What is important to know about Orthodoxy that believers today do not know!

Introduction

Faith is an integral part of a person’s worldview, his position in life, his beliefs, ethical and moral rules, norms and customs in accordance with which he lives: acts, thinks and feels. Faith takes different forms and these forms are called religion. Religion (from the Latin religio - association) is faith, a special view of the world, a set of rituals - cult acts, as well as a union of believers in one or another organization, based on belief in the existence of one or another type of supernatural.

“Religion is the opium of the people ,” proclaimed the famous historical figure Karl Marx, and later V.I. Lenin said: “ Every religious idea, every idea about every god is an unspeakable abomination.” For many years it was enough that believers were persecuted both morally and physically. This had a strong impact on people's mentality. Some baptize children, maintain their fasts, holy houses, cars, or simply go to church just because it is fashionable. Others don't think about their religion at all. And only a few of those who consider themselves Orthodox are actually one with God. This essay is about religious studies. The subject of study is the origin and development of Orthodoxy as a form of Christian teaching.

This work will examine the following topics: the history and development of Christianity, basic concepts, holidays, sacraments, the role of the Church in the life of the Orthodox, the Bible as Holy Scripture, etc.

Obedience to God.

Imagine that a person is a kind of plasticine who has the right to act, a kind of “active plasticine”. From the outside they begin to mold something out of it. And one plasticine says: “I don’t like that they press on me in this place!” He throws in all his strength and begins to resist in order to prevent his form from changing here. And the other plasticine is very obedient, sensitive: as soon as the sculptor touches it lightly, it immediately says: “I understand, I understand,” and immediately embodies the artist’s intention. A person who is inclined to ascetic work is much more sensitive, he acts as a co-worker with God, does not interfere, does not resist Christ in His saving actions in relation to man. On the contrary, he helps and, one might say, in a certain sense, predicts these actions. - You need to mature to such a state. - Necessary.

- How? - Tolerate. Because where they put pressure, it will hurt, and we should at least not start a riot. This is why it is said that our time is a time of patience and humility: because we are already quite deaf and impervious to external evidence, and we need to be not only authoritarian, but actively influenced. And here we will just humble ourselves. It is clear that we will want to resist. But at least let’s not grumble, let’s not sin at all, but simply surrender ourselves to the will of God and thus hope and believe that the Lord, who knows the meaning of destinies, will save. Here another question arises about the extent of such collaboration. Maybe minimal collaboration is when we at least don’t complain about what’s happening to us. We can go further: this is how we become active co-workers. The Holy Fathers have a wonderful principle: if you don’t want sorrows, don’t sin. If you sin, endure the sorrows that come, do not complain. And you will be saved! Extremely simple! With the holy fathers, in general, everything was extremely simple. If you don’t want sorrows, live in such a way that God does not need to “press” you, “educate” you, build your life so that there is a minimum of wrong in it.

- “Press” is a word not associated with freedom... - I agree. In fact, God does not force anyone, does not force anyone to do anything. No one. But the fact that He does not force does not mean that He does nothing in relation to man. And this is the most interesting story of every human life, the story of his relationship with God - even if a person does not believe in Him. What can you find here! And desperate struggle, and romance, and routine, and tears of repentance, and deep dramas... A person, on a personal level, in the formation of himself as an integral person, also has his own dynamics. And it’s difficult to say when he will grow to that readiness to say his big “yes” to God - and after that leave everything and follow Him, as the apostles did.

Orthodoxy

What position do Orthodoxy, Christianity and faith occupy in Russia today? Many centuries later, Christianity remains one of the world's religions. After many changes, she lives and continues to fulfill her main function - getting closer to God, to moral values ​​and foundations.

Today, the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees every citizen “freedom of religion, including the right, alone or together with others, to profess or not to profess a religion, to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and to act in accordance with them.” However, the promotion of “religious hatred and enmity” and “religious superiority” is not allowed.

In 1997, the federal law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” was adopted, which significantly limited the activities of totalitarian sects (Satanists, Scientologists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.) that came to Russia from abroad. However, the problem of the spread of various sects in the country today is very, very relevant. People join such organizations, deposit all their property, devote themselves completely to the sect and serve its leaders. One of the most important events of the beginning of the 21st century is the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church, which ended in 2007. All the contradictions that existed before were exposed.

Origin

Orthodoxy (from Greek: ὀρθοδοξία - literally “correct judgment”, “correct teaching” or “correct glorification”) is a direction in Christianity that developed in the east of the Roman Empire in the first millennium since the birth of Christ in the implementation of the principle of symphony (the principle is that secular and ecclesiastical authorities are in a state of harmony and cooperation). It is widely used in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Balkans.

Orthodoxy arose as an eastern branch of Christianity after the division of the Roman Empire (395) and was formed after the division of churches (1054). Orthodoxy did not have a single church center, since church power in Byzantium from the very beginning of its formation was concentrated in the hands of four patriarchs - Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. When the Byzantine Empire collapsed, each of these patriarchs began to lead an independent (autocephalous) local Orthodox Church.

The Byzantine Empire at that time was a strong centralized state. The Emperor of Byzantium considered himself the head of the entire Roman Empire, of which Constantinople was declared the capital. At the end of the 18th century, after Byzantium liberated Rome from the barbarians, the head of the Byzantine Church, the Patriarch of Constantinople, began to call himself a universalist, i.e. head of both the Eastern and Western churches. The struggle between the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, for power over Christians continued for many centuries with varying degrees of success. After the conquest of Italy by Emperor Charlemagne (late 7th - early 8th century), the Pope left the jurisdiction of the Byzantine emperor and his position strengthened. At the same time, Byzantium was attacked by the Arab Caliphate and lost several important territories in which independent church organizations were united.

The Orthodox Church considers the entire history of the united Church up to the Great Savior (1054) as its own. The Orthodox faith dates back to the Apostolic period (1st century). Subsequently, it was formulated by the ecumenism of Oros (literally - boundaries, doctrinal definitions) and some local councils. The leading role in the work of the first four Ecumenical Councils was played by the bishops of Alexandria and Rome.

Grandma and The Matrix

— Father Paul, can Christianity be comfortable today? Is this a modern phenomenon: did something like this happen before, or are we so relaxed today? — In order to answer the question you outlined, you need to understand the concepts. The key concept here is comfort. And this concept is very much distorted by modern civilization. Because comfort means everything that contributes to the establishment of human egoism; that which indulges it is perceived as unambiguously comfortable.

- For example? “For example, the absence of any tension, the quick fulfillment of primitive desires, the absence of the need to endure, endure, or take on any work, especially hard work. But at the same time, it is not for nothing that in the Gospel the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, and, by the way, “Comforter” is translated into English precisely as comforter (from the word “comfort” - comfort, convenience). That is, the very concept of consolation for church vocabulary is not something absolutely unacceptable and impossible in principle.

- What's the difference? - A person cannot live without consolation. At times there should be comfort, and at times there should be tension. In a normally tuned Christian life, one thing alternates with another. And we know that the holy fathers were able to find the correct measure of tension of spiritual forces, which, on the one hand, was creative, on the other hand, did not lead to the destruction of the personality due to unbearable “supertension.” And the problem of modern civilization is that it has absolutized the state of man in which he is now - a state of deep damage and a shift in coordinates. The unnatural is essentially now called “natural”, “normal” simply by the fact of its existence. Everything that does not fit into this more than strange “standard” is resolutely rejected and recognized as unworthy, incorrect, and hostile towards man.

“Hasn’t it always been this way?” Christ says: “The world will hate you”... - Of course, this has always been the case to one degree or another. But we want to determine what is special about the current moment in history. How does the modern world differ from life in the 18th or 19th centuries? It seems to me that the difference is that today there has been an amazing merging of human egoism and the technical capabilities of satisfying it. Technologies, the very rhythm of life, its way of life - everything began to be built primarily not around real, but around artificially created human needs. Anyone who sits in front of the TV for 5-6 hours every day, from the point of view of any person - be it ancient or medieval - is mentally abnormal. Such a life becomes extremely uninteresting: for a normal person such a life is a disaster and a complete pathology.

