and therefore is holy and infallible in its dogmatic teaching. Dogmas, as the word of God himself and God-inspired messengers, and as the teaching of the church established and led by God, have the authority of God, unconditional, unlimited.

c) As unquestionably true and unconditionally authoritative, as divine truths, dogmas are indisputable or indisputable. Therefore, the members of the church, whoever they may be, not only must not change or accept only in part, or reject any of the dogmas, but must not even doubt them.

d) They are essential, necessary for salvation, and hence obligatory for all. Dogmas constitute the main, fundamentally positive side of Christianity, the essence of its theoretical or speculative foundations. Therefore, faith in them and confession of them are necessary for the salvation of man. Anyone who perverts or rejects at least some of them is a heretic, not a true Christian and will not be saved; and he who rejects all or the chief of them is not even a Christian. That is why those who accept Christianity are first taught the basic Christian dogmas, and they are obliged to confess their faith in these dogmas before they are baptized.

e) They are religious, theological truths. This sign distinguishes them from other indisputable truths, for example. from mathematical axioms, from logical laws, which, although unconditionally true, indisputable and obligatory, but in their essence, are secular truths, and not religious, and therefore, although they can be called dogmas, they are mathematical, logical or philosophical, and by no means religious or theological.

f) They are immutable and essentially cannot be developed or improved. In this they are essentially different from the truths obtained by the human mind, and surpass them. These latter are almost always, so to speak, only partially true, in them truth is mixed with error and falsehood, or at least they do not contain the fullness of truth. Therefore, with the development of mankind, as its outlook expands and its knowledge improves, the provisions that were considered in their time indisputable and great truths are replaced by new provisions, more accurately and more fully embracing objects. But these provisions, in turn, are subjected to processing and are replaced by more advanced concepts. In this way, by gradual and long-term improvement, people gradually approach the ideal of true knowledge. But Christianity, as a divine and perfect religion, contains pure truth, without admixture of falsehood, and so complete that people cannot even embrace it all. It is not dogmas that develop, but the assimilation and understanding of them by people can and does develop in all respects. A person can delve deeper and deeper into their content, embrace it more widely, understand it more fully, realize it more clearly and express it more appropriately in word and writing. This is the improvement of theology and, in particular, dogmatic theology.

g) They are the truths of faith. This means not only that they are religious truths, but also that they are perceived not so much by the knowing mind as by the believing heart. Jesus Christ during His life on earth required faith in Himself as the Son of God and the messenger of the Father. The Church called its abridged presentation of the main dogmas a creed. Beginning with the word "I believe," she declares that she believes in Christian dogmas, that they are perceived by faith. This should especially be said about incomprehensible dogmas or the mysteries of faith; and yet they are precisely the main and most important part of the Christian doctrine. Knowledge of dogmas by faith in them is not excluded, but, on the contrary, through faith and the power of faith, understanding and understanding of them is facilitated and possible for a person.

h) They are the dogmas of the Church. This does not mean, however, that the Church creates new dogmas; dogmas that are not given in Holy Scripture, the church cannot create and never created - the church only extracts dogmas from the content of Holy Scripture, proclaims them as dogmas, explains and defines their meaning, expresses them in exact words, requires confession from its members them, rejects and curses their perversions and positions contrary to the dogmas or inconsistent with them.

i) They are Orthodox dogmas. The name of the dogmas of the church was quite accurate and definite, as long as Christianity was combined in one indivisible church. But now there are many Christian churches and denominations. Most of the dogmas are confessed in all of them. In this, as in many other things, they agree with each other and with the ancient universal church. But then there are differences between them. The most important of the differences are dogmatic. There is a lack of dogmas in some confessions. So, in all Protestant confessions, the sacraments, except for baptism and communion, are assigned a ritual, and not a dogmatic meaning. In other confessions there is a surplus in dogmas. Thus, in the Roman Latin Church there are dogmas about the infallibility of the pope, about the immaculate conception of the Mother of God, about purgatory, about the overdue merits of the saints, about the procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son; Calvinists have a dogma about unconditional predestination. Meanwhile, these teachings are not dogmas, but delusions. Other confessions contain dogmas in a perverted form. Thus, the Roman-Latin Church incorrectly and illegally gives communion to the laity under only one guise - bread; her doctrine of original sin is close to Pelagian; on the contrary, Protestantism already too exaggerates the disorder of human nature by sin, etc. In general, in different confessions the same dogmas are understood differently, and sometimes quite differently, which is especially striking when comparing Protestantism with Roman Catholicism. In a word, the doctrine of any church and confession differs from the doctrine of each of the other confessions and churches both in the number of dogmas and in the nature of their understanding. That is why there is Orthodox, Roman-Latin, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, etc. dogmatics. But no matter how significant the number of churches and confessions, there is still only one true Church of Christ. We believe and confess that this true Church of Christ is the Greek-Russian or Eastern Church - we believe on the grounds that this Church in its doctrine or dogmas has not deviated from the ancient universal Church, the truth of which is recognized, even forced to acknowledge, and other churches and confessions. The truths of the Christian doctrine professed by the Orthodox Church are called Orthodox dogmas or dogmas of the Orthodox Church.

