PASSION ACCORDING TO CHRISTIAN TEACHING: DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION

DEFINITION OF PASSIONS

The most important consequence of the Fall was the disruption of harmony in the human being. Evil acquired through a violation of harmony is passion
, and the opposite of the state that is in the innocent nature of man, while maintaining harmony, was called dispassion (Ponomarev. 1899, pp. 82-83).

The etymological origin of the word “passion” is interesting.

.
The Greek word
passion - "παθος" ("pathos") - comes from the verb "πασχειν" - to suffer and means such a state of a person when he is under some kind of internal or external unnatural influence, when he is tormented by it and as a result is in abnormal condition (ibid., p. 83).
This, by the way, is where the currently widely used concept of “ pathology
” comes from.

According to the extremely laconic definition of Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov): “Sin that has taken possession of a person is called passion” (Ignatius (Brianchaninov). T. 4. 1993, p. 477). Despite the widespread prevalence of passions and their presence in almost every person, they are external to human nature: “Evil and passions by nature are not in man; for God is not the creator of passions” (John Climacus. 2001, p. 191). Therefore, the opposite opinion of some Western authors is completely incorrect: “Passion is an innate property of a person and a person who does not have them should be counted among the angels or animals” (Scholz. 1888, p. 231). Firstly, numerous Christian ascetics and ascetics are above passions (by the grace of God and their own labors). Moreover, every Christian should strive for such a dispassionate state. This is a natural path to its improvement, purification and, ultimately, to deification. Secondly, this was the spiritual depth of the patristic experience, that he recognized the dispassionate nature of the soul, despite the presence and wide distribution of passions. In addition, we must keep in mind that “Our Lord Jesus Christ did not ascend to the cross before He healed all human passions...” (Isaiah Abba. 1883, p. 57).

Thus, from a Christian point of view, passions are defined quite clearly negatively

, which completely contradicts everyday usage when they talk, for example, about “
noble passion
.”
Moreover, passion is usually understood as a strong feeling
that dominates others, which, of course, from a Christian point of view is completely wrong.
Firstly, passion is not only a feeling or emotion: in modern psychological language, it has both cognitive and volitional components. Moreover, there is even a certain psychosomatic part in passion, which leads to the fact that mental passions negatively affect the body, and bodily passions corrupt the soul. Secondly, which is especially important from a Christian point of view, in passions emotions receive the wrong, immoral direction. Therefore, the point is not only and not so much in the strength of emotions, but in their direction: if they attract a person to the harmful, immoral, then these are passions and this is definitely from the devil, but if a person strives for God and does this with strong emotions, then this not passion, but zeal for God’s commandments and joy from their fulfillment (and many other different positive emotions, since Christianity is completely misrepresented only as a “religion of fear” with a predominance of negative emotions in it).

You will recognize her from a thousand

Of all emotions, passion stands out in that it is always an extreme manifestation of feeling. A person possessed by passion is a prisoner of love for what he does not have or fear of losing what he has. For example, an ambitious person is driven by a passionate love for power, which he does not have, he is ready to get it at any cost. And the miser is a hostage to the fear of losing accumulated money.

Love obsession has several very pronounced symptoms:

• when seeing the object of passion, strong emotions arise;
• the need to do something crazy for the sake of a desired object;
• thirst for constant tactile contact.

BODY AND MIND PASSIONS

What are the passions?

division
in the patristic tradition, passions are divided into
physical
and
mental
(Gregory of Sinaite. Chapters on the commandments. 1900, p. 193).

Soulful passions

are divided into passions of the irritable, lustful and thinking forces of the soul (Maxim the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900, p. 171) - that is, in fact, passions are possible in every force of the soul, by the name of which they themselves are named.

It seems that other saints also write. Fathers: “The passions have different names: they are divided into physical and mental. Bodily are divided into sorrowful and sinful; mournful ones are again divided into painful and punitive. Those of the soul are also divided into irritable, lustful and mental; mental ones are divided into imaginative and rational” (Gregory Sinait. 1900, p. 193).

The main bodily passions

are
gluttony
and
fornication
.
Abba Dorotheos, in agreement with the opinion of other saints. Fathers, distinguishes two types of gluttony: lemargy
- gortonobesie (delight in the pleasantness of taste) and
gastrimargy
- gluttony (multiple eating) (Dorotheos Abba. 1895, p. 638). The fight against gluttony is not easy and lengthy; it must include a whole series of physical and mental labors: fasting, abstinence, the formation of courage, remembrance of sins and mortal memory (serving to reduce the desire for everything earthly and temporary, and therefore pleasing the body).

Fornication

consists in the sinful use of God-given human qualities associated with gender.
In this case, two types of it are most often distinguished: fornication itself and adultery
. The latter consists in the violation of marital fidelity by one of the spouses, which has always been assessed extremely negatively in Christianity and was considered a very great sin. Actually, fornication consists of sexual intemperance before marriage. Although adultery is considered a greater sin than fornication, nevertheless the negative spiritual consequences of fornication are enormous: it not only corrupts the body, but also destroys the soul - especially for young men and women just entering life. The fight against fornication and lustful thoughts is also very difficult and lengthy. Here, physical labor, fasting, abstinence and vigil, knowledge of one’s weakness, and obedience with prayer and repentance are necessary.