- Why? - Because a person wastes his time, which he could spend on a huge number of things that are vital or actually useful! Modern civilization - with its separation from the harsh realities of life, with overcoming the need to survive - has created an environment in which the luxury of doing nothing, the luxury of living for pleasure, a very pleasant life, has become possible. And most importantly, life is not burdensome. The God of consumer society is a button on the remote control that should control everything in life. Once I happened to become an unwitting witness to a family scene when a child stuck the TV remote somewhere: a more than revealing picture!

- Let's try to understand what's wrong with comfort. After all, comfort is not a sin, in the strict sense of the word... - Yes, it cannot be said that Christianity is against any consolation in principle, against any relaxation and any concession to human limitations and weakness. No. But the bad thing is that comfort becomes an absolute value. This absolutization leads to a shift in emphasis in life: from real needs to virtual ones. Any modern gadget, any television program, any influence of the media is aimed not so much at giving a person something necessary, eternal, correct, but at keeping a person in his space, not allowing him to fall out of this whirlwind. It is not even the information itself that is poured into a person that matters, but the constant feeding of this feeling of involvement... How many times have I seen elderly women, grandmothers, whose main content of life has become television, which they almost never watch - while it constantly works as a background. They say something there, talk about something, broadcast something - and she has a life. She feels through this channel that she is involved in something greater: she feels as if she is being cared for, that she is being informed about what is important to know today - somewhere she will cry and worry about the raging elements on the other side of the earth... But , in essence, television creates an environment of surrogate life. It replaces reality, while a grandmother can sit in a completely spit-stained apartment, eat for no reason and not care at all about her rapidly fading health... This is very well shown in the film by Alexei Balabanov “Cargo 200”, to which I do not have an unambiguously positive attitude , but there is a very revealing episode in the film. The main character's mother, a decrepit old woman, sits in front of the TV with a bottle of vodka and listens to a Soviet pop concert, swaying to the music with a toothless smile - while in the next room there is indescribable violence, the culprit of which is her own son. She feels good, she has entered her closed little world, she is very comfortable. It’s a little grotesquely presented, but this is a very real image of a person who has embarked on the path of a comfortable life.

- Do you want to say that human scattering occurs? “More like neutralizing his power.” You see, any person is a huge spiritual force, and this strength is completely incommensurate with either his physical strength or even his spiritual capabilities. But he only becomes such a force when he gathers himself. When he acquires some kind of internal integrity and he actually needs something. A person who needs something is a very dangerous and amazingly strong person!

— And a person who doesn’t need anything?.. — Just a battery for a huge system, like in the movie “The Matrix.”

Distribution

Orthodoxy is widespread among a number of peoples of the Balkans - Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Romanians and some Albanians; in Eastern Europe - among the East Slavic peoples, as well as among Georgians, Gagauz, Abkhaz, Ossetians, Moldavians and, in addition to Russians, among a number of other peoples of the Russian Federation: Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts, Komi, Karelians, Mordauts, Yakuts and some others.

It is impossible to determine the exact number of followers, since in a number of countries with the traditional spread of Orthodoxy, state and church authorities do not keep records of Church members. The number of believers in the canonical Orthodox churches is estimated at 225 million (2007) and 227 million (2013). Together with the old Eastern churches, the number of Orthodox Christians is 260 - 270 million people. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and other sources estimate the total number of Orthodox Christians at approximately 250-300 million people.

In the modern world, the countries where, according to censuses and surveys, the majority of the Orthodox population lives: Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro. Orthodoxy is also noticeably present in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Kazakhstan and the Aleuts in the US state of Alaska. In addition, part of the population of Estonia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Albania and Japan professes Orthodoxy. Since the late 20th century, one of the relatively fast growing areas of Orthodoxy has been sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Southeast Asia and South Korea.

Foundations of Faith

The Orthodox Church declares the basic principles of faith to be absolutely true, eternal and unchangeable, which are conveyed to man by God Himself and the incomprehensible spirit. Keeping them safe and sound is the main responsibility of the Church. Nothing can be added or removed so that the later dogmas established by the Catholic Church - about the descent of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son (filique), about the immaculate conception not only of Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary, about the infallibility of the Pope, about purgatory - were considered heresy by Orthodoxy.

The personal salvation of believers is made dependent on the zealous fulfillment of the rituals and regulations of the Church, through which divine grace is given to man through the sacraments: infant baptism, anointing, communion, repentance (confession), marriage, priesthood, consecration (meeting). The sacraments are performed through rituals, which, together with services, prayers and religious holidays, form the religious cult of Christianity. Orthodoxy attaches great importance to holidays and fasting.

Orthodoxy teaches observance of the moral commandments that God gave to man through the prophet Moses, as well as the fulfillment of the covenants and sermons of Jesus Christ set out in the Gospels. Its main content is adherence to universal human norms of life and mercy, the manifestation of mercy and compassion, and the renunciation of forceful resistance to evil. Orthodoxy emphasizes the painless passage of suffering, sent by God to test the strength of faith and cleansing from sin, with special respect for those who suffer - the blessed, the poor, the foolish, the hermits and hermits. In Orthodoxy, only monks and the highest ranks of the clergy take the vow of celibacy.

Secrets

In Orthodoxy there are 7 sacraments: baptism, anointing, repentance (confession), Eucharist (communion), consecration (meeting), the sacrament of marriage and priesthood.

This is the first of the sacraments; it marks the believer’s entry into the world of Christianity and entry into the Church of Christ. Its foundation according to the Gospels began with the baptism (purification by immersion in water) of John the Baptist. The tradition of Christian baptism began with the words of Jesus Christ: “Go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16).

According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, a Christian receives the sacrament of anointing immediately after baptism, in which the believer, when parts of the body are sanctified by the world in the name of the Holy Spirit, receives the gifts of the Holy Spirit and thereby is revived and strengthened in spiritual life.

This sacrament cleanses the believer from his sins after baptism and gives him the opportunity to continue his earthly Christian life. By confessing his sins to a priest, a Christian receives forgiveness from him and is mysteriously confessed by God Himself.

The most important Christian sacrament. In the last part of the liturgy (communion), the believer eats the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the cover of bread and wine for the remission of sin and eternal life. By accepting the Holy Gifts, a Christian unites with Christ himself and becomes part of his Church.

Anointing the body with oil is a sacrament that invokes the sick grace of God and heals spiritual and physical infirmities. More precisely, this sacrament is revealed in the letter of the Apostle James, in which the perpetrators of this sacrament are indicated: “Whoever is sick among you, call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, after they have anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord.” And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

A sacrament in which, under the free promise of mutual fidelity between the Bride and Groom before the priest and the Church, their marital union is blessed in the image and likeness of the spiritual union of Christ with the Church, and they are asked for the grace of pure unity for the blessed birth and Christian upbringing of children.

The priesthood is a sacrament into which the Holy Spirit descends through the priestly ordination of the right Elect and transmits it to perform the sacraments and feed the flock of Christ. The sacrament of the priesthood is performed only by male clergy, an Orthodox believer who has entered into a first marriage, ordained by the Church or taken monastic vows and chosen for elevation to one of the three degrees of the church hierarchy: Deacon, presbyter and bishop. This sacrament is also called consecration or consecration.

Orthodox holidays in Orthodoxy are solemn days dedicated to the celebration of holy events and especially revered saints.

The Church views holidays as a divine institution (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:8-11).

Classification of public holidays:

• In accordance with the importance of the events remembered by the Church, holidays are divided into large (including Easter or the Resurrection of Christ), as well as medium and small. They are distinguished by the solemnity of their worship (chapter 47 of the Typikon), and Easter has a special status among the holidays, and its worship is much more solemn than any other holiday. The celebration of the Resurrection of Christ is celebrated in the Church every Sunday (week) on which the Vigil is celebrated.
• Depending on the time of the holiday, holidays are divided into mobile (passing) and stationary.
• Depending on the location, celebrations are divided into general ones; in all churches, local celebrations are celebrated equally solemnly. The latter include the so-called altar (temple) holidays or festivals in honor of local revered icons or saints. In accordance with the specifics of worship, the feasts of the throne are classified as middle feasts (see below) with the sign of a cross in a semicircle. The 58 chapters of the Temple Charter (at the end of the Book of the Typikon) provide instructions on how to conduct temple worship in connection with another holiday on the same day.
• By nature, holidays are also divided into the Feast of the Lord (in honor of the Savior), the Feast of the Mother of God and the Feast of Saints (churches of saints). By saints we mean both men (the saints of God) and angels.

