The church's concern for the purity of Christian teaching is the essence of Orthodox dogma. Dogmas of Orthodoxy

Dogmata are what are called “axioms” in science. In Christianity, dogmas are doctrinal truths discussed and adopted at Ecumenical Councils. They are given in response to heresies to reveal and clarify the faith of the Church.

Dogmas are divinely revealed truths containing the teaching about God and His Economy, which the Church defines and professes as unchangeable and indisputable provisions of the Orthodox faith. The characteristic features of dogmas are their doctrinal nature, divine revelation, churchliness and universal obligatory nature.

Doctrine means that the content of dogmatic truths is the doctrine of God and His economy. Divine revelation characterizes dogmas as truths revealed by God Himself. The ecclesiastical nature of dogmas indicates that only the Ecumenical Church at its Councils gives dogmatic authority and significance to the Christian truths of the faith. General obligation. The essence is revealed in dogmas Christian faith and hope.

It is believed that dogmas are not subject to change and clarification, not only in content, but also in form.

Yanaras H., says: “What we call dogma today arises only at the moment when the truth of the Church is endangered by heresy. The word “heresy” means a choice, a preference for any one part of the truth to the detriment of the whole, to the detriment of the truth... The heretic elevates one of the facets of the integral experience of the Church to the absolute, thus inevitably turning it into something one-sided and limited.”

The Church responds to the heretical threat by establishing the limits of truth, that is, defining the boundaries of living religious experience. To combat heresies and establish religious principles that all Christians must recognize (dogmas), from the 4th century. n. e. Ecumenical councils are convened in the Christian Church. In Christianity, a council is a council of bishops representing individual churches, convened to decide the most important issues religious life. The Council, where the bishops of all existing churches are present, is called Ecumenical.

It is significant that the first name of the dogma was the Greek word horos - limit, boundary (Latin terminus). Today's dogmas are the “limits” established by the Ecumenical Councils; these are abstract positions in which the Church expresses its experience of faith, indicating the boundaries separating the truth from its heretical distortions.”

Basic tenets of Christianity

The main provisions of the Christian church - dogmas - are defined in the 12 members of the Creed. Among them, the most important dogmas are: dogma about the essence of God, about the trinity of God, about the incarnation, redemption, ascension, resurrection, etc.

The First Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 325) was convened to discuss the views of the Alexandrian presbyter (elder) Arius, who taught that God the Son is not consubstantial with God the Father, and to create dogmas (fundamental tenets of doctrine) obligatory for confession by all who consider themselves Christian. The teachings of Arius were condemned, he himself was declared a heretic and excommunicated from the church. The Council dogmatically established that God is the unity of three hypostases (persons), in which the Son, eternally born from the Father, is consubstantial with him.

At the Second Ecumenical Council - Constantinople (Constantinople, 381) - was compiled single “Creed”- a confession that contains all the main tenets of Christianity and consisting of twelve members(its first five members were approved at the Council of Nicea, and in the final version the “Creed” was called Nicene-Constantinopolitan).

The “Creed” reads: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, light from light. from the true God, the true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came into being, for the sake of us men, and for the sake of our salvation, who came down from heaven and became incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man, crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, who suffered, and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets. To one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. Tea of ​​the Resurrection of the Dead and the life of the next century. Amen".

The council also condemned numerous heretical teachings that interpreted the Divine essence differently, for example, the Eunomians, who denied the divinity of Christ and considered him only the highest of the beings created by God.

There were seven Ecumenical Councils in total. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Second Nicaea) took place in 787. At it, decisions were made that were supposed to put an end to iconoclasm, which provoked discord in the church.

The enumeration of 12 paragraphs of the “Creed” is the main prayer in Orthodoxy: “I believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only Begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages...”

Let's look at the basic creeds mentioned in this prayer. Orthodox Christians believe in God as creator of the world(the first hypostasis of the Holy Trinity), in Son of God - Jesus Christ(the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity), who is incarnate, i.e., while remaining God, at the same time he became a man, born of the Virgin Mary. Christians believe that through his suffering and death, Jesus Christ atoned for human sins (first of all Original sin) and resurrected. After the resurrection, Christ ascended to heaven in the unity of body and spirit, and in the future Christians await His second coming, at which He will judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will be established. Christians also believe in Holy Spirit(the third hypostasis of the Divine Trinity), which comes from God the Father. The Church in Orthodoxy is considered a mediator between God and man, and therefore has saving power. At the end of time, after the second coming of Christ, believers wait resurrection all the dead to eternal life.

The Trinity is one of the main tenets of Christianity. The essence of the concept of the Trinity is that God is one in essence, But exists in three forms: God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. The term appeared at the end of the 2nd century AD, the doctrine of the Trinity was developed in the 3rd century AD. and immediately caused a heated, lengthy debate in the Christian church. Disputes about the essence of the Trinity led to many interpretations and served as one of the reasons for the division of churches.

Basic tenets:

1. Dogma of the Holy Trinity.

2. Dogma about the creation of the world.

3. Dogma of Angels.

4. Dogma of the Fall.

5. Dogma about the ever-virginity of the Most Holy Theotokos.

6. Dogma of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Dogma of the Redemption of mankind from sin.

8. Dogma of the Passion on the Cross and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9. Dogma of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10. Dogma of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

11. Dogma about the Second Coming of the Savior and the Last Judgment.

12. Dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit.

13. The dogma of one (one), holy, catholic Church and the continuity in it of the teachings and priesthood from the apostles.

14. Dogma about the sacraments of the Church.

15. Dogma about the general resurrection of people and the future life.

16. Dogma of the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ (adopted at the IV Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon).

17. Dogma of two wills and actions in the Lord Jesus Christ (adopted at the VI Ecumenical Council in Constantinople).

18. Dogma on the veneration of icons (adopted at the VII Ecumenical Council in Nicaea).

19. The dogma of divine energy or Grace.

Structure of Dogmatic Theology:

1. Dogmas about God and His general relationship to the world and man

General properties of the being of God

God is incomprehensible and invisible. God revealed himself to people in creation and in the supernatural Revelation, which was preached by the only begotten Son of God through the Apostles. God is one in being and threefold in persons.

God is the Spirit, eternal, all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, unchangeable, all-satisfied, all-blessed.

The nature of God is completely immaterial, not involved in the slightest complexity, simple.

God, as a Spirit, in addition to spiritual nature (substance), has mind and will.

God, as Spirit, is infinite in all respects, otherwise, all-perfect, He is original and independent, immeasurable and omnipresent, eternal and unchangeable, omnipotent and omnipotent, perfect and alien to any deficiency.

Particular properties of the being of God

Originality - everything that has, has from itself.

Independence - in being, in strength and in actions is determined by Himself.

Immeasurability and omnipresence - not subject to any limitation by space and place.

Eternity - He has neither beginning nor end of his existence.

Immutability - He always remains the same.

Omnipotence - He has unlimited power to produce everything and rule over everything.

Properties of God's Mind

The property of the mind of God in itself is omniscience, i.e. He knows everything and knows it most perfectly.

The property of God's mind in relation to his actions is the highest wisdom, i.e. perfect knowledge of the best purposes and the best means, the most perfect art of applying the latter to the former.

Properties of God's Will

The properties of God's will in itself are extremely free and all-holy, i.e. pure from all sin.

The property of God's will in relation to all creatures is all-good, and in relation to rational creatures it is true and faithful, since it reveals itself to them as a moral law, as well as a just one, since it rewards them according to their deserts.

Unity of God in essence

God is one.

2. Dogmas about God, trinitarian in persons

There are essentially three Persons or Hypostases in the One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The three persons in God are equal and consubstantial.

The three persons are distinct in their personal properties: the Father is not begotten of anyone, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.

The hypostases are inseparable and unmerged; the birth of the Son never began, never ended, the Son was born from the Father, but was not separated from him, He abides in the Father; God the Holy Spirit eternally emanates from the Father.

3. Dogmas about God as Creator and Provider for the spiritual world

The spiritual world is made up of two kinds of spirits: good, called Angels, and evil, called demons.

Angels and demons were created by God.

Demons became evil from good spirits of their own free will with the connivance of God.

God, as a Provider, gave both Angels and demons nature, powers and abilities.

God assists the Angels in their good activities and controls them in accordance with the purpose of their existence.

God allowed the fall of demons and allows their evil activity, and limits it, directing it, if possible, to good goals.