Like a creed, the Christian cult was formed gradually and much more slowly than a creed.

The early Christian communities knew almost no cult. At that time there were no clergy, no special premises for worship, and in fact, there were no worship services themselves. The early Christians did not have any icons or church utensils, there was no veneration of saints, there were almost no holidays and rituals. The first Christians gathered for prayer meetings in ordinary rooms. The meeting was presided over by a pastor. The audience listened to an excerpt from the "holy Scripture" - the Old, and with the advent of the New Testament "holy books" and the New Testament, the presbyter's instructions, Neli. The meeting ended with a common meal and the ceremony of "breaking bread and drinking wine." Of the holidays, only Sunday was celebrated.

However, Christianity gradually develops and develops its own cult, which eventually becomes magnificent and strictly regulated. The church was interested in the cult, because it has a strong emotional impact on believers, gives religion a more lively and attractive form.

The Christian cult includes many aspects. First of all, these are various prayers. The first Christians knew only one prayer contained in the Gospel - "Our Father ...". Then the ministers of the church began to create various prayers both for reading at home and for worship. Prayers began to be accompanied by various gestures and postures: making the sign of the cross, kneeling, bowing from the waist, bowing the head, raising hands, etc. Prayers were not only read, but also sung. For this, special melodies are created. This is how church music comes into existence.

Imitating other religions, where there were special places of worship - temples, the Christian church also begins to build its own temples. At first, their architectural forms were very simple, but over time they become more complex and acquire a character specific to a given religion. Temples are built in the form of a cube, a cross, a ship, a circle. Domes and bell towers appear on the temples, on which crosses are installed. Temples are beginning to be divided into three parts: the altar, where the clergy "served the priesthood", the middle part, where the believers were located, and the vestibule, where the penitent sinners, temporarily excommunicated from the church, and the catechumens, preparing to accept Christianity, stood.

Initially, Christianity did not know any "sacred" images, icons, frescoes. There was not even a picture of Christ. Over time, the situation changes. Images on various biblical subjects begin to appear, images of Christ, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, the Mother of God, and various saints appear. The fact is that the believer must somehow imagine God, have his image before his eyes during prayer. Gradually, icons begin to be attributed a special miraculous power.

Early Christianity did not know the veneration of saints. The first Christians worshiped only Christ. Over time, the cult of saints arises in Christianity. There were reasons for that. In many religions, along with the gods, saints, the spirits of ancestors, were also revered. Christianity could supplant the cult of the old gods among the broad masses of the people only if it introduced the veneration of saints. The second reason was that God usually seems to believers to be too distant, abstract, inaccessible, formidable being, like a king, who is surrounded by numerous courtiers. It is best to influence the king through persons close to him, to whom he favors. These ideas are also reflected in religion. Believers believe that it is better to address their prayers and requests to the saints and ask them to influence God. In a word, believers felt the need to venerate the saints, and the church could not ignore this need.

The first Christians began to venerate the Mother of God, followed by the apostles. Very early, a cult of so-called "martyrs" arose - Christians who suffered for their religious views. Somewhat later, other categories of saints appear - hierarchs (persons who had episcopal rank), reverends (monk saints), confessors (those who were tortured for their faith, but not killed), holy fools (mentally deranged Christians or portraying themselves as such for religious purposes) and others. The Church includes in the "saints" not only Christian saints, but also biblical righteous - prophets, patriarchs, etc. j Along with the veneration of the saints, the cult of their relics also arises. The church calls the relics the remains of those people whom it proclaimed saints. The relics are being attributed the ability to perform various miracles, not to mention the fact that the relics themselves are supposedly able to remain “incorruptible” for centuries and millennia.

Like the "miraculous" icons, the "incorruptible" relics have served and continue to serve the church as sources of enrichment. Thousands of believers always flocked to their places of storage in the hope of receiving healing and help, in the hope of various kinds of miracles, or even simply out of “pious curiosity”. Believers did not come empty-handed, but left plentiful gifts and offerings near the "shrines". Churchmen shamelessly deceived simple-hearted people. They exhibited tombs filled with anything but "imperishable" relics, or fabricated "relics" without hesitation. The matter came to curiosities. For example, in Western Europe, in various churches and monasteries, 12 heads, 7 jaws, 9 hands of John the Baptist were demonstrated. The same was the case with other saints.

