What is the Orthodox people definition. Orthodoxy is a branch of Christianity

Orthodoxy is not Christianity. How historical myths appeared

The Greek Catholic Orthodox (Right Faithful) Church (now the Russian Orthodox Church) began to be called Orthodox only on September 8, 1943 (approved by Stalin's decree in 1945). What, then, was called Orthodoxy for several millennia?

“In our time, in modern Russian vernacular, in the official, scientific and religious designation, the term “Orthodoxy” is applied to anything related to the ethnocultural tradition and it is necessarily associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Christian religion ( Judeo-Christian Religion - ed.).

To a simple question: "What is Orthodoxy" any modern person, without hesitation, will answer that Orthodoxy is the Christian faith that Kievan Rus adopted during the reign of Prince Vladimir the Red Sun from the Byzantine Empire in 988 AD. And that Orthodoxy, i.e. The Christian faith has existed on Russian soil for more than a thousand years. Scientists from historical science and Christian theologians, in confirmation of their words, declare that the earliest use of the word Orthodoxy in the territory of Rus' is recorded in the “Sermon on Law and Grace” of 1037-1050 by Metropolitan Hilarion.

But was it really so?

We advise you to carefully read the preamble to federal law on freedom of conscience and on religious associations, adopted on September 26, 1997. Note the following points in the preamble: “Recognizing the special role orthodoxy in Russia...and further respecting Christianity , Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and other religions…”

Thus, the concepts of Orthodoxy and Christianity are not identical and carry completely different concepts and meanings.

Orthodoxy. How historical myths appeared

It is worth considering who participated in the seven councils of the Christian ( Judeo-Christian - ed.) churches? Orthodox holy fathers or still Orthodox holy fathers, as indicated in the original Word on Law and Grace? By whom and when was it decided to replace one concept with another? And was there ever any mention of Orthodoxy in the past?

The answer to this question was given by the Byzantine monk Belisarius in 532 AD. Long before the baptism of Rus', this is what he wrote in his Chronicles about the Slavs and their rite of visiting the bath: “Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns - wild people, and their life is wild and godless, men and girls lock themselves together in a hot, overheated hut and exhaust their bodies .... "

We will not pay attention to the fact that for the monk Belisarius the usual visit by the Slavs to the bath seemed something wild and incomprehensible, this is quite natural. For us, something else is important. Pay attention to how he called the Slavs: Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns.

For this one phrase alone, we must express our gratitude to him. Since with this phrase the Byzantine monk Belisarius confirms that the Slavs were Orthodox for many hundreds ( thousands - ed.) years before their conversion to Christianity ( Judeo-Christian - ed..) faith.

The Slavs were called Orthodox, because they RIGHT praised.

What is "RIGHT"?

Our ancestors believed that reality, the cosmos, is divided into three levels. And it is also very similar to the Indian division system: upper world, Middle world and lower world.

In Rus', these three levels were called like this:

>The highest level is the level of Rule orrule.

>Second, middle levelReality.

>And lowest level- this isNav. Nav or Non-reveal, unmanifested.

>World governis a world where everything is right orideal upper world.This is a world where ideal beings with higher consciousness live.

> Reality- this is our manifest, obvious world, the world of people.

>And the world Navi or Not-reveal, unmanifested, it is the negative, unmanifested or lower or posthumous world.

The Indian Vedas also speak of the existence of three worlds:

>Upper world is a world dominated by energy goodness.

>Middle world covered passion.

>Lower world is immersed in ignorance.

There is no such division among Christians. The Bible is silent on this.

Such a similar understanding of the world also gives a similar motivation in life, i.e. it is necessary to aspire to the world of Rule or Goodness. And in order to get into the world of Rule, you need to do everything right, i.e. by the law of God.

Words such as "truth" come from the root "right". Truth- that which gives right. “Yes” is “to give”, and “rule” is “higher”. So, the "truth" is what gives the right. Control. Correction. Government. Right. Wrong. Those. the roots of all these words is this "right". “Right” or “right”, i.e. the highest beginning. Those. the meaning is that the concept of the Rule or the higher reality should underlie the real management. And real management should spiritually elevate those who follow the ruler, leading his wards on the paths of rule.

>Details in the article:Philosophical and cultural similarities of Ancient Rus' and Ancient India" .

The substitution of the name "orthodoxy" is not "orthodoxy"

The question is, who and when on Russian soil decided to replace the terms Orthodoxy with Orthodoxy?

It happened in the 17th century, when the Moscow Patriarch Nikon initiated a church reform. The main goal of this Nikon reform was not to change the rites of the Christian Church, as it is now interpreted, where it all comes down to supposedly replacing the sign of the cross with a two-fingered one with a three-fingered one and walking procession On the other side. The main goal of the reform was the destruction of dual faith on Russian soil.

In our time, few people know that before the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Muscovy, there was dual faith in the Russian lands. In other words, the common people professed not only orthodoxy, i.e. Greek Rite Christianity that came from Byzantium, but also the old pre-Christian faith of their ancestors ORTHODOXY. This is what worried Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov and his spiritual mentor, the Christian Patriarch Nikon, most of all, for the Orthodox Old Believers lived by their own principles and did not recognize any power over themselves.

Patriarch Nikon decided to put an end to dual faith in a very original way. To do this, under the guise of a reform in the church, allegedly due to the discrepancy between the Greek and Slavic texts, he ordered all liturgical books to be rewritten, replacing the phrases "orthodox Christian faith" with "Orthodox Christian faith." In the Readings of the Menaia, which have survived to our times, we can see the old version of the entry "Orthodox Christian Faith." This was Nikon's very interesting approach to reform.

Firstly, there was no need to rewrite many ancient Slavic, as they said then charaty books, or chronicles, which described the victories and achievements of pre-Christian Orthodoxy.

