Orthodoxy(from the Greek “correct service”, “correct teaching”) - one of the main world religions, represents the direction in Christianity. Orthodoxy took shape in first millennium AD. under the leadership of the bishop's chair Constantinople- capital of the eastern Roman Empire. Currently, Orthodoxy is practiced by 225-300 million people all over the world. In addition to Russia, the Orthodox religion has become widespread in Balkans and Eastern Europe. It is interesting that, along with traditionally Orthodox countries, adherents of this direction of Christianity are found in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and other Asian countries (and not only people with Slavic roots, but also the local population).

Orthodox believe in God the Trinity, into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is believed that all three divine hypostases reside in indissoluble unity. God is the creator of the world that was created by him from the beginning sinless. Evil and sin are understood as distortion world created by God. The original sin of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God was redeemed through incarnation, earthly life and suffering on the cross God the Son Jesus Christ.

In the understanding of the Orthodox Church- this is one divine-human organism led by the Lord Jesus Christ uniting a community of people Holy Spirit, Orthodox Faith, God's Law, Hierarchy and Sacraments.

Highest level of hierarchy priests in Orthodoxy is the rank bishop. He heads church community on its territory (diocese), carries out the sacrament ordination of clergy(ordination), including other bishops. Series of ordinations continuously goes back to the apostles. More elder bishops are called archbishops and metropolitans, and the supreme one is patriarch. Lower rank of the church hierarchy, after bishops, - elders(priests) who can perform all Orthodox sacraments except for ordination. Next come deacons who themselves don't commit sacraments, but help in this regard to the presbyter or bishop.

Clergy divided into White and black. Priests and deacons belonging to white clergy, have families. Black clergy is monks making a vow celibacy. The rank of deacon in monasticism is called hierodeacon, and that of a priest is called hieromonk. Bishop can be only representative black clergy.

Hierarchical structure the Orthodox Church accepts certain democratic procedures management, in particular, is encouraged criticism any clergyman, if he retreats from the Orthodox faith.

Freedom of the individual refers to the most important principles Orthodoxy. It is believed that the meaning of spiritual life man in acquiring the original true freedom from the sins and passions by which he is enslaved. The rescue possible only under the influence God's grace, given that free consent believer their efforts on the spiritual path.

To gain there are two ways of salvation. First - monastic, which consists of solitude and detachment from the world. This is the way special service God, the Church and neighbors, associated with a person’s intense struggle with his sins. Second way of salvation- This service to the world, first of all family. The family plays a huge role in Orthodoxy and is called small church or home church.

Source of internal law Orthodox Church - the main document - is Sacred Tradition, which contains the Holy Scripture, interpretation of the Holy Scripture compiled by the Holy Fathers, theological writings of the Holy Fathers (their dogmatic works), dogmatic definitions and acts of the Holy Ecumenical and Local Councils of the Orthodox Church, liturgical texts, iconography, spiritual continuity expressed in the works of ascetic writers , their instructions on spiritual life.

Attitude Orthodoxy to statehood is based on the statement that all power is from God. Even during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, the Apostle Paul commands Christians to pray for power and to honor the king not only for the sake of fear, but also for the sake of conscience, knowing that power is an institution of God.

To the Orthodox sacraments include: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Priesthood, honest Marriage and Blessing of Anointing. Sacrament Eucharist or Communion, is the most important, it contributes bringing a person closer to God. Sacrament baptism- This a person's entry into the Church, deliverance from sin and the opportunity to start a new life. Confirmation (usually immediately following baptism) involves the transfer to the believer blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which strengthen a person in spiritual life. During Unction the human body anoint those blessed with oil, which allows you to get rid of bodily ailments, gives remission of sins. Unction- associated with forgiveness of all sins, committed by a person, asking for freedom from illness. Repentance- forgiveness of sin on condition sincere repentance. Confession- gives grace-filled opportunity, strength and support to cleansing from sin.

Prayers in Orthodoxy they can be like domestic and general- church. In the first case, a person is before God opens his heart, and in the second, the power of prayer increases many times over, since people participate in it saints and angels who are also members of the Church.

The Orthodox Church believes that the history of Christianity before the great schism(the separation of Orthodoxy and Catholicism) is the history of Orthodoxy. In general, relations between the two main branches of Christianity have always developed It's hard enough, sometimes reaching frank confrontation. Moreover, even in the 21st century early speak about complete reconciliation. Orthodoxy believes that salvation can only be found in Christianity: at the same time non-Orthodox Christian communities are considered partially(but not completely) deprived of God's grace. IN difference from Catholics Orthodox Christians do not recognize the dogma of Pope's infallibility and his supremacy over all Christians, the dogma of Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the doctrine of purgatory, dogma about bodily ascension of the Mother of God. An important difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, which had a serious impact on political history , is the thesis about symphonies of spiritual and secular authorities. Roman Church stands for full church immunity and in the person of his High Priest has sovereign temporal power.

The Orthodox Church is organizationally community of local churches, each of which uses complete autonomy and independence on its territory. Currently there are 14 autocephalous Churches, for example, Constantinople, Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, etc.

Churches of the Russian tradition adhering to old rituals, generally accepted before Nikonian reform, are called Old Believers. Old Believers were subjected to persecution and oppression, which was one of the reasons that forced them to conduct isolated lifestyle. Old Believer settlements existed in Siberia, on North of the European part Russia, by now the Old Believers have settled Worldwide. Along with the performance features Orthodox rituals, different from the requirements Russian Orthodox Church (for example, the number of fingers with which they make the sign of the cross), Old Believers have special way of life, For example, do not drink alcohol, do not smoke.

IN last years, due to globalization of spiritual life(spread of religions across around the world, regardless of the territories of their original origin and development), there is an opinion that Orthodoxy like a religion loses the competition Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism, as insufficiently adapted for the modern world. But probably, maintaining true deep religiosity, inextricably linked with Russian culture, and there is the main thing the purpose of Orthodoxy, which will allow you to find in the future salvation for the Russian people.

The emergence of Orthodoxy

Historically, it so happened that on the territory of Russia, for the most part, several Great World Religions found their place and from time immemorial peacefully coexisted. Paying tribute to other Religions, I want to draw your attention to Orthodoxy as the main religion of Russia.
Christianity(emerged in Palestine in the 1st century AD from Judaism and received new development after the break with Judaism in the 2nd century) - one of the three main world religions (along with Buddhism And Islam).

During the formation Christianity broke up into three main branches :
- Catholicism ,
- Orthodoxy ,
- Protestantism ,
each of which began to form its own ideology, which practically did not coincide with other branches.

ORTHODOXY(which means to correctly glorify God) is one of the directions of Christianity, which became isolated and organizationally formed in the 11th century as a result of the division of churches. The split occurred in the period of time from the 60s. 9th century until the 50s XI century As a result of the schism in the eastern part of the former Roman Empire, a confession arose, which in Greek began to be called orthodoxy (from the words “orthos” - “straight”, “correct” and “doxos” - “opinion”, “judgment”, “teaching”) , and in Russian-language theology - Orthodoxy, and in the western part - a confession that its followers called Catholicism (from the Greek “catolikos” - “universal”, “ecumenical”).

Orthodoxy arose on the territory of the Byzantine Empire. Initially, it did not have a church center, since the church power of Byzantium was concentrated in the hands of four patriarchs: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. As the Byzantine Empire collapsed, each of the ruling patriarchs headed an independent (autocephalous) Orthodox Church. Subsequently, autocephalous and autonomous churches arose in other countries, mainly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Orthodoxy is characterized by a complex, detailed cult. The most important postulates of the Orthodox faith are the dogmas of the trinity of God, the incarnation of God, the atonement, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It is believed that dogmas are not subject to change and clarification, not only in content, but also in form.
The religious basis of Orthodoxy is Holy Scripture (Bible) And Sacred Tradition .

