The fruit of faith. Priest Stefan Domuschi. Part 2
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Priest Stefan Domuschi, Candidate of Theology, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy, reflects on why a person needs a conscience, and also talks about his wonderful multi-generational priestly family.
– In this program I would like to touch on a very important topic related to defining the boundaries of creative freedom. I know that you have prepared a report on this topic. In light of recent events - the appearance of cartoons, various performances and actions - how can you determine the boundaries beyond which you should not go?
– These boundaries are determined not by some objective laws, but by those ideas about God, about the world and about oneself that a person has. Find some objective boundaries of scientific research, creativity, or determine what is creativity and what is not , impossible. If we cannot prove the existence of God using objective scientific methods, then how can we prove that something is good and something is bad?
Here we should probably remember the expression of Justin the Martyr. In a conversation with the Jew Tryphon, he said that evidence insults the truth. The point is that if something is proven, then there will be no need for faith and the feat of faith. If they prove to me that some laws are true, then I simply take them into account; my attitude towards them is not interesting to anyone, not even to myself. I may feel bad about the law of gravity, but I must know that it exists and act in accordance with it. It’s the same here: if you prove that something is objectively harmful and necessarily leads to bad results, then the most important principle – the principle of freedom – will be violated. John of Damascus writes that man is adorned with choice, and not just with consciousness and will.
Another thing is that for a saint the choice of the good is natural and comes easily, but for a person after the Fall, the preference for the good causes difficulties. A person suffers with the choice due to the distortion, corruption of his own will, therefore the boundaries of creativity, art, what is permitted and what is not permitted can be explained only within the framework a certain religious worldview. If a person does not share this religious worldview, then it is pointless to prove to him that something is good or bad.
Here, unfortunately, we sometimes see an attempt to justify the danger or incorrectness of any approach to creativity with some almost natural-scientific consequences and reasoning. For example, in some pious article you can read that it is impossible to fornicate, because this softens the brain. It follows from this that there is no moral achievement for a person, because if this softens the brain, then, naturally, there is no need to do this. Not because God said so, not because out of loyalty to Him you must remain faithful to your wife, but simply according to objective laws. It’s the same with drugs, but in this case the person still understands that certain laws of the body operate and these substances ultimately kill him.
It is possible to trace the same laws in the moral world from some high perspective, but it is impossible to point out them directly, because otherwise there will be no moral achievement. In this case, a person simply must be moral, because something will happen to him. Similar ideas can be found in the Old Testament, but even there there is no direct indication that if you are bad, you will suffer. Even Job’s friends show: “Look, everything is good with the honest, everything is bad with the bad. Remember your sins, and everything will be fine with you.” Job answers them: “Are you blind? Don’t you see that sinners celebrate and the righteous suffer?”
There is no rigid logic in the religious and moral world, because the religious world of faith and relationships with God is not a world of rigid unfreedom. If God creates us so that we respond to His love with our love, then this feeling is possible only within the framework of freedom. Thus, the boundaries of art and knowledge are determined by a person within himself based on his own worldview. It is, naturally, broader than the scientific worldview or his worldview as an artist. Religion is comprehensive, totalitarian in terms of covering spheres of life (a person is a believer at home, at work, in a store - anywhere), but at the same time it does not violate human freedom.
Let us reason as Christians. God created us in His image and likeness, put some of His plans into us, and one of the characteristics of man as God’s creation is his participation in God. In a normal state, before the Fall, Adam was a God-participating being, that is, the norm of his existence was closeness to God, communication with God. When this communication is interrupted, then, naturally, a person’s existence begins to collapse. According to the thoughts of many holy fathers, the ability to create is one of the most important in a person. Many authors write that man can create in the image of God, but God creates out of nothing, and man creates by transforming something.
A person can create in the field of art and science, but we know that not everyone is an artist, writer, composer, or genius scientist. At the same time, the ability to create, which is rooted in a person, can be realized by everyone, because it is part of the image of God common to all people .But how can an ordinary person realize this god-like ability? Basil the Great speaks as if on behalf of God: “Man, I created for you a beautiful body, create for yourself a beautiful soul.” It turns out that the main type of creativity for any person is the creation of one’s inner self, bringing oneself to the goals that God intended.
From the parable of the talents we know that different numbers of talents can be given: someone is given five talents, someone is given two talents, someone is given one. Talents are some abilities through which we realize our imagery and come to the goal that God invested in us at creation. If we read the parable carefully, we will notice that from a person who received two talents, not ten, but four are required. And from a person who received one talent, ten or four talents were not required, but only two talents. At the same time, there is no person who lacks talents and who cannot realize his godlikeness and follow the path planned for him by God. Thus, everyone, to the best of their abilities and in their own sphere, can realize the god-like gift of creativity: first of all - in the creation of themselves, the inner, innermost person, and then - in the manifestation of abilities for external creativity, which people can judge.