In addition to private

bodily passions can include intemperance, sloppiness, drunkenness (and in modern conditions - drug addiction), etc., and general bodily passions include carnality and bodily service.

Soulful passions

we'll just list them.
There are many of them and their name, like the demons that cause them, is legion (Mark 5:9), but the most basic among them are: love of money, vanity, anger, sadness, laziness, pride
.

When dividing passions into physical and mental, one must keep in mind: “Even the most apparently bodily passions, upon closer examination, are, in the language of science, psychophysical states” (Sokolov. 1898, No. 10, p. 220). That is, gluttony and fornication in all their forms, being sins that primarily concern the body, nevertheless include psychological factors and require religious-psychological healing (ibid.).

We will talk in more detail about the fight against passions separately - in the next chapter. This is a whole science with its own laws and characteristics that differ at the beginning and at the end of the spiritual path: “With beginners, physical falls usually occur from enjoying food; with the average they happen from arrogance, and for the same reason as with beginners; but with those approaching perfection, they happen only from the condemnation of their neighbors” (John Climacus. 2001, pp. 123-124).

List of human vices

According to the Bible, the main 7 deadly sins (main human vices) are identified:

1. Pride. A person does not believe in the divine, but considers himself important, irreplaceable and ascribes many virtues to his person. He is sure that he is better than other people.
2. Lust. Desire for excessive pleasure for oneself.
3. Anger. Instead of love, a person is dissatisfied with everything, expresses this harshly and nervously. The result is destruction.
4. Envy. The desire to gain fame, money, a house and the material and moral advantages and things of another person. He considers himself more worthy.
5. Greed. Aspirations and actions aimed at increasing material wealth to the detriment of spiritual ones.
6. Dejection. Physical and spiritual inaction, unwillingness to work on oneself.
7. Gluttony. The sin of voluptuousness, constant overeating, eating tasty and unhealthy food.

INTERESTING: Prayers to the Mother of God.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF PASSIONS

Ultimately, all the powers of the soul are subject to passions, according to the division of which it is possible to create a complete classification of mental passions: “All vices have one source and beginning; and according to the quality of that part and (so to speak) member that is damaged in the soul, it receives various names of passions and damages” (John Cassian. 1993, p. 618). That is, one can share the passions of each of the powers of the soul: mind, will, feelings (emotions), words, memory, imagination, attention, etc.

In addition, the entire person is subject to the influence of passions - through pride, conceit, complacency, self-confidence

etc. No wonder, St. the fathers called pride the mother of passions: “Do you want to get rid of passions all at once? “Renounce the mother of passions - self-love” (Avva Thalassy. 1900, p. 292). Various passions are manifested in a person’s attitude towards other people (vanity, theft, love of fame, man-pleasing, philanthropy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, deceit, pretense, indulgence, arrogance, suspicion, cunning, slander, condemnation, envy, etc.), the world ( love of money, love of peace, “clinging” to it, naturalism) and God (pride, insensibility). Having summarized and supplemented everything that has been said, we present a table of the general classification of passions.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF PASSIONS

(main passions are highlighted in bold

)

As we see, the main passions

were unevenly distributed among the powers of the soul - the largest number of them fell on feelings (emotions), which is understandable, since they are the most mobile and their hypertrophy leads to anger, and the wrong direction leads to despondency and sadness.
Therefore, we would supplement the historically established main passions in such a way that it would include one main passion in relation to the other forces of the soul, as well as passions in relation to the soul and body as a whole (we have highlighted them in italics
).

Characteristics of mortal sins

In the spiritual, as well as in the material world, there are laws, the violation of which leads to minor destruction or colossal catastrophes. Most of the moral principles are contained in the main commandments of the Christian religion. They have the power to protect the believer from harm.

If a person pays attention to the warning signs in the material world, he acts intelligently, ensuring a safe path to his true home. The criminal, reveling in mortal passions, dooms himself to a long illness with serious consequences.

According to the holy fathers of the Church, behind each special passion there is a certain fiend of the underworld (demon). This unclean makes the soul dependent on a certain type of sin, making it a captive.

Passions are a perversion of the pure nature of human qualities. Sin is a distortion of all that is best in the original state. It can grow one from the other: from gluttony comes lust, and from it the thirst for money and anger.

Victory over them lies in binding each passion separately.

Orthodoxy claims that unconquered sins do not disappear anywhere after death. They continue to torment the soul after it has naturally left the body. In the Underworld, according to the clergy, sins torment much more severely, not allowing rest and time to sleep. There they will constantly torment the subtle body and will not be able to be satisfied.

However, Paradise is considered a special place of the presence of Holy Knowledge, and God does not seek to forcibly rid a person of passions. He is always waiting for someone who has managed to overcome the attraction to crimes against body and spirit.

Important! The only Orthodox sin that is not forgiven by the Creator is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. No one will provide support to the apostate, because he personally refuses it.