Apologist
Svetlana Okhrimenko 01/22/2016
The Orthodox Internet is excited: almost everyone enthusiastically likes the photo in which Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan washes floors in a hospital. A mop. Himself, personally. And it's not fake.
A minority of the ortho-establishment asks the question “why?”, or even suspects the ruler of a PR campaign - and immediately receives thunder and lightning on their heads from more pious brothers and sisters. And who are you to judge the ruler? You yourself, I suppose, are not helping anyone in this life, but someone else’s good example stings your eyes! Go to the hospital yourself and wash the floors!
In general, everyone is busy, everyone is having fun.
Having a little experience communicating on the topic of bishops on the Internet and in real life, you can easily predict how much fun everyone will have tomorrow. The question of why Bishop N. doesn’t ride a tram, like Patriarch Pavel of Serbia, but drives a Mercedes (ah-ay-ay, he’s a sinner), will be joined by the question of why Bishop N. wipes his cassock at the table in his office, and does not wash the floors in the hospital. You'll see. Therefore, I would like to tell you in advance why the average ruler N. does not need to wash the floors in the hospital, and sometimes it is harmful. At the same time, without at all condemning Vladyka Mark and without belittling his feat of philanthropy, of course.
We live in a world of problems and challenges. Each of us stands at one or another social level, has specific social connections and can, on the basis of this, solve our own range of issues. When we look around, we usually have more or less an idea of what we can fix ourselves, what we can ask someone else to do, and what we just have to put up with. The higher a person is on the social ladder and the wider and, let’s say, better-quality his social connections, the more reasonable-good-eternal things he can do in life - of course, if he sets such a goal. In this sense, the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church can not do everything, but they can do a lot, which a simple man in the street like you or me could never dream of. And they really do a lot to help their neighbors - at least those bishops I know. Secretly and openly, personally and through third parties, for their own money and for the money of good people who respond to their requests - it happens in different ways. Sometimes they thank them, sometimes they make claims that they wanted the same thing, only without wings. All these things are usually known to a narrow circle of those involved in a particular problem. For a wide audience they remain behind the scenes. If only for this reason, it is no longer worth throwing stones at the Metropolitan without a mop.
“Why is the hospital dirty?” The main question that arises regarding the Ryazan situation is why is the hospital dirty? There is a chief physician who is responsible for everything that happens in the medical institution. There is a chief nurse who is in charge of the middle and junior medical staff. The department has a head, a head nurse and a sister-hostess. Above them all there is a sanitation station, which is supposed to monitor the sanitary condition of hospitals as well. Why does the bishop walk around with a mop, and not all these people, if this is their area of responsibility?
What is the reason? Negligence of junior medical staff? Is it that the staff is understaffed? This is decided at the hospital administration level. Is it that neither a pensioner nor a migrant worker will pay for a nurse’s salary? And this is a question for the officials who prescribed these rates and standards. If you want to solve a problem radically, why not try to reach the level where it is solved? If this is impossible, why not try to find funds and pay extra for the person who will take on this work? However, the sight of a metropolitan with a mop may just be the impetus for those responsible for the situation to think deeply about it, who knows.
Probably everyone remembers the tirade of Bulgakov's professor Preobrazhensky about the devastation that is not in the closets, but in the heads. If each of us, instead of fulfilling our duties, starts singing in chorus in our apartment, we will be in ruins. If the bishops, whose hour of work costs orders of magnitude more than the hour of the cleaning lady’s work, start washing the floors, devastation will occur throughout society, and mass emotion on the Internet will not help the grief.
One metropolitan in one hospital is a personal matter and a personal feat of a particular person. He's good when it's the exception, not the rule. And the rule should be - everyone in their place with full dedication and to do their job as efficiently as possible. If we all start doing this from tomorrow, our living environment will become more friendly, and metropolitans with mops will no longer be in demand.
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continuation…
Russian Orthodox Church
Recently, a new apologetic site “Orthodox Apologist” (www.apologet.spb.ru) appeared on the Internet, created through the efforts of the Internet community of teachers and students of Orthodox theological educational institutions.
“Our team has existed for many years in the form of friendly communication between people directly related to spiritual education in Russia, and now also fraternal Greece and Serbia. They come and study with us, and we visit their universities, religious schools and monasteries. Naturally, a lot of material has accumulated: interesting and rare articles and sources, as well as our thoughts and discussions, which in turn resulted in a variety of forms in print, some have not yet been published and readers of this site will have the opportunity to get acquainted with them for the first time,” says the message from the editor-in-chief of the new website of the candidate of theology, Hieromonk Sergius (Troitsky).
According to the site’s editor-in-chief, the authors of the new Internet project strive “first of all to follow the Holy Tradition of the Church of Christ.” “We profess the need to belong to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as a canonical Local Church, without which it is impossible to have a correct theological vision, understanding of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. At the same time, we do not deny the possibility of the emergence, especially in our time, of situations when views appear within the Church that are inconsistent with the teachings of the Church. But such situations have always existed in the history of the Church, and they can be corrected, as we are convinced, only by patiently standing in the truth and realizing the need to share Her sorrows and joys while in the Church, and not leave Her.”