Angels

By their nature, Angels are disembodied spirits, the most perfect of the human soul, but limited.

The angelic world is unusually great.

Angels glorify God, serve Him, serve people in this world, guiding them to the kingdom of God.

The Lord gives a special Guardian Angel to each of the believers.

Demons

The devil and his angels (demons) are personal and real beings.

Demons by their nature are ethereal spirits, the highest of the human soul, but limited.

Demons cannot use violence against any person unless God allows them.

The devil acts both as an enemy of God and as an enemy of man.

God destroys the kingdom of demons on earth through the ceaseless expansion of His blessed kingdom.

God gave people Divine powers against demons (prayer, etc.).

God allows the activities of demons aimed at the destruction of humanity for the moral benefit of people and their salvation.

4. Dogmas about God as Creator and Provider to man

Man is created in the image and likeness of God.

God created man so that he would know God, love and glorify Him, and through this he would be eternally blissful.

God created the first people, Adam and Eve, in a special way, different from the creation of His other creatures.

The human race originated from Adam and Eve.

Man consists of an immaterial soul and a material body.

The soul, the highest and most excellent part of man, is an independent being, immaterial and simple, free, immortal.

The purpose of man is that he invariably remain faithful to the high covenant or union with God, to which the All-Good One called him at the very creation, so that he strives for his Prototype with all the forces of his rationally free soul, i.e. knew his Creator and glorified him, lived for Him and in moral unity with Him.

The fall of man was allowed by God.

Heaven was a place to live a happy and blissful life, both sensual and spiritual. Man in heaven was immortal. It is not true that Adam could not die, he could not die. Adam was to make and maintain heaven. To instruct the truth of faith, God honored some people with His revelations, appeared to them Himself, talked with them, and revealed His will to them.

God created man fully capable of achieving the goal He established, i.e. perfect, both in soul, mentally and morally, and perfect in body.
In order to exercise and strengthen moral powers in goodness, God commanded man not to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A person did not keep the commandments, then he lost his dignity.

All people came from Adam and his sin is the sin of all people.

God has given His grace to man from the very beginning.

The devil was hidden in the snake that seduced Adam and Eve. Eve was carried away by the dream of becoming equal to God, Adam fell due to addiction to his wife.

Death came to man from the envy of the devil towards God.

Consequences of a fall in the soul: dissolution of union with God, loss of grace, spiritual death, darkening of the mind, degradation of the will and its inclination towards evil rather than good, distortion of the image of God.

Consequences of a fall for the body: illness, sorrow, exhaustion, death.

Consequence for the external state of a person: loss or decrease in power over animals, loss of fertility of the earth.

The consequences of the fall extended to all of humanity. Original sin is universal.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, God did not stop thinking about man. He is the king of the whole earth, rules over the nations and watches over them. He places kings over the peoples, grants them Power and strength, and rules earthly kingdoms through kings. Supplies lower authorities through kings, supplies for the creation of happiness human societies His servants (Angels).

God provides for individual people and, in particular, for guides, protects us throughout our lives, assists us in our activities, and sets a limit for our earthly life and activities.
God provides in natural ways (preserves people and helps them) and supernaturally (miracles and actions of Divine economy).

5. Dogmas about God the Savior and His special relationship to the human race

God sent His Only Begotten Son into the valley of the earth, so that He, having received flesh from the Most Pure Virgin through the action of the Holy Spirit, would redeem man and bring him into His kingdom in much greater glory than what he had in paradise.

God is our Savior in general, since all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity participated in the work of our salvation.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith and salvation.

In the Person of Jesus Christ, each of His natures transfers its properties to another, and precisely, what is characteristic of Him in humanity is assimilated to Him as God, and what is characteristic of Him in Divinity is assimilated to Him as a man.

The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus, not according to His Divinity, but according to humanity, which, however, from the very moment of His incarnation, became inseparably and hypostatically united in Him with His Divinity, and became His own Divine Person.

In Jesus Christ not the entire Holy Trinity was incarnated, but only one Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity.

The attitude of the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity did not change in the least through His incarnation, and after the incarnation, God the Word remains the same Son of God as He was before. The Son of God the Father is natural, not adopted.

Jesus Christ was anointed as high priest, king and prophet for the threefold ministry of the human race, through which he accomplished his salvation.

6. Dogmas about Christ the Savior

The One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, for the sake of man and the human race, came down from heaven and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.
Jesus Christ, perfect in Godhead and perfect in humanity; truly God and truly man; also from soul and body; consubstantial with the Father in Divinity and consubstantial with people in humanity; in every way similar to people, except for sin; born before the age from the Father according to Divinity, in the last days born for our sake and for the sake of our salvation from Mary the Virgin Mother of God, according to humanity; The Only Begotten, in two natures unfused, unchangeable, inseparably, inseparably cognizable; not into two persons, cut or divided, but one Son and the Only Begotten God the Word.

How the two natures in Jesus Christ, Divine and human, despite all their differences, were united into one Hypostasis; how He, being perfect God and perfect man, is but one Person; this, according to the Word of God, is the great mystery of piety, and, therefore, inaccessible to our mind. The Lord performed prophetic service directly, having assumed the office of a public Teacher, and through His disciples. The teaching consists of the law of faith and the law of activity and is entirely aimed at the salvation of mankind.

The law of faith is about God, the highest and most perfect Spirit, one in essence, but threefold in Persons, original, omnipresent, all-good, omnipotent, Creator and Provider of the universe, Who fatherly cares for all His creatures, especially for the human race.

About Himself as the Only Begotten Son of God, who came into the world to reconcile and reunite man with God.

About His saving suffering, death and resurrection; about fallen, damaged man and about the means by which he can rise and assimilate salvation for himself, become sanctified, reunite with God through his redeemer and achieve an eternally blissful life beyond the grave.

Christ expressed the law of activity in two main commandments: the eradication in us of the very beginning of all sin - pride or self-love, cleansing from all filth of the flesh and spirit; love for God and neighbors with the goal of rooting in us, instead of the previous sinful one, the seed of a new life, holy and pleasing to God, to bring into us a union of moral perfection.

In order to excite people to accept and fulfill the laws of faith and action, the Lord Jesus pointed to the greatest disasters and eternal torment, which all sinners will inevitably undergo if they do not follow His teachings, but also to the greatest and eternal blessings that the Heavenly Father has prepared, also for the sake of His merits beloved Son, for all the righteous who follow His teaching.

Jesus Christ gave the law for all people and for all times.

Jesus Christ taught the law that is saving and therefore necessary for achieving eternal life.

As a prophet, Christ the Savior only announced to us about salvation, but had not yet accomplished salvation itself: he enlightened our minds with the light of true knowledge of God, testified about himself that he is the true Messiah, explained how he would save us, and showed us the direct the path to eternal life.

The high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was the work through which eternal life was earned for us.

He did this, following the custom of the Old Testament high priests, offering Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world, and thus reconciled us with God, delivered us from sin and its consequences, and acquired eternal blessings for us.

Christ the Savior, in order to satisfy the eternal Truth for all these human sins, deigned, in return for them, to fulfill God’s will for people in its entirety and breadth, to show in himself the most perfect example of obedience to it and to humble and abase Himself for our sake to the last degree.

Christ, the God-man, in order to save people from all these disasters and suffering, deigned to take upon Himself all the wrath of God, to endure for us everything that we deserved for our iniquities.

The high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ embraces His entire earthly life. He constantly bore His cross of self-sacrifice, obedience, suffering and sorrow.

The death of Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for us. He paid with His blood the debt to the Truth of God for our sins, which we ourselves were not able to pay, and He himself was not in debt to God. This replacement was the will and consent of God, because The Son of God came to earth to do not His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him.

The sacrifice made for us by Christ the Savior on the cross is a comprehensive sacrifice. It extends to all people, to all sins and to all times. By His death He earned the kingdom for us, not the Royal ministry of the Lord Jesus is that He, having the power of a King, as proof of the divinity of His gospel, performed a number of signs and wonders - without which people could not believe in Him; and, in addition, to destroy the realm of the devil - hell, to truly defeat death and open for us the entrance to the kingdom of heaven.

In His miracles He demonstrated power over all nature: He transformed water into wine, walked on waters, tamed the storm of the sea with one word, healed all kinds of diseases with one word or touch, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, tongue to the dumb.