The most important holidays with a solemn church service are called great. These include Easter, all bicentennial celebrations and some other holidays.

The twenties are the twelve most important holidays in Orthodoxy after Easter. They are dedicated to the events of the earthly life of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God,

About the chronology of the church year, which begins on September 1 (14):

• Birth of the Blessed Mother - September 8 (21);
• Glorification of the Holy Cross - September 14 (27);
• Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary - November 21 (December 4);
• Christmas - December 25 (January 7);
• Epiphany of the Lord - January 6 (19);
• Assembly of the Lord - February 2 (15);
• Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary - March 25 (April 7);
• The Lord's entry into Jerusalem (transit) is the Sunday before Easter;
• The Ascension of the Lord (past) is the 40th day after Easter, always on Thursday;
• Trinity Day (past) is the 50th day after Easter, always on Sunday;
• Transfiguration of the Lord - August 6 (19);
• Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - August 15 (28).

In addition to Easter and the bicentennial holidays, the great ones also include:

• Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary - October 1 (14);
• Circumcision of the Lord and commemoration of St. Basil the Great - January 1 (14);
• Birth of John the Baptist (predecessor) - June 24 (July 7);
• Day of the Holy Chief Apostles Peter and Paul - June 29 (July 12);
• Beheading of John the Baptist - August 29 (September 11).

The Bicentennial and Easter holidays have pre-celebrations, celebrations and gifts.

The feast is a time of worship to prepare the faithful for the feast. Therefore, the service includes prayers for that day and the saints remembered on that day, as well as prayers for the upcoming holiday. Twelve Great Holidays have a preliminary holiday, with the exception of the Nativity of Christ (5 days before the holiday), Epiphany (4 days before the holiday). The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, the Ascension of the Lord and the Day of the Holy Trinity do not have the same holidays. Easter also has no previous holidays.

A holiday is a time of worship during which the memory of the great holiday continues after the holiday itself. These days, the Church glorifies the event itself and its participants. Usually the celebration lasts a week. It depends on how one holiday approaches another or on the days of fasting. Easter celebrations last 40 days.

The holiday is the last day of celebration. It is more solemn in worship than on any other day, but less solemn than on the holiday itself. Prayers at the service basically repeat the first day of the holiday.

Church athletics

Photo by chibi-m, www.
flickr.com — Is it possible to say that a Christian cannot be in such a calm, static state? “I think that if a Christian lives comfortably in this world, then he is probably not completely a Christian.” Because the Savior said very precise words related to the topic of our conversation. On the one hand: You will have sorrow in the world (John 16:33)... He did not promise complete joy, he did not promise that we would be able to conclude such an agreement with the world that both our interests and the interests of the world would be respected. He said that we would be persecuted, that we would be rejected by the world. But, on the other hand, Christ says: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30)... A normal Christian in this world should be uncomfortable. Why? Because a state of discomfort is opposition, opposition to the way this world lives, its principles and way of life. It allows a Christian to “gather within himself” and in this tension to find God. It is not easy to find God as a result of special techniques to pacify your soul and so on. And to find God in a state of complete internal lewdness.

- Like this? - A Christian is a person for whom life in this world is very bad, and therefore he needs Christ. If a person is comfortable in this life, he does not need Christ at all. Moreover, Christ will greatly interfere with him with His radicalism, with His categoricalness, “political incorrectness,” undiplomaticity - with all those traits that we find in Him in the Gospel.

- However, a person can, even having come to the Church, settle down comfortably: get used to services, to fasts, and exist quite “comfortably” in the “church subculture” ... - Life is a dynamic concept. And when a person comes to the Church, he most often needs a period of isolation from the outside world so that he can bear some spiritual fruit within himself. So, for example, seedlings, so that they can get stronger and grow, are first planted in greenhouses, because if they are planted immediately in harsh conditions, they will die instantly. In the same way, faith requires favorable conditions for germination! We see this very well in the example of our seminary students, who often come on a wave of delight from the Church, from faith, and find themselves in an environment in which this delight gradually goes away, but gives way to a healthy, full-fledged faith of a different quality and weight. Such faith will no longer perish, even if it finds itself in an aggressive environment, in hostile conditions. But what makes students become like this? Thanks to the fact that they “cook” for some time in an environment that is all conducive to Christian work. They accustom themselves to the church way of life, to Christian relationships between people, with their brothers with whom they live side by side - and they will never encounter such relationships in the world. Moreover, considering that our educational institution is located within the walls of a monastery: monastic services, friendship with the brethren of the monastery - all this has a strong impact on the young man, and gradually forms an inner core in him, which remains even after he leaves the seminary, found himself in the world, in the parish. He has formed internal values, guidelines that will always remain unchanged for him. — This is a comfortable environment, but in a different sense? - Yes, it is comfortable not because it serves to please the person himself, but because it is the environment of the Church. An environment in which the intensity of the confrontation between the world as a living environment and a Christian trying to live life according to Christ is significantly less. But still this tension exists! People in the Church retain their weaknesses, their passions, their earthly interests. Only the priorities here shift significantly. Therefore, of course, a believer is more comfortable in a church environment than when he finds himself in a non-church environment. I don’t see anything wrong with such comfort. This is a normal desire for some kind of community, when our ultimate values ​​are the same (and the ultimate values ​​of church people, believers, are the same). This is Christ. And the womb in which a person becomes different is precisely the church womb.

- So, the status quo - a state of stability - is in principle possible in Christianity? - Still, the life of a Christian in a church environment is not a struggle between good and bad, as it happens when a Christian finds himself in the world. It is a constant tension between the good and the best. Within the church environment itself. Why does the Apostle Paul, speaking about the life of a Christian, give the example of an athlete running on a list? After all, everyone is running, running in one direction, but only the one who comes running first is rewarded. In the church environment, everyone is also “running,” and not in opposite directions, but in one direction. And then we talk about various gradations of perfection. "Hands of Christ"

- Wait. But there are those who have achieved a high degree of perfection. The Saints. It’s hard to believe that saints represent some kind of real, practical example for modern Christians. There is also this way of thinking: saints are special people, how can we relate to them? We are simple people, and our time is difficult, even if it’s hard, but we pray, we go to church, we don’t commit big sins. What should we take? And many confessors say: it’s better to underdo it than to overwork... - A serious question: what makes a Christian a Christian? I may say something that is not very familiar, but it seems to me that this is openness to the action of Christ in life. There is only one essential thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions; it is not an external ritual, not the presence of any special prayers or fasts. This is Christ. Moreover, Christ is not as some kind of idea, and not even as a historical figure. And Christ is precisely like the Messiah, active and abiding to this day in the Church - in His Body. Once we take Christ away, there is absolutely nothing left of Christianity! We immediately fall into the area of ​​general religiosity, characteristic of all peoples throughout the history of mankind. If we translate this into some practical plane, it turns out that the measure of my Christianity directly depends on whether Christ acts in me. Can He act in me at all? This is the first one. And second: does it work? And here I would conditionally suggest two main “ages” of a Christian.

The first age when the opportunity for Christ to act in a person’s life generally appears. This opportunity, this right for God to act in his life, is given by man. This is the state that the holy fathers call humility and meekness, “shortness,” that is, a sense of one’s limits. A person turns to his ears: he hears more than he speaks. That is, he accepts more the reality in which he lives, which God gives him, rather than trying to act in this reality as he sees as right and necessary, as if he were the rightful owner of life. And the second stage, the second age - when a person has already heard and understood what Christ wants from him in this situation. When he knew the will of God.