“We dedicate this apologetic project to the memory of the great father of our Church, the pillar of Orthodoxy - St. Mark, Metropolitan of Ephesus. He was the only one of all the Orthodox bishops who did not sign the shameful Union with the Roman Catholics in Florence in 1337. The Pope, seeing that the Union document did not have the signature of St. Mark, at the definition of faith, as it was called then, of the “Ecumenical Council,” exclaimed with bitterness and annoyance: “We did nothing!” In 2007, January 19 (February 1 according to the civil calendar), marked 550 years since his blessed death. We hope that this project will contribute to the continuation of the struggle for the preservation of the purity of Orthodoxy, which was led by St. Mark of Ephesus,” notes Hieromonk Sergius.
“Never, O man, what pertains to the Church is corrected through compromises: there is nothing in between truth and falsehood,” these are precisely the words of St. Mark of Ephesus, are opening a new Orthodox Internet project.
Russian line/ Patriarchia.ru
EARLY CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS
EARLY CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIES, Christian writers of the 2nd–5th centuries who spoke out with the justification and defense of the Christian faith.
Problem A. r. was to demonstrate Greco-Roman. the acceptability of Christianity to the world from civil, philosophical, theological, religious, cultural and other sides. During the era of persecution of Christianity in Rome. empire of A. r. gave an answer to those accusing the Christian Church of being a threat to the state. A. r. They proved the absurdity and immorality of ancient polytheism and argued that Christianity has the only true teaching about God and the world. Noting the parallels between Greco-Roman. philosophy and Christian thought, many A. r. represented philosophy as the predecessor of Christianity. A. r. denied the accusations in various crimes (atheism, cannibalism, Oedipal incest, etc.) blamed on Christians.
Activities of A. r. was partly prepared by Hellenistic. Judaism (Philo of Alexandria, Josephus). Apologetic the theme is present in the New Testament (see, for example, Acts 14:15–17; 17:22–31; Rom. 1:18–32) and in the writings of the apostolic men. The most ancient of the Greek. A. r. Kodrat and Aristides are considered to be the ones who turned to the emperor with apologies in defense of the Christian faith. Adrian (117–138). The most famous of the Greek A. r. 2nd century – St. Justin Philosopher, author of 2 “Apologies” (c. 150 and 161) and “Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew” (c. 135). In the era of the imperial Apollinaris of Hierapolis, Miltiades and Tatian, a disciple of St., also made apologies for Marcus Aurelius. Justin, who wrote the “Speech against the Hellenes” (after 165), in which he sharply criticized the entire non-Christian culture. The problem of the relationship between church and state using the example of the connection of destinies Rome. empire with Christianity was developed by St. Melito of Sardis in his Apology (c. 170, preserved in fragments), addressed to Marcus Aurelius. Athenagoras of Athens owns the “Petition for Christians” (c. 177), sent to the emperors Commodus and Marcus Aurelius, in which he sought to prove the unreasonableness of the persecution of Christians. During the reign of the Emperor. Commodus (180–192) St. Apollonius pronounced an apologetic. speech preserved in his acts of martyrdom. The most significant generalizing work of early Christian Greek. apologetics is the work of Origen “Against Celsus” (mid-3rd century).
In response to the appearance in 260 of 15 books “Against Christians” by the Neoplatonist Porphyry, the work of Eusebius of Caesarea “Evangelical Preparation” was written in 15 books (312–322); He also owns the treatise “Against Hierocles” (311–313). After the official recognition of Christianity apologetic. the works appeared during the reign of the emperor. Julian the Apostate - Saints Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria write against him. Completes the ancient church Greek apologetics. literature essay “Healing Hellenic Ailments” by Bl. Theodoret of Cyrus (1st half of the 5th century).
Latin A. r. appear in con. 2nd century Their list opens with Rome. lawyer Minucius Felix with the dialogue “Octavius” and Tertullian with the essay “To the Gentiles” in 2 books (197). The most means. apologetic production Tertullian is his “Apologetic” (c. 197), which states that belief in one God is natural for man, since the human soul is “by nature Christian” (17:6). This theme is continued by the treatise “On the Evidence of the Soul” (197). From other apologetics. Tertullian's writings include the epistle “To Scapula” (212). All R. 3rd century St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote “The Book of the Vanity of Idols.” In the “Book of Demetrian” (c. 252), who accused Christians of being the cause of wars and natural disasters, St. Cyprian argues that the wrath of God is caused by idolatry and especially persecution of Christians.
Among the late Latin A. r. Arnobius, the author of 7 books “Against the Pagans” (late 3rd – early 4th centuries), and Lactantius, a student of Arnobius, creator of the apology “Divine Institutions” in 7 books (304–313), stand out. Apologetic themes are developed in the treatises of Lactantius “On the Wrath of God” (c. 303) and “On the Deaths of the Persecutors” (c. 314), as well as in op. “On the fallacy of pagan beliefs” by Firmicus Maternus (346–348), “History against the pagans” by Paul Orosius (417–418), “On the City of God” by Bl. Augustine (413–426).
Activities of A. r. prepared the evolution of Greco-Roman consciousness. society towards the adoption of the Christian religion. A. r. came out in full modern armor. religious and philosopher systems, using their conceptual apparatus and some ideas (for example, the Stoic doctrine of Logos) to substantiate the Christian faith. Being in plural issues by pioneers, A. r. paved the way for the further Christianization of Hellenism and the formation of an integral system of Christian theology.