The first Christians did not know any holiday except Sundays. But the feast of Easter appears quite early, followed by Christmas and baptism, Pentecost and other holidays associated with certain “episodes” from the life of Christ. After some time, there are holidays in honor of the Virgin, and even later - in honor of the saints. When there were quite a lot of holidays, the church singled out the main ones, the so-called "twelfth" holidays and the thirteenth holiday - Easter. The twelfth holidays are considered to be the Nativity of the Virgin, the introduction of the Virgin into the Temple, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Meeting, Baptism, Transfiguration, the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem (“Palm Sunday”), Ascension, Pentecost (“Trinity”), the Dormition of the Virgin, the Exaltation of the Cross.

The most important component of the Christian cult are rituals. The most important Christian rites are called sacraments, the oldest of which are baptism and communion. Other sacraments and rituals arose later.

Father! Sanctify them with Thy truth; your word is truth.
(John 17:17)

Origin of dogmas

In apostolic times, the word "dogma" generally denoted all Christian teaching - dogmatic and moral, but with the development of theological thought, this term began to be understood more specifically.

In the 4th century, St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote "Catechistic Teachings", where he reveals the truths of the Creed, as well as the doctrine of the main sacraments of the Church. At the same time, St. Gregory of Nyssa created the "Great catechetical sermon" - an important experience of systematic dogmatic exposition.

In the 5th century, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus wrote "Abbreviation (Abbreviated Statement) of the Divine Dogmas".

In the West, at about the same time, Blessed Augustine compiled a "Guide for Lawrence", reminiscent of a catechism.

But, undoubtedly, the best work of the 1st millennium, where the Christian doctrine is deeply and accurately revealed, is deservedly considered the treatise of the Monk John of Damascus "The Source of Knowledge", and specifically, the third part of this book is "The Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith".

From the 4th century, the Eastern Fathers of the Church began to call "dogmas" not all the truths contained in Revelation, but only those relating to the field of faith. Thus, St. Gregory of Nyssa divides the content of his own teaching into "the moral part and into precise dogmas."

The Greek word "dogma" with an emphasis on the first syllable, feminine, entered the Russian language and in common parlance has a negative connotation of something frozen and lifeless (as well as the word "dogmatic").

The masculine word "dogma" with an accent on the second syllable goes back to Slavic liturgical texts:

“Like the royal adornment of the Church, let us all praise Basil, the treasure of dogmas is inexhaustible”; “Today the Church celebrates the honorable triumph of the teachers of the Trinity, for these have established the Church with their divine dogmas”

Dogma is a Greek word; it means an immutable truth, accepted on faith and obligatory for Christians (from the Greek dogma - “law”, “rule”, “decree”).

Over time, in the dogmatic systems of the East and West, this word began to denote, as a rule, only those doctrinal truths that were discussed at the Ecumenical Councils and received conciliar definitions or formulations.

Dogmas are the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils on various issues of faith. Dogmas are, for the most part, called definitions because they draw the line between truth and error, between sickness and health. They are the property of the entire Church as worked out by her conciliar mind.

Dogmatic definitions express the revealed truth, determine the life of the Church. Therefore, on the one hand, they are an expression of Revelation, and on the other hand, they serve as a healing tool that leads a person to communion with God, to the goal of our existence.

Dogmas are God-revealed truths containing the doctrine of God and His Dispensation, which the Church defines and professes as unchanging and indisputable provisions of the Orthodox faith. Characteristic features of dogmas are their dogma, revelation of God, ecclesiastical and obligatory nature.

Church experience

The experience of the Church is wider and more complete than dogmatic definitions. Only what is essential and essential for salvation is dogmatized. There is still much that is mysterious and unrevealed in Holy Scripture. This conditions the existence of theological opinions. We meet them in the works of the Fathers of the Church and in theological writings. Theological opinion must contain truth, at least not contradicting Revelation.

Theological opinion is not a general church teaching, like a dogma, but is a personal judgment of one or another theologian.

Christianity is not limited to moral teaching. The gospel is not one of the collections of moralistic precepts. Morality, even the highest, in itself does not give strength to fulfill its requirements. Only with the assistance of the grace of Christ can a person become a truly moral person who does good “purely.” “...Without Me you can do nothing,” says the Savior (John 15:5).

The dogmatic definitions of the Orthodox Church were adopted at the Seven Ecumenical Councils, reflected in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, and have immutable authority.