- Does this only happen once in a lifetime? - No. We know cases like with the Monk Anthony, when he heard the words of the Gospel, he immediately abandoned everything and went into the desert. And many monks found themselves at the pinnacle of ascetic life when suddenly some Divine testimony reached their core, their inner depths, and after that it sprouted there like a huge branchy tree. But at the same time, we know that such Divine revelations accompany man constantly. And if a person becomes this very rumor, then God always has something to tell him! Only if a person is ready to hear, he is ready to implement. In this state, the Christian is one who is truly the “hands of Christ” working in this world.

— How do you know what you are ready to hear? - In order to hear something, you must at least stop talking. We very often talk within ourselves about our own things. When we slightly open this shell of our self-sufficiency, immersion in our own lives, in solving our problems, we are already moving towards readiness to hear. And we must understand and be prepared for the fact that most often we will hear something completely different from what we want to hear. And I think one of the indications that we are beginning to hear God, receiving some kind of answer from Him, is that events begin to happen in our lives with which we strongly disagree. Which create problems for us.

- Or positive events, but those that you did not expect in any way. Could this be possible? - This can also happen. This refers to everything that happens not according to our desire, not according to our will. Moreover, positive events are not at all “bonuses” for achievements, and negative ones are not at all evidence that we have secretly and seriously sinned somewhere, so they hit us on the forehead. In both the first and second cases, God acts with His infinite pedagogy: He not only educates us, He feeds us. And “feeds” us with different – ​​both tasty and bitter – “foods” and “drinks”: depending on what we need for proper formation.

— It turns out that at different times a person can be a Christian in very different ways? - Yes, without any doubt. Christianity is a given. Not a stamp in a passport.

— In what sense is “assigned”? - In the most direct way. We have one task before us - to become Christians: those in whom Christ lives and acts. All. There are no other criteria. But the one in whom Christ already lives and acts has nothing more to do here on earth: he has completed the task of life, “passed the exam,” and in most cases the Lord takes such people. Life is a school of holiness, a school of becoming. Management and bliss

— It often happens that over time a person does not raise the bar, but lowers it, stops at “what has been achieved,” relaxes, justifies himself, defending his easy life... — Yes. This is a huge problem. A person's contact with Christ should change that person in a radical way! Change not in the direction of religious fanaticism or a decisive rejection of the previous way of life (these are all external things), but change in the sense of a radical re-establishment of ultimate values. And when this actually happens, the person is transformed, and internal problems, certain psychological complexes, ulcers and flaws in his soul begin to be healed. And here a new problem arises: we believe too much in the power of ritual, any ritual. And at the same time, we don’t really understand what we should become in the end!

— Doesn’t the Gospel give us such a concept? - That's what we're talking about! We look into the Gospel, but we do not try to apply these commandments to ourselves. We understand: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) - that’s great, but it’s not about me! And it will never be about me. Let's say, by virtue of my position, work, I must be politically correct, diplomatic, dexterous: what is the truth there? This is for the saints, not for me. Or blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7) ... How can mercy towards subordinates and competent management be combined? These are mutually exclusive things! And in such a situation, a person creates a kind of invisible “buffer zone” between his real life and the life that Christ expects from him. Moreover, this “buffer zone” is actively filled with various external forms, rituals, Orthodox paraphernalia, signs of involvement in the faith, the Orthodox Church, objects that indicate that we have before us a deeply churchly, believing person... And we risk getting a fairly stable, stable state of a person who lives completely not according to Christ, but according to the elements of this world, but his life has acquired a completely Orthodox, Christian, religious coloring... Who even regularly confesses and receives communion... I remember the image of a bandit (former?) from A. Balabanov’s latest film “I want it too!” ": it would seem that he was the most Orthodox person - but he never got to God... This situation reminds me down to the last detail of what we read about in the Gospel: when Christ lived on this earth, he went to the Pharisees and aroused their rage by violating the Sabbath , communication with publicans and sinners, which was unacceptable in the minds of the Pharisees. I think we can say that He deliberately, by these actions against the external form, forced people to sober up a little, to look through the form at the very essence of God’s demands - at what all this is being done for... All the words addressed by Christ to the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes of his time, can be fully addressed to each of us when we create a kind of “buffer zone”.

—How can one recognize that a person is still walking correctly and approaching Christ? — I think this was formulated by the Apostle Paul clearly and clearly. He who does not have the spirit of Christ is not His (Rom. 8:9). And then - clear criteria: The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23). The words “there is no law against such” mean that a person who is in such a state has already gone beyond those external tools that exist solely to achieve this state. And when we protect ourselves with various “spiritual tools” and more than conditional use of them, we achieve exactly the opposite result: we become arrogant in our righteousness, self-sufficient, absolutely uncommunicative, closed, afraid of any contact with what we don’t like, with what which is in conflict with us...

“But almost no one is inclined to accuse themselves of pharisaism.” If there is anything to blame yourself for, then “I repeat the same sins in confession”... - In relaxation... This state cannot be called normal, but it is common for a person, including those in the Church. It is not something extraordinary. Yes, it is sad and common. And precisely in order to spur us on to more serious changes, there are special periods of life when we are literally “driven” by external regulations, external rituals into very strict frameworks in the hope that something good will be squeezed out of us.

Orthodox Church

The source of the internal law of the Orthodox Church, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, is the Holy Tradition, to which the canons belong - the Code of the Apostles and the Ecumenical Councils, liturgical texts approved by the Church, theological works of the Fathers of the Church, the lives of saints, and the customs of the Church5. At the same time, the legend in the understanding of the sacred paternal literature is “the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.” Sacred Scripture in relation to Sacred Tradition is understood as one of its forms.

The Orthodox Church is formed by a community of local churches - autocephalous and autonomous. Each autocephalous church is completely independent and autonomous in its canonical and administrative governance. Autonomous churches are canonically dependent on one or another autocephalous (Cyrillic) church.

Unlike Catholicism, Orthodoxy does not have a single spiritual center or a single church leader. In the process of the development of Orthodoxy, there are 15 autocephalous (from the Greek auto - “himself”, cephale - “head”) independent churches, 9 of which are headed by patriarchs, and the rest by metropolitans and archbishops. There are also autonomous churches - relatively independent of autocephaly in matters of internal governance.

Autocephalous churches are divided into exarchates, vicarates, dioceses (districts and regions) headed by bishops and archbishops, sponsorships (unification of several parishes) and parishes created in each church. Patriarchs and metropolitans are elected to lifelong parish councils and lead the life of the Church together with the Synod (a collegial body under the Patriarchate, consisting of senior church personalities, permanent and non-permanent).

Currently, there are three autonomous Orthodox Churches: Sinai (jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Patriarchate), Finnish (jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople), Japanese (jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate). The boundaries of the autonomy of autonomous churches are determined by an agreement with the autocephalous church that granted it autonomy. The heads of autonomous churches are elected by municipal councils and then approved by the Patriarch of the Autocephalous Church. A number of autocephalous churches have missions, deities and courts with other Orthodox churches.

The Orthodox Church is characterized by a hierarchical principle of leadership, i.e. the appointment of all clergy from above and the consistent subordination of the lower clergy to the higher. All clergy are divided into higher, middle and lower, as well as black (monastic) and white (rest).

The canonical dignity of the Orthodox Churches is reflected in the official list - the “Giptych of Honors”. According to this list, the churches are located in a certain order.

Constantinople Orthodox Church. It has another name - the Ecumenical Church or the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Patriarch of Constantinople is considered the Ecumenical Patriarch, but has no right to interfere in the activities of other Churches. In 1924, the Church of Constantinople switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Under its jurisdiction is a monastic complex with 20 monasteries. The head of the Church of Constantinople bears the title of Archbishop of Constantinople - New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. Followers of the Church of Constantinople live in many countries around the world.

Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Another name is the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria. Its founder is the Apostle Mark. It was founded in the 30s of the first century after Christ. The Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1928. The head of the Alexandrian Church bears the title of Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, with residence in Alexandria. The jurisdiction of the Church extends over all of Africa.