He demonstrated his power over the forces of hell. With one command He cast out unclean spirits from people; the demons themselves, learning about His power, trembled at His power.

Jesus Christ defeated and destroyed hell when by His death He abolished the ruler of the power of death - the devil; He descended into hell with His soul, like God, to preach salvation to the captives of hell, and brought from there all the Old Testament righteous people to the bright abodes of the Heavenly Father.

Jesus Christ conquered death by His resurrection. As a result of the resurrection of Christ, we will all one day be resurrected, since through faith in Christ and through communion with His holy sacraments we become partakers of Him.

After the liberation of the Old Testament righteous from hell, Jesus Christ solemnly ascended to heaven with the human nature He assumed and, thus, opened for all people free entry into the kingdom of heaven.

7. Dogmas of Sanctification

In order for every person to become a partaker of salvation, it is necessary to sanctify the person, i.e. the actual assimilation by each of us of the merits of Christ, or such a thing in which the all-holy God, under certain conditions on our part, really cleanses us from sins, justifies us and makes us sanctified and holy.

All Persons of the Holy Trinity participate in the work of our sanctification: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father appears to be the source of our sanctification. The Holy Spirit appears to be the accomplisher of our sanctification. The Son appears to be the author of our sanctification.

The grace of God, i.e. the saving power of God is communicated to us for the sake of the merits of our Redeemer and accomplishes our sanctification.

Particular types of grace: external, acting through the Word of God, the Gospel, miracles, etc.; internal, acting directly in a person, destroying sins in him, enlightening the mind, directing his will to good; transitory, producing private impressions and contributing to private good deeds; a constant that constantly dwells in a person’s soul and makes him righteous; preceding, preceding a good deed; accompanying, which accompanies good deeds; sufficient gives a person sufficient strength and convenience to act; effective, accompanied by human action that bears fruit.

God foresaw that some people would make good use of their free will, and others evil: therefore, he predestined some to glory, and condemned others.

The prevenient grace of God, like a light illuminating those who walk in darkness, guides everyone. Therefore, those who wish to freely submit to her and fulfill her commands, which are necessary for salvation, therefore receive special grace. Those who do not want to obey and follow grace, and therefore do not keep the commandments of God, but, following the suggestions of Satan, abuse their freedom given to them by God so that they arbitrarily do good, are subject to eternal condemnation.

The grace of God extends to all people, and not only to those predestined to righteous life; God's predestination of some to eternal bliss, others to eternal damnation, is not unconditional, but conditional, and is based on the foreknowledge of whether they will or will not use grace; God's grace does not restrict human freedom and does not act irresistibly on us; man actively participates in what the grace of God accomplishes in him and through him.

8. Dogmas about the Holy Church

The Church of Christ is called either the society of all rationally free beings, i.e. angels and people who believe in Christ the Savior and are united in Him as their single head; or a society of people who believed and believe in Christ, whenever they lived and wherever they are now; either only the New Testament and militant Church or the grateful Kingdom of Christ.

The Lord Jesus wanted people, having accepted the new faith, to maintain it not separately from each other, but for this purpose to form a certain community of believers.

Christ laid the beginning and foundation for His Church by choosing His first twelve disciples, who formed His first Church. He also established an order of teachers who would spread His faith among the nations; established the Sacraments of baptism, Eucharist and repentance.

Christ founded or established His Church only on the cross, where He acquired it with His blood. For only on the cross did the Lord redeem us and reunite us with God, only after suffering on the cross did He enter into the glory of God and could send down the Holy Spirit to His disciples.

Endowed with power from above, the holy Apostles from believers in different places tried to form societies that were called churches; commanded these believers to have meetings to hear the word of God and offer prayers; exhorted them that they all formed one body of the Lord Jesus; they were commanded not to leave their meeting under fear of excommunication from the Church.

All people are called to be members of the Church, but not all are actually members. Only those who are baptized belong to the Church. Those who have sinned but profess the pure faith of Christ also belong to the church, so long as they do not become apostates. Apostates, heretics, renegades (or schismatics) are cut off as dead members by the invisible action of God's judgment.

The purpose of the Church, for which the Lord founded it, is the sanctification of sinners, and then reunification with God. To achieve this goal, the Lord Jesus gave His Church Divine teaching and established the order of teachers; He established holy sacraments and sacred rites in general in His Church, and established spiritual administration and rulers in His Church. the church is obliged to preserve the precious deposit of the saving doctrine of faith and to spread this teaching among the nations; preserve and use the Divine sacraments and sacred rites in general for the benefit of people; preserve the governance established by God in it and use it in accordance with the intention of the Lord.

The church is divided into flock and hierarchy. The flock consists of all believers in the Lord Jesus, while the hierarchy, or hierarchy, is a special God-established class of people whom the Lord has authorized alone to manage the means that He has given to the Church for its purpose.

The three degrees of the Divinely established hierarchy are bishops, priests and deacons. The bishop in his diocese is the locum tenens of Christ and, therefore, main boss over the entire hierarchy subordinate to him and over the entire flock. He is the main teacher for both ordinary believers and pastors. The bishop is the first celebrant of the holy sacraments in his private church. He alone has the right to ordain a priest on the basis of the word of God, the rules of the holy Apostles and holy Councils. The priest has the power to perform the sacraments and generally sacred rites, except those belonging to the bishop. He is subject to the constant supervision, authority and judgment of his archpastor. Deacons are the eye and ear of the bishop and priest.

Twice a year, a council of bishops, private or local, should meet to discuss the dogmas of piety and resolve church disagreements that occur.

The concentration of spiritual power for the universal Church is in the Ecumenical Councils.

The true Head of the Church is Jesus Christ, who holds the helm of the rule of the Church and revives it with the one and saving grace of the Holy Spirit.

The Church is one, holy, catholic and saving. It is united in its beginning and foundation, in its structure, external (division into shepherds and flocks), internal (the union of all believers in Jesus Christ as the true Head of the Church); according to your goal. It is holy in its origin and foundation; according to its purpose, according to its structure (its Head is the All-Holy Lord Jesus; the Holy Spirit dwells in it with all the grace-filled gifts that sanctify us; and a number of others). It is conciliar, otherwise catholic or universal in space (intended to embrace all people, no matter where they live on earth); in time (intended to lead to faith in Christ and exist until the end of time); according to its structure (the teaching of the Church can be accepted by all people, educated and uneducated, without being connected with the civil structure and, therefore, with any specific place and time). It is apostolic in origin (since the Apostles were the first to accept the power to spread the Christian faith and founded many private churches); according to its structure (the Church originates from the Apostles themselves through the continuous succession of bishops, borrows its teaching from the writings and traditions of the apostles, rules the believers according to the rules of the holy apostles).

Outside the Church there is no salvation for a person, since faith in Jesus Christ is necessary. who reconciled us with God, and faith remains intact only in His Church; participation in the holy sacraments, which are performed only in the Church; a good, pious life, cleansing from sins, which is possible only under the leadership of the Church.

9. Dogmas about the Sacraments of the Church

A sacrament is a sacred action that, under a visible image, imparts to the soul of the believer the invisible grace of God.

The essential accessories of each sacrament are considered to be the Divine institution of the sacrament, some visible or sensory image, and the communication of invisible grace to the soul of the believer by the sacrament.

There are seven sacraments in total: baptism, confirmation, communion, repentance, priesthood. marriage, unction. In baptism a person is mysteriously born into spiritual life; in anointing he receives restoring and strengthening grace; in communion he is nourished spiritually; in repentance one is cured of spiritual illnesses, i.e. from sins; in the priesthood he receives the grace to spiritually regenerate and educate others through teaching and sacraments; in marriage he receives grace that sanctifies marriage and the natural birth and upbringing of children; in the consecration of oil, one is healed from bodily diseases through healing from spiritual diseases.

10. Dogmas about the Sacrament of Priesthood

So that people could become shepherds of Christ's Church and receive the power to perform the sacraments, the Lord instituted another special sacrament - the sacrament of the priesthood.

Priesthood is such a sacred act in which, through the prayerful laying on of the hands of the bishops on the head of the chosen person, God's grace is brought down to this person, sanctifying and placing him on a certain level church hierarchy, and then assisting him in the passage of hierarchical responsibilities.

