IS THE SOUL BY NATURE CHRISTIAN?
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Do you agree with the statement of the early Christian philosopher Tertullian that the soul is by nature Christian?
TERTULLIAN'S WORDS DO NOT CONFLICT OTHER RELIGIONS
Kirill TANTSIREV, General Director of JSC SP SPb, author of the ABC of Faith website, St. Petersburg
Undoubtedly, human nature is initially directed toward the Creator, striving for the realization of the properties laid down by the Creator: love, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22). I am close to the idea that God speaks to us in the language of circumstances, and we respond to Him in the language of actions. For a churchgoer, that is, a person who is attentive to his life, the action of God’s will in life is extremely real, this is an undoubted fact. Every day we are in a state of choice between the divine and the ungodly. And the assistant in this choice is the conscience given to us by God. Initially, in most cases, we know the right decision: merciful, honest, aimed at good. Showing good will or suppressing the voice of conscience is our daily test, and the Lord grows us to the extent of our determination to follow His will. Yes, the soul of every person is Christian by nature, but not everyone realizes the nature of their soul by living by temporary, perishable values. I also believe that Tertullian’s words cannot be considered as a counterbalance to non-Christian religious views, because the search for God, the desire for truth is a property of human nature, regardless of whether a person has time to meet Christ in this life...
THE SOUL UNCONSCIOUSLY SEEKS FAITH
Marina GOSUDAREVA, graduate student of the Department of History, Ryazan State University. Sergei Yesenin, Ryazan
For my contemporaries who came to faith at a conscious age, this is confirmed by personal experience. The soul unconsciously seeks faith, seeks its Creator as the Source of life. After all, just like the body, it wants to live, although most people do not think about the fact that the soul also needs food for this. I grew up in a non-church environment, where they never talked about God or faith. Orthodoxy was perceived only as part of Russian culture. And at that time I was very interested in culture and art. For the first time, the question of faith arose by chance. In the tenth grade, our class teacher, in an informal conversation, asked us what we thought about God. I roughly remember my answer at that time: “If there was a God, and if they could prove it to me, I would believe in Him.” The soul was looking for something, not yet knowing where or how. Two or three years later, I began going to church, having gone through a search for the meaning of existence in art, where Dostoevsky and Tarkovsky, whose faith and search for God became obvious for me, became iconic figures. A creative person feels especially keenly the Christian nature of the soul, the reality of spiritual life, which is always noticeable to a thoughtful reader and viewer. But from my own experience I realized that art cannot fully satisfy the needs of the soul. Even in works of genius there is a certain “ceiling”, a limit; they do not open the path to eternal life, but only try to lead to it. Coming to an Orthodox church for the first time at the age of 18, knowing almost nothing about the life of the Church, about divine services, I felt a breakthrough upward, into the infinity that my soul yearned for, suffocating within the framework of high art and the mundanity of everyday life. It seems to me that it was there, in the temple, that my soul felt its true nature, as if it had returned home. I sincerely feel sorry for the dozens of talented, sensitive, spiritually gifted poets, actors, and musicians of the Soviet era who tragically died at the age of thirty or forty from drunkenness or decided to commit suicide, but in fact were “killed by anesthesia.”
CHRISTIAN BUT NOT A SAINT
Yuri PIVOVAROV, Director of the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
I don't think it's possible to give a definite answer here. Probably each of us has the necessary feelings and abilities to be a Christian. In my opinion, this fully corresponds to God’s plan for us. But, at the same time, this does not mean that we are by definition pure and blameless. After all, if any of us looks deeper into himself, into his soul, he will find enough feelings there that have nothing to do with Christianity. And here the main thing is not to forget that all this is also in us and will always be in everyone. Yes - the soul is Christian by nature, it reaches out to God, it is able to feel Him. But this does not mean that everything in it is light and holy. This does not mean that a person can declare: “I am a Christian at heart!”, and then go and torture his loved ones or sin in some other way. In fact, you need to continuously follow Christ, and not calm down with a phrase about your Christian soul.
ONLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE CAN ACCEPT THESE WORDS
Andranik MIGRANYAN, professor at MGIMO (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, chairman of the commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute of CIS Countries, Moscow
Is the soul Christian by nature?.. Yes, having repeated this phrase out loud several times, I can perhaps agree with it. I think there is a deeply hidden truth in these words, because it was Tertullian who formulated probably the most famous expression in Christian literature: “I believe, because it is absurd”... Only those who sincerely believe can understand and accept it. If we like this position, if we feel this way, then we do not need rational justification at all, because this expression in itself is irrational! I think that today the soul of a person is simultaneously pagan, Christian, and Muslim, because we live in a very dynamic time when a variety of beliefs and confessions are mixed. We see a massive transition of people from one religion to another, or even leaving religion; the multiplication of all sects and movements within individual religions. Undoubtedly, we are witnessing fragmentation in the religious sphere, and therefore it is now very difficult to determine whether a person’s soul is actually Christian. The answer to this question of Tertullian is no longer so clear for us...
CHRISTIANITY IS PATIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Tatiana DOROFEEVA, psychotherapist, St. Petersburg
Christianity in my understanding is patience and knowledge, and these qualities are inherent in a person from childhood. Every child, even a newborn, is patient. During childbirth, he goes through a difficult path to the light in order to see life. And even if he was not wanted during pregnancy, he hopes for life, fights for it and is positive about the world. Growing up, a child patiently learns about the world, even if it is difficult. In an adult, patience transforms into acceptance and faith. And they shape the Christian perception of the world. A person, even without being a Christian by religion, can have a Christian worldview and strive to understand people. The soul of any person carries a piece of Love within itself and wants to share it with others, therefore any soul is a Christian. All people come into this world to do something good, and intuitively a person knows what is good and what is bad, but, unfortunately, terrible things can happen on the path of life, and he will go astray from the path of good to the path of destruction. Most people have committed at least one act in their lives aimed at helping other people, and much fewer have committed any atrocities. But even a person who has committed an atrocity, when he realizes what he has done, has a chance to grow Christianity in his soul through patience, acceptance, faith and knowledge.