Dogmas are now understood as doctrinal truths that were discussed and approved at the Ecumenical Councils.

The dogmatic conciliar definitions of Orthodoxy are denoted by the Greek word "oros" (oros). In the literal sense, it means "limit", "border".

Using dogmas, the Church determines the human mind in true knowledge of God and limits it from possible mistakes.

The presence of a strict and distinct religious consciousness is a characteristic feature and advantage of Orthodoxy. This feature of church teaching dates back to the time of the apostolic preaching. The first use of the word "dogma" in the sense of a doctrinal definition belongs to the apostles. “Walking through the cities, they told the faithful to observe the decrees (Greek - ta dogmata) decreed by the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem,” testifies St. Evangelist Luke (Acts 16:4). In the epistles to the Colossians (Col. 2:14) and Ephesians (Eph. 2:15), the Apostle Paul uses the word "dogma" in the meaning of Christian teaching in its entirety.

The acceptance of dogmas does not mean the introduction of new truths. Dogmas always reveal the original, unified and integral teaching of the Church in relation to new issues and circumstances.

Orthodox dogmas

According to St. Maximus the Confessor The divine dogmas of Orthodoxy can be reduced to two basic ones. “The limit of Orthodoxy is to know purely the two dogmas of faith, the Trinity and the Two,” points out St. Gregory Sinai. The veneration of the unconfused and inseparable Holy Trinity, the one God in three Persons, in Whom the Mind is the Father, the Word is the Son, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit, as the Holy Fathers generally teach, is the anchor of Christian hope. The veneration of the Trinity is necessarily associated with the veneration of the Two, that is, the confession of the Son of God Jesus Christ in one Person, two natures and wills, divine and human, inseparably and indivisibly united.

“The word spoken about this in the Gospel can be understood as follows,” teaches St. Gregory Sinai. “And this is eternal life, so that they may know You, the only true God in three persons, and Jesus Christ sent by You in two natures and desires (John 17:3).”

Since the subject of dogmatics is the eternal dogmatic truths of the Holy Revelation, testifying about God in Himself and about God in His relation to the world and man, it is accordingly divided into two parts, each of which has its own subsections.

The first part considers God in Himself, the second - in His relation to the world and man. According to this, the first part includes dogmas about the existence of God, about the quality and degree of knowledge of God, about God's essence and His properties, about the unity of God's being and about the Holy Trinity.

The second part consists of dogmas about God as the Creator of the world, about God as a Provider, about God as a Savior, about God as a Sanctifier and about God as a Judge.

The main tenets of Orthodoxy are as follows:

• The dogma of the Holy Trinity
• Doctrine of the Fall
• The dogma of the redemption of mankind from sin
• The dogma of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ
• The dogma of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
• The dogma of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ
• Dogma about the Second Coming of the Savior and the Last Judgment
• The dogma of the unity, catholicity of the Church and the continuity in her doctrine and priesthood
• The dogma of the general resurrection of people and the future life
• The dogma of the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ. Adopted at the IV Ecumenical Council in - Chalcedon
• The dogma of two wills and actions in the Lord Jesus Christ. Adopted at the VI Ecumenical Council in Constantinople
• Dogma about icon veneration. Adopted at the 7th Ecumenical Council in Nicaea

The attitude of the human mind to dogmas as eternal truths of Christ is determined by the attitude of the Lord Jesus Himself to the human mind in its sinful essence.

Based on the experience of the Church, patristic teaching, we can say that the dogmas underlying Christian morality are the only true criterion for assessing the actions and behavior of a reasonable and free person.

What does the Lord Jesus Christ generally require of each person as a condition for following Him?

Only one thing: denying yourself and taking up your cross. “If anyone wants to follow Me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24; cf. Mark 8:34; Luke 14:26-27; John 12:24 –26).

To renounce oneself means to renounce one's sinful personality, one's "I". A person achieves this if, by a personal feat of faith in Christ, he crucifies sin and everything sinful in himself and around him; if he dies to sin and death in order to live for our sinless and immortal Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Col. 3:3-8; Rom. 6:6:10-13; Gal. 2:19; 6:14).
Bibliography

• Conversation with Rev. Vadim Leonov "The meaning of the dogmas of faith does not decrease from century to century" Pravoslavie.Ru
• Dogmas of Orthodox Theology Almanac Vostok Issue: N 10(22), October 2004
• Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church http://trsobor.ru/listok.php?id=339
• Pravoslavie.ru
• Guide to the study of Christian, Orthodox dogmatic theology St. Petersburg, 1997
• Service to the Three Hierarchs: Festive Menaion. M., 1970, p. 295-296
• St. John of Damascus. Exact presentation of the Orthodox faith. M., 1992
• Holy Alexander Shargunov. Dogma in the Christian life. Trinity Sergius Lavra. Zagorsk. 1981–1982

Alexander A. Sokolovsky

Dogma.