11. Dogmas about God as Judge and Rewarder

God accomplishes the great work of sanctifying people or assimilating the merits of Christ in no other way than with the free participation of the people themselves, under the conditions of their faith and good deeds. For the accomplishment of this work, God has appointed a limit: for private individuals it continues until the end of their earthly life, and for the entire human race it will continue until the very end of the world. At the end of both periods, God is and has to appear as the Judge and Rewarder for every person and all of humanity. He demands and will demand from people an account of how they used the means given for their sanctification and salvation, and will reward everyone according to their deserts.

The entire Holy Trinity participates in the matter of judging us and rewarding us.

The death of a person is an essential circumstance preceding this trial.

Death is the separation of the soul from the body, the cause of death lies in its fall into sin, death is the common destiny of the entire human race, death is the limit by which the time of exploits ends and the time of retribution begins.

The souls of the dead are blissful or tormented, depending on their deeds. However, neither this bliss nor this torment is perfect. They receive them perfect after the general resurrection.

Retribution to the righteous by the will of the heavenly Judge has two types: their glorification in heaven and their glorification on earth - in the militant Church.

The glorification of the righteous, after their death, on earth is expressed by the fact that the earthly Church honors them as saints and friends of God and calls them in prayers as intercessors before God; honors their very relics and other remains, as well as their sacred images or icons.

Sinners go with their souls to hell - a place of sadness and sorrow. Full and final reward for sinners will be at the end of this age.

Sinners who repented before death, but did not have time to bear fruits worthy of repentance (prayer, contrition, consolation of the poor and expression of love for God in their actions), still have the opportunity to receive relief from suffering and even complete liberation from the bonds of hell. But they can only be received by the goodness of God, through the prayers of the Church and charity.

12. Dogmas about the General Court

The day will come, the last day for the entire human race, the day of the end of the age and the world, the day established by God, who wants to carry out a general and decisive Judgment - the day of judgment.

On this day Jesus Christ will appear in His glory to judge the living and the dead. The Lord did not reveal to us when this great day would come, for our own moral benefit.

Signs of the coming of the Great Judgment: extraordinary successes of good on earth, the spread of the Gospel of Christ throughout the world; extraordinary successes of evil and the appearance on earth of the Antichrist, an instrument of the devil.

On the day of general judgment, the Lord will come from heaven - the Judge of the living and the dead, Who will abolish the Antichrist by the appearance of His coming; at the voice of the Lord the dead will rise for judgment and the living will be changed; the very judgment of both will take place; the end of the world and the gracious kingdom of Christ will follow.

At the conclusion of the general judgment, the righteous Judge will pronounce His final verdict on both the righteous and sinners. This retribution will be complete, perfect, decisive.

Retribution for both the righteous and sinners will be proportionate to their good deeds and their sins and extends from different degrees of eternal bliss to different degrees of eternal torment.

Presentation of dogmas based on the book: “Guide to the study of Christian, Orthodox dogmatic theology”, M.A.L., M., Synodal Printing House, 1913. - 368 + VIII p. According to the definition of the Holy Governing Synod. Reprint edition of the Center for the Study, Protection and Restoration of the Heritage of Priest Pavel Florensky, St. Petersburg, 1997.

DOGMATS OF CHRISTIANITY

...Now we see

as if through a mirror,

in a riddle.

Corinthians 1, ch.13

“DOGMA” is now a dirty word, a sign of the indisputability of authoritative judgments pronounced once and for all, a symbol of deadness of spirit, ideological stubbornness, violence against free thought... Alas! This word is of church origin; and quite recently there was a shameful fact of dogmatic violence - the prohibition of the works of the late Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the name of the Catholic dogma of the biblical Adam.

To view the matter correctly, one must return to the truth. the original meaning of the word. According to the Greek dictionary "DOGMA" (in plural"DOGMA" is an "opinion", "decree", "decision". In church history, DOGMA are decisions and decrees of councils on issues of the doctrine of faith. These decrees were caused by the emergence of “heresies” - false teachings that claimed universal recognition, but became the subject of controversy and division. Those who have closely studied the history of the councils speak of far from inspiring phenomena: the dominance of imperial power, which sought the forced unity of the state religion; court intrigues, personal quarrels; fanatical persecution of dissidents on both sides... Here is a living and very authoritative testimony:

"...To tell the truth, I decided to avoid any meeting of bishops altogether. I have never seen a single example of such a council doing any good, or not doing more harm than good. Dissension and ambition reign in them (don’t think, that I express myself too harshly) to an incredible degree" (St. Gregory the Theologian, Letter). But despite all the historical sins and abuses, the authority of some councils subsequently became generally recognized and they were called “ecumenical.” The ancient “undivided” Church had only SEVEN such generally recognized, ecumenical councils. Their decisions on issues of doctrine are the essence of the DOGMA of our Eastern Christianity. So, , must first eliminate an important misunderstanding: dogmas are not “mystical facts,” as they are sometimes expressed so highly; DOGMATS ARE NOT FACTS, BUT WORDS, resolutions of councils regarding heresies. If there were no heresies, there would be no dogmas.

After the so-called "division of churches" in the West, the compilation of dogmas continued. Catholics and Protestants denounced each other and issued lengthy statements of faith, obligatory separately for all Catholics and for all Protestants. Among the Catholics, this dogmatic creativity resulted in a detailed system of creeds. In the last century, Catholics accepted the dogma that the Pope, even without a council, can alone make decisions on matters of faith. Quite recently, Pope Pius XII took advantage of this right and composed a new dogma on the bodily Ascension of the Mother of God... I do not consider it necessary to consider these later Catholic and Protestant dogmas: it is clear that they do not have general Christian significance. Another thing is the dogmas of the ancient “undivided” Church: they are recognized by Catholics, and in general, I believe, by all Christians. I will remember these DOGMA in order.

The first dogma of Christianity was adopted at the council of 325 against the heresy of Arianism. The dogma is set out in the ancient form of the “Symbol” - a confession of faith, which was read during the so-called “catechumen”, preparation for receiving the sacrament of holy Baptism:

into one GOD

Almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

visible to all and invisible.

“What God really is, it will always be hidden from us, and the highest knowledge that we can have about GOD in this life is that He is incomparably higher than any idea that we can ever form about Him” (St. . Thomas Aquinas, "On Truth"). Known. that at the end of his earthly life the great scholastic stopped studying scholasticism:

"... His friend Reginald asked him to return to his books and join in the debate. Then St. Thomas said with amazing emotion: “I can no longer write.” Reginald did not leave, and St. Thomas answered with more greater strength: “I cannot write. I have seen things before which all my writings are like straw” (G, Chesterton, “St. Thomas Aquinas”). Unfortunately, I have no quotations on this topic from the works of the great mystics of Eastern Christianity. Here is just one passage - the testimony of St. Simeon the New Theologian (11th century). “GOD is known to us as much as someone can see the boundless sea, standing on its edge at night with a small lit candle in his hands. How much, do you think, will he see from the entire boundless sea? Of course, a little or almost nothing. For all that, he sees that water well and knows that in front of him is the sea, that the sea is boundless and that he cannot embrace it all with his gaze. This is also the case with regard to our knowledge of God" (quoted from the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1958, no. 1, p.57).

DIVINE is superintelligent and it is impossible to construct the “concept” of GOD. Ancient Symbol and did not set such a task. His confession is very brief. In the word “GOD” we perceive first of all the most important thing - our religious intuition of Divine Holiness. “In one” - probably then it was directed against pagan polytheism. Now we have already forgotten about polytheism and we can mean here our faith in God, one for all religions on earth and for all worlds in the Cosmos. “Father” - of course, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; but through Him - also our Heavenly Father. For He “predestined us to be sons as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians, chapter 1). “Father” - in this word a Christian, acutely aware of his complete unworthiness, hears a symbol of “fatherly”, demanding, strict love.

“The Almighty” is a symbol to which the apostolic word seems to best correspond: “For by Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts, ch. 17). The symbol of the “Creator” may have a polemical orientation against the Gnostic heresies, which considered the creation of such an imperfect world to be the work of an evil principle. It was said above that this problem is still open today. The Creator of everything, the Almighty - how could HE allow the very emergence of evil and such suffering in His world? This mystery is incomprehensible, we accept it with faith - with TRUST in our GOD.

The symbol of the “Creator” does not, of course, contain any concept of the “way” of creating the world. Natural Sciences and the first pages of the Bible speak of natural Evolution. One could not even argue with the dogma of materialism about eternity and spatial infinity physical world- that is, in essence, about its fundamental incomprehensibility. For such a mysterious Cosmos would correspond to the greatness of GOD, who creates time and eternity. But I hear that latest physics directly speaks of the temporal and spatial finitude of the physical universe.