The Orthodox Church in Antioch was founded in the 30s of the 1st century AD. in Antioch, the third largest city of the Roman Empire. The history of this church is connected with the activities of the Apostle Paul and the fact that the disciples of Christ were first called Christians on Syrian soil. It was here that John Chrysostom was born and raised. In 550, the Antiochian Church was divided into Orthodox and Jacobist. The current head of the Antiochian Church bears the title of Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, with headquarters in Damascus. There are 18 dioceses under its jurisdiction: Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and others.

The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, which also has another name - the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. According to legend, the Jerusalem Church in the early years of its existence was led by relatives from the family of Jesus Christ. The head of the Church has the title of Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, living in Jerusalem. Divine services are conducted in Greek in monasteries, and in Arabic in parishes. In Nazareth, services are conducted in Church Slavonic. The Julian calendar was adopted.

One of the functions of the church is to preserve holy places.

Spiritual and moral phenomena - religious consciousness, psychology of religion, moral and ethical standards - are of great importance for the functioning of religion and the church as a social institution.

Why do we need to know “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture”

Russia Orthodox

According to various sociological studies, 60-80% of the population consider themselves Orthodox. And when the time comes to choose for their children what is more important for them to learn from “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics,” only 20-30% give preference to “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture.” This is despite the fact that 90% claim that they have a generally positive attitude towards Russian culture and do not intend to leave Russia anywhere. What's the matter?

First of all, the overwhelming majority of people who consider themselves Orthodox have a very vague concept of Orthodoxy. If just over half of the nominal Orthodox have read the Gospel, then what can we say about knowledge of theology. I don’t even have a desire to get to know him, why do I need to know that God is One by nature and Trinity in Persons? Or that the Church is understood as the Body of Christ? Or that every person bears the image of God? What does this have to do with my life?

The most direct thing. Because the doctrinal truths of a religion determine the culture of the people who profess this religion. Culture in a broad sense, not in the current simplified sense, when it is perceived as a collection of various arts. Culture as the totality of all manifestations of human activity, values, skills and abilities. As something that prescribes to a person certain ways of thinking and self-expression, determines a person’s life strategy and lifestyle, shapes the psychology of both an individual and the people as a whole.

The religious roots of a culture are not necessarily recognized by the bearers of this culture. “Hidden religion” is when a culture is built on ideas that were originally religious but have now become secular, and are the normal way of thinking and living for members of that culture. In Soviet times, when faith in God was almost completely excluded from public life, the Russian people continued to live by moral ideals stemming from Orthodoxy. Even the “Moral Code of the Builder of Communism” surprisingly resembled the Commandments of God. As Patriarch Kirill said in his speech at the First Kaliningrad Forum of the World Russian People's Council, the core of our civilization “in the spiritual sense... undoubtedly is Orthodox Christianity, which, in fact, formed a single centralized state in the Eurasian space.” The Russian world in which we live “grew” from Orthodoxy.

To draw up a portrait of a bearer of Russian culture, to understand what the psychology of a Russian person is, or more precisely, the psychology of “Russianness”, is very difficult. “You can’t understand Russia with your mind, you can’t measure it with a common yardstick, it’s something special, you can only believe in Russia.” This deep thought of the poet-philosopher F. Tyutchev has become for many a common explanation of the “mysterious Russian soul.” Which is perceived by some as a universal miracle, by others as some kind of absurdity that Russia represents in the world space.

The self-perception of the Russian person bears the stamp of church conciliarity. We feel like a single people, the words “Russia”, “Russian civilization”, “patriotism” are not an empty phrase for us, no matter who tries to devalue them. For real Russians, public interests are more important than personal ones: “If you perish yourself, save your comrades.” That is why “A friend is known in trouble” - if in trouble your neighbor betrayed you, abandoned you - he is not a friend, and not a real Russian! A true Russian person never betrays his neighbors.

A Russian person always feels like he is part of something larger than himself. He always lacks himself. Satisfying your own needs is not enough. A Russian always needs a big common goal. Without it, life is meaningless. This is how the Orthodox idea is manifested that the meaning of human life is beyond the boundaries of earthly life, in the Kingdom of God.

Russian culture is basically a communal culture, that is, it is built not on the idea of ​​division and opposition, competition, but on the idea of ​​unification. This is not a culture of loners, it is a culture built on interaction with all neighbors. In the depths of people’s souls there is an idea that we live not only and not so much for ourselves, but for others, and the meaning of life is seen in serving others. Russian people are characterized by openness, kindness, goodwill towards their neighbors, and a desire to serve and help them. Love and compassion, sacrifice and responsibility, solidarity and mutual assistance, perseverance in suffering and a humble attitude towards death have become firmly entrenched in our psyche. This is the action of “genetic” memory left over from the times when the Russian Orthodox people sought to imitate Christ.

Russian culture is built primarily on spiritual foundations; material values ​​and the acquisition of earthly goods are not the main goal and meaning of life. For a real Russian person, “poverty is not a vice,” and wealth is something temporary, impermanent, sometimes even unkind: “The rich eat sweets, but sleep poorly,” “Sleep better without money,” etc. The overwhelming majority of Russian proverbs and sayings speak of wealth as a grief and condemn it. This is the embodiment of the gospel lines in everyday life: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). We are pilgrims on earth, our home is in the spiritual world. And there, in the Kingdom of Heaven, no material wealth will save a person who does not believe in the Lord, who does not begin to partake of His Body and Blood - that is, who does not have a part with God.

Representatives of Russian culture are characterized by moral purity, a deep need to believe in something significant, in goodness, in nobility, the need to serve something sublime. He strives for spiritual perfection, since the Gospel says: “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 6:48). The Russian world, when compared with the civilization of the West, is characterized by supra-mundaneity, otherness, and the predominance of spiritual life over carnal life.

It's an attractive portrait, isn't it? Only now it is no longer relevant for modern times, every Russian will agree with this. The people around us are completely different, and we ourselves are far from being like that.

And no wonder. Culture is acquired by a person when he lives in this culture. But our traditional society, based on Orthodoxy, ceased to exist a century ago. Of course, the value orientations of Christianity did not immediately disappear from public life. For several more decades, children were raised in families that preserved a way of life rooted in Orthodoxy. Therefore, a society approached the Great Patriotic War in which the ideals of Orthodoxy were alive. This is how historian Sergei Perevezentsev answers the question about what was the reason for the victory of the Soviet Union in this terrible war: “Russian character, brought up in the Orthodox tradition, when your main enemy is not outside, but in yourself, since your main enemy is - the enemy is internal. Defeat the enemy in yourself, that is, cowardice, fear, that devilish thing that lives in a person - and this is your main battle. Having won it, you will defeat the external enemy. Even if you died, even if you understood that your life would end at that second, you still won, because you defeated the enemy in yourself. In other words, the main victory is spiritual in nature. This is the basis of the Russian feat - spiritual victory, absolute inner freedom and the Christian understanding that earthly life at some moments does not play any role, since the battle for eternal life is going on. This perception of heroism has been cultivated in our people for centuries, and I hope that this also persists among us.”

Is it preserved? Since then, three generations have grown up separated from their Orthodox roots. Only in recent decades have we begun to rediscover Orthodoxy. Almost from scratch, because behind us there is no generation of grandmothers who were churched in childhood, who could pass on their experience of spiritual life to their grandchildren. It is not for nothing that our time is sometimes called the post-Christian era.

And if only this was a problem. After all, experience is a gain. And knowledge about faith is now, fortunately, publicly available. We could handle it.

Europe Protestant

With the beginning of perestroika, Western civilizational attitudes and modern American-European culture, based on Catholic and Protestant ideas about God and the world, began to be introduced into Russia. The culture that was observed in the USSR only through the cracks in the “Iron Curtain”. The atheistically inclined part of the population recognized this culture as terribly progressive and envied its bearers. And so, they waited: “Do you still maintain your cultural identity? Then we go to you!"

The first perestroika Minister of Education of the Russian Federation E. Dneprov in the early 90s directly formulated the task-innovation of the then pro-American reformers: “school should become an instrument for changing the mentality of society”, designed to form “market culture and market consciousness”! Education in a reformist way was supposed to become “one of the main sources of a new social ideology capable of changing the mentality of society, a new cultural matrix that will determine the type of personality, the type of people.” It was, in fact, an open treacherous call to turn children away from their national identity, culture, history, and spirituality.