Like many Christian terms, the word "dogma", as a rule, is used in conversation, in the media in a distorted form, and the word is given a negative connotation of something dead, frozen in stagnation. In fact, the word το δόγμα comes from the Greek verb δοκει̃ν, which means "to think, believe, believe." But "δόγμα" no longer means an opinion, but the end result - a firm conviction, a position that has become the subject of agreement, or a religious truth that has become the subject of undoubted faith.

Therefore, even in deep Greco-Roman antiquity, the term "dogma" began to be applied to such philosophical teachings, which were well known and indisputable. In Plato's dialogue "The State" dogmas are the decrees and decisions of the government related to the concepts of fair and beautiful. St. Isidore called Socrates "the law-giver of Attic dogmas", and the teachings of Plato and the Stoics - dogmas. The religious beliefs of the pagans (Sozomen) and heretical false teachings (Eusebius of Caesarea) could be called dogmas in the same sense by the ancient church writers, as having claims to assimilate undeniable truth for themselves.

In the Holy Scriptures in the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, dogmas are called apostolic definitions, which are already directly related to the life of the Christian Church. “As they passed through the cities, they (the apostles Paul and Silas) told the faithful to observe the decrees (τα δογματα) decreed by the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem” (Diary 16:4). These were doctrinal and disciplinary decisions of the Apostolic Council, which had the force of binding law for all members of the Church of Christ.

However, by the 4th century, the Church was gradually separating the concepts of "dogma" and "canon". The very word "dogma" began to be applied only to the subjects of dogma, and moral commandments and questions of church discipline began to be denoted by the terms "canon", "rule". Truths of faith began to be called dogmas, in contrast to liturgical, canonical, moral truths, etc. Moreover, it is especially important that at the Ecumenical Councils the word “dogma” was used only for doctrinal truths that have an undoubted, indisputable and immutable character. Rev. Vikenty Lirinskiy writes: "The dogmas of heavenly philosophy do not tend to undergo any change, cutting off or mutilation, like an earthly institution, which can only be improved by continuous amendments."

The expression "dogma", used in dogmatic theology, denotes a truth that is precisely expressed, unchanged in the Church's consciousness, and has 4 features:

1) Doctrine or Theology. This feature fundamentally distinguishes dogmatic truths from moral and other truths, for dogmatic truths always speak of God and His relationship to the world and man, while for moral truths the main subject is man in his relationship to God.

2) Divine revelation. This sign characterizes dogmas as truths revealed to people by God Himself in His Divine Revelation.

3) Churchness. This sign indicates the environment in which dogmas exist, namely the Church of Christ is the only legitimate owner, custodian and interpreter of dogmatic truths.

4) Legislation. A person who does not recognize the totality or some part of the dogmas of the Church, regardless of the volume of unrecognized God-revealed truths, cannot be a full-fledged member of the Church as the Body of Christ.

That truth, which does not have at least one of these signs, cannot be considered a dogma.

The holy fathers spoke clearly and unambiguously about the great significance of dogmas for all believers. So St. Cyril of Alexandria says: “To try to follow the holy dogmas is worthy of admiration. This brings an endless and blissful life, and the work done for this will not remain without retribution. The light of deeds, if it is alien to right dogmas and uncorrupted faith, the human soul, as I think, will not bring any benefit. For just as faith without deeds is dead (James 2:20), so the opposite is true... And direct vision of the eyes within the innermost ones consists in being able to distinguish sharply and exactly, as it should be, judgments uttered about God. For we see guessingly in the mirror and know in part (1 Cor. 13:12), but whoever opens the abyss out of darkness (Job 12:22) will shed the light of truth on those who want to form a correct knowledge of Him.” That is, for a right understanding of the depths of dogmatic truths, the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in the Church, filling her mystical Body, is absolutely necessary. Therefore, outside the Church, only a formal knowledge of the dogmas is possible, but not a salutary growing into them. In addition, the natural human mind, not graced by the Spirit of God, cannot accommodate the heavenly supernatural philosophy of dogmas and therefore almost always distorts the living dogmas of faith, ugly projecting them onto the plane of rational thinking.