THE NATIONALITY OF A PERSON IS NOT IMPORTANT TO THE LORD
Priest Alexander ILYASHENKO, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in the former Sorrowful Monastery, Moscow
I think the observation that the soul of every person is by nature Christian is very subtle and true. Man is created in the image and likeness of God. At the same time, he can be an unbeliever, a non-believer, a pagan. The main thing is for his Divine, highest principle to be revealed in him. Unfortunately, this does not always happen, including due to the conditions of birth. A person can live his whole life and not know the true faith. But the Apostle Paul said that for God there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are Christ’s. That is, the Lord does not care about a person’s nationality, He loves all people and desires salvation for everyone. God will judge us by our deeds - whether we lived according to our conscience, whether we loved our neighbors - and not by the country in which we were born. Remember the thief crucified next to Christ? His nationality is unknown. But it is known that he sincerely believed in God just before his death, although before that he committed many evil deeds. And Christ promised him the Kingdom of Heaven. God works in mysterious ways. The role of missionary work is very important here: it brings the message of Christ both to our unbelieving compatriots and to people of other nationalities and other countries. This is our special calling as Orthodox Christians. To whom more is given, more will be required.
CHRISTIANITY REVEALS THE BEST IN PEOPLE
Peter STRONSKY, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, participant in the painting of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow
As an artist and a believer, I have thought a lot about the role of faith in human life. And I agree with Tertullian. Christianity reveals the best in the soul that is inherent in it, helps to find moral guidelines in life. But at the same time, at all times there were people who disfigured their souls and became terrible sinners. The word “soul” is generally difficult to apply to them. But there are other religions that have coexisted with Orthodoxy for many centuries. What to do with people born and raised in other cultural and national conditions? Personally, I perceive Tertullian’s phrase as applied to our people, patient and trusting, ready, if necessary, to give up their last shirt. It is deeply embedded in our tradition to turn the other cheek and not hit back. We need to be pushed hard so that we enter into conflict and show strength. We hope to the last to settle the matter peacefully. If you look at our history, this can be traced back through many generations. Today, unfortunately, this is much less common - but it is in all of us.
THE SOUL PRESENTS THE DIVINE
Dina KORZUN, theater and film actress, Moscow
But the fact that it is from God is certain. Even if a person does not understand this with his mind, it seems to me that his soul still sometimes yearns, like this - for no reason, cries, waits for something... She remembers the place where she came from, and she lacks light, love, happiness - everything what she lost. But the soul is drawn to the earth by our feelings, the desire for sensual pleasures, which can be completely different: from beautiful ones, such as love or the enjoyment of beauty, to such terrible ones as gluttony or adultery. And these sensual pleasures overtake and enslave us, most often at some difficult moments in life, when we do not feel the meaning of our stay on earth.
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OCCUPIED TERRITORY
The following saying is well known: “The human soul is a Christian.” One can and should add to this that human flesh is pagan.
When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he became a pagan. The man's consciousness cracked like a mirror. A person has lost integrity and completeness: in relationships with God, in knowledge, in the perception of the surrounding reality, in health, in all life. Having known good and evil, a person received a shaded picture, where a grid of evil was superimposed on good. Everything turned out to be broken into separate pieces. The immortal soul began to live under the occupation of a mortal body.
According to the eternal plan of the Lord, we must serve Him; we were created by Him to communicate with Him. But in Adam man chose another master, and by virtue of this choice we serve sin. The split in human consciousness reaches extreme limits. Having lost communication with the Creator, man turned to idols, false gods. Pagans fear their gods; they try to appease them with deeds, words, and sacrifices.
The Apostle Paul talks about who is behind the stone, wooden, and gold deities. “When the pagans make sacrifices, they sacrifice to demons, not to God. But I do not want you to have fellowship with demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20).
In addition to visible idols, people carry spiritual idols within themselves. They can be our passions, people, things, our position in society, our health and well-being, human glory. Christ teaches something completely different: “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Washing the feet of His disciples is an example of unprecedented meekness. What pagan could imagine his god in such a position? Pride, pompousness, mercilessness - these are the qualities of earthly deities.
We all came out of paganism. The Church also emerged from paganism. The entire history of God’s chosen people, Israel, is a vivid example of man’s tossing between a Christian soul and a pagan flesh. The first churches, at the very beginning of their existence, began the same struggle: against the occult practices of paganism, which tried to penetrate the souls and hearts of believers; against rituals and spectacles to which magical properties were attributed, but in a Christian “wrapper”; against “holy” objects that protect and bring good luck. This struggle between paganism and Christianity continues throughout human history. This struggle is being waged in our churches, in the heart of every person.
How many modern Christians believe that the conspiracies of the “fathers” will definitely “help”? How many Christians in villages “protect” their livestock with the help of simple magical manipulations? How many Christians seriously talk about “chakras, cosmic energy, energy vampires”? Which of us pays absolutely no attention to signs? Behind all these actions and superstitions there are real spiritual forces, the very demons about which the Word of God warns us not to be in communication with them.
“Be blameless before your Lord” (Deut. 18:13). The Word of God constantly reminds us: “...those who live according to the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8).
Our flesh is pagan, but our soul is Christian.