The clergy in Orthodoxy is divided into white (married parish priests) and black (monastics who take a vow of celibacy). There are male and female monasteries. Only a monk can become a bishop. Currently in Orthodoxy there are distinguished

• Local Churches
• Constantinople
• Alexandria
• Antioch
• Jerusalem
• Georgian
• Serbian
• Romanian
• Bulgarian
• Cyprus
• Hellasic
• Albanian
• Polish
• Czecho-Slovak
• American
• Japanese
• Chinese

The Russian Orthodox Church is part of the Churches of Ecumenical Orthodoxy.

Orthodoxy in Rus'

The history of the Orthodox Church in Russia remains one of the least developed areas of Russian historiography.

The history of the Russian Orthodox Church was not unambiguous: it was contradictory, replete with internal conflicts, reflecting social contradictions along its entire path.

The introduction of Christianity in Rus' was a natural phenomenon for the reason that in the 8th - 9th centuries. The early feudal class system begins to emerge.

Major events in history Russian Orthodoxy. In the history of Russian Orthodoxy, nine main events, nine main historical milestones can be distinguished. Here's what they look like in chronological order.

First milestone - 988. This year's event was called: “The Baptism of Rus'”. But this is a figurative expression. But in fact, the following processes took place: the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion of Kievan Rus and the formation of the Russian Christian Church (in the next century it will be called the Russian Orthodox Church). A symbolic action that showed that Christianity had become the state religion was the mass baptism of Kiev residents in the Dnieper.

Second milestone - 1448. This year, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) became autocephalous. Until this year, the Russian Orthodox Church was integral part Patriarchate of Constantinople. Autocephaly (from the Greek words “auto” - “himself” and “mullet” - “head”) meant complete independence. This year, Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, nicknamed the Dark (in 1446 he was blinded by his rivals in the inter-feudal struggle), ordered not to accept a metropolitan from the Greeks, but to choose his own metropolitan at a local council. At a church council in Moscow in 1448, Bishop Jonah of Ryazan was elected the first metropolitan of the autocephalous church. The Patriarch of Constantinople recognized the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1553), after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the Russian Orthodox Church, being the largest and most significant among the Orthodox Churches, became a natural stronghold of Ecumenical Orthodoxy. And to this day the Russian Orthodox Church claims to be the “third Rome”.

Third milestone - 1589. Until 1589, the Russian Orthodox Church was headed by a metropolitan, and therefore it was called a metropolitanate. In 1589, the patriarch began to lead it, and the Russian Orthodox Church became a patriarchate. Patriarch is the highest rank in Orthodoxy. The establishment of the patriarchate raised the role of the Russian Orthodox Church both in the internal life of the country and in international relations. At the same time, the importance of royal power also increased, which was no longer based on the metropolitanate, but on the patriarchate. It was possible to establish the Patriarchate under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, and the main merit in raising the level of church organization in Rus' belongs to the Tsar’s first minister, Boris Godunov. It was he who invited the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah to Russia and obtained his consent to establish the patriarchate in Rus'.

Fourth milestone - 1656. This year the Moscow Local Council anathematized the Old Believers. This decision of the council revealed the existence of a schism in the church. A denomination separated from the church, which began to be called the Old Believers. In its further development, the Old Believers turned into a set of confessions. The main reason for the split, according to historians, was social contradictions in Russia at that time. Representatives of those social strata of the population who were dissatisfied with their position became Old Believers. Firstly, many peasants became Old Believers, who were finally enslaved at the end of the 16th century, having abolished the right to transfer to another feudal lord on the so-called “St. George’s Day”. Secondly, part of the merchants joined the Old Believer movement, because the tsar and feudal lords, through their economic policy of supporting foreign merchants, prevented their own, Russian merchants, from developing trade. And finally, some well-born boyars, dissatisfied with the loss of a number of their privileges, also joined the Old Believers. The reason for the schism was the church reform, which was carried out by the highest clergy under the leadership of Patriarch Nikon. In particular, the reform provided for the replacement of some old rituals with new ones: instead of two-fingered, three-fingered, instead of bowing to the ground during worship, waist bows, instead of a procession around the temple in the direction of the sun, a procession against the sun, etc. The breakaway religious movement advocated the preservation of the old rituals, this explains its Name.

Fifth milestone - 1667. The Moscow Local Council of 1667 found Patriarch Nikon guilty of blaspheming Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, deprived him of his rank (declared him a simple monk) and sentenced him to exile in a monastery. At the same time, the cathedral anathematized the Old Believers for the second time. The council was held with the participation of the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch.

Sixth milestone - 1721. Peter I established the highest church body, which was called the Holy Synod. This government act completed the church reforms carried out by Peter I. When Patriarch Adrian died in 1700, the tsar “temporarily” prohibited the election of a new patriarch. This “temporary” period of abolition of the patriarchal elections lasted 217 years (until 1917)! At first, the church was led by the Spiritual College established by the tsar. In 1721, the Spiritual College was replaced by the Holy Synod. All members of the Synod (and there were 11 of them) were appointed and removed by the tsar. At the head of the Synod, as a minister, was a government official appointed and removed by the tsar, whose position was called “Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.” If all members of the Synod were required to be priests, then this was optional for the chief prosecutor. Thus, in the 18th century, more than half of all chief prosecutors were military men. The church reforms of Peter I made the Russian Orthodox Church part of the state apparatus.

Seventh milestone - 1917. This year the patriarchate was restored in Russia. On August 15, 1917, for the first time after a break of more than two centuries, a council was convened in Moscow to elect a patriarch. On October 31 (November 13, new style), the council elected three candidates for patriarchs. On November 5 (18), in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the elder monk Alexy drew lots from the casket. The lot fell on Metropolitan Tikhon of Moscow. At the same time, the Church experienced severe persecution from the Soviet regime and suffered a number of schisms. On January 20, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted the Decree on Freedom of Conscience, which “separated the church from the state.” Each person received the right “to profess any religion or not to profess any.” Any infringement of rights on the basis of faith was prohibited. The decree also “separated the school from the church.” The teaching of the Law of God was prohibited in schools. After October, Patriarch Tikhon at first made sharp denunciations of Soviet power, but in 1919 he took a more restrained position, calling on the clergy not to participate in the political struggle. Nevertheless, about 10 thousand representatives of the Orthodox clergy were among the victims civil war. The Bolsheviks shot priests who served thanksgiving services after the fall of local Soviet power. Some priests accepted Soviet power in 1921-1922. began the "renovationism" movement. The part that did not accept this movement and did not have time or did not want to emigrate, went underground and formed the so-called “catacomb church.” In 1923, at a local council of renovationist communities, programs for the radical renewal of the Russian Orthodox Church were considered. At the council, Patriarch Tikhon was deposed and full support for Soviet power was proclaimed. Patriarch Tikhon anathematized the Renovationists. In 1924, the Supreme Church Council was transformed into a renovationist Synod headed by the Metropolitan. Some of the clergy and believers who found themselves in exile formed the so-called “Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.” Until 1928, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad maintained close contacts with the Russian Orthodox Church, but subsequently these contacts were discontinued. In the 1930s, the church was on the verge of extinction. Only in 1943 did its slow revival as a Patriarchy begin. In total, during the war years, the church collected over 300 million rubles for military needs. Many priests fought in partisan detachments and the army and were awarded military orders. During the long blockade of Leningrad, eight Orthodox churches did not cease to operate in the city. After the death of I. Stalin, the authorities’ policy towards the church again became tougher. In the summer of 1954, a decision was made by the Party Central Committee to intensify anti-religious propaganda. Nikita Khrushchev made a sharp speech against religion and the church at the same time.

Eighth milestone - 1971 This year, the Moscow Local Council lifted the anathema from the Old Believers. During the years of “perestroika” (from March 1985), there was another turn in the state’s policy towards the church. New churches of all faiths began to open. The Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Optina Pustyn and other monasteries were returned to the Orthodox Church. In 1988, the Orthodox Church solemnly celebrated the millennium of the Baptism of Rus'. The role of the church in state life began to increase. In March 1989 For the first time in Soviet history, church leaders became deputies of the USSR. Among them were Patriarch Pimen and his future successor, Metropolitan Alexy. May 3, 1990 80-year-old Patriarch Pimen died. The Russian Orthodox Church was headed by Patriarch Alexy 2.