“To deviate from the correctness of the holy dogmas is nothing else than clearly falling asleep into death; we deviate from such rightness when we do not follow the Divinely inspired Scriptures, but are carried away either by prejudices, or by zeal and attachment to those who hold the faith in the wrong, when we begin to bend the strength of our mind and harm, first of all, our souls. We must therefore agree with those who carefully examined the right faith according to the reason of the sacred sermons, which they transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit. Thus, some of those contained in the Creed lead where they should not, either because they do not correctly understand the power of the words of the Creed, or because, having been carried away by the writings of some, they have come to a false meaning. The condemnation should apply not to one, but to every, so to speak, heresy, or blasphemy, which was composed by the innovators against the pious dogmas of the Church.

2. Heresy.

St. Mark of Ephesus emphasized that “he is also a heretic who deviates even slightly from the Orthodox faith,” and St. Photius of Constantinople, following St. Basil the Great said that disregard for little in matters of dogma can lead to complete disregard for the doctrine of the Church.

As for the very concept of heresy, according to St. Gregory the Theologian “heresy is nothing but a distortion of the faith preserved by the Church. Having no support for itself in the truth, heresy invents its own principles to justify it, it clings to words and, distorting their meaning, and in the end, thereby rejects the words of Scripture. Together with the distortion of faith, heresy also represents the dissolution of the union of love, a legacy also of the father.

According to Fr. Georgy Florovsky “heretical is not only that which really and directly contradicts dogmatic doctrine, but also that which appropriates for itself a universally binding and dogmatic meaning, knowingly not having it. For the erring Christian consciousness, it is precisely this desire for the logical exhaustion of faith, as if for the substitution of living communion with God with religious and philosophical speculation about the Divine, life - teaching, that is characteristic. Errors and heresies are always born out of a certain deterioration in the fullness of the Church, out of the fading of the Church's well-being, and are the result of egoistic self-affirmation and isolation. And in the final analysis, every separation from the Church, every schism or schism is - in its infancy - already a heresy, a heresy against the dogma about the Church; History testifies that sooner or later, but quite inevitably, the dogma of the creed undergoes profound distortions and perversions in splinter communities, and in the end may completely disintegrate. For, as St. Cyprian of Carthage, "everyone who separates from the Church joins an illegitimate wife ...".

The Monk Vincent of Lyrinsk also remarks about heretics the following, that “when they intend to compose a heresy under a false name, they almost always try to find a little-known work of some ancient man, due to its obscurity, as if conducive to their teaching, and expose the memory of such a holy man to the wind, as if what kind of dust, and what had to be buried in silence, is divulged through the never-dying rumor. Thus, they exactly imitate the instigator, their Ham.

The word "Heresy" itself - the Greek word (αιρεσις) - has several shades of meaning and is translated as "taking", "seizure", "inclination", "sect". It can also mean any particular teaching, direction, school. Thus, the Christian doctrine, when it appeared, was sometimes called heresy (Acts 28:22). But later the name "heresy" was adopted by the only arbitrary and false teaching about Christianity, which separated and differed from the teaching of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church on the basis of the choice, separation, isolation from the fullness of the Church's doctrine of a certain part, moreover, a part distorted, mutilated, torn out of the single living organism of the Church. This is apparently connected with the main meaning of the corresponding verb αιρεω - "to seize", "to attract to one's side".

According to St. Ignatius of the Caucasus (Bryanchaninov): “heresy is a terrible sin that contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, completely alienates a person from God and betrays him into the power of Satan. Heresy should also include the doctrine that, without touching either dogmas or sacraments, rejects living according to the commandments of Christ and outwardly seems not hostile to Christianity, but in essence is completely hostile to it: it is a renunciation of Christ. It is no coincidence that Rev. Seraphim of Sarov conveyed through Manturov, who was devoted to him, the Old Believers living around Sarov, so that "they would return to Christ." And these people were ascetics and prayer books, for the most part, who did not distort either the Creed in its essence, or other dogmas, but sinned against the Church as the One Body of Christ.

There are many cases in Church history when “many led the most strict ascetic life, being in heresy or schism; when they accepted Orthodoxy, they were subjected to various weaknesses. What conclusion should this lead to? To such that in the first state the enemy did not fight against them, recognizing them as his own, and in the second he rose up against those with a fierce war, as against those who clearly declared and confessed themselves to be his opponents.

3. Church discipline, form and content.

If the fathers and teachers of the Church of Christ stood for the absolute immutability of the dogmas in their essence, allowing and recognizing only the historical necessity of terminological polishing of their formulations, then they express a different opinion about canonical and disciplinary questions. So St. Dionysius of Alexandria, speaking of ecclesiastical discipline, emphasizes that one should in such matters “submit to the primates of individual Churches, who, by virtue of divine consecration, stand at the head of the ministry. And we leave the judgment of their deeds (the bishops themselves) to our Lord. The speech of St. Dionysius, with a deliberate distinction between the subjects of faith and matters of church discipline, is remarkable: it clearly affirms that there must be complete agreement of faith between all bishops, or that one faith must be observed in the Universal Church; but there may be a difference in the local churches in discipline; it is left to the discretion of the bishop of the individual church. This difference should by no means be accompanied by a violation of the unity between the bishops of the Universal Church, for in such matters the bishop of a particular church bears the answer before the Lord.