“Sky”, “invisible” - these symbols remind us of the non-material planes of existence. “Therefore, we do not lose heart, but even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light suffering produces eternal glory in an immeasurable abundance, when we look not at what is visible, but at what is unseen: for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (Corinthians II, chapter 4). We "look" at the unseen - we HOPE for the unseen. There are different ways of thinking about the "teachings" of hierarchy. Heavenly Powers ethereal. The presence of a Guardian Angel is a personal spiritual experience for many Christians.

“Earth”, “visible” seemed to the authors of the Symbol to be quite cozy. Today we know that our planet is just a speck of dust in the unimaginable vastness of the Cosmos, among billions of billions of suns... But it turns out that this speck of dust, in its SPIRITUAL significance, represents the center of the universe. However, with some degree of probability one can also think that the physical Cosmos is not a dead desert, that we are surrounded, perhaps, by other inhabited worlds... We must be spiritually prepared to meet such a possibility. To do this, we will need to expand our understanding of MAN. If I'm not mistaken, in Greek AN-TROPOS (man) means: UPWARD - TURNED. Man, as a higher spiritual-physical being, can live on other planets, perhaps even in another bodily form, nothing would change from this, For the Eternal, Heavenly Man resides at the right hand of God, the Father.

Then - the main content of the dogma:

... And in one Lord

Jesus Christ

The only begotten Son of God,

before all ages.

Light from light,

God is true from God is true,

born, not created,

consubstantial with the Father,

It's all up to them.

For our sake, people,

and ours for the sake of salvation

descended from heaven

and incarnate

from the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary

and becoming human.

Crucified for us

under Pontius Pilate,

and suffered and was buried.

And rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures,

And ascended to heaven,

And sitting at the right hand of the Father.

And more of the future

With glory

judge the living and the dead,

There will be no end to his kingdom.

In the first edition of the dogma there were also these words (quoted from the “History of the Ancient Church” by Abbot L. Duchesne, vol. II, 1914, p. 101):

“As for those who say: There was a time when He did not exist; He did not exist before He was born; He was created from nothing or from another hypostasis or essence; the Son of God is a created, changeable, transmutable being - then on them the catholic (universal) Church pronounces anathema (excommunication)."

There is the TRUTH of the Christian religious experience - the absolute Divinity of Christ. We experience this truth with the people in church when we sing the Creed. This truth is protected from FALSE, from heresy by the first dogma of Christianity. The practical goal has been achieved - heresy has been rejected in terms that do not allow for reinterpretation.

But turning to the positive interpretation of the text of the dogma, we see its outright inconsistency. “We believe in one God,” but after this we confess faith in Christ - “true God from true God”... TWO GODS? Behind this verbal inconsistency was meant the PHILOSOPHICAL doctrine of the pre-eternal “Logos” and the distinction in God of a “single essence” and three “hypostases” or “persons”. By the end of the 1st century, when the general, “ecumenical” recognition of the dogma became clear,

“The Church has already found those formulas in which henceforth it began to express its view of the relationship between the concepts of the unity of the Divinity and the Divinity of Jesus Christ. The Divinity revealed in Jesus Christ is completely identical with the one God whom Christianity professes; the Divinity of Christ is different from Him, however, by one, of course, incomprehensible feature, which in the New Testament, which guides the Church, is expressed in the likeness of the relationship between patronymic and sonship. From here follows the difference in persons, as they said in the West, or in hypostases, as they expressed in the East. , or Persons, the Father and the Son, is added in the same way by the third hypostasis or person - the Holy Spirit. This is how the theological Trinity was formed - this is how the Christian tradition was formulated in the philosophical language of that time, formulated as clearly as it is possible to express such a mystery. (Abbé L. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 399). However for common man(judging by myself) the philosophical understanding of the Trinity is completely unacceptable, and this can lead to the greatest despondency. Where is the simplicity of the Gospel, why has the Christian faith become so complicated? Why in spiritual Christian life these painful MENTAL efforts? The efforts are fruitless - nothing comes of them, some wild ideas arise of some kind of “symmetrical model” of God, as a Being with three faces... What should we think about all this?

Here again the Christian philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev helps me out:

"... The Divinity is comprehended not in the categories of reason, but in the relations of spiritual life. The Trinity of the Divine is completely inaccessible to rational thinking, to the logical concept. Reason cannot develop any logical concept of the Trinity of the Divinity. Reason, not enlightened by faith, naturally strives for monism or dualism, and he is worried and even outraged by the mythological nature of the Christian Trinity, he is ready to see polytheism in it. The Christian Divine Trinity is a mythology. Only a myth and a symbol are possible about the Trinity, but not a concept. But this myth and this symbol do not reflect and depict my religious feelings. and experiences, as the newest symbolists of the subjective-idealistic type think, but the very depth of being, the deepest secrets of existing life. Only in the Trinity Divinity is there an inner life that eludes concepts. It is also impossible to form any concept of the Theanthropic nature of Christ. free spirit", part 1, underlined by me). So, the philosopher himself refuses a rational explanation of the first dogma of Christianity. And it should already be clear to everyone that no rationalization is possible in relation to the most important thing in dogma - the mystery of the Person of Jesus Christ. First in the Creed we're talking about about the “pre-human” existence of the Son of God (although this very concept of “Son” is a human concept). Then - “and became human”; in the Latin text of the Symbol - “and became a man”... Here comes the main “iconographic” contradiction, already noted above in the chapter on the Gospels. If Christ on earth maintains PERSONAL UNITY with the eternal Son of God - REMEMBERS everything, KNOWS everything - then all His human experiences and sufferings turn out to be illusory... It would be most realistic to imagine Christ on earth as a Man Who “forgot” about His pre-eternity, Of which only the mighty intuition of God's Sonship remained. Only in this way would the words of the Symbol be fulfilled: “and he became a Man.” But this would contradict not only the Gospel icons, but also the very Creed, for this would violate the PERSONAL UNITY of the eternal Son of God and the Man Jesus... The Mystery of the Personality of Christ is super-intelligent.

Below are extracts from the works of the Philosopher related to the topic of Divine humanity. From "Self-Knowledge":

"... My religious and philosophical worldview can, of course, be interpreted as profound humanism, as an affirmation of eternal humanity in God. Humanity is inherent in the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, this is the real grain of the dogma. Man is a metaphysical being. This conviction of mine cannot be shaken by baseness an empirical person. I am characterized by the pathos of humanity. Although I am convinced and am becoming more and more convinced that humanity has little character. I now often repeat: “God is human, but man is inhuman,” and faith in humanity is faith in God.” requires illusions about a person" ...

From "The Existential Dialectic of the Divine and the Human":

"The theme of God-manhood is the main theme of Christianity. I would prefer to say not God-manhood - the expression favored by Vladimir Solovyov - but God-manhood. Christianity is anthropocentric. It heralds the liberation of man from the power of cosmic forces and spirits. It presupposes faith not only in God, but also in man, and this differs from abstract monotheism, Judaism and Islam, from Brahmanism. It must be said decisively that Christianity is not a monistic and monarchical religion, it is a God-human and Trinitarian religion. But the life dialectic between Divinity and humanity was so complex that the human was often present. humiliated in the history of Christianity. In the historical fate of God-humanity, the Divine absorbed the human, and the human absorbed the Divine. The very dogma of the God-manhood of Jesus Christ expressed the mystery of the God-manhood, the union of two natures without confusion and identity. But the monarchical and monistic tendency has always existed. V Christian history and sometimes prevailed.

In my old book “The Meaning of Creativity” I said that a new anthropology must correspond to the Christological dogma - the Christology of man. But only in the future can it fully reveal itself. There was no real Christian anthropology yet. In patristics, St. came closest to it. Gregory of Nyssa, the most philosophical of the teachers of the Church, he tried to raise the dignity of man. But few followed him. Only Christianity teaches that God became man. The gap between God and man must be bridged. The humanity of God is revealed, not only the Divine in man, but also the human in God. If we think through the humanity of Christ to the end, then we must admit that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is the Eternal Man. And this mystery does not at all mean the assumption of identity between God and man, which would be tantamount to a rational denial of the mystery.