Secondly, life during the time of dual faith and the very original meaning of Orthodoxy were erased from the memory of the people, because after such a church reform, any text from liturgical books or ancient chronicles could be interpreted as the beneficial influence of Christianity on Russian lands. In addition, the patriarch sent a memo to the Moscow churches about the use of the sign of the cross with three fingers instead of the two-fingered one.

Thus began the reform, as well as the protest against it, which led to a schism in the Church. A protest against Nikon's church reforms was organized former comrades Patriarch Archpriests Avvakum Petrov and Ivan Neronov. They pointed out to the patriarch the arbitrariness of the actions, and then in 1654 he arranged a Council at which, as a result of pressure on the participants, he sought to hold a book right on ancient Greek and Slavic manuscripts. However, Nikon's alignment was not with the old rites, but with the modern Greek practice of that time. All the actions of Patriarch Nikon led to the fact that the church split into two warring parts.

Supporters of the old traditions accused Nikon of trilingual heresy and pandering to paganism, as Christians called Orthodoxy, that is, the old pre-Christian faith. The split engulfed the whole country. This led to the fact that in 1667 the great Moscow cathedral condemned and deposed Nikon, and anathematized all opponents of the reforms. From that time on, adherents of the new liturgical traditions began to be called Nikonians, and adherents of the old rites and traditions began to be called schismatics and persecuted. The confrontation between the Nikonians and the schismatics at times reached the point of armed clashes until the royal troops came out on the side of the Nikonians. In order to avoid a large-scale religious war, part of the higher clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate condemned some of the provisions of Nikon's reforms.

in liturgical practices and government documents again began to use the term orthodoxy. For example, let's turn to the spiritual regulations of Peter the Great: “... And like a Christian Sovereign, orthodoxy and everyone in the church, the Holy Guardian of piety ...”

As we can see, even in the 18th century, Peter the Great is called the Christian sovereign, guardian of orthodoxy and piety. But there is not a word about Orthodoxy in this document. Nor is it in the editions of the Spiritual Regulations of 1776-1856.

Education of the ROC

Based on this, the question arises, when did the term Orthodoxy begin to be officially used by the Christian Church?

The fact is that in the Russian Empire did not have Russian Orthodox Church. The Christian church existed under a different name - "Russian Greek Catholic Church". Or as it was also called "Russian Orthodox Church of the Greek Rite".

Christian church called The Russian Orthodox Church appeared during the reign of the Bolsheviks.

At the beginning of 1945, by decree of Joseph Stalin, a local council of the Russian church was held in Moscow under the leadership of responsible persons from the State Security of the USSR and a new Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' was elected.

It should be mentioned that many Christian priests, who did not recognize the power of the Bolsheviks, left Russia and abroad continue to profess Christianity of the Eastern Rite and call their church none other than Russian Orthodox Church or Russian Orthodox Church.

In order to finally move away from well crafted historical myth and to find out what the word Orthodoxy really meant in ancient times, let's turn to those people who still keep the old faith of their ancestors.

Having received their education in the Soviet era, these pundits either do not know, or carefully try to hide from ordinary people that even in ancient times, long before the birth of Christianity, Orthodoxy existed in the Slavic lands. It covered not only the basic concept when our wise ancestors praised the Rule. And the deep essence of Orthodoxy was much larger and more voluminous than it seems today.

The figurative meaning of this word included the concepts when our ancestors Right praised. That's just it was not Roman law and not Greek, but our own, native Slavic.

It included:

>Clan Law, based on the ancient traditions of culture, horses and foundations of the Family;

>Community law, creating mutual understanding between various Slavic families living together in one small settlement;

>Mine law that regulated the interaction between communities living in large settlements, which were cities;

> Weight law, which determined the relationship between communities living in different cities and towns within the same Vesey, i.e. within the same area of ​​​​settlement and residence;

>Veche law, which was adopted at a general meeting of all the people and observed by all clans of the Slavic community.

Any Law from Generic to Veche was arranged on the basis of the ancient Konov, the culture and foundations of the Family, as well as on the basis of the commandments of the ancient Slavic gods and the instructions of the ancestors. It was our native Slavic Law.

Our wise ancestors commanded to preserve it, and we are preserving it. From ancient times, our ancestors praised the Rule and we continue to praise the Law, and we keep our Slavic Law and pass it on from generation to generation.

Therefore, we and our ancestors were, are and will be Orthodox.

change on wikipedia

Modern interpretation of the term ORTHODOX = Orthodox, appeared on Wikipedia only after this resource was funded by the UK government. In fact, Orthodoxy translates as rightBelieve, Orthodox translates as orthodox.

Either Wikipedia, continuing the idea of ​​the “identity” Orthodoxy=Orthodoxy, should call Muslims and Jews Orthodox (because the terms orthodox Muslim or Orthodox Jew are found in all world literature), or still recognize that Orthodoxy=Orthodoxy and in no way refers to Orthodoxy, as well as the Christian Church of the Eastern Rite, called since 1945 - the Russian Orthodox Church.

Orthodoxy is not a religion, not Christianity, but a faith

Any Indian follower Vedanta knows that his religion, together with the Aryans, came from Rus'. And the modern Russian language is their ancient Sanskrit. It's just that in India it changed to Hindi, but in Russia it remained the same. Therefore, Indian Vedism is not in full degree Russian Vedism.

Russian nicknames for gods Vyshen (Rod) and Roof (Yar, Christ) became the names of Indian gods Vishnu and krishna. The encyclopedia is slyly silent about this.

Witchcraft is the everyday understanding of Russian Vedism, which includes the elementary skills of magic and mysticism. "Fight against witches" in Western Europe in the XV-XVI centuries. was a struggle with the Slavs, who prayed to the Vedic gods.