For almost three decades now, on our territory and before our eyes, there has been a battle between two civilizations, Russian and Western, American, European - the names are different, but the essence is the same. And our victory in this spiritual war is somehow not visible.

Western civilization grew out of Catholicism and Protestantism, other denominations of Christianity. And the deep essence of Western culture lies in the Catholic and Protestant vision of God, in their religious doctrines.

Catholic dogma, primarily the perception by Catholics of the dogma of the Holy Trinity, has led to the fact that Catholicism turned out to be much more focused on external, earthly human life than Orthodoxy. It is Catholic countries that are the birthplace of such cultural phenomena as the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Scholasticism was born there, the goal of which was to raise faith to the level of knowledge. In the depths of Catholicism, an idea was formed about the high importance of human individuality. God seems to fade into the background; interest in man, faith in his limitless capabilities and dignity prevails. From now on, man himself acts as a creator, the master of his own destiny and the arbiter of the destinies of the world. A cult of the universal and independent personality arose. The current understanding of humanism comes from there.

Protestantism, which emerged in Europe in the first half of the 16th century as a rejection and opposition to the Roman Catholic Church, continued the separation of people from God. The idea that the Lord does not interfere in human affairs became key to the faith of the reformers. God created people, predetermined the fate of everyone - who was destined for salvation and who was destined for destruction, and stepped aside... And man is forced to solve his earthly problems on his own. This idea largely determined the development of Western civilization.

How to understand whether a person has been chosen by God or rejected? The criterion chosen was the level of a person’s prosperity in society, the level of his wealth in the first place. Now those who wanted to be saved for eternal life began to make capital in earthly life. On this basis, capitalism was formed, which, according to Protestants, was supposed to play the role of the Kingdom of God on earth. It all came down to the construction of a hedonistic civilization focused on limitless consumption.

Everyone wants to be among the saved, so people begin to strive for earthly success, pushing others aside with their elbows. And here is one of the roots of individualism, which has already become the hallmark of European culture. Protestants are saved alone, Orthodox Christians are saved in the Church of Christ.

Almost all Protestants insisted that the salvation of the soul was possible only through personal faith. This means that a person can save his soul only through his own efforts. Here is another reason for the atomization of modern European culture, the lack of human unity there, which still persists in Russia.

Such realities of modern Western society as democracy, liberal values, tolerance, human rights, etc. are also based on the teachings of Catholicism and Protestantism. But when the coveted “paradise” on earth was, at least “to a first approximation,” built, the religious foundations of European society turned out to be superfluous. Religiosity, even as “lite” as that of Protestants, requires a person to exert internal strength and a certain self-restraint. And in a consumer society, the requirement of self-restraint has become “bad form.” Gradually and imperceptibly, sin ceased to be evil, and a sinful life began to be considered respectable. Something has broken down in the Europeans; it’s as if the organ responsible for communication with God has atrophied. As the French culturologist Jacques Baudrillard says: “we now truly have a kingdom of freedom—of universal non-attachment to anything, to no one.” -duties, not-believing-in-anything.”

Each great civilization lived on average from 1.5 to 2 thousand years. Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Babylon, Mayan Indians, Aztec tribes. The collapse of civilizations occurs according to the same scenario: the achievement of material well-being, the beginning of great cataclysms and the appearance of barbarians. European civilization is now 2015 years old and has exhausted itself, having essentially turned away from Christ. We are now witnessing the “Decline of Europe,” which, according to the prediction of the German philosopher Oswald Spengler at the beginning of the 20th century, will occur in 2021. The global historical process of changing civilizations is going its own way.

“Perestroika” in Russia set one of its main goals to change the traditional cultural paradigm to the Western one. There is no need to describe the results; they are visible to everyone who can see. It is now completely clear that if we lose the foundation on which our civilization stands, we will lose Russia. And to protest against studying “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” in school means to come to terms with the fact that Russia will very soon join the ranks of peripheral European states that “fall short” of the liberal democratic ideal. Instead of strengthening our powerful and deep culture, natural and holistic, the culture of authentic human existence.

But this is not the worst outcome for Russia if we lose our cultural identity, which is based on the Orthodox faith. “This is just a saying, a fairy tale lies ahead.”

Global expansion of Islam

Europe is already giving in to Muslims. The number of adherents of Islam in European countries was 6-8% even before the invasion of migrants from the Middle East, which has been intense in recent years. In addition, the birth rate among Muslims is several times higher than the birth rate in Europe. The integration of Muslims, even in 2-3 generations, into European culture is not happening. Danish psychologist Nikolai Sennels, who studied this problem, answered the question: “ Is it possible to integrate people of Muslim origin into Western societies?” the answer is a resounding “no”: “The psychological explanation is actually simple. Muslim and Western cultures are fundamentally very different. This means that Muslims need to undergo major changes in their identity and values ​​in order to become capable of accepting the values ​​of Western societies. Changing basic structures in one personality is a complex psychological and emotional process. Apparently, very few Muslims feel motivated to take it.” That is, Muslims are not planning to integrate at all; they are maintaining their cultural identity. According to a 2013 survey conducted by the Berlin Center for Sociology among 12 thousand migrants in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria and Sweden, two-thirds of Muslims in Europe put religious regulations above the laws of the countries in which they live. According to some forecasts, the number of Muslims in Europe will approach 50 percent of the population by 2030. According to Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute of Globalization Problems, the United States of America plans to create an Islamic caliphite (state) in Europe by 2030. This is, in brief, the state of affairs in the global socio-political space.

No religion these days attracts as much attention or causes as much controversy as Islam. It can be called the most powerful and viable religion of our time. No other religion has so many believers who are passionately and selflessly devoted to their faith. They perceive Islam as the basis of life and the measure of all things. The simplicity and consistency of the foundations of this religion, its ability to give believers a holistic and understandable picture of the world, society and the structure of the universe - all this makes Islam attractive to new adherents. Despite the abundance of different movements in Islam, among all Muslims there is a strong idea of ​​belonging to a single community of people united by a common faith, common traditions and common interests in the modern world.

The dogma of Islam is simple. A Muslim must firmly believe that there is only one God - Allah. Allah is an absolute value, but something external to man.

Islam does not know the grace of God, given by the Holy Spirit, with the help of which an Orthodox person can fight sins and show sincere obedience to God. He does not know the way to say “no” to temptation, as an Orthodox ascetic does. This means that temptations must be physically excluded from human life. Therefore, Islam is characterized by normative regulation of a person’s entire life - from birth to death. This regulation is carried out with the help of Sharia (“the proper path”) - a set of moral norms, law, and cultural regulations that determine the entire life of a Muslim. Both the personal and family life of Muslim believers, and all public life, politics, legal relations, court, cultural structure - all this must be entirely subordinated to religious laws. Islam for Muslims is not just a religion, but their way of life.

In Islam, only a fellow believer is considered a “neighbor” - in contrast to Orthodoxy, where this concept extends to all those in need of help, no matter what their faith. The reason for this difference is that Islam does not know the life-giving idea of ​​sonship with God, which fills the relationship between God and man with true warmth and love. For a Muslim, everyone who professes other religions is an infidel (they call themselves true believers). In the Islamic tradition there is an arrogant sense of superiority and intolerance towards infidels. According to Islamic law, non-Muslims are not full citizens in Islamic countries, even if they are native residents of those countries. An Islamic State is obligated to differentiate (i.e. discriminate) between Muslims and non-Muslims. Sharia nevertheless guarantees the infidels some specified rights, in exchange for which they do not have the right to interfere in the affairs of the state, since they do not support its ideology. True, an infidel can become a full-fledged citizen if he accepts Islam, along with the Muslim way of life (polygamy, lack of rights for women, five daily prayers, etc.). But there will be no turning back—refusing Islam is punishable by death.