In the first centuries of Christianity, when dogmatic disputes were conducted and dogmatic formulas were developed in which they wanted to express in symbols the events of the spiritual world, a complex dialectic unfolded about the relationship between the Divine and the human. Both the emergence of heresies and the denunciation of heresies are connected with this topic. Arianism, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, Monothelitism - all these are heresies about God-humanity. The disputes were confined to the Christological problem, that is, the relationship of the two natures in Christ. But the problem itself is broader and deeper, it affects the relationship between the Divine and the human in general. Let the Christological problem be resolved already in the first centuries and a formula for the relationship between the Divine and the human in Christ was found, on the other side of monism and dualism. But in our world era - speaking about the era of the Spirit - the question becomes different, for the question of man, whom the patristic era has not yet known in such a form, becomes with unprecedented urgency, and God-consciousness itself changes depending on changes in human consciousness.

The new soul knew freedom - the quest and temptations of freedom and slavery from freedom - in such acuteness, in such depth, which previous Christian souls did not know. The human soul has not improved, but has become very complex and expanded, and this corresponds to a different consciousness.

The man became less whole, more divided, and new disturbing questions arose before him. Catechisms do not answer these questions. In world culture, in literature and philosophy, people of the prophetic type appeared, such as Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Vl. Soloviev, L. Blois and others. The fathers and teachers of the Church, scholastic theologians cannot answer the topics they pose. prophetic fire has always been a regenerating force in a numb, chilled spiritual life. Another reviving force was mysticism.

For the topic of the relationship between the Divine and the human, the mystic is very complex. Some types of mystics have a bias towards monism, towards the recognition of one nature, towards the extinction of human nature in the Divine. Such is all quietism. For the dialectic of God-humanity, Jansenism is interesting. We find the classic image of mystical monism in the religious philosophy of India. This is also religious philosophy Shankara, for whom our soul is Brahman, the One, and is opposed to all origin and formation. The most remarkable of modern Indian philosophers, Orobindo, teaches that we must abandon the idea that we are the authors of our actions - the universal acts through the personality. Impersonality is a condition for union with the Divine; it is necessary to achieve impersonality and indifference. The soul is a particle of the Divine.

Mysticism is often accused of leaning towards pantheism and is often abused. This is due to a misunderstanding of the language of mysticism. But it must be said that when pantheism really exists, then it is not so much a heresy about God as a heresy about man, belittling the role of human freedom and human creativity. The fate of European humanism, its internal drama, poses a completely new religious theme. This is the theme of God-humanity"…

Another extract from the same place:

"...A static understanding of God cannot be preserved. It is the Christian God, the God of the religion of crucified Truth, that can only be understood dynamically. In God there is a dynamic process taking place in eternity. This should not be understood in such a way that God depends on the world and the process occurring in the world, but in such a way that the process taking place in the world is internally connected with what is happening in eternity, and not in time, with the process in God, that is, with the Divine drama. And only because of this, what is happening with the world and man receives the highest meaning. would not be needed by God for anything, would be an accident and thereby would be deprived of all meaning. We must boldly recognize God’s need for man, and this need does not limit God at all, it would be limited and humiliated by stony immobility and self-satisfaction. There is melancholy in God. according to the beloved and this gives the highest meaning to the beloved. Faith in God is faith in the highest Truth, rising above the untruth of the world. But this Truth requires the creative participation of man and the world, it is God-human, ideal humanity operates in it."

"...Genuine humanity is the God-like Divine in man. The Divine in man is not “supernatural” and is not a special act of grace, but there is a spiritual principle in him, as a special reality. This is the paradox of the relationship between the human and the Divine. In order to resemble completely like a man, one must resemble God. In order to have the image of a man, one must have the image of God. Man in himself is very little human, he is not even human, but God. It is God who demands humanity from man. does not really demand. In the same way, it is God who demands that man be free, and not man himself. Man himself loves slavery and easily puts up with slavery. Freedom is not a human right, but a man’s duty before God. By realizing in himself the image of God, man realizes in himself the image of man, and by realizing in himself the image of God, he realizes in himself the image of God. This is the secret of God-humanity, the greatest mystery of human life. Humanity is God-humanity."

The philosopher discusses the relationship “between the Divine and the human in general,” but does not touch upon the personal mystery of Jesus Christ. Below are some more comments on the text of the first dogma of Christianity.

“For our salvation”... What is SALVATION? The Catechism explained this in a rationally negative sense: salvation is from what. Salvation from the consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise is salvation “from sin, curse and death.” But we know that there was no earthly paradise, that the curse of mutual consumption, the struggle for existence, suffering, death were already on earth even before the appearance of man. And we see that even after the Appearance of Christ, nothing in this sense has changed on earth: all living things suffer, we are sinners, we are born in pain and we die... There has been no return to earthly paradise. Yes, there is not a word about this in the Gospels. The true idea of ​​SALVATION has a positive, mysterious meaning. St. John Chrysostom said somewhere: “with Adam we lost paradise, with Christ we gained heaven”... SALVATION IS COMMUNICATION WITH DIVINE LIFE. “The love of God for us was revealed in this, that God sent His only begotten son into the world, so that we might receive life through Him” (1 Epistle of John, chapter 4). Another apostle wrote that in Christ we have been given great and precious promises, so that through them we “may become partakers of the divine nature” (1 Peter, chapter 1). How will it be, how will it be accomplished? We do not know. “Beloved! We are now children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we will be; we only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is” (1 Epistle of John, chapter 3). SALVATION is a MYSTERY, about which the holy teachers surprisingly agreed in the sense that the “incarnation of God” has the goal of “the deification of man”...

Here is the last testimony of St. Simeon the New Theologian in this continuity:

“...What is the purpose of the incarnate economy of God the Word, which is preached throughout the Divine Scripture, but which we, reading this Scripture, do not know? None other than this, so that by partaking of what is ours, we will become participants in what is His. The Son of God became the Son of Man for this purpose, in order to make us, men, sons of God, elevating our race by grace into what He Himself is by nature, giving birth to us from above by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and immediately leading us into the Kingdom of Heaven, or, better yet, say, granting us to have this Heavenly Kingdom within us (Luke XUII, 21), so that we, not only with the hope of entering into it, but having already been brought into possession of it, cry out: “our life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. .III,3)…

This is how the holy teachers wrote, for whom SALVATION had already “begun” in their especially enlightened spiritual life. SALVATION does not fit into this existence; it is the aspiration of the future century, our destiny in the mysterious Eternity. We can only have a presentiment of SALVATION in the rarest moments of spiritual uplift, in the prayers and sacraments of the Church, as well as in the sacraments of practical life - when Christ is depicted among us.

“And the Virgin Mary”... Thank God - I have successfully gotten over the topic of Ever-Virginity, it seems to me unimportant. For many Christians this is an inviolable Shrine. But I can completely understand others who, on the contrary, are very confused, are directly seduced by analogies in pagan myths and believe that faith in a biological miracle cannot be made an indispensable condition for Christianity. Indeed, this is a difficult and, it seems, unnecessary obstacle on the path of faith for modern man. Referring to the speculation of Rev. John of Damascus, our Catechism claims that the birth of Christ was also “painless”... How do they know this? In an effort to glorify the Mother of God, they free Her from maternal suffering! Former seminarians recall one blessed rector, who recently taught about the painless birth of Christ: “as if brought by the wind”... The ancient heretics, the Docetes (from the Greek “to seem”), who taught about the unreal, illusory, “would have agreed with this.” the apparent" physicality of Christ. By the way. It is precisely against this heresy that the words of the Symbol are directed: “she suffered and was buried.” Christ suffered and died like us; nothing terrible if He had been born in everything like us. Blessed Jerome wrote about the Nativity of Christ:

"...Add, if you wish, other natural troubles - a womb that swells for nine months, nausea, childbirth, blood, diapers. Imagine the Baby himself, wrapped in the usual cover of membranes. Add a hard manger, the Baby's crying, circumcision in the eighth day, the time of cleansing, to show Him unclean. We do not blush, we do not remain silent. How much more humiliating is what he endured for me, so much more am I indebted to Him. And having exposed everything, you will not imagine anything more shameful than the Cross."