And finally, the ninth milestone - year 2000. This year, a bishops' council was held in Moscow, which made a number of important decisions for the church. 1024 people were canonized, including royal family led by Nicholas II. The document “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church” was adopted. It sets out the fundamental provisions of church teaching on the relationship between church and state and on the attitude of the church to a number of important modern socially significant problems. An essential and new point in the social concept of the church is the proclamation of the right of the church “refuse obedience to the state”, “if the government forces Orthodox believers to apostatize from Christ and His Church, as well as to commit sinful, spiritually harmful acts”. The document “Basic principles of the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to heterodoxy” was also adopted. In this document, Orthodoxy is once again proclaimed to be the only true religion, but at the same time, dialogue with non-Orthodox Christians is recognized as possible.

Conclusion

So, let's summarize:

Orthodoxy entered the history of Russia and coexisted in it for more than a thousand years. For most of this time, the Orthodox religion had a serious influence on the life of the state;

Orthodoxy experienced downturns: the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the October Revolution, and upswings: acceptance of baptism, the beginning of the 90s of the last century;

The Orthodox Church, being an outgrowth of the Byzantine church, in turn gave birth to many branches and church directions;

For many years, church leaders determined, or helped the rulers of Russia determine, the political and economic structure of the state;

The fate of the church became particularly dramatic after the October Revolution. The power of the proletariat and the Orthodox Church could not come to an agreement. This discord did not bring any positive results to Russia;

Despite the change of ruling families, changes in the political structure, form of state, etc. The Orthodox Church continues to thrive to this day.

Information was taken

Websites:

1. http://nik-o-religii.narod.ru

2. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/

3. http://www.mospat.ru

4. http://pravoslavye.org.ua

Literature:

1. Religions of the world. Publishing house “Enlightenment” 1994

2. “Christianity.” Publishing house Bargain. "Grand" house 1998

3. The search for hope and the spirit of consolation (essays on the history of religion). Publishing house MSHA 1991

4. Ya.N. Shchapov, “The Church in Ancient Rus'” (until the end of the 13th century), “Politizdat”, 1989.

And we are Orthodox. Ask them - who are they? Christians? “No, Orthodox,” they will answer.

Is it so? And what is our Orthodox Church? What is “right” about it?

First, a little history.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was from God, and the word was God. This is a quote from the Bible. However, at first this is exactly how it was. There was God on earth - Christ, there was his word, there was an apostolic church founded by the disciples of Christ. There were heads of local churches - bishops. There was a main bishop, recognized by everyone - the Roman one.

In those distant times, the Christian Church did not even think about any power or any wealth. Christians were persecuted by all and sundry - but no one was too lazy. Open the theological dictionary - all its pages are covered with the names of the holy martyrs who died in the 2nd - 5th centuries at the hands of persecuting Christians. However, despite the persecution, people came to the faith of Christ - so great was the power of the Word.

However, everything passes - the powerful Roman Empire began to fade away, finally recognizing the faith of Christ as the state religion, but Christianity remained. And it not only remained, but blossomed in magnificent colors. This is where wealth, fame, and people came to the church. The bishop of Rome - the pope - became the most powerful of people, having received recognition of his complete infallibility in matters of faith and morality, receiving the right of veto on all decisions of all church authorities, receiving the highest judicial right in the Christian church. Open the Sommi Pontifici Romani (official list of popes) - the lifespan of a Roman pope on the throne ranged from several years to several days. The contenders for the highest church throne intrigued, poisoned each other, stabbed each other with daggers, infected each other with smallpox... This is not surprising - the desire for unlimited power knows no bounds.

However, in those days there was no Orthodoxy - the united Christian church fought together against numerous heresies and did not think about division. However, there were prerequisites for it. The Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern, and the Eastern part had its own church head - the Patriarch of Constantinople. Formally subordinate to the Pope, the Constantinople church elite actually had their own, special view on the principles of church structure - but simply, they wanted to rule the eastern part of the world themselves, without the intervention of the Pope. There were prerequisites for a fight - all that remained was to find a reason, and it was not slow to be found. The Western Church has made a small addition to the Christian Creed about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, but also from God the Son. This purely theological nuance, incomprehensible to most believers, became the seed for a big fight. In 1054, the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople simultaneously anathematized each other. The famous division of churches into Catholic (translated as universal) and Orthodox took place.

What is the reason for the division of the Christian church into two? We have already given one of the official reasons. In fact, there were and are no fundamental differences between the Western and Eastern churches - and the Catholic Church quickly realized this and began to try to unite both churches back. These attempts are still ongoing, and, as we see, so far unsuccessful. However, more on this below. So far, the schism has had virtually no impact on the Catholic Church - it has remained as united and well-governed as before. The Orthodox Church continued to split into smaller ones, mainly on a territorial basis - Russian, Georgian, Bulgarian, American... Some of the small churches made contact with Catholicism, and, while formally remaining in Orthodoxy, nevertheless are included in the ranks of the Catholic Church - these are the so-called Uniate churches.

Question number one: which of the churches is “more correct” - the original Christian Western one or our Eastern one that broke away from it? Which of the nineteen modern Orthodox churches is more “correct”?

However, let's return to Russia. The history of the emergence of Christianity in Rus' is known to everyone. According to the theory accepted in scientific circles, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, for completely non-religious, but simply political reasons, decided to establish closer contacts with Byzantium and therefore decided to convert to Orthodoxy. Historians know the facts that the prince conducted serious negotiations with the Western church, and there was a very likely chance that you and I would now be going to Gothic cathedrals and singing “Ave, Maria.” But it didn’t work out... Prince Vladimir came to an agreement with Byzantium and single-handedly decided that now instead of Veles, Perun and women in labor, Russians will believe in Christ.

In modern language, Vladimir’s compatriots did not need Christianity for free, and they did not need it with money. The Russians got along well with their many gods, but the alien Jewish god was strange and incomprehensible to them. Then, without further ado, the prince equipped a squad and went to chop off the rebellious heads. And in a short time, instead of the usual and original Russian faith, he implanted someone else’s, Christian one. And from that faith all we have left are pancakes, Maslenitsa and colored eggs...

Question number two. Go again to any passerby and ask - what kind of faith is ours, originally Russian? From what moment does one native Russian faith turn into another?

For more than four centuries, Russians lived “under the roof” of the Byzantine church. However, the Moscow church wanted power and claimed its own exclusivity and the title of “Third Rome”. In 1448, Moscow priests declared their own independence, not recognized by Constantinople or anyone in the rest of the world, and after another 140 years the new church had an official head - the patriarch, appointed by Boris Godunov and again not recognized by anyone. Since the church was officially part of the structure of the state, the patriarch had enormous rights, comparable to the rights of the tsar himself. Naturally, the most “democratic” of the Russian tsars, Peter I, did not like this state of affairs. At one point, he expelled the patriarch from his throne, and created the Holy Synod - a meeting of senior priests completely subordinate to the king, dealing only with issues of church censorship and internal church life. By the way, another interesting fact is that Peter I ordered priests to obligatorily disclose to the authorities information received during confession - and this order has not been canceled to this day.

However, even before this, an event occurred in Russia that now divided the Russian church into two - and both “correct”. Our most perspicacious king in the world, Peter, decided not only to shave beards and build ships according to European models, but also to bring uniformity to the church. The church reform initiated by his father Alexei Mikhailovich was aimed at correcting liturgical books according to Greek models, replacing the two-finger sign of the cross with a three-finger one, replacing the name “Isus” with “Jesus” and other little things. However, in our time, thanks to one Soviet writer, we know for sure that Peter carried out revolutionary transformations of society. Peter's contemporaries understood everything more simply - the complex and heavy-drinking ruler was engaged in elementary tyranny. And, naturally, everyone rebelled against this tyranny - from the highest clergy to the poor peasants. Looking at this disgrace, the tsar expressed his opinion in the classic “will of the people - the royal will,” after which he followed the example of his ancestor, Prince Vladimir, organizing the most severe repressions against his opponents and anathematizing them.