In Europe, where traditional religions - Catholicism and Protestantism - are weakening and being replaced by postmodern ideology, the implementation of a carefully developed Sharia concept of building a “World Islamic Caliphate” is already beginning. A significant part of one and a half billion Muslims share the position of the Egyptian mullah Salem Abu al-Fut: the “Nation of Islam” will return and conquer new positions, no matter what, not the crisis, despite the arrogance of the West. The West cannot but be destroyed. In due time, Allah destroyed the Byzantine Empire, destroyed the Persian Empire, and Allah will also destroy the West. This is an unequivocal promise. Islam will not just conquer Western countries, they will definitely be Islamic....” The "decline of Europe" has already begun.

Islam in Russia

The age of Russian civilization is about a thousand years. We should have another 500-1000 years left. But the people’s departure from their Orthodox roots and the adoption of post-Christian European values ​​makes us vulnerable to the actively spreading Islamic civilization.

The processes of Islamization of the population have already been launched in Russia “on an industrial scale.” The expansion of Muslims into Russia has been going on for a long time, and the areas of residence are clearly not chosen by chance. Their numbers are growing, for example, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, part of the Tyumen region, which accounts for more than half of all Russian oil production. There is already a massive adoption of radical Islam by Russian teenagers and students of secondary schools. Monk John (Izyaslav Aleksandrovich Adlivankin), a leading specialist at the Counseling Orthodox Center of St. John of Kronstadt, has been studying this problem for more than 10 years. Below are a few quotes from his analytical research. The full text can be found at the link https://dpcentr.cerkov.ru/pravoslavie-i-islam/ It is very worth reading for those parents who believe that their children do not need to know the basics of Orthodox culture.

The author’s expert assessment: the number of Islamic population and people from the Caucasus in one of the cities is 20-25 percent of the total number of residents, and in the educational environment - about 40%... Similar statistics are in the region as a whole.

Monk John cites excerpts from the apologetic study of Doctor of Theology Peter Hammond, published in the USA, “Slavery, terrorism and Islam: historical roots and modern threat”:

“History shows that the Islamization of a country begins when a significant number of Muslims appear and they begin to defend their religious rights and demand privileges. And when a politically correct, tolerant and culturally fragmented society begins to follow the lead of Muslims in their demands, some other trends begin to appear.

When reaching a level of 2-5% of the population, Muslims begin to proselytize among marginalized sections of the population, ethnic minorities, and in prisons.

When they reach 5%, they begin to try to influence the socio-cultural atmosphere in proportion to their percentage share in society. Namely: they begin to promote the concept of “halal”, produce and sell products for Muslims, thereby providing jobs for themselves, organize retail chains, restaurants “for their own”, and cultural centers. At this stage, they also try to establish contacts with government agencies, trying to negotiate for themselves the most favorable conditions for the implementation of Sharia norms.”

When the Muslim population reaches 10%, they begin to resort to illegal methods to achieve their privileges.

When reaching 20%, local citizens should be prepared for the start of Islamic raids on the streets, jihadist patrols, and the burning of churches and synagogues.

After the 40% mark, the remnants of the people may become victims of periodic terror. When Muslims become the majority - more than 60%, non-Muslim citizens will begin to be persecuted, persecuted, ethnically cleansed, their rights will be curtailed, they will begin to pay additional taxes, and all this will be legally based on Sharia provisions.

When it reaches 80%, the state is already completely in the power of Muslims, Christian and other religious minorities will be subjected to regular intimidation, violence, and state-sanctioned purges will be carried out in order to expel the “infidels” from the country or force them to convert to Islam.

And when these historically proven methods bear fruit, the state will come closer to becoming completely Islamic - 100%, it will become “Dar-al-Islam” (home, land of Islam). Then, as Muslims believe, they will have complete peace, since everyone will become Muslim, the madrasah will be the only educational institution, and the Koran will be the only scripture and guide to action at the same time.”

And here’s what the author of the study saw in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug:

“Three or four years ago, among students in the cities of Ugra that I visited, I observed a certain confrontation - a completely natural confrontation of different mentalities and cultures, but in the last year or two there has been almost none. Not because it does not exist, but because the status quo of forces is already sufficiently defined. Today we can already say: it is definitely not in favor of the Slavic, Russian population. Let me emphasize: we are talking specifically about the world of children and adolescents.”

“Teenage “debates” on religious topics, as a rule, end in complete fiasco for Russians who know very little about their faith and culture. Not only does post-Soviet indifference to religious issues play a role, but even believing Orthodox Christians are not accustomed to bring their internal beliefs to external discussion, unlike representatives of Islam. His young followers also do not possess any theological knowledge, but use the terminology of their reactionary polemicists, who in various ways implanted chopped up anti-Christian phrases and concepts into their fragile minds. In specific conditions, all this takes on purely ethnic meanings. Already today, in the minds of Islamic teenagers, the concept of “Russian” is completely identified with “Orthodox” and “Christian.” This is a classic of Islamic radical hatred. Of course, those Russian and Slavic teenagers who were converted to Islam—radical, in the vast majority of cases—are especially distinguished by their aggression.”

“The processes in question are part of the global confrontation. This is a well-known tactic, practiced over thousands of years: the Janissaries were, as you know, children of Orthodox Greeks and Slavs raised in Islam. It can be argued without any metaphor that in the quiet, “orderly” cities of Siberia hundreds of such “janissaries” are already living and operating - young people from Russian families who converted to radical Islam and vehemently hate their former fellow tribesmen and their once native country. Their number is constantly increasing, because it is on them that the political stake is placed...”

“A modern young man, brought up by endless violence from television screens, deprived of the attention of his family and surrounded by misunderstanding, needs support, POWER. And this “power” appears ghostly in the clouded consciousness of some such seekers in Islam: an aggressive self, multiplied by a sacred idea and group support, may seem like an ideal option. But this is still not Islam, not a religion that gave the world a great culture with its doctors, architects, thinkers and mystics. This is not about faith, but about self-affirmation. Young people in these conditions identify themselves identically with members of gangs - which is what often happens in the end.”

“Today, even the subconsciously operating mechanisms of “tolerance” and “liberalism” play a special role, exported by all possible means into the consciousness of the younger generation. Liberalism, which defends the absolute human right to independent choice, leads modern young people to a position that fatally belittles the social and state institution of continuity and education. And the model of “tolerance” attached to this extends this right to everything, even to things that in a reasonable civilized society do not have this right in principle. The aplomb of the young personality formed by all this is ready for “exclusiveness” even in religiosity.

And even the shocking foundations of the traditional family world today, “juvenile justice,” which is an organic part of the package of liberal values, provoking a controlled rebellion of children against their parents, ultimately transforms it into a rebellion against religious tradition. And this new “culture of intergenerational relationships” also requires a new ontological basis - a religious basis. Our time has reversed everything: at first religion shaped culture, now culture shapes religion. Wahhabism, like many other inadequate forms of religiosity, fully satisfy this request.”

“The prospect of social claims of the masses of migrants is quite predictable; it one way or another comes from those religious views that are decisive in the prevailing Islamic movements. We can talk about two global ones, and they are both “part of one”: the creation of an Islamic caliphate and the ban on pious Muslims living on the territory of a non-Islamic state. We already know the implementation of the first in the form of Wahhabism, and the second, in the modern interpretation, simply involves the rapid Islamization of newly opened living spaces.”

All this happens not somewhere far away and not some time in tomorrow, but here and now. In modern Russia, centers are being formed from which the future Islamization of the country will proceed. Are you sure this doesn't apply to you? What about your children? Do you still want to talk tolerantly about the rights of migrants in a European way?

Monk John writes: “I do not dare to propose here small measures to solve global issues. Yes, this is impossible, I understand well - the indicated situation is a dead end. But then, perhaps, we should use other potentials and remember that Russia is an Orthodox country, just as representatives of Islam always remember their faith?!”

Meanwhile in our schools...

“Education” is a term derived from the word “image.” Image of God. The purpose of human life is to awaken the Image of God in oneself, to become like (as far as possible) the Lord. As St. Basil the Great wrote: “Our world is a school of rational souls.” Schooling shapes a person's worldview.