("On Mary's Ever-Virginity"). So, the complete naturalness of birth does not at all interfere with our veneration of Mother and Child. This fundamental position can be expanded today. B. Pasternak wrote in his novel: “every conception is immaculate” - because the sacred service of Motherhood begins with it... There are people who think differently - that every conception is VICIOUS, because it is associated with the satisfaction of bodily desire, and this is a SIN. Is not it? Then, after all, every eating of food, and quenching thirst, and even our very breathing is all a SIN? Yes, everything bodily is sinful: this is what the ancient heresies and “deviations” of Christianity taught, which secretly live in it today. But there is a church SACRAMENT of marriage. There is the greatest mystery of life - the mystery of sex, and there are possibilities in it of both very evil and sinful, and very good and even sacred content. And does the reverence that everyone experiences before the sacred memory of HIS MOTHER - does it offend at least in the least from the consideration that our birth did not take place supernaturally? Looking from here on the topic of Ever-Virginity, we can confidently conclude that it does not have significant, fundamental significance in the profession of Christianity. Anyone who is embarrassed - let him take it to common problem"iconography" of our Gospels. None of this can hinder our free veneration of the Mother of Jesus Christ.

I am not able to adequately speak about the sacrament of Motherhood, about the holiness of maternal love: truly, there is something Divine in it. Christ spoke about His future Golgotha: “My hour” (according to John, ch. 2, 7, 8, 12, 17); and about pregnancy and childbirth of women he said: “IT’S HOUR.” “When a woman gives birth, she suffers sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers that sorrow—for joy, because a man has been born into the world”... (according to John, chapter 16). But in the suffering and joy of birth, the ministry of Motherhood only begins. We honor the Mother of God as the “CROWNING OF ALL MOTHERS”; This is Dante's expression:

...And I see a temple, and a crowd of people in it.

And the Woman enters the temple and, like a crown,

To all mothers, he says meekly: “Child!

What have you done to us? Here is your father

And I am with great sorrow in the midst of the city

They were looking for you...

(The Divine Comedy", Purgatory, XV, corresponds to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 2). Other gospel evidence has been preserved that this was not an idyllic, but a tragic Motherhood (according to Matthew, chapter 12, according to Mark, chapter 3, according to Luke, chapter 8, chapter 11). Even before Golgotha, the prophecy began to come true: “And a weapon will pierce your own soul” (according to Luke, chapter 2). Church poetry truthfully depicts how the Mother suffered and died with her Son on the Cross. . "Woe is Me! Woe is Me, My Child! Alas for Me, My Light and My beloved womb”… “My Light and My joy will go into the tomb: I will not leave Him alone, here I will die and be buried with Him”… But in the celebration of the Resurrection, the Mother is given first place: “Rejoice now and be merry.” , Zion, You, Pure, are beautiful, Mother of God, about the uprising of Your Nativity." This is how the humble translators translated the Greek: about the uprising of Your Beloved, Your Child... The Mother of God is not only personal, She is a cosmic Image. In Her Face are all mothers and everything " Matter", all Humanity and all Creation give birth to Christ. “Every creature rejoices in You, O God-given One”... From Dostoevsky:

"... And in the meantime, whisper to me, leaving the church, one of our elders, who lived in repentance for the prophecy: “What do you think the Mother of God is?” “Great Mother,” I answer. “The hope of the human race.” - “So,” he says, the Mother of God is the great mother of the Cheese Earth, and great joy lies in this for man. And every earthly melancholy and every earthly tear is joy for us; and how can you water the earth under you with your tears, half an arshin deep? , then you will immediately rejoice over everything”...

(“Demons”, speech of the Lame Leg). I cannot explain to myself the excitement with which I remember these amazing verses every time:

"Earth-Mistress! I bowed my forehead to you,

And through Your fragrant cover

I felt the flame of my dear heart,

I heard the thrill of world life."

(Vladimir Solovyov). Personal and cosmic images merge in our veneration of the Mother of God, and it is impossible to fully comprehend this. IN Eastern Christianity and especially in Catholicism there are extremes that give reason to reproach us for the revival of the pagan cults of the Mother Goddess. One should not assume that this was very deep in paganism. For we know from experience that there is truly something Divine in maternal love.

“And the things to come”… Prophecy of the New Testament. "And suddenly, after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (according to Matthew, chapter 24). “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a noise, and the elements, having flared up, will be destroyed, the earth and all the works on it will be burned up” II Peter, chapter 3). “However, the end is near to everything” (ibid., ch. 4). The Second Coming of Christ, according to the Gospel and Apostolic predictions, will occur after a cosmic catastrophe - already outside our space and time. This means that the Second Coming cannot be interpreted in any terms of our visible world. Just as there was “nowhere” for Christ to physically “ascend” to, so there will be “nowhere” for Him to physically “come”... The Second Coming is a SYMBOL. This is a symbol of the Appearance of Christ in glory - an APPEARANCE TO ALL, to all mankind, as opposed to the First Appearance, when He was revealed to so few. As it will be? We do not know.

"... Let us be frank: WE DO NOT KNOW what we are talking about when we talk about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ for judgment, About the Resurrection of the dead, about eternal life and eternal death. Scripture so often testifies that all this will be connected with the new deepest comprehension, - a vision, in comparison with which all our present vision will turn out to be blindness" ... (Karl Barth). Will this not happen in our “personal doomsday” - in personal DEATH? Then for each of us the sun will darken and then all of us, together with everyone who lived before us and who will live after us on earth, will appear to the Lord in Mysterious Eternity.

The first dogma of Christianity ended with the words: “And in the Holy Spirit.” Behind this significantly brief confession lay the reality of the spiritual experience of the ancient Church. The secret of early Christianity lies in the action of the Holy Spirit. no matter how great the charm of the Person of Christ was, no matter how convincing the Appearances of His Resurrection were for unbelievers, all this could have had an impact only on a handful of eyewitnesses and after their death should have soon been forgotten... What kind of Power inspired Christian communities, martyrs, preachers, - this entire Movement that has grown into a worldwide Church?

Christ promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit (according to John, ch. 14, 15, 16), and after the Resurrection he commanded to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (according to Matthew, ch. 28). Beginning with the appearance of tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles narrates the actions of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “And because of their prayer, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness” (chapter 4). There are many similar texts. The Apostolic Council decreed the abolition of circumcision: “It pleased the Holy Spirit and us” (chapter 15). The Apostle Paul said in his farewell speech that the Holy Spirit appointed elders of the Church (chapter 20). And in the epistles of the Apostles the Holy Spirit is always called as the highest, Divine Reality." "... Because you did not accept the spirit of Slavery to live in fear again, but accepted the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry: Abba, Father! This very Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God... Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses; for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be expressed" (Romans, ch. 8). "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" ( to Corinthians II, chapter 12). “For God did not give us the Spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control” (Timothy II, chapter 1).

The confession about the Holy Spirit was brief at first, but it soon turned out that this was not enough:

"... Among people disposed to recognize the Son's unconditional, essential likeness to the Father and even accept the term “consubstantial” in relation to the first two Persons of the Holy Trinity, there were those who refused to extend this concept to the Holy Spirit. Little by little the dispute turned in this direction , and the positions were determined" (Abbé L. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 248). At the end of the 1st century, the Creed was supplemented by a more extensive statement about the Holy Spirit, which is erroneously (op. cit. p. 297) attributed to the Council of Constantinople in 381:

...And in the Holy Spirit,

Lord Life-Giving,

Those who come from the Father,

Same with the Father and the Son

We bow and praise,

Who spoke through the prophets.

Later in the West, this dogma took shape with one insignificant addition: “Who proceeds from the Father and the Son (Filioque). It’s strange for us now to hear that because of this one word “FILIOKVE” the so-called “division of churches” took place, thousands of years of disputes between the church sages of the East and West followed, many books were written... The impression of an inexperienced observer already in the 19th century is interesting - an entry in the “Diary” Russian official A.V. Nikitenko:

"... 23.H. 1875. Meeting at the Society of Christian Education... Osinin read in the report on the Bonn Conference of Old Catholics, where he was among our delegates. The matter was about the union of our church with the Old Catholic Church. The main question that complicated this union concerned the Holy Spirit The debates that have taken place on this subject are extremely curious. The fact is that no one knows anything about the Holy Spirit, and whether He comes from the Father or from the Father and the Son. It is strange to see people who seem serious, catching the air with their hands. and they think that they hold something in them”...