It must be remembered that what is meant here is not the dogmas of the Church, but her discipline: if in the first case the invariance of the apostolic teaching must be preserved at all times, then in the second case, depending on the circumstances, additions, weakenings, and sometimes even cancellation. Considering all this, in the place under consideration it is necessary to see precisely the manifestation of paternal philanthropy, undoubtedly caused by circumstances, not violating the apostolic institution, not contradicting Scripture, and possible in the field of church discipline.

The Old Believer schism in the Russian Church was caused by various reasons, among which, from a dogmatic point of view, it is important to point out the non-distinction in the minds of the majority of members of the Russian Church of that time between dogmatic and disciplinary-canonical concepts, as well as the non-understanding of the difference between the form that faith is expressed in Divine services. and the content of this belief. And if the Church, in the course of her sacred history, could and considered it necessary to change and improve the forms, the verbal formulas by which Her own creed was expressed invariably and carefully preserved by Her, then all the more so the Church historically recognized the possibility and sometimes the need for flexibility in questions of the forms of expression of Her creed in Divine services. A good example of this is the controversy of the Old Believers about the shape of the Cross of Christ, in which many of them insisted on the exceptional meaning and the possibility of depicting it only as 8-pointed. The Holy Righteous Father John of Kronstadt in his academic work writes the following on this matter: “we honor the cross as true and never argue or argue about the ends, because we honor it for the sake of the Lord, and not for the number of ends” “silent, intelligent, these people (Old Believers) turned the reverent veneration of the Cross into a talkative, impudent and reckless dispute about its ends, moreover, into terrible and absurd blasphemy against it ”(they call the 4-pointed cross the seal of the Antichrist!). Many of their philosophies were "harmful already because they strongly resonated with novelty and presumptuous and shameless prowess."

The history of the Church is familiar with the pluralism of forms of expression of her faith in liturgical practice. A clear example of this is the variety of liturgical anaphoras, the rites of the services of the daily circle, church charters found in abundance since the first centuries of Christianity.

4. Ecclesiological temptations.

Unity, like all other key properties of the Church, is a reflection of the mysterious unity and existence of the Holy Trinity. “What by nature eternally exists in the relationship of the Three Divine Persons is given by grace to human existence.” The way the Church is united is the image of the Trinitarian unity. This is the trinitarian ecclesiological foundation. And the Schism or heresy, for the sake of some other principles invented by them, are ready to sacrifice this foundation of the Church and carry on the struggle to preserve their confusion, prolong the turmoil, testifying to the fact that “they have never truly known either the Church or its indestructible unity, which is based on "fragmented and indivisible" Lord and on the Holy Spirit, "who, when divided, does not suffer and does not cease to be whole (St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit)".

According to V.N. Lossky, “there are two main temptations about the Church, to which the names of two Christological heresies can be applied - Monophysitism and Nestorianism. The ecclesiological Monophysites only wish to preserve the Truth and mortify the ecclesiastical economy, that diverse and always different depending on the time and place of the Church's activity, through which She nourishes the world. Ecclesiological Nestorians, for the sake of economy, are ready to forget about the unchanging fullness of the Truth that dwells in the Church, and instead of fertilizing the world with it, they begin to look outside, in human creativity (philosophical, artistic, social, etc.) food for the Church. The former forget that the Church keeps divine treasures for the salvation of the world; the latter cease to see that the source of life and knowledge of the Church is not the world, but the Holy Spirit.”

Professor Lossky V.N. noted with pain that in our time “the concept of the Church as an Ecclesia with Her canonical-hierarchical structure, for the unity and originality of which the hierarchs are responsible before the world, and then each of us, disappears from the consciousness of many. If the concrete historical Church is not itself the true Body of Christ, called to exist in the conditions of the modern world, then of course everything becomes relative and indifferent.

The weakening of the Church consciousness, the sin of despondency towards the Church, disbelief in the fullness of Her powers, which She will sooner or later manifest in Her historical path, is nothing new. “Such sentiments, of course, were present among many in the era of the All-Lena Councils. It is enough to read ancient historians or other testimonies of contemporaries who, behind private imperfections, were not able to recognize the golden line of the Church. Refusing the feat of faith necessary for any Christian, including the feat of faith in the Church of Christ, impatient Christians either refuse the very possibility of the presence of the Fullness of Truth in earthly life (church Nestorians), or are in an excessive hurry to find the fullness of its realization at the present time, but stumble about the visible imperfections of Her historical existence. The consciousness of such a “church monophysite” in the end also inevitably separates the “true Church” conceived by him from Her real Body, and, paradoxically, postulating pure spirituality, loses the Spirit of God and falls into blasphemy against Him. The inability to wait in order to hear the breath of the Spirit of God throws the supporters of both extremes out of the channel of the Holy Tradition of the Church.