Unlike us, the Russian people at that time believed strongly, and they believed in Christ much stronger than in the Tsar, and therefore they simply fled to the forests, to the north and to Siberia. And to discourage the king from persecuting his own people (and for the edification of his descendants), they simultaneously organized public self-immolations as a sign of protest. Between 1675 and 1695, at least 20 thousand people died in such self-immolations. Those who remained hid in the forests and continued to live according to the “old” faith. They were “forgiven” only in 1971.

Question number three. Which faith is more correct - the one that the Russian people accepted before 1666, or the modern one, invented by the tyrant tsars?

Well, now comes the fun part. Until 1917, virtually no conflicts arose in the Russian Church. She grew stronger, grew richer, lived peacefully with the people, with the authorities, and with competing organizations. And there were enough of the latter before the revolution. It is enough to walk along Nevsky Prospect and count the number of “non-Russian” churches. Everyone got along together - Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Uniates, Buddhists, and Muslims. During the period 1917 to the warring parties there was no time for the church - there was turmoil and a struggle for secular power, not spiritual power. The Bolsheviks who came to power in one fell swoop separated the church from the state, and the school from the church. Here, of course, they did not think about it - Russia was a peasant country, the peasants believed in God without exception, and it would have been much easier to govern the people left without a tsar-father with the help of the church than with the help of the surplus appropriation system. However, what happened happened. The Bolshevik government did not recognize the church, the church did not remain in debt and, with all Christian humility, cursed this government. However, there is a black mark in the family - among Russian priests, a movement of renovationism arose, advocating a radical change in the Russian Church in the light of the victory of the Bolsheviks, for close contact and cooperation with the new government. It is difficult to say whether the independent decision to sell out to the Bolsheviks really arose among the churchmen, or whether the agents of Dzerzhinsky, who came to his senses in time, acted cleverly - but, nevertheless, the church split into two parts. The Renovationist part received a certain relaxation from the Bolsheviks, and the remaining part quite naturally began to be subjected to oppression and repression. However, this was not the end of the matter.

There were a number of clergy who, in principle, did not accept any contact with the already anathematized godless government, did not approve of the passive behavior of the “old” church, and at the same time did not want to go to the camps for the idea. These priests created their own, secret, church, which adhered to all the canons of the Russian pre-revolutionary church. This church was later called the catacomb church. This church includes the groups “True Orthodox Church”, “True Orthodox Christians”, “Jaonites” and others that still exist today.

During the same period, on a wave of emigration, most of the priests found themselves abroad, where there were no obstacles to normal Orthodox church activity. Unlike the rest of the priests in Russia, representatives of this church called themselves the “Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.” Despite political difficulties, the foreign church maintained close relations with the Russian one, but...

Since 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church has been headed by Patriarch Tikhon. He was an opponent of renovationism, did not go to the catacombs and did not go abroad. Patiently enduring all the oppressions of the new government, in 1922 he was put on trial for opposing the confiscation of church values, and in 1923 he was deprived of his rank and monasticism by the “Renovationist” Council. He was replaced by Sergius Stargorodsky, a man who also suffered a lot from the Soviet regime, who was imprisoned twice and, as a result, came to the conclusion that cooperation with the Soviet regime was necessary. In 1927, Sergius entered into negotiations with the NKVD, formulated the position of the church's loyal attitude to the Soviet government and called on all clergy to be faithful citizens of the Soviet Union. For anyone living in Soviet times, this meant only one thing - voluntary consent to strict control by the NKVD-KGB.

Sergius's decision finally split the Russian church into three - the Russian church abroad, the catacomb church (officially banned in 1957) and the currently functioning church, which calls itself truly Orthodox.

Question number four. Which church should a true believer belong to?

For a long time, secular authorities hesitated - is this very church needed at all? After all, the more or less doubtful part of the population is already in prison, and the rest are working together for a crust of bread and a ration of vodka. Therefore, the thirties, despite the fact that the church completely surrendered to the power of the Stalinist gang, passed under the sign of a big question about its existence on Russian territory. These fourteen years (from 1927 to 1941) were quite enough to replace the “old” priests with new ones - perhaps not very well versed in Greek and Latin, but experienced in political debates and able to write reports where necessary.

However, in 1941, what happened happened, and it turned out that you couldn’t go on the attack on the Stakhanovite spirit alone. This is where the church came in handy. The spiritual influence of the church on the warring people was so great that in 1943 Stalin was even forced to recognize its importance for the country as a whole. After this, if not the best, then far from the worst times came for the church. At least they stopped imprisoning and shooting priests. True, they were not taken out of KGB control either.

After this, a strange time began for the Russian Orthodox Church. Being under the complete control of the KGB and party bodies, it seemed to exist, but it was as if it did not exist. Going to church was considered indecent, although they were not punished for it (at least for “non-party” people). Any research on religion was published in a form completely castrated by Soviet standards, and the so-called “scientific atheism” in Soviet Russia, either out of a strange feeling of masochism, or in all seriousness, slipped to the conclusion that all world religions originated from imperialist ideologists. However, the idiotic subject “scientific atheism” in universities was eventually replaced by the no less idiotic “Marxist-Leninist philosophy”. Christianity was considered, consisting of Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy (of course, modern Russian). It was as if other Orthodox churches did not exist, although the occasional “catacomb” churches had to be taken into account - starting in 1957, they were diligently banned, classed as sects. Probably, the idea about the exclusive role of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was later so characteristic, did not yet appear here; rather, the similarity of the very idea of ​​​​the “catacomb church” with a certain underground played a role. As for the Russian church abroad, it seemed like it didn’t exist at all.

By the way, all observers of today's processes in the Russian Church should remember one interesting fact. Any appointment for any church post until 1991, it occurred exclusively with the blessing of the Department of Religious Affairs of the regional or regional committee of the CPSU. And, consequently, all Russian priests who were ordained before 1991, including all, without exception, the current leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, are essentially proteges of the KGB and party bodies. We're talking about the holiness of the church, aren't we?

After Gorbachev came to power and the notorious perestroika began, the Russian Orthodox Church rose to the occasion. However, she was not at all concerned with the restoration of churches or the issues of educating the people, as would have happened before the revolution. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that with the receipt of the long-awaited freedom of conscience, many could claim their rights to the role of the spiritual leader of the Russian people - the “catacombs”, the Russian Church abroad, the Catholic Church, and Protestants... Therefore, the first thing the Russian Orthodox Church decided to do was to secure its own positions. However, this was far from easy to do - religious spirituality among the Russian people was uprooted or mutilated to death over 70 years. An attempt to teach people to go to church with the help of Yeltsin’s television broadcasts at some prayer service worked, but rather as a sign new fashion or a new initiative - the people did not understand either the essence of visiting church or the rules of church routine. Therefore, the RCP followed the simplest and long-proven path - the path of searching for the enemy. In order not to go into deep philosophy, a priori incomprehensible to the common man, all other confessions, except the Russian Orthodox Church, were simply declared sects. However, you can’t just scare a Russian person with a sect - even in stagnant times, there were known so-called “sects”, but in fact the most powerful Protestant churches of Christian Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, which were absolutely harmless and called for work for the good of their family and non-resistance to evil , which was very useful, since representatives of these churches were very systematically arrested by the KGB.

Just in time, religious denominations appeared in the light of day, engaged in active propaganda of their views - in particular, the White Brotherhood. Despite the often complete delusion of the ideas put forward, these confessions had unprecedented success, especially among young people. This is where a specific definition, like a hydraulic press, came to light: a totalitarian destructive cult. First of all, all newly-minted confessions such as the White Brothers were brought under this definition, then all ideological opponents, in particular, the catacomb churches (the famous horror story of the year before last, “The Mother of God Center,” also, by the way, has its origins in the “catacombs”). And the Satanists, and the Hare Krishnas, and the Rerichists, and even the wretched followers of Porfiry Ivanov - all turned out to be totalitarian sectarians. In the spirit of the stagnation period, the entire leadership of all the “nasty” faiths was declared “not entirely mentally healthy”; all adherents were declared deceived, zombified and forcefully drawn into the sect. In their attempts to denigrate everyone and everything, the ideologists of the Russian Orthodox Church clearly lost their sense of proportion - in the numerous reference books on sects published by church leaders, there is not a single positive feedback about not a single confession on the territory of Russia, of course, except for the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church had the worst experience when communicating with representatives of the world's largest religions on Russian territory - Muslims, Buddhists and Catholics. It was simply impossible to classify them as sects. To carry out any propaganda against them meant to alienate at least the world community and incur the wrath of the secular elite, who were actively seeking loans from the West. To prohibit - no matter how strange it may seem, the Russian Orthodox Church on the territory of Russia cannot prohibit anything at all (as well as allow, by the way), since according to Lenin’s decree of 1918, the church is separated from the state, and this decree is up to no one has canceled yet. And, consequently, the church on the territory of Russia has no civil rights. At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church could not leave its largest competitors in its rear, and here’s why.