This image of catching air correctly characterizes other “dogmatic” disputes when scholasticism tries to replace religious experience. The Holy Spirit is the most Mysterious thing in Christianity... It seems that no one has yet explained the meaning of the Gospel symbolization of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on Christ (according to Matthew, chapter 3, according to Mark, chapter 1, according to Luke, chapter 3, according to John , chapter 1). It is also appropriate to note here that in the liturgical, prayerful experience of the ancient Church there is no “Face” of the Holy Spirit. According to the Gospels, Christ never prayed to the Holy Spirit. And the apostles did not pray to the Holy Spirit; according to Acts, they prayed to GOD - and received the grace of the Holy Spirit. In the prayers of the Eucharist, even at that moment, which is called “the invocation of the Holy Spirit,” there is no personal appeal to Him. Even religious holiday The Holy Spirit - neither in the troparion, nor in the kontakion, nor in the magnification, nor in the three prayers of Vespers is there a personal appeal to him. Our current prayer “To the Heavenly King” (as well as the personal prayers of St. Simeon the New Theologian, which do not have church use) are of later origin. IN ancient church it would sound something like this: Heavenly King, send us the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth... And even now we pray: “come” - as if in the third person: LET IT COME.

The rest of our Symbol repeats the texts of even more ancient “baptismal” symbols:

...Into one

conciliar and apostolic

At first everything was so simple: there was one Church and there was an entrance to the Church - one Baptism. But at the end of the 4th century, when the common Creed took shape, external church unity was already supported by the violent concerns of state power. In the 11th century, the “division of the churches” of East and West ended, and in the 16th century the “division” of the Western Church followed (not to mention the many later small “divisions”). So, for a thousand years now we have not had the external unity of the Church of Christ on earth. Our Catechism does not recognize this truth; it asserts that there is one Church - that it is supposedly the only “Eastern Church”. The Catechism contains unworthy, frivolous praise of the “Eastern Church,” even for some reason and simply in a geographical sense: in the East there was an earthly paradise, in the East Christ appeared... In the same spirit of pride, quite recently, Archpriest Fr. Sergius Bulgakov wrote that “not the entire human race enters the Church, but only the elect, and not even all Christians fully belong to the true Church, but only the Orthodox” (“Orthodoxy”, p. 43); and further: “The Church is one, and therefore unique,” ​​and this “is Orthodoxy” (p. 203). On the relationship of “Orthodoxy” to other Christian confessions: “it can only strive for one thing - to Orthodoxize the entire Christian world” (p. 291)… Christendom consists of many “separate” churches, equally confessing the true Son of God in Christ, equally calling Him their spiritual Head. A monstrous image: a single Head - and many bodies, alien, or even completely hostile to each other... What a shame of Christianity!

However, even in the last century, the author of the Catechism, Metropolitan Philaret, admitted: “I do not dare to call any Church that believes that Jesus is the Christ false.” There is a well-known catchphrase of Metropolitan Platon (Gorodetsky), said in a speech during a visit to the church: “Our partitions do not reach the sky.” Recently, many pleasant declarations have been made from all sides about the desire for pan-Christian unity. But the difficulties of an organizational “union of churches” are insurmountable. After all, Catholics will never again renounce the principle of papal supremacy in world Christianity, and the rest of the Christians of the East and West will never agree to this. And Protestants of all directions will never renounce the principles of the Reformation... Where is the way out?

“The unity of the Church is not created, it is discovered” (Karl Barth). Here is a real “project for the unification of churches”: to recognize that the Church is not divided, that all of us Christians are members of the one Church of Christ. "Is Christ divided?" (Corinthians 1, chapter 1). The dogma speaks of a single Church and single baptism. And it is true: if a Catholic or Protestant wishes to “join” the Russian Church, then their Baptism in Catholicism or Protestantism is recognized as valid, and so in fact it is recognized that everyone who is BAPTIZED (this is a significant expression of our people) already belongs to the one Church of Christ. “One Lord, one faith, one Baptism” (Corinthians, chapter 4). All of us Christians have one Lord and one Baptism; In essentials, faith is one and the same, but trifles, conventions, as well as human sins prevent us from recognizing this unity. Are Catholics Deluded About the Worldwide Power of the Bishop of Rome? But this is essentially not a matter of faith, but of practice, and this practice in some respects shows itself to be very useful. Protestants are terribly impoverishing themselves by refusing prayerful communication with saints, from commemorating the dead: such was the trauma they received from Catholic perversions; but this is also a practice, a matter of their religious experience, and there is nothing about this in the Creed. Do they teach about the Eucharist differently, in their own way? But “the doctrine of the Eucharist has never been the subject of consideration by the highest authoritative body of the Church” (Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1965, No. 5, p. 79). And in general, these eternal debates of ours about the Eucharist, as someone said, are similar to debates among idlers on the topic of who dines better... Is there no external “uniformity” in the traditions of the cult? But also St. Augustine I wrote somewhere that the Church of Christ is DECORATED BY DIVERSITY. And, to tell the truth, we have a lot to learn by visiting the churches of “heterodox” Christians. Chekhov was not entirely joking that “when you stand in a church and listen to the organ, you want to convert to Catholicism” (letter from Italy). “I am a Lutheran and love Divine services”... (Tyutchev). It has long been said that there is no arguing about tastes. If we talk about the obvious weaknesses and defects of “heterodox” rituals, then we have no less such phenomena... No, no, no delusions and old habits will prevent me from recognizing the actual belonging of all Christians to the one Church of Christ.

This consciousness is growing and expanding among us. And we are already so late with this!.. For now the problem of the Church, one might say, goes beyond the limits of the Creed. Blessed Jerome wrote on some occasion: “Christ is not so poor as to have a Church only in Sardinia.” Now we must say: Christ is not so poor as to have the Church only in us, “baptized” so unworthy of our Baptism. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (according to Mark, chapter 16, later addition). No, we have already grown out of such isolation of primitive Christianity. And even then the apostle already wrote: “... We trust in the Living God, Who is the Savior of all people, especially the faithful (Timothy 1, chapter 4). This means, not only the faithful... Now even among Catholics great progress is noticed in this regard . In the brochure by S. Markevich “The Secret Ailments of Catholicism”, M. 1967, p. 73 et seq., the German theologian Karl Rahner is mentioned.

"introduced the concept of "anonymous Christians". These are people who, although they do not believe in Jesus Christ and do not adhere to the principles proclaimed by the Church, in their behavior are often better Catholics than those who are listed as such by the metric. It is characteristic that, like John XXIII, so Cardinals Döpfner and König defended Rahner from the criticism of the integrators."

The Church is the BODY OF CHRIST. This apostolic symbol does not coincide with the “ecclesiastical” boundaries of the Church. The dogma of the Church has long ago become a problem. You can't think that Eternal Man- only with us, in our church provinces. "All Authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." All the best in universal humanity, all that is truly spiritual, directed towards God, belongs to Christ. There can be no human holiness outside the Holy Spirit, outside Christ. All people of good will, whether they believe or not in the Divinity of Christ, belong to Christ. They partake of him in the sacraments of a conscientious life, they enter into the mystical BODY OF CHRIST. “Where the love of God is, there is Jesus Christ; and where Jesus Christ is, there is the Church with Him” (Lacordaire). Today we can talk about “anonymous Christians”, about the “Church of Good Will”. This idea is a valuable acquisition in the modern crisis of church teaching; we must accept this paradox of Christian thought. Some analogy can be seen in how living cells human body may not know the head of a person, the whole person... Let us pay tribute to church organizations - their saving sacraments, ancient rites, spiritual leadership. And yet the Church of Christ is not just the sum of provincial Christian churches. Big question- will they ever achieve formal unity. Even more doubtful, in all likelihood it is generally impossible to unite all religions. But there is a third unity that really exists today. This is not a unification of beliefs, but an incomparably deeper and more essential UNITY OF THE SPIRIT. One day, Christ’s disciples confessed their greatest faith, but received a reproach from the Teacher: “YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT SPIRIT YOU ARE” (according to Luke, chapter 9). And for us now what is essential is not the formal unity of beliefs, but WHAT SPIRIT WE ARE. There is a Spirit of mercy, truth, freedom - this is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And there is a spirit of hatred, lies, violence - this is the spirit of the Devil. Everything in our world is divided according to these signs: this is the real border of the Church of Christ.

Dogmas The depth of dogmas is unsearchable, and it is dangerous to touch upon it, especially to one subject to any passion. .Who can affirm the dogmas about the Holy Trinity and theologize? )