If we look at the field of art, we may have doubts because art can be very different. Pushkin in his famous work raised the problem: are genius and villainy compatible or not? He solved it in his own way, but we see that there are brilliant people who use their abilities in the sinful sphere, and this also indicates human freedom. God invested creative ability in us, but after the Fall, all human properties were damaged in one way or another. The ability to love has acquired a predatory, consumerist character, the ability to rejoice has acquired the character of schadenfreude, and so on. The ability to create has also naturally become distorted, so a person can determine the boundaries for his creativity based on Christian positions, that is, having become a Christian, he will be able to formulate them.
However, it must be said that in addition to the ability for creativity and love, God also implanted in man the ability to correlate his actions with the world of what should be, that is, conscience, a certain voice of his ideal being. Conscience points out the discrepancy between God's plan for you and what you are doing at the moment. Thanks to this, people who realize their creative abilities outside the Christian paradigm feel inside that they are doing something wrong. True, a person has the ability to work with his conscience in such a way that it will practically stop “saying” anything. There is an even more terrible skill: in this way, convince your conscience that it will approve of you in what you are doing.
– If we are talking about the state as a whole (and we have a secular state), then there is such a thing as a social contract. Certain rules of law are built on its basis. Questions arise, first of all, for people who do not consider themselves Christians. I mean the provocations that we often see in our country and abroad. If we characterize the attitude of Christians to such manifestations, then what should it be? We understand that we cannot appeal to the conscience of these people, to Christian values, because they do not share them. What reaction in this case would be fair?
– This is one of the most painful (if not the most painful) topics in modern church dialogue. It is very difficult to say that there is a right point of view and there is a wrong one. Each side of such a dialogue, and there are different voices in the Church, considers its reaction to be the most correct. In the history of the Church we also see different forms of these reactions. It seems to me that it is important to think about how to react, but at the same time we must think about what we can do so that these phenomena do not have the consequences and fruits for which they are committed. This is a more fruitful path. We must understand that people do their actions not in order to simply express their opinion, but in order to provoke our reaction. Let's say, if they knew that in reality eighty or ninety percent of the country's population is Orthodox, they most likely would not do anything. Now they show us that there is no public condemnation of their actions, which would be expressed more widely than the reaction of a few active Christians.
In my opinion, instead of fighting enemies, we need to take a more fruitful path - making people our friends. If I have taught my parishioners what Christianity means, if there really are more and more Christians in my city, and people who want to blaspheme or insult someone are in the minority, then they will not do it, it seems to me. The Apostle says: “Overcome evil with good.” No matter how we reason in each specific case, we must understand that not only our goals, but also our methods must be good.
– A very important topic from the point of view of morality and certain boundaries is the development of science, and first of all, perhaps, the development of biomedical technologies. Scientists say that only legal and moral barriers keep them from experiments, for example, in human cloning. In your opinion, how will the dialogue be built between scientists, theologians, and philosophers on this issue? One of the participants in this discussion about cloning expressed it very clearly: the question is whether the creation of God is the creation of human hands.
– The fact is that no one has succeeded and will not be able to revive a dead cell. When a doctor or scientist takes a cell and clones it, he continues the life that God breathed into Adam and gave to humanity from the beginning. There is no other opportunity for a scientist to take and create some kind of life of his own. He can study it, clone it, perform some experiments, but life is still the life that God gave. It seems to me that one way or another God creates the world, we only transform it.
– In the theologian’s opinion, what are the prospects for this problem?
– It is very difficult to talk about prospects, because it is not clear what the world will come to at the end of the 21st century. There may be cataclysms, wars - anything. It seems to me that one should not be afraid of certain phenomena; it is necessary to show the spiritual, moral danger or the possibility of good use of something. For example, there is the art of medicine. We do not condemn it, but we say how a doctor can help a patient, how he should act and how he should not. There is some ethics of a medical worker, which may be Christian, may be non-Christian, but a person must understand , which depends on him. Since not much depends on us, we, of course, can talk about some dangers, but in general we must show positive examples and direct the development of these technologies in a positive direction.
– We talk about moral choice and moral values, about religious identity and return to the fact that we live in a secular state. We see the development of society and the state in other countries where the social contract is undergoing certain changes, and from the example of Western countries it is obvious that these changes are often of a nature absolutely unacceptable for the Church on a number of issues. How should Christians behave in these countries, what should we prepare for? If these social trends are so strong in other countries, then what are the prospects for their development in Russia?
– I think that in Western countries, Christians who want to remain on sound Christian positions at some point become moral martyrs. They are forced to leave their jobs, they are fired, sometimes even sent to prison, like, for example, a priest in Sweden who I just hung a banner with a quote from Scripture on my temple. It seems to me that there are no other options or paths here: it is impossible to agree on the assessment of certain phenomena, such as same-sex marriage and the like. Although they are not punished for the views themselves, they are simply fired or forced to keep them to themselves.
If we talk about what needs to be done in Russia, then it seems to me that we need to develop normal parish life and engage in catechesis. Positive education, teaching the norms of Christian life is the only way. You can talk about how bad everything is there, but it’s much more productive to think about how it should be. The question of whether we have missed time and whether they will now want to listen to us is very difficult, and I probably do not have an answer to it. It seems to me that the only normal path is the path of mission, enlightenment, and positive example.