In recent decades, Russia has been striving to become part of the West. We are throwing away our traditional values ​​in order to reshape all areas of life in a Western manner. The reform had a particularly painful impact on the education of children and youth. Education of rights has become more important than education of responsibilities. Multiculturalism and tolerance have overshadowed respect and friendship. Cultivating leadership and instilling a competitive type of relationship have almost eliminated care and mercy. Mutual assistance was replaced by consumerism, the feeling of unity with one’s people was replaced by the desire for selfish self-sufficiency, collectivism was replaced by individualism, patriotism was generally declared a relic of the “soviet”...

The Soviet education system, which, if anyone doesn’t remember, was recognized as the best in the world, is being reshaped to Western standards. Domestic education, with its centuries-old tradition of encyclopedism and fundamentalism, is being restructured into a purely applied education, into the training of either specialists of a narrow profile, or generally “qualified consumers”. Here is an excerpt from a document defining the strategy for reforms of Russian education: it is recommended to establish “minimum standards of citizenship”, which boil down to “the ability to correctly read maps, explain in a foreign language, correctly fill out tax returns,” “love of Russian art and literature, and tolerance to other social groups."

The educational reform dealt a severe blow to the historical and cultural continuity of the Russian school, resulting in a deformation of historical memory and Russian identity, a change in the Russian mentality and a change in public consciousness. A sharp drop in the level of education and its quality - under the guise of its increase - has led (has already led, look around!) to the stupidity and cultural and psychological primitivization of young people, the formation of “fragmented”, “fragmented” thinking, an extremely narrow outlook on life, focused on adaptation and the search for success. As a result, the number of people who can think analytically and on a large scale, and even more so who are able to rise to the level of understanding state interests, is declining catastrophically quickly. But such people are easy to manage in the current information war. Look at the Ukrainians, who have surpassed us in education reform - how easily they managed to “fool their brains.”

As the main ideologist of modern Russian school policy said: “Every person has the right to an education that, in the end, will provide him with the ability to develop his own moral code.” In the Western world this has already been done. And we got a society of legalized bearded girls, legalized soft drugs, legally tax-paying brothels, legalized euthanasia, legalized “families” with three parents and other abominations of the “free” world.

Now, when international tensions are escalating, we absolutely need the revival of nationally oriented education, a school that would form carriers of Russian culture, patriots of their Fatherland, creators of Russian civilization. Moreover, this needs to be done urgently - the “point of no return”, if not yet passed, is very close. The Russian world is in danger of ending its existence “prematurely.” Our civilization, weakened by the adoption of European liberal values ​​based on the doctrine of “human rights,” will be absorbed by the civilization of Islam, which is actively spreading its influence. Only a state built on the basis of our traditional Orthodox culture, a state whose ideology will be determined by Christian moral values, can resist this expansion. So Orthodoxy needs to be taught to both children and adults, and not as a cultural discipline, but as a worldview discipline, whether someone likes it or not. This is the only way to ensure the high spiritual and intellectual potential of our people, which is now a necessary condition for the survival of the nation.

But alas, it won't work. We have a secular society, religion is separated from the state, human rights will be violated... Well, well... Let's stock up on popcorn.

Galina Russo , candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, catechist

Bible

The Bible (Greek: βιβλία - plural of βιβλίον - "Book", Greek: βύβλος - papyrus made in the city of the Bible) is a canonical collection of texts considered sacred in Judaism and Christianity. The content of the Christian Bible ranges from the Protestant canon (66 books) to the Ethiopian Orthodox canon (81 books). The first part of the Christian Bible, the Old Testament, is basically the newly created Hebrew Bible, divided into 39 books. The canonical books of the Old Testament also belong to the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity. The second part - the New Testament - consists of 27 books: 4 canonical Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 21 Epistles of the Apostles and the Revelation of John the Theologian. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew (Biblical), with the exception of some parts that are written in Aramaic. The New Testament is written in ancient Greek (in the form of kaina).

The word "Bible" does not appear in the holy books themselves and was first used in the 4th century by John Chrysostom and Epiphany of Cyprus to collect holy books in the East.

The Jews marked their sacred books with titles: “Holy Scripture”, “Testaments”, “Law and Prophets”. New Testament Christians referred to the Gospel and the apostle.

The first part of the Bible was borrowed by Christians from Judaism and was originally called the Tanakh; in Christianity it was called the "Old Testament" in contrast to the "New Testament". Both Christians and Jews view it as a record of the covenant (covenant) that God made with man and revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai.

All 39 books of the Old Testament in Judaism are divided into three sections.

“Law” (Torah) - contains the Pentateuch of Moses - the quintessence of the teaching.

“Prophets” (Nevi) - a collection of historical and prophetic books;

"Holy Scripture" (Ketuvim) - contains narrative material, poetry, prayers and aphorisms of worldly wisdom.

The second part of the Christian Bible is the New Testament, a collection of 27 books: four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 21 letters of the Apostles and the book of Revelation (Apocalypse), written in the first century AD and transmitted to us in ancient Greek. This part of the Bible is most important to Christianity, while Judaism does not recognize it.

The New Testament consists of the writings of eight authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James and Jude.

In the Slavic and Russian Bibles, the books of the New Testament are arranged in the following order:

• Decree
• historical
• Teachers
• prophets

The Bible was written over many centuries by different authors, according to the traditional view in Christianity - from the 15th century BC. to 1st century AD Many secular scholars are of the opinion that the Old Testament books appeared late.

The text of the Old Testament was not divided into chapters and verses. But very early (probably after the Babylonian captivity) some divisions appeared for divine purposes. The oldest section of the law is 669 so-called parachutes, adapted for public reading. The New Testament was first divided into verses in the 16th century, first numbered by Sant Panino (died 1541), then around 1555 by Robert Etienne.

Plasticine question

- Isn’t it possible - one step forward, two steps back? Do we strain ourselves through fasting, only to then roll back? — The question is not about fasting as such, not about asceticism as such. The question is in Christ! Do we need Christ? If we need Christ, if we are inspired by His Image, if we read the Gospel and understand that He is truly the most important event in all world history, that in Christ we have the justification of our humanity as such before God, then we will probably somehow We have a different attitude towards what He said, what He wanted from us. You constantly push me into the realm of law and piety. It's all good. But still there is another side to this. A person is saved not to the extent of his deeds, not to the extent of his righteousness, but to the extent to which he is connected with Christ, to the extent that Christ acts in him. Even having conquered all our passions, having become spiritually close to perfection, if all this is not done for the sake of Christ, if it is not united with Him, then the price of all our exploits is close to zero. We still won’t be able to become such as to come to God’s Court and say: “Lord, look how beautiful, clean, kind I am.” We will still be obscene. The only thing that saves us is Christ. All our hope, all our hope, our “entry point” is in God’s justification.

— The whole point of asceticism: to remove the barrier between oneself and Christ? - Yes. But Christ appears before us not only as the goal of our path, but also as the Path itself. He says about Himself: I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). We also enter into Christian righteousness through Christ, also through Christ, He molds us, we trust Him, including the right to mold us. We are not trying to create our own image of ourselves in our own image. We tell Him: “Lord, mold me the way You want, as You see, as You see fit. And from me is the readiness to accept Your actions, which make me different.” That's why I started with what comes first - hearing. Willingness to hear and be obedient to God.

Bibliography

1. Bible.
2. History of religion - Moscow: , 1994.
3. Protopresbyter John Mayendorff. Introduction to the Theology of the Holy Father New York, 1984 (2nd edition - Vilnius; M., 1992, ISBN 5-900785-14-9; 3rd edition - Klin, 2001, ISBN 5-93313-018-4; 4th edition - Minsk, 2001). Per. from English Larisa Volokhonskaya.
4. Svensivitskaya I. S. Early Christianity: pages of history. - MOSCOW, 1985; MOSCOW, 1988; MOSCOW, 1986.
5. Tolstoy L.N. Study of dogmatic theology / complete works in 90 volumes. Volume 23, Proceedings 1879-1884, pp. 60-303
6. Christianity. Encyclopedic Dictionary / ed. S. Averintseva and others - M., 1993-95. T. 1-3 (T. 3. pp. 489-526 detailed bibliography).