The Russian god corresponds to the Christian god-father Genus, not at all Jehovah-Yahweh-Sabaoth, which among the Masons is the god of darkness and death of Rus' Mary. Myself Jesus Christ on many Christian icons is designated as Yar and his mother Maria- how Mara.

The word "devil" is of the same root as Virgo. This is the prince of darkness, Masonic Sabaoth, which is otherwise called Satan. There are no "servants of God" in the Vedic religion either. And only the desire of the West to belittle Russian Vedism and force the Russians to abandon their gods, in which the Russians believed for hundreds of thousands of years, led to the fact that Russian Christianity became more and more pro-Western, and the followers of Russian Vedism began to be considered "servants of the devil." In other words, in the West, all Russian concepts have been turned inside out.

After all, the concept "Orthodoxy" originally belonged to Russian Vedism and meant: "Right glorified".

Therefore, primitive Christianity began to call itself "orthodox", but the term then passed to Islam. As you know, Christianity has the epithet "Orthodox" only in Russian; on the rest, it calls itself "orthodox", that is, precisely "orthodox".

In other words, today's Christianity has secretly appropriated a Vedic name that is deeply rooted in the Russian mind.

The functions of Veles, to a much greater extent than St. Blaise, were inherited by St. Nicholas of Myra, nicknamed Nicholas the Wonderworker. (See the result of the research published in the book: Uspensky B.A.. Philological research in the field of Slavic antiquities .. - M .: MGU, 1982 .)

By the way, on many of his icons it is inscribed in implicit letters: MARY LIK. Hence the original name of the area in honor of the face of Mary: Marlikian. So actually this bishop was Nicholas of Marlic. And his city, which was originally called " Mary"(that is, the city of Mary), now called Bari. There was a phonetic change of sounds.

Bishop Nicholas of Myra - Nicholas the Wonderworker

However, now Christians do not remember these details, hushing up the Vedic roots of Christianity. For now Jesus in Christianity is interpreted as the God of Israel, although Judaism does not consider him a god. And Christianity does not say anything about the fact that Jesus Christ, as well as his apostles, are different faces of Yar, although this is read on many icons. The name of the god Yar is also read on Shroud of Turin .

At one time, Vedism reacted very calmly and fraternally to Christianity, seeing in it just a local shoot of Vedism, for which there is a name: paganism (that is, an ethnic variety), like Greek paganism with another name Yara - Ares, or Roman, with the name Yar - Mars, or with Egyptian, where the name Yar or Ar was read in reverse side, Ra. In Christianity, Yar became Christ, and Vedic temples made icons and crosses of Christ.

And only over time, under the influence of political, or rather, geopolitical reasons, Christianity was opposed to Vedism, and then Christianity everywhere saw manifestations of "paganism" and led a fight with him not to the stomach, but to the death. In other words, she betrayed her parents, her heavenly patrons, and began to preach humility and humility.

>Details in the article:V.A. Chudinov - Proper education .

Secret writing on Russian and modern Christian icons

In this way Christianity within the framework of ALL Rus' was adopted not in 988, but between 1630 and 1635.

The study of Christian icons made it possible to identify sacred texts on them. Explicit inscriptions cannot be attributed to their number. But they absolutely include implicit inscriptions associated with Russian Vedic gods, temples and priests (mimes).

On the old Christian icons of the Mother of God with baby Jesus there are Russian inscriptions in runes, saying that these are the Slavic Goddess Makosh with the baby God Yar. Jesus Christ was also called CHORUS or HORUS. Moreover, the name CHORUS on the mosaic depicting Christ in the Church of Christ Hora in Istanbul is written like this: “NHOR”, that is, ICHORS. The letter I used to be written as N. The name IGOR is almost identical to the name IKHOR OR KHOR, since the sounds X and G could pass into each other. By the way, it is possible that the respectful name HERO also came from here, which later entered many languages ​​practically unchanged.

And then it becomes clear the need to mask the Vedic inscriptions: their discovery on the icons could lead to the accusation of the icon painter of belonging to the Old Believers, and for this, according to Nikon's reform, could be punished by exile or the death penalty.

On the other hand, as it now becomes clear, the absence of Vedic inscriptions made the icon a non-sacred artifact. In other words, it was not so much the presence of narrow noses, thin lips and large eyes that made the image sacred, but just the connection with the god Yar in the first place and with the goddess Mara in the second place, through reference implicit inscriptions, added magic and miraculous properties to the icon. Therefore, icon painters, if they wanted to make the icon miraculous, and not a simple artistic product, were OBLIGED to supply any image with the words: FACE OF YAR, MIM OF YAR AND MARY, TEMPLE OF MARY, YARA TEMPLE, YARA Rus', etc.

Nowadays, when the persecution on religious charges has ceased, the icon painter no longer risks his life and property by making implicit inscriptions on modern icon paintings. Therefore, in a number of cases, namely in the cases of mosaic icons, he no longer tries to hide such inscriptions as much as possible, but transfers them to the category of semi-explicit ones.

Thus, the Russian material revealed the reason why explicit inscriptions on icons moved into the category of semi-explicit and implicit ones: a ban on Russian Vedism, which followed from reforms of Patriarch Nikon . However, this example gives grounds for speculating about the same motives for masking obvious inscriptions on coins.

In more detail, this idea can be expressed as follows: once the body of a deceased priest (mime) was accompanied by a funeral golden mask, on which there were all the relevant inscriptions, but made not very large and not very contrasting, so as not to destroy the aesthetic perception of the mask. Later, instead of a mask, they began to use more small items- pendants and plaques, which also depicted the face of the deceased mime with appropriate discreet inscriptions. Even later, portraits of mimes migrated to coins. And such images were preserved as long as the spiritual power was considered the most significant in society.

However, when power became secular, passing to military leaders - princes, leaders, kings, emperors, images of authorities, and not mimes, began to be minted on coins, while images of mimes migrated to icons. At the same time, the secular authorities, as more rude, began to mint their own inscriptions weightily, rudely, visibly, and obvious legends appeared on the coins. With the advent of Christianity, such explicit inscriptions began to appear on icons, but they were no longer made with the runes of the Family, but with the Old Slavonic Cyrillic font. In the West, a Latin script was used for this.

Thus, in the West there was a similar, but still somewhat different motive, according to which the implicit inscriptions of mimes did not become explicit: on the one hand, the aesthetic tradition, on the other hand, the secularization of power, that is, the transfer of the function of governing society from priests to military leaders and officials.

This allows us to consider icons, as well as sacred sculptures of gods and saints, as substitutes for those artifacts that previously acted as carriers of sacred properties: golden masks and plaques. On the other hand, icons existed before, but did not affect the sphere of finance, remaining entirely within religion. Therefore, their production has experienced a new heyday.

In 1054, it became widespread mainly in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East.

Features of Orthodoxy

The formation of religious organizations is closely connected with the social and political life of society. Christianity is no exception, which was especially evident in the differences between its main directions - and Orthodoxy. At the beginning of the 5th century The Roman Empire split into East and West. Eastern was single state The Western one was a fragmented conglomerate of principalities. In the conditions of strong centralization of power in Byzantium, the church immediately turned out to be an appendage of the state, and the emperor actually became its head. The stagnation of the social life of Byzantium and the control of the church by the despotic state led to the conservatism of the Orthodox Church in dogma and ritualism, as well as tendencies towards mysticism and irrationalism in its ideology. In the West, the church gradually occupied central location in and turned into an organization striving for dominance in all spheres of society, including politics.

Difference between east and west was due to developmental features. Greek Christianity concentrated its attention on ontological and philosophical problems, while Western Christianity focused on political and legal ones.

Since the Orthodox Church was under the auspices of the state, its history is connected not so much with external events as with the formation of dogma. The basis of Orthodox dogma is the Holy Scripture (the Bible - the Old and New Testament) and Sacred Tradition (resolutions of the first seven Ecumenical and local councils, creations of the church fathers and canonical theologians). At the first two Ecumenical Councils - Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) the so-called Symbol of faith, briefly outlining the essence of the Christian doctrine. It recognizes the trinity of God - the creator and ruler of the universe, the existence of the afterlife, posthumous retribution, the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ, who opened the possibility for the salvation of mankind, on which lies the seal of original sin.

Fundamentals of the doctrine of Orthodoxy

The Orthodox Church declares the main provisions of the faith to be absolutely true, eternal and unchanging, communicated to man by God himself and incomprehensible to reason. Keeping them intact is the first duty of the church. It is impossible to add anything or remove any provisions, therefore the later dogmas established by the Catholic Church are about the descent of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son (filioque), about immaculate conception not only Christ, but also the Virgin Mary, about the infallibility of the Roman pope, about purgatory - Orthodoxy considers it a heresy.

Personal salvation of believers is made dependent on the zealous fulfillment of the rites and prescriptions of the church, due to which there is communion with Divine grace, transmitted to man through the sacraments: baptism in infancy, chrismation, communion, repentance (confession), marriage, priesthood, anointing (unction). The sacraments are accompanied by rituals, which, together with divine services, prayers and religious holidays, form the religious cult of Christianity. Great importance in Orthodoxy is attached to holidays and fasts.

Orthodoxy teaches observance of moral precepts given to man by God through the prophet Moses, as well as the fulfillment of the covenants and sermons of Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospels. Their main content is the observance of universal norms of life and love for one's neighbor, manifestations of mercy and compassion, as well as the rejection of resistance to evil by violence. Orthodoxy emphasizes the uncomplaining enduring of sufferings sent by God to test the strength of faith and cleansing from sin, on the special veneration of the sufferers - the blessed, the poor, the holy fools, hermits and hermits. In Orthodoxy, a vow of celibacy is given only by monks and higher ranks of clergy.

Organization of the Orthodox Church

Georgian Orthodox Church. Christianity began to spread on the territory of Georgia in the first centuries AD. She received autocephaly in the 8th century. In 1811, Georgia became part of the Russian Empire, and the church became part of the Russian Orthodox Church as an exarchate. In 1917, at the meeting of Georgian priests, a decision was made to restore autocephaly, which was preserved even under Soviet power. The Russian Orthodox Church recognized autocephaly only in 1943.

Chapter Georgian Church bears the title of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi with residence in Tbilisi.

Serbian Orthodox Church. Autocephaly was recognized in 1219. The head of the church bears the title of Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovapia, Patriarch of Serbia with residence in Belgrade.

Romanian Orthodox Church. Christianity entered the territory of Romania in the II-III centuries. AD In 1865, the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church was proclaimed, but without the consent of the Church of Constantinople; in 1885 such consent was obtained. The head of the church bears the title of Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Ungro-Vlachia, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church with residence in Bucharest.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Christianity appeared on the territory of Bulgaria in the first centuries of our era. In 870 the Bulgarian Church received autonomy. The status of the church has changed over the centuries depending on the political situation. The autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was recognized by Constantinople only in 1953, and the patriarchy only in 1961.

The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church bears the title of Metropolitan of Sofia, Patriarch of All Bulgaria with residence in Sofia.

Cypriot Orthodox Church. The first Christian communities on the island were founded at the beginning of our era by St. Apostles Paul and Barnabas. Widespread Christianization of the population began in the 5th century. Autocephaly was recognized at the III Ecumenical Council in Ephesus.

The head of the Cypriot Church bears the title of Archbishop of New Justiniana and all of Cyprus, his residence is in Nicosia.

E.yadskaya (Greek) Orthodox Church. According to legend, the Christian faith was brought by the Apostle Paul, who founded and established Christian communities in a number of cities, and St. John the Evangelist wrote "Revelation" on the island of Patmos. The autocephaly of the Greek Church was recognized in 1850. In 1924, it switched to the Gregorian calendar, which caused a split. The head of the church bears the title of Archbishop of Athens and all Hellas with residence in Athens.

Athens Orthodox Church. Autocephaly was recognized in 1937. However, due to political reasons, contradictions arose, and the final position of the church was determined only in 1998. The head of the church bears the title of Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania with residence in Tirana. The peculiarities of this church include the election of the clergy with the participation of the laity. Divine services are performed in Albanian and Greek.

Polish Orthodox Church. Orthodox dioceses have existed on the territory of Poland since the 13th century. However, for a long time they were under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. After Poland gained independence, they left the subordination of the Russian Orthodox Church and formed the Polish Orthodox Church, which in 1925 was recognized as autocephalous. Russia accepted the autocephaly of the Polish Church only in 1948.

Worship is held on Church Slavonic. Recently, however, the Polish language has been used more and more. The head of the Polish Orthodox Church bears the title of Metropolitan of Warsaw and all of Polynia with residence in Warsaw.

Czechoslovak Orthodox Church. The mass baptism of the people on the territory of modern Czech Republic and Slovakia began in the second half of the 9th century, when the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius arrived in Moravia. For a long time these lands were under the jurisdiction catholic church. Orthodoxy was preserved only in Eastern Slovakia. After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, an Orthodox community was organized. Further development of events led to division within the Orthodoxy of the country. In 1951, the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church asked the Russian Orthodox Church to accept it into its jurisdiction. In November 1951, the Russian Orthodox Church granted her autocephaly, which the Church of Constantinople approved only in 1998. After the division of Czechoslovakia into two independent states, the church formed two metropolitan provinces. The head of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church bears the title of Metropolitan of Prague and Archbishop of the Czech and Slovak Republics with residence in Prague.

American Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy came to America from Alaska, where from the end of the 18th century. the Orthodox community began to operate. In 1924 a diocese was formed. After the sale of Alaska to the United States Orthodox churches and land remains in the ownership of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1905, the center of the diocese was transferred to New York, and its head Tikhon Belavin elevated to the rank of archbishop. In 1906, he raised the question of the possibility of autocephaly for the American Church, but in 1907 Tikhon was withdrawn, and the issue remained unresolved.

In 1970, the Moscow Patriarchate gave autocephalous status to the metropolis, which was called the Orthodox Church in America. The head of the church has the title of Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, with residence in Syosset, near New York.

In 395, the Roman Empire fell under the onslaught of the barbarians. As a result, the once powerful state broke up into several independent entities, one of which was Byzantium. Despite the fact that the Christian Church continued to remain united for more than six centuries, the development of its eastern and western parts followed different paths, which predetermined their further break.

Separation of two related churches

In 1054, the Christian Church, which had already existed for a thousand years by that time, split into two branches, one of which was the Western Roman Catholic Church, and the other, the Eastern Orthodox, with its center in Constantinople. Accordingly, the doctrine itself, based on Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, received two independent directions - Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

The formal schism was the result of a long process that included both theological disputes and attempts by the popes of Rome to subjugate the Eastern churches. Nevertheless, Orthodoxy is in full measure the result of the development of the general Christian doctrine, which began in apostolic times. She considers the entire sacred history from the giving of the New Testament by Jesus Christ to the moment of the Great Schism as her own.

Literary sources that carry the foundations of the dogma

The essence of Orthodoxy comes down to the confession of the apostolic faith, the foundations of which are set forth in the Holy Scriptures - the books of the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the Holy Tradition, which includes the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, the works of the Church Fathers and the Lives of the Saints. This should also include liturgical traditions that determine the order of the celebration of church services, the performance of all kinds of rites and sacraments, which Orthodoxy includes.

Prayers and hymns for the most part are texts taken from the patristic heritage. These include those that are included in church services, and those that are intended for private (home) reading.

The Truth of Orthodox Teaching

According to the apologists (followers and preachers) of this doctrine, Orthodoxy is the only true form of confession of the Divine teaching, given to people by Jesus Christ and further developed thanks to his closest disciples - the holy apostles.

In contrast to it, according to Orthodox theologians, the rest of the Christian denominations - Catholicism and Protestantism with all their offshoots - are nothing but heresies. It is appropriate to note that the very word "Orthodoxy" is a tracing paper from Greek, where it literally sounds like "correct glorification." It is, of course, about the glorification of the Lord God.

Like all Christianity, Orthodoxy formulates its teaching in accordance with the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, of which there have been seven throughout the history of the Church. The only problem is that some of them are recognized by all denominations (varieties of Christian churches), while others are recognized only by one or two. For this reason, the Symbols of Faith - the presentation of the main provisions of the dogma - sound differently for everyone. This, in particular, was one of the reasons why Orthodoxy and Catholicism took different historical paths.

A document expressing the foundations of the faith

Orthodoxy is a creed, the main provisions of which were formulated by two Ecumenical Councils - Nicaea, held in 325, and Constantinople, in 381. The document adopted by them was called the Nicene-Tsaregrad Creed and contains a formula that has survived in its original form to this day. It should be noted that it is she who mainly divides Orthodoxy and Catholicism, since the followers of the Western Church adopted this formula in a slightly modified form.

The Orthodox Creed consists of twelve members - sections, each of which concisely, but at the same time succinctly and exhaustively sets out the dogma adopted by the church on a particular issue of dogma.

The Essence of the Doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity

The first member of the Creed is dedicated to salvation through faith in the One God the Father, who created heaven and earth, as well as the entire visible and invisible world. The second and together with him the eighth confess the equality of all members of the Most Holy Trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, point to their consubstantiality and, as a result, to the same worship of Each of Them. The equality of all three hypostases is one of the main dogmas that Orthodoxy professes. Prayers to the Most Holy Trinity are always addressed equally to all Her hypostases.

Doctrine of the Son of God

The subsequent members of the Creed, from the second to the seventh, are dedicated to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In accordance with Orthodox dogma, He has a dual nature - Divine and human, and both parts of it are combined in Him not together, but at the same time not separately.

According to Orthodox teaching, Jesus Christ was not created, but was born of God the Father even before the beginning of time. It should be noted that in this statement, Orthodoxy and Catholicism disagree and take irreconcilable positions. He acquired his earthly essence, incarnated as a result of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary through the mediation of the Holy Spirit.

Orthodox understanding of Christ's sacrifice

The fundamental element of Orthodox teaching is faith in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ, brought by him on the cross in the name of the salvation of all people. Despite the fact that all of Christianity speaks of it, Orthodoxy understands this act in a slightly different way.

How they teach recognized fathers Eastern Church, Jesus Christ, having taken human nature, damaged by the original sin of Adam and Eve, and embodying in it everything inherent in people, except for their sinfulness, cleansed it with his torment and delivered it from the curse. By the subsequent resurrection from the dead, He set an example of how human nature, cleansed from sin and reborn, is able to withstand death.

Having thus become the first person to gain immortality, Jesus Christ opened the way for people, following which they can avoid eternal death. Its stages are faith, repentance and participation in the celebration of the Divine sacraments, the main of which is the communion of the flesh and blood of the Lord, which has been taking place since then during the liturgy. Having tasted bread and wine, turned into the body and blood of the Lord, a believing person perceives a part of His nature (hence the name of the rite - communion), and inherits after his earthly death eternal life in the sky.

Also in this part, the ascension of Jesus Christ and His second coming are declared, after which the Kingdom of God will triumph on earth, prepared for all professing Orthodoxy. This should happen unexpectedly, since only the One God knows about the specific dates.

One of the contradictions between the Eastern and Western churches

The eighth article of the Creed is entirely dedicated to the life-giving Holy Spirit, who proceeds only from God the Father. This dogma also became the cause of theological disputes with representatives of Catholicism. According to them, God the Father and God the Son equally exude the Holy Spirit.

Discussions have been going on for many centuries, but the Eastern Church and Russian Orthodoxy in particular, they occupy an unchanging position on this issue, dictated by the dogma adopted at the two Ecumenical Councils, which were discussed above.

About Heavenly Church

In the ninth part, we are talking about the fact that the Church, established by God, is essentially one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Some explanation is required here. In this case, we are talking not about an earthly administrative-religious organization created by people and in charge of conducting worship services and performing the sacraments, but about a heavenly organization, expressed in the spiritual unity of all true followers of Christ's teachings. It was created by God, and since for Him the world is not divided into the living and the dead, its members are equally those who are healthy today and those who have long completed their earthly journey.

The heavenly Church is one, because God Himself is one. She is holy, as she was sanctified by her Creator, and is called apostolic, since her first ministers were the disciples of Jesus Christ - the holy apostles, whose succession is passed down in the priesthood from generation to generation up to our days.

Baptism - the way to the Church of Christ

According to the eighth member, one can join the Church of Christ, and therefore inherit eternal life, only after passing the rite of Holy Baptism, the prototype of which was revealed by Jesus Christ himself, once plunging into the waters of the Jordan. It is generally accepted that the grace of the other five established sacraments is also implied here. The eleventh and twelfth members, which complete the Creed, declare the resurrection of all dead Orthodox Christians, and their eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

All of the above commandments of Orthodoxy, accepted as religious dogmas, were finally approved at the Second Ecumenical Council 381 years and, in order to avoid distortion of the dogma, remain unchanged until our days.

These days on globe Orthodoxy is practiced by more than 226 million people. With such a wide coverage of believers, the teaching of the Eastern Church is inferior to Catholicism in the number of its followers, but surpasses Protestantism.

The ecumenical (universal, embracing the whole world) Orthodox Church, traditionally headed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, is divided into local, or, as they are otherwise called, autocephalous churches. Their influence is limited to the boundaries of any one state or province.

Orthodoxy came to Rus' in 988 thanks to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, who drove out the darkness of paganism with his rays. Today, despite the formal separation of religion from the state, proclaimed almost a century ago, his followers are the vast majority of believers in our country, and it is on him that the basis of the spiritual life of the people is built.

The day of Orthodoxy, replacing the night of unbelief

The religious life of the country, revived after decades of nationwide atheism, is gaining strength every year. Today, the church has all the achievements of modern technological progress at its disposal. To propagate Orthodoxy, not only printed publications are used, but also various media resources, including important place occupies the internet. One example of its use in order to improve the religious education of citizens is the creation of such portals as "Orthodoxy and the World", "Tradition.ru", etc.

Nowadays, work with children is also taking on a wide scale, especially relevant in view of the fact that few of them have the opportunity to join the basics of faith in the family. Explained similar situation the fact that parents who grew up in the Soviet and post-Soviet period were themselves brought up, as a rule, atheists, and do not even have the basic concepts of faith.

In order to educate the younger generation in the spirit of Orthodoxy, in addition to the traditional Sunday school classes, the organization of various events is also used. These include children's holidays that are gaining popularity, such as "Orthodoxy Day", "Light of the Christmas Star", etc. All this allows us to hope that soon the faith of our fathers will gain its former power in Russia and become the basis of the spiritual the unity of its people.

Creating the world, the Great Creator endowed man with the most unique gift - freedom. Man was created in the image and likeness of God, and freedom is precisely his god-like property.

The Perfect Personality creates an imperfect being, but endows it with this greatest gift. The Lord knew that, using this gift, a person would fall away from Him, but he still left the right to choose. Did God regret that he rewarded a person with this “unbearable” burden? Nothing like this! This is evidenced by all subsequent sacred history, which is literally permeated with evidence of Divine trust.

"When the water global flood returned again to the borders of the shores ... ”The Lord gives humanity one more chance, again, trusting and not taking away freedom. Abraham was in freedom of choice, because he could not follow the Lord into the space of death (what a feat for an ancient person to leave his native place!). There were no kings for the holy people in God's plan - but when the Jews, following the example of the pagans, decided to have a king for themselves, the Lord did not interfere with this (a reminder, by the way, to Orthodox monarchists who shout with all their mouths about the God-established monarchical system). And these are just a few examples from Scripture.

And finally, the greatest example of freedom, love and trust is the Gospel. God eventually trusts the people of his own Son, whom they ... crucified.

And still, from more than two thousand years of experience of church life, we know that God not only did not take away, but even added freedom to us. And the apostle Paul, who was once a strict zealot of the Law, and then became a man of the spirit, beautifully wrote about this.

From Judaism, which was very captious about external rites, Christianity grew up, which, with its attitude to the freedom of the individual, sharply contrasts with other religious systems. The Church has retained in itself a unique gift - respect for human dignity. And her attitude to the image and likeness of the Almighty cannot be different!

But freedom in the Christian sense is not at all the one that the modern world. The freedom of Christians is, ultimately, freedom from sinful passions, freedom to contemplate the Divine. And modern man, boasting of his imaginary freedom, in fact, is often a slave to a lot, when the soul is bound by the chains of passions and the shackles of sins, and the likeness of God is trampled into the mud.

True freedom comes when a person joins the Holy Spirit, having passed through the paths of repentance and purification. As the same apostle Paul aptly said: “The Lord is a Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17). True freedom cannot be acquired without the Holy Spirit!

Freedom of the spirit is a heavy burden

But how is freedom revealed in the Church of Christ in practical terms? First, the minimum number of fixed rules. Only the foundations of the faith, the so-called dogmas (the most important of which are listed in the Creed), are strictly defined and unchangeable in the Church. Even the Holy Scriptures and then in different time differed both in late insertions and in the presence or absence of certain books in the biblical code. (For example, the Eastern Church did not accept the Apocalypse for a very long time, and the Synodal Bible does not know the Fourth Book of Maccabees, which was included in the oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint).

One of the greatest ascetics of Athos, Gregory of Sinai, defining the boundaries of church institutions, remarked: “Purely confessing the Trinity in God and the duality in Christ – in this I see the limit of Orthodoxy.”

But for the practice of salvation, Christianity offers a lot of everything: ascetic rules, prohibitions, compulsions and actions that serve only one thing - to bring a person closer to God. All this is not imposed in full as something mandatory, but is offered for voluntary and individual perception.

The main thing is not the external rank, but the Lord God, but without much of what the Church has accumulated in its experience, it can be extremely difficult to reach the heavenly palaces. However, all these accumulations are not a goal, but a means, and if the means in a given and specific case does not help (and it cannot be universal!), It means that something needs to be changed in the spiritual life, and not go from year to year. year in a vicious circle.

Not everyone hears through the centuries the words that “He gave us the ability to be ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit, because the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). And if they do, then this burden is probably heavy - to walk before the Lord in freedom of spirit. Maturity, a responsible approach, prudence, knowledge of the foundations of faith, respect and love for one's neighbor are needed.

The growth of a person in spirit and truth need not necessarily be accompanied by the suppression of all his personal aspirations. Despite this, in modern Russian church reality, freedom is often equated almost with sin. Absolutely Christian concepts, such as "freedom of the individual", " civil rights”, “gender equality”, “freedom of speech”, are interpreted as ideological sabotage by the enemies of the Church and the state. Along with the mention of these terms in certain church (and more often near-church) media, photographs of gay parades, naked feminists with axes and pedophiles are published. As if fundamental civil rights, growing from the depths of Christianity, are limited only by these negative phenomena!

But those times are not far off when we were promised to be shown on TV the “last priest”, and an open confession in the faith meant the path of martyrdom or confession. Yes, somehow I forgot everything ...

"Helping the Repentant"

Freedom of speech began to interfere with us. We somehow began to reject freedom in general, both in ideology and in the construction of personal spiritual growth. The lives of many of our brothers and sisters are tied with chains of various prescriptions, many of which have no basis in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. It was precisely these cases that Christ repeatedly spoke about: “He answered and said to them: why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:3), “but in vain they worship me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9), “and said to them: Is it good that you revoke the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition?” (Mark 7:9), “making the word of God obsolete by your tradition, which you established; and you do many things like this” (Mark 7:13).

This can be clearly demonstrated by some of the brochures from the cycle “To Help the Penitent”, after reading which a Christian runs the risk of falling into one of the most terrible sins - despondency. It is understandable, because how can one not lose heart when one gets the impression that all life is a complete sin and blackness? To what is gleaned from the brochures, the advice of the local young priest is added, and even the old woman in the temple whispers something “to help” - and as a result, the person feels like a kind of Prometheus, chained to the rock of life.

Of course, not all of us are based on Scripture. There is also a legend. But Tradition is Sacred. And this is not a beautiful epithet: the word "sacred" indicates that the tradition is sanctified in the Church by the action of the Holy Spirit. But there is something completely different: certain traditions and ideas that also have the right to exist, but in no way should be perceived as something super-obligatory, eternal and unshakable.

How to determine what is sacred and what is just tradition? Very simple. After all, there is only one Author of Scripture and Tradition - the Holy Spirit. This means that Holy Tradition must always correspond or at least not contradict Scripture.

"Adepts of severity" and their stranglehold

As an example, let's take the statement that spouses should abstain from intimacy during fasting. What does Scripture say about this? And the Scripture says the following: “Do not deviate from one another, except by agreement, for a time, for the exercise of fasting and prayer, and [then] be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with your intemperance. However, I said this as a permission, and not as a command” (1 Cor. 7:5).

Perfect Example Christian attitude to the individual: everything is put in its place, and the maximum degree of freedom is given. But already in the early Church there were adherents of the "hard line". It was for them that two great fathers of the Church (the 4th canon of Dionysius and the 13th canon of Timothy of Alexandria) made an extended comment, confirming the freedom of choice of spouses in this difficult matter. In monuments ancient Russian literature- "Instruction of the Archbishop of Novgorod Elijah (John) (March 13, 1166)" and "Questioning Kirik" - the practice of mandatory and forced renunciation of married life in great post condemned in every way.

But soon other winds blew, and even now, in private and public conversations, some clergy categorically forbid their family flock to touch each other during fasting. A few years ago, a learned monk, who spoke in the press with the Open Secret that there were no such prohibitions, was subjected to such a barrage of censures that he was forced to justify himself and "soften the form of statements." This is how the "adepts of rigor" hold on to human traditions - with a stranglehold.

In general, the entire intimate sphere of married life is fertile ground for all sorts of conjectures and prejudices. There is a full range of everything: and "sinful postures and types of intimacy." (This is in "a bed with a candle" to the legal spouses! Talmudists stand aside and nervously bite their elbows ...) And "the sinful use of condoms and other non-abortive contraceptives." (Give birth and give birth, while forgetting that we give birth not into biomass, but into the Kingdom of Heaven or into eternal perdition. And that in addition to giving birth, it is also necessary to educate a person as a worthy member of the Church and society. Like many priests, I I know examples of abandonment of children in large families).

If at confession a priest "bites" into the subject of the confessor's intimate life, one has to doubt his spiritual and sometimes mental health.

But it is necessary to keep in mind one more aspect: through twitching the strings of the secret and intimate aspects of a person’s life, you can get a certain access code for manipulating and controlling him - a pharisaic trick as old as the world, which has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ.

Fashionable sentence for an Orthodox woman

Sometimes our freedom is “pinched” on trifles…

So, one well-known archpriest and preacher recently began to take bread from the hosts of the program “ fashion sentence”and came to grips with issues of modern fashion. Here, of course, he is far from a pioneer: a well-known theme - women must look like this, men - like this, and children should be just like that, and everything is desirable, to walk in formation.

Some personal stereotypes, ideas, projections, and even deep complexes and desires are pushed through under the guise of church prescriptions. Where neither Christ, nor the apostles, nor the men of the apostles intervened, some modern preachers go out of their way. They will give advice for all occasions, and in the end they will even tell who will be saved and who will not (I'm not kidding!), making a decision for the Lord God. It is truly said: “And it became with them the word of the Lord: commandment upon commandment, commandment upon commandment, rule upon rule, rule upon rule, here a little, there a little, so that they will go and fall on their backs, and be broken, and fall into a net. and they will be caught” (Is. 28:13-14).

In conclusion, I would like to say once again that Christianity is not a chain of endless prohibitions and suppressions. It is a religion of free and voluntary ascent to God. The Lord does not force anyone, does not break through the knee, but desires "that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).

“Stay therefore in the freedom which Christ has given us, and do not again be subjected to the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1). Let us, brothers and sisters, carefully and deeply study our faith, pray with zeal, without losing discretion and sanity, respecting and appreciating every person, for a person is the image and likeness of God.

Portal "Orthodoxy and the World" andindependent service "Sreda" hold a series of discussions about parish life. Every week a new theme! We will set everything topical issues different priests. If you want to talk about the sore points of Orthodoxy, your experience or vision of problems, write to the editor at [email protected]

There are a lot of differences between Slavic and Christianity. The most important of them should be singled out. They were designated by the Christian Church in the 17th century, becoming one of the main reasons for the persecution of the followers of the Old Slavic Orthodox faith- those who are commonly called Old Believers. Baptism with two fingers had a sacred meaning. The fact is that the sacrament of baptism also appeared long before Christianity, it was taught by the Magi. In a two-toed baptism, the middle finger symbolizes God, and the index finger symbolizes a person. Thus, the two-fingered signified the unity of man with God.

The custom of being baptized from right to left also came from Slavic Orthodoxy and was preserved in Orthodox Christianity. For the ancient Slavs, baptism from right to left meant the victory of light over darkness and truth over falsehood.

The symbol of faith for Christians is Jesus Christ himself, and for Orthodox Slavs and Old Believers - an ancient equilateral cross, which was originally enclosed in a solar circle. Such a cross symbolized the path of Rule (in other words, Truth), the starting point for which was the moment of sunrise.

True, the light of life and destiny in Slavic Orthodoxy

The truth and the light of life in the tradition of Slavic Orthodoxy were symbolized by odd numbers. Hence, to this day, the existing tradition has arisen of giving an odd number of flowers for the holidays, and an even number of flowers, for which the light of life has already gone out.

In Slavic Orthodoxy, there was an idea of ​​​​fate, embodied in the belief in women in childbirth - the heavenly mistresses of the world and the most ancient goddesses of fate. It also contained the concept of God's judgment, which is mentioned in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign".

Christianity that came to Rus' for centuries existed side by side with Orthodoxy and became Orthodox Christianity. Realizing how much Christianity was mixed with Slavic Orthodoxy, Patriarch Nikon decided to correct it according to the Greek canons. As a result, Nikon's reform led not only to the persecution of the Old Believers, but also to the destruction of the surviving heritage of Slavic Orthodoxy.

In Christianity, the Orthodox are not even mentioned. However, the bright image of Jesus Christ took root on Russian soil, turned into one of the most important components of Russian culture. In fact, Christianity and are just different ways to comprehend the one God, and therefore they are equally worthy of respect. The difference between Slavic Orthodoxy lies in the fact that it stands closer to the spiritual sources of ancient Russian culture.