– Our viewers can say that it is easy for you to talk about this, because you grew up in a family of priests. Maybe you can say a few words about your family.
– My great-grandfather was ordained by Archbishop Alexander of Polesie in Belarus in the 30s. In the early 50s, he moved to Russia, and his eldest son went to study at the Moscow Theological Seminary in Sergiev Posad. His sister, my grandmother, came to see him and met my grandfather, who also studied there. My grandfather himself was from Bessarabia, graduated from the Odessa Theological Seminary and came to study at the Moscow Theological Academy.
In 1961, my grandfather graduated from the academy with a candidate of theology and left for the Voronezh diocese. His son, my father Alexander Domuschi, also became a priest, at one time he was the rector of the Voronezh Theological School, chairman of the Missionary Department. I helped him through all of this. I was also ordained in the Voronezh diocese in 2006, then I came to study at the academy. Now I am a teacher at the academy, teacher and head. department at the Orthodox Institute of John the Theologian. My brother is a priest, my sister is a mother. I have two brothers, one of them is a deacon in St. Petersburg. There are relatives who are clergy in Belarus, so there are quite a lot of us.
You said it was easy for me to talk. If there were no Christians around me who came from atheistic, non-believing families, perhaps I would agree with you. But I know that there are many people who, in the most difficult circumstances, became Christians no less, and sometimes more zealous, than people from hereditary families of priests.
– What would you wish to our viewers based on the topic of our conversation?
– I would like to try to live like a Christian, so that our light shines before people, so that they see our deeds and glorify the Heavenly Father. Christ does not command us to accuse the world, He commands us to bear witness to the world and shine before it with our good deeds, as the Church has tried to do all the time.
Presenter Alexander Gatilin Transcript: Ekaterina Fedotenko
Electronic presentation “My fellow countryman Domuschi Stefan Mikhailovich”
Olga Dvortsova
Electronic presentation “My fellow countryman Domuschi Stefan Mikhailovich”
Electronic presentation “My fellow countrymen ”
Topic: “My fellow countryman Stefan Mikhailovich Domuschi ”
Slide 1.
My fellow countryman Domuschi Stefan Mikhailovich .
Slide 2.
The famous artist Stefan Mikhailovich Domuschi was born on September 6, 1934 in the village of Kulevchi, Odessa region. He is a descendant of immigrants from Bulgaria. Stefan Mikhailovich painting as a child. After school I wanted to enter an art university, but chose a different profession - I decided to become a priest.
Slide 3.
In 1957, Stefan Mikhailovich graduated from the Odessa Theological Seminary. Afterwards he entered the Moscow Theological Academy. In 1961 he graduated with a candidate's degree in theology.
Slide 4.
In the early 60s, Stefan Mikhailovich Domuschi came to Borisoglebsk. Here he was appointed rector of the Boris and Gleb Znamensky Cathedral in 1969. He served in this temple for more than forty years.
Slide 5.
In 1972, Stefan Mikhailovich graduated from the Correspondence People's University of Arts. N.K. Krupskaya. Many churches in the city of Borisoglebsk are painted with frescoes by Father Stefan . And in every church in our city there are icons painted by him.
Slide 6.
Stefan Mikhailovich Domuschi has a large and friendly family. He and his wife Galina Mikhailovna have been married for 55 years . They raised five children. The children and grandchildren of Stefan Mikhailovich inherited his talent for painting.
Stefan's father's art workshop is located in his home.
Slide 7.
Stefan Mikhailovich Domusci's brushes include more than 1,500 paintings. Stefan's creative talent is extremely multifaceted. But, as the artist himself admits, his favorite genre is landscape. "Spring"
,
“Forest Edge”
,
“Early Autumn”
,
“Golden Autumn”
and other canvases - they are all imbued with the deepest love for our land.
Slide 8.
Also one of the artist’s favorite subjects is “Lilac”
.
These paintings are known far beyond the Voronezh region. Stefan Mikhailovich painted many portraits.
Slide 9.
a special place in the work of Father Stefan . His mentors in this area were M. N. Sokolova and M. M. Potapov. Under their guidance, he developed and improved his natural talent. Icon paintings by Father Stefan are found in many Orthodox churches in Russia.
Slide 10.
In 1992, the artist S. M. Domuschi was awarded the prize “For Asceticism in Art”
, which was personally presented to him by Academician D.S. Likhachev.
In 2005 he was awarded the title “Honored Artist of Russia”
.
The first personal exhibition of S. M. Domuschi took place in the city of Voronezh at the I. N. Kramskoy Art Museum in 1991. Since then, more than 40 exhibitions have taken place. His works were exhibited at the Moscow State Exhibition Hall "Creativity"
, in the halls of the Federation Council and the State Duma, in the cities of Odessa, Lipetsk, Kursk and many others.
Foreign opening days took place in Malta, Germany, Italy, and France. Stefan's works are in private collections in the USA, Bulgaria, Israel, Austria and, of course, Russia.