We can give a precise definition of Sacred Tradition as a criterion of truth, saying that “it is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church, a life that gives every member of the Body of Christ the ability to hear, receive, know the Truth in its own light, and not natural light of the human mind. This is that true gnosis, which is given by the action of the Divine Light, in order to enlighten us with the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Cor. 4, 5), this is the only "Tradition" that does not depend on any "philosophy", nor on everything that lives “according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8). In this non-dependence on any historical accident or natural conditioning - all the truth that is characteristic of the vertical line of Tradition: it is inseparable from the Christian gnosis, "Know the Truth and the Truth will make you free" (John 8, 32) . It is impossible to know the Truth, or understand the words of Revelation, without receiving the Holy Spirit, but "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (Cor. 3, 17).

5. On the Old Believer schism of the 17th century in the Russian Church.

Patriarch Nikon, changing Russian liturgical rites and church rites according to his contemporary Greek models, proceeded from the erroneous view that “the differences in ranks and rites that exist between us and the Greeks corrupt our faith,” which is why he considered the elimination of these differences a matter as necessary as "purification of Orthodoxy from heresies and sins." Hence the abrupt and hasty breaking of the Russian church rituals, to which Patriarch Nikon began soon after joining the Patriarchal department in 1658. By the sole and completely unmotivated order of Patriarch Nikon, the former custom of putting St. Ephraim the Syrian 16 great bows and make the sign of the cross with two fingers. Behind the last custom, dvypstyem, stood the authority of the Stoglavy Cathedral (1551), which made it obligatory for all Russian Orthodox Christians to make the sign of the cross with only two fingers.

Patriarch Nikon, with all the greatness of his position and patriarchal power, did not have the right to single-handedly cancel the decision of the Stoglavy Sobor regarding the duality.

In addition, in the form of composition, they saw nothing but "heresy". Thus, Patriarch Nikon, in his speech at the Council of 1656, stated that by folding the fingers at the sign of the cross with two fingers, “the sacrament of the Most Holy Trinity ... and the sacrament of the Incarnation is unlawfully confessed.”

Mixing ritual with dogma, Patriach Nikon, as mentioned above, looked at differences in rites as a difference in faith. With such a view, the presence and use of two forms of the same rite is excluded: one of the forms, in this case, three-fingered, is recognized as true, Orthodox, and the other, in this case, two-handed, is false, heretical. If Patriarch Nikon came to a firm conviction in the Orthodox character of his contemporary Greek ritual forms, including the tripartite, which in fact is the case, and recognized the Russian ritual forms, including the twofold, as incorrect and even heretical, which in fact is not, then the opponents of his reforms, adhering to essentially the same views as Patriarch Nikon on the rite as a dogma, were convinced of the opposite. When the two-pointedness, accepted by the Russians from the Greeks along with the Orthodox faith, was declared a heretical rite, then the adherents of the Russian church rituals, in order to protect it, naturally, should have seen the same thing in the three-pointedness.

The immediate causes that caused the Old Believer movement can be considered:

1) the theological misunderstanding of the essence of church reform by Patriarch Nikon and his opponents; the strong attachment of Russian people to the ritual side of the Christian religion, up to the assimilation of dogmatic immutability into church rituals (which is explained by a lack of education).

2) the wrong method of reforms, correction of the text of liturgical books and changes in church rites under Patriarch Nikon;

3) the participation in this reform of some Greek hierarchs, who sought to raise the Greek authority in Russia, which had fallen after the Union of Florence, which did not lead to the desired mitigation of the confrontation, but to its unjustified aggravation up to unreasonable anathematizations.

Proceeding from the correct understanding of the differences between dogma and ritual, in accordance with the predestination of the Pre-Council Presence and the Local Council of 1917-1918, as well as with the decision of the Patriarchal Holy Synod and the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church of April 10 (23), 1929, the Local Orthodox Council Churches of 1971 justifiably canceled oaths from the Old Believers. It remains to expect the return to the bosom of the Mother Church as much as possible of those who once fell away from her in the Old Believer schism of the 17th century.

Literature:

Sylvester, Ep. Experience of Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. K., 1892. S.2-3.

There. C.3.

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