Firstly, the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church itself were and remain very precarious. Despite the successfully provoked (with the complete indifference of the drunken president) illusion of a religious boom, the people are actually further traditional baptism a child “just in case” and the ostentatious wearing of crosses coupled with inept baptism, in his religiosity, he did not go to all the crowns of churches. And over the 70 years of Soviet-KGB joint life, the Russian Orthodox Church has lost all skills of any effective propaganda, to this day using for this purpose old-fashioned tales of the level of “hell fire”, illnesses of unbaptized children and failures in the family in case of bad faith. But the competitors, who did not sit behind the Iron Curtain all this time, but actively communicated with the international community, have gone much further and, even without making any special efforts, are much more successful than the Russian Orthodox Church. Have you seen many sites of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Internet? I’m afraid that it’s just the pseudo-exposures of Deacon Kuraev that are boring everyone, who went so far as to declare the thesis of the virgin birth of the Mother of God to be an invention of the papists. But the news feeds of Catholics, the tantric literature of Buddhists and the explanations of Muslim preachers about Afghanistan and Chechnya are enjoying well-deserved success.

Secondly, the Russian Orthodox Church is well aware of the existence of “opponents” in the form of the catacomb churches and the Russian church abroad. If the catacombs, fortunately there are not so many of them left and they behave quietly, until recently one could simply ignore them, declaring their rare manifestations to be the machinations of sectarians, then the Russian Church abroad is behaving actively and not at all in the direction in which the Russian Orthodox Church would like . Russian Orthodox Christians abroad (however, their foreignness is very conditional, since over the last decade several dozen “local” Russian churches have joined the ROCOR) actively dislike both the spiritual and commercial policies of the ROC (more on the latter below), and the ROCOR does not hide this . Until 1991, it was still possible to pretend that the ROCOR, like the catacombs, simply did not exist, but with the development of the Internet and active ties with the West, ROC figures increasingly had to enter into polemics in one way or another former colleagues. However, it is very difficult to call this a polemic - in response to serious and well-founded accusations from the ROCOR of deviating from the basic canons of Orthodoxy, Christianity in general and Russian traditions in particular, the leaders of the ROC find nothing better than simply and monotonously accusing the foreign church of the ROCOR of apostasy - and nothing more.

Thirdly, it is no secret to anyone that the Russian Orthodox Church willingly and actively entered the initial phase of Russian capitalism, meaningless and merciless. Many areas of business were taken under the wing of the Russian Orthodox Church, often very far from the traditional production of candles and tombstones. The Russian Orthodox Church is engaged in the sale of vodka, and book printing (and not very theological), and transportation, and generally does not shy away from any sphere of commercial activity. We are no longer talking about the consecration of absolutely everything that will be paid for - from a diamond cross to a new mansion. The emergence of other large churches in Russia means for the Russian Orthodox Church the need to share income - and no businessman will tolerate this. In this situation, the fact of separation of church and state is very much in the hands of the church - no taxes or other similar problems. Of course, as in any organization, there are people in the Russian Orthodox Church who honestly fulfill their duty and serve not the letter, but the spirit. But now we are not talking about them, but about trends in general.

Many still have fresh memories of the discussion between the Irkutsk Catholic parish and the Philharmonic over the historically Catholic church in the city center. This dispute was started not by the Orthodox Church, which had nothing to do with this issue, but by the Philharmonic, and it was started rather out of awareness of its own helplessness and lack of money. However, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church still participated in this dispute, actively adding grist to the mill of public opinion regarding the original Orthodoxy of the Russian nation and the exclusion of foreign Catholics from entering their hometown. For some reason, the Orthodox priests completely forgot the story, namely that it was Catholics, namely the Jesuits, who taught all of Europe and half of Russia to read and write, that it was the Russian emperor who invited Catholics to Russia, including Irkutsk, with the aim of teaching young people what exactly Catholics and Lutherans are, and not (for some reason) Orthodox priests, brought knowledge and literacy to the people.

Irkutsk Catholics are allocated land for the construction of a new church (in this case one does not have to think about the logic of its location). It was apparently assumed that the construction would be delayed in the best traditions of domestic house building, but the temple was erected within a year. Representatives of the management come to the opening ( the highest level) of all faiths, except, of course, the Russian Orthodox Church and - you will laugh! - who planned this trip, but did not receive the Pope's invitation. As a well-mannered person, despite the fact that our patriarch has no right to either permit or prohibit anything, he was waiting for an invitation to his own, so to speak, housewarming party - and did not wait...

The deeper Russia enters the turn of capitalism, the more Orthodox leaders begin to seize power in it. Alexy II, whose appearance, voice and habits resemble more a provincial secretary of the regional committee than a patriarch (God forgive me, it’s so ugly to read prayers on TV), appears next to government officials, blesses presidents, bans tax identification numbers (this idiocy will be dealt with for a long time descendants laugh) and generally behaves as if the church is not separated from the state, but is something like a ceremonial sign of the government: colorful, annoying, but you can’t throw it away - the image... A law on religion is being pushed through the Duma, in which, between the lines, but it is clearly written: only one church has the right to a normal and comfortable existence in this country. It's not hard to say which one. What does the Russian Orthodox Church achieve with this? It’s easy to guess, even without being a smartass. So that all of Russia would be uniformly Orthodox, without any Catholics or sectarians, so that everyone would uniformly go to church, be God-fearing and God-obedient parishioners, honestly express all their secrets in confession and respect God, the Tsar and the Fatherland. Idyllic picture. True, in the not so distant stagnant times, such a picture was called more honestly: social order. Whose? Those who do not need thinking and developing people. Who needs freedom of speech, conscience and religion only as slogans in the election campaign. Who is ready to put at stake not only the natural resources of the country, but also their own people for the sake of super profits?

So, the last question: what can be said about Orthodoxy or, in general, the Christian orientation of the modern Russian church institution? That the church contributes to the spiritual growth and moral strengthening of its parishioners, consoling and supporting, accepting trials and preaching non-covetousness - or that the famous “drive out the merchants from the temple” and “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” also applies to it, and “if someone hits you on the left cheek, turn your right”, and the call to “love your neighbor like yourself”: although, if she has not called herself “Christian” for a long time, the calls of Christ may not have any effect? So what exactly is that church, past which we pass and drive every day, in which we baptize children and on the domes of which we are occasionally baptized - a symbol of God or a den of Satan (“Satan” translated from Hebrew means “apostate”)?

Wednesday, 18 Sep. 2013

The Greek-Catholic Orthodox (Right Faithful) Church (now the Russian Orthodox Church) began to be called Orthodox Slavic 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 official, scientific and religious designation, the term “Orthodoxy” is applied to anything related to the ethnocultural tradition and is necessarily associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Christian Judeo-Christian religion.

To a simple question: “What is Orthodoxy,” any modern person, without hesitation, will answer that Orthodoxy is the Christian faith that has been accepted Kievan Rus 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. Historical scientists and Christian theologians, in support of their words, declare that the earliest use of the word Orthodoxy on the territory of Rus' is recorded in the “Sermon on Law and Grace” of the 1037-1050s of Metropolitan Hilarion.

But was it really so?

We advise you to carefully read the preamble to the federal law on freedom of conscience and 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 within them completely different concepts and meanings.

Orthodoxy. How historical myths appeared

It is worth wondering who participated in the seven councils Judeo-Christian churches? Orthodox holy fathers or still Orthodox holy fathers, as indicated in the original Word on Law and Grace? Who and when made the decision 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 ritual of visiting the bathhouse: “Orthodox Slovenians and Rusyns are wild people, and their life is wild and godless, men and girls lock themselves together in a hot, heated hut and wear out their bodies... »

We will not pay attention to the fact that for the monk Belisarius the usual visit to the bathhouse by the Slavs seemed something wild and incomprehensible; this is quite natural. Something else is important for us. Pay attention to how he called the Slavs: Orthodox Slovenians 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 thousands years before their conversion to Judeo-Christian faith.

The Slavs were called Orthodox because they RIGHT was praised.

What is "RIGHT"?

Our ancestors believed that reality, the cosmos, is divided into three levels. And this is also very similar to the Indian division system: Upper world, Middle World and Lower world.

In Rus' these three levels were called:

• The highest level is the level of Government or Edit.
• The second, middle level is Reality.
• AND lowest level- This Nav. Nav or Non-reality, unmanifested.

• World Rule- this is a world where everything is right or ideal higher world. This is a world where ideal beings with higher consciousness live.
• Reality- this is ours, the manifest, obvious world, the world of people.
• And peace Navi or do not appear, unmanifest is the negative, unmanifested or lower or posthumous world.

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

• The upper world is a world where the energy of goodness dominates.
• The middle world is engulfed in passion.
• The lower world is immersed in ignorance.

Christians do not have such a division. The Bible is silent about this.

Such a similar understanding of the world gives similar motivation in life, i.e. it is necessary to strive for the world of Rule or Goodness. And in order to get into the world of Rule, you need to do everything correctly, i.e. according to God's law.

Words such as “truth” come from the root “rule.” Is it true- what gives the right. " Yes" is "to give", and " edit" - this is "highest". So, " Truth" - this is what the government gives.

If we talk not about faith, but about the word “Orthodoxy”, then of course it was borrowed by the church(according to various estimates in the 13th-16th centuries) from “those who glorify the rule”, i.e. from ancient Russian Vedic cults.

If only for the following reasons:

• a) it was rare that an Old Russian name did not contain a piece of “glory”,
• b) that the Sanskrit, Vedic word “prav” (spiritual world) is still contained in such modern Russian words as: right, right, righteous, right, rule, management, correction, government, right, wrong. The roots of all these words are " rights».

“Right” or “rule”, i.e. highest beginning. The point is that the basis of real management should be the concept of Rule or the highest reality. And real governance should spiritually elevate those who follow the ruler, leading his wards along the paths of rule.

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

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?

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

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

Patriarch Nikon decided to put an end to dual faith in a very original way. To do this, under the guise of 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 faith Christian." In the Chetiy Menaia that have survived to this day, we can see the old version of the entry “Orthodox Christian Faith.” This was Nikon’s very interesting approach to the matter of reform.

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

Secondly, life during the times 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 out a reminder to Moscow churches about the use of the three-finger sign of the cross instead of the two-finger sign.

Thus began the reform, as well as the protest against it, which led to a church schism. The protest against Nikon's church reforms was organized by the patriarch's former comrades, archpriests Avvakum Petrov and Ivan Neronov. They pointed out to the patriarch the arbitrariness of his actions, and then in 1654 he organized a Council at which, as a result of pressure on the participants, he sought to carry out a book review of ancient Greek and Slavic manuscripts. However, for Nikon, the comparison was not with the old rituals, 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 a trilingual heresy and indulgence in paganism, as Christians called Orthodoxy, that is, the old pre-Christian faith. The split spread throughout the country. This led to the fact that in 1667 a large Moscow council condemned and deposed Nikon, and anathematized all opponents of the reforms. Since then, adherents of new liturgical traditions began to be called Nikonians, and adherents of old rituals and traditions began to be called schismatics and persecuted. The confrontation between the Nikonians and the schismatics at times led to armed clashes until the tsarist troops came out on the side of the Nikonians. To avoid large-scale religious war Some of the higher clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate condemned some provisions of Nikon’s reforms.

The term Orthodoxy began to be used again in liturgical practices and government documents. For example, let us turn to the spiritual regulations of Peter the Great: “...And as a Christian Sovereign, he is the guardian of orthodoxy and all piety in the Holy Church...”

As we see, even in the 18th century, Peter the Great was called the Christian sovereign, the guardian of Orthodoxy and piety. But there is not a word about Orthodoxy in this document. It is not in the editions of the Spiritual Regulations of 1776-1856.

Thus, the “church” reform of Patriarch Nikon was clearly carried out against the traditions and foundations of the Russian people, against Slavic rituals, not church ones.

In general, the “reform” marks the milestone from which a sharp decline in faith, spirituality and morality begins in Russian society. Everything new in rituals, architecture, icon painting, and singing is of Western origin, which is also noted by civilian researchers.

The “church” reforms of the mid-17th century were directly related to religious construction. The order to strictly follow the Byzantine canons put forward the requirement to build churches “with five peaks, and not with a tent.”

Tent-roofed buildings (with a pyramidal top) were known in Rus' even before the adoption of Christianity. This type of building is considered originally Russian. That is why Nikon, with his reforms, took care of such “trifles”, because this was a real “pagan” trace among the people. Under the threat of the death penalty, craftsmen and architects managed to preserve the shape of the tent in temple buildings and secular ones. Despite the fact that it was necessary to build domes with onion-shaped domes, the general shape of the structure was made pyramidal. But not everywhere it was possible to deceive the reformers. These were mainly the northern and remote areas of the country.

Nikon did everything possible and impossible to ensure that the true Slavic heritage disappeared from the vastness of Rus', and with it the Great Russian People.

Now it becomes obvious that there were no grounds at all for carrying out church reform. The reasons were completely different and had nothing to do with the church. This is, first of all, the destruction of the spirit of the Russian people! Culture, heritage, the great past of our people. And this was done by Nikon with great cunning and meanness.

Nikon simply “planted a pig” on the people, so much so that we, the Russians, still have to remember in parts, literally bit by bit, who we are and our Great Past.

But was Nikon the instigator of these transformations? Or maybe there were completely different people behind him, and Nikon was only a performer? And if this is so, then who are these “men in black” who were so disturbed by the Russian man with his many thousands of years of great past?

The answer to this question was outlined very well and in detail by B.P. Kutuzov in the book “The Secret Mission of Patriarch Nikon”. Despite the fact that the author does not fully understand the true goals of the reform, we must give him credit for how clearly he exposed the true customers and implementers of this reform.

• Details in the article: The great scam of Patriarch Nikon. How Nikita Minin killed Orthodoxy

Education of the Russian Orthodox Church

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

The fact is that V 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 order 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.

• Details in the article: How Stalin created the Russian Orthodox Church MP [video]

It should be mentioned that many Christian priests, those who did not recognize the power of the Bolsheviks left Russia and beyond its borders they continue to profess Christianity of the Eastern Rite and call their church nothing more 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 us turn to those people who still keep the old faith of their ancestors.

Having received their education in Soviet times, these learned men either do not know or carefully try to hide from ordinary people that 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 glorified the Rule. And the deep essence of Orthodoxy was much larger and more voluminous than it seems today.

The figurative meaning of this word also included the concept of when our ancestors The right was praised. But it was not Roman law or Greek law, but ours, our native Slavic law.

It included:

• Family Law, based on the ancient cultural traditions, laws and foundations of the Family;
• Communal law, creating mutual understanding between various Slavic clans living together in one small settlement;
• Cop law which regulated the interaction between communities living in large settlements, which were cities;
• Vesi law, which determined the relationships between communities living in different cities and settlements within the same Vesi, i.e. within one area of ​​settlement and residence;
• Veche law, which was adopted at a general meeting of all the people and was observed by all clans of the Slavic community.

Any Right from the Tribal to the Veche was organized on the basis of the ancient Laws, the culture and foundations of the Family, as well as on the basis of the ancient commandments Slavic gods and instructions of ancestors. This was our native Slavic Right.

Our wise ancestors commanded to preserve it, and we preserve it. Since ancient times, our ancestors glorified the Rule and we continue to glorify the Rule, and we preserve our Slavic Right and pass it on from generation to generation.

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

Substitution on Wikipedia

Modern interpretation of the term ORTHODOX = Orthodox, appeared on Wikipedia only after this resource switched to funding from the UK government. In fact, Orthodoxy is translated as rightVerie, Orthodox is translated as orthodox.

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

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

By the way, on many of his icons it is written in implicit letters: MARY LIK. Hence the original name of the area in honor of the face of Mary: Marlykian. So in fact this bishop was Nicholas of Marlikiy. And his city, which was originally called “ Mary"(that is, the city of Mary), is now called Bari. There was a phonetic replacement 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. But Christianity says nothing 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 Yara is also read on Shroud of Turin .

At one time, Vedism reacted very calmly and brotherly to Christianity, seeing in it simply a local outgrowth 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 Yara is Mars, or with the Egyptian, where the name Yar or Ar was read in the opposite direction, 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 saw manifestations of “paganism” everywhere and waged a struggle with it not to the stomach, but to the death. In other words, he betrayed his parents, his heavenly patrons, and began to preach humility and submission.

The Judeo-Christian religion not only does not teach a worldview, but also prevents the acquisition of ancient knowledge, declaring it heresy. Thus, at first, instead of the Vedic way of life, stupid worship was imposed, and in the 17th century, after the Nikonian reform, the meaning of Orthodoxy was replaced.

The so-called "Orthodox Christians", although they have always been true believers, because Orthodoxy and Christianity are completely different essences and principles.

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

Currently, the concept of "paganism" exists only as an antithesis to Christianity, and not as an independent figurative form. For example, when the Nazis attacked the USSR, they called the Russians “Rusishe Schweine”, so why should we now, imitating the fascists, call ourselves “Rusishe Schweine”?

A similar misunderstanding occurs with paganism; neither the Russian people (our ancestors) nor our spiritual leaders (magi or brahmans) ever called themselves “pagans.”

The Jewish form of thinking needed to vulgarize and mutilate the beauty of the Russian Vedic system of values, so a powerful pagan (“pagan”, filthy) project arose.

Neither the Russians nor the Magi of Rus' ever called themselves pagans.

The concept of "paganism" is a purely Jewish concept, which the Jews used to designate all non-biblical religions. (And as we know, there are three biblical religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And they all have one common source - the Bible).

• Details in the article: There has NEVER been paganism in Rus'!

Secret writing on Russian and modern Christian icons

Thus Christianity within ALL Rus' was adopted not in 988, but in the interval between 1630 and 1635.

The study of Christian icons made it possible to identify sacred texts on them. Explicit inscriptions cannot be included among them. But they absolutely include implicit inscriptions associated with Russians Vedic gods, temples and priests (memes).

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

And then the need to disguise Vedic inscriptions becomes clear: their discovery on icons could entail accusing the icon painter of belonging to the Old Believers, and this could result in punishment in the form of exile or the death penalty.

On the other hand, as is now becoming obvious, 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 it was the connection with the god Yar in the first place and with the goddess Mara in the second place through reference implicit inscriptions that added magical and miraculous properties to the icon. Therefore, icon painters, if they wanted to make the icon miraculous, and not simple artistic product, were OBLIGATED to supply any image with the words: FACE OF YAR, MIM OF YAR AND MARA, TEMPLE OF MARA, YAR TEMPLE, YAR Rus', etc.

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

Thus, using Russian material, the reason was revealed why explicit inscriptions on icons moved into the category of semi-explicit and implicit: the ban on Russian Vedism, which followed from. However, this example gives rise to the assumption of the same motives for masking obvious inscriptions on coins.

This idea can be expressed in more detail as follows: once upon a time, the body of a deceased priest (mime) was accompanied by a funeral golden mask, on which there were all the corresponding inscriptions, but not very large and not very contrasting, so as not to destroy the aesthetic perception of the mask. Later, instead of a mask, smaller objects began to be used - pendants and plaques, which also depicted the face of the deceased mime with corresponding discreet inscriptions. Even later, portraits of mimes migrated to coins. And this kind of image was preserved as long as spiritual power was considered the most significant in society.

However, when power became secular, passing to military leaders - princes, leaders, kings, emperors, images of government officials, not mimes, began to be minted on coins, while images of mimes migrated to icons. At the same time, secular power, being more coarse, began to mint its own inscriptions weightily, roughly, visibly, and obvious legends appeared on coins. With the emergence of Christianity, such explicit inscriptions began to appear on icons, but they were no longer written in the runes of the Family, but in the Old Slavonic Cyrillic script. In the West, the Latin script was used for this.

Thus, in the West there was a similar, but still slightly different motive, why the implicit inscriptions of mimes did not become explicit: on the one hand, aesthetic tradition, on the other hand, the secularization of power, that is, the transition of the function of managing 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 acted as carriers of sacred properties before: 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.

• Details in the article: Secret writing on Russian and modern Christian icons [video] .

History of Orthodoxy

Introduction

Main characteristics of the Orthodox Christian faith

History of the birth of Orthodoxy

The history of the emergence of Orthodoxy in Rus'

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Religion is a special set of views and actions based on belief in the real existence of the supernatural and the ability to interact with it. Religion is not possible without faith. For believers, it offers a certain meaning to their existence. All this is expressed in the presence of a believer’s specific perception of the world, that is, in the presence of a religious worldview. A religious worldview, despite its “aggressiveness,” does not negate the presence in an individual of other types of worldview that enter into inextricable connections with each other and with the religious worldview and largely determine the specific personality of a particular individual. This intricacy of worldviews in us is what makes everyone a unique, unique person, and not just an individual.

Christianity is the most widespread and influential religion on earth, the number of its adherents is more than 2 billion people. Christianity leads in the religious life of Europe, America and Australia, and occupies quite authoritative positions in Africa and Asia. It arose in the 1st century. n. e. in Palestine, which was then part of the Roman Empire. Church tradition classifies Christianity among the so-called “revealed” religions: the reason for its emergence was the activity of Jesus Christ, who is simultaneously recognized as both God and man. He gave people the true knowledge of God and founded the church, which received its name from him, and appeared as the Savior of all mankind.

As a result of the split of the Roman Empire, Christianity was divided into Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

The latter became the basis of the religious worldview of the eastern part of the empire, at the center of which stood the Byzantine Empire. With the decline of the Byzantine Empire, Rus' assumed the role of the “right holder” of the Orthodox Christian faith.

The purpose of this work is to trace the history of the birth of Orthodoxy and the path of development of this religious trend. To achieve this goal, an analysis of theoretical scientific and journalistic works was carried out, as a result of which the main provisions were formulated that allow us to talk about knowledge of the history of Orthodoxy. These provisions are distributed in this work as follows. The first part of the work sets out the basic theoretical principles of Orthodoxy - forms of worship, the origins of belief, etc. The second part sets out in brief history of the birth of Orthodoxy. The third part contains a chronological analysis of the emergence and development of Orthodoxy on the territory of Rus'.

This work used the works of Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, Archpriest Alexander Schmemann, historian and philosopher R.A. Finka, encyclopedic articles from the Great Brockhaus Encyclopedia, sources from the Internet, etc.

I would especially like to highlight the works of Archpriest Alexander Schmemann, who managed to present the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in a fairly simple and accessible form, the work of Metropolitan Macarius, in which scanty material on the history of the birth of the Orthodox religion was collected bit by bit and systematically presented material on the history of Russian Orthodoxy.

1. Main characteristics of the Orthodox Christian faith

The name “Orthodoxy” (orjodoxia) is found for the first time among Christian writers of the 2nd century, when the first formulas of the teaching of the Christian Church appear (in Clement of Alexandria), and means the faith of the entire church, in contrast to the differences of opinion of heretics. Later, the word “Orthodoxy” means the totality of dogmas and institutions of the church, and its criterion is the unchanging preservation of the teachings of St. Christ and the Apostles, as set out in Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition and in the ancient symbols of the universal church.

Today, the Orthodox direction of Christianity is a collection of local (regional) religious organizations. There is an official list of heads of Orthodox Churches - the “diptych of honor”. According to this list, the Churches are located as follows:

Constantinople (Türkiye),

Alexandria (Egypt),

Antioch (Syria and Lebanon),

Jerusalem (Israel),

Georgian,

Serbian,

Romanian,

Bulgarian,

Cyprus,

Hellas (Greece),

Albanian,

Polish,

Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia,

Orthodox Church of America.

These are the so-called canonical and autocephalous Churches. The churches are headed by metropolitans, archbishops or patriarchs. The Ecumenical Patriarch is considered the Patriarch of Constantinople, but he does not have the right to interfere in the activities of other Orthodox Churches.

Religion is not only a religious worldview; it implements the basic ideological principles in religious activity. Thus, it includes their external manifestation, and, thanks to this, acts as a social institution, is a cultural phenomenon with a clearly defined worldview. The religious attitude is practical.

A direct manifestation of this practice is cult. The cult includes practical religious activities, auxiliaries and is aimed at communicating with the supernatural. Highlight different kinds cult practices: rites, rituals, sacrifices, sacraments, services, prayers, etc. But any ritual action becomes religious, realizing certain religious ideas, and this is only possible with the use of religious symbols.

The basis of Orthodox doctrine is the Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. The Holy Scripture (Bible) is the cornerstone of the Holy Tradition, “contains the fullness of the revelation of God.” Sacred Tradition includes the decisions of the first seven Ecumenical Councils (i.e., those held before the division of churches), the works of the Fathers of the Church and ancient liturgical books. Orthodoxy, unlike Catholicism, considers subsequent additions to the Holy Tradition impossible and therefore considers the dogmas subsequently proclaimed by the Catholic Church (the dogma of the filioque, the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, etc.) as erroneous, contradicting both the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Tradition. Central to Orthodox doctrine is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed:

Salvation through Confession ?giving faith “in one God” (1st member of the Symbol);

Consubstantial Persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit;

Confession of Jesus - Christ , Lord and Son of God (2nd member of the Symbol);

Incarnation (3rd member of the Symbol);

Belief in the bodily resurrection, ascension and upcoming second coming of Jesus Christ and “the life of the future age” (5, 6, 7, 12th members of the Symbol);

Belief in the unity, universality and continuity of the Orthodox Church (9th member of the Symbol); belief in the holiness of the Church; The Head of the Church is Jesus Christ;

Faith in angels and the prayerful intercession of saints.

The commonality of the cult (rites, sacraments, liturgical practice) is generally inherent in all Orthodoxy, but there are also differences due to the nationality of the Church. This concerns, first of all, the cult of saints revered by a given church, and holidays in which, along with general Christian ones, local ones are also celebrated.

Basic canonical norms and institutions:

Hierarchical priesthood, which has 3 degrees: bishop, presbyter, deacon. A necessary condition for the legitimacy of the hierarchy is direct canonically legitimate apostolic succession through a series of ordinations. Each bishop (regardless of the title he holds) has full canonical authority within his jurisdiction (diocese).

Although the canons prohibit persons of the holy orders from “getting involved in popular government,” in the history of Orthodox countries there were individual episodes when bishops stood at the head of the state (the most famous is the President of Cyprus Macarius III) or had significant powers of civil power (the Patriarchs of Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire in the role of ethnarch Orthodox subjects of the Sultan).

Institute of Monasticism. Includes the so-called black clergy, which has played a leading role in all spheres of the life of the Church since the 4th century.

Established calendar fasts: Great (pre-Easter 48-day), Petrov, Assumption, Nativity, together with holidays, make up the liturgical year.

The main content of cult religious activity lies in rituals and ceremonies. Rituals are repeated stereotypical actions that either imitate another reality or formalize a person’s attitude towards it. Ritual and rite are a whole story that reveals a specific motive of the religious picture of the world. At the same time, through ritual, religious ideas are illustrated and embodied, and the ritual marks the most significant events in the practice of the believer. Ritual and rite are inseparable; rite is realized only through ritual action.

Historically established Orthodox worship includes 4 liturgical circles:

1. daily circle

2.seven-day circle;

.motionless annual circle;

.moving annual circle formed around the holiday of Easter.

The most important public service in Orthodoxy is the Divine Liturgy (in Russia also called “liturgy”), during which the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated - the most important sacrament of the Church after Baptism, which constitutes its essence and without which it is unthinkable.

All-night vigil

Clock (church service)

Liturgy

Compline

Midnight Office

The liturgical year begins with the Week of Easter, which occupies a very special and exclusive position among the holidays.

Twelfth holidays:

Christmas Holy Mother of God

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple

Nativity

Epiphany

Presentation of the Lord

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem

Ascension of the Lord

Day of the Holy Trinity

Transfiguration

Dormition of the Virgin Mary

Holy Spirit Day

The source of the internal law of the Church, along with the Holy Scriptures, is the Holy Tradition, which includes canons of various origins, liturgical texts authorized by the Church, the works of the Fathers of the Church, the Lives of the Saints, as well as the customs of the Church. Traditional understanding and interpretation of Scripture - in context and unity with Tradition.

The church is the most typical and stable form of association of believers. It consists of many religious communities that are concentrated around church temples - sanctuaries, mosques, cathedrals, etc. It is characterized by a strict hierarchical structure, which is based on the division of followers into the clergy - the clergy, who carry out religious practices, and the flock - the laity, parishioners, i.e. ordinary followers of the faith. The church has a number of specific social functions, a set of rewards and punishments; it monopolizes the right to interpret dogma and determine acceptable forms of religious activity.

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

In Orthodoxy there is no single point of view on whether to consider the “Latins” as heretics who distorted the Creed through an arbitrary later addition, or as schismatics who broke away from the One Catholic Apostolic Church.

The Orthodox unanimously reject the dogma of the infallibility of the pope in matters of doctrine and his claim to supremacy over all Christians - at least in the interpretation that is accepted in the modern Roman Church.

The Orthodox Church does not accept other dogmas and creeds Catholic Church:

dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.

the doctrine of purgatory, which (contrary to the opinion of some) is not an analogue of the concept of ordeals in Orthodoxy.

dogma about the bodily ascension of the Mother of God.

Orthodoxy traditionally, in principle, recognizes the rights ? secular authority in church (but not doctrinal) matters - the concept of a symphony of spiritual and secular authorities; Since the early Middle Ages, the Roman Church has advocated complete ecclesiastical immunity and, in the person of its High Priest, has sovereign secular power.

Since May 1980, meetings of the Mixed Theological Orthodox-Roman Catholic Commission on Dialogue between Local Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church have been held from time to time.

2. The history of the birth of Orthodoxy

The Roman state on the eve of the emergence of Christianity - a colossal power that included the entire Hellenistic world and was rapidly expanding its borders - was shaken by internal contradictions. Firstly, there was a contradiction between Rome and the national outskirts, Roman citizens and residents of the provinces: national liberation movements and constant wars became the everyday reality of the Roman state. The second contradiction is between the poor and the rich. Land and wealth were concentrated in the hands of a narrow circle of people. The free poor, demanding “bread and circuses,” represented an explosive mass, the full force of discontent of which threatened to fall on the oligarchs. And finally, the main contradiction is between slaves and slave owners. Slaves, who were not considered human, moved from isolated actions against their masters to widespread uprisings directed against the slave system itself.

All these contradictions could explode the Roman state. But the Roman Empire existed in the form of a military monarchy, which relied on a mercenary army and the most severe repression with which the imperial government responded to any protest movements. The strengthening of Rome gave rise to a mood of depression and hopelessness in the public consciousness. The inability to change their lives on their own forced people to turn to religion, the craving for which intensified. The old religions, which did not promise liberation from the world of evil, did not provide the consolation the masses needed. In such an environment, interest in magic, fortune telling, and the mystical practices of Eastern religions increased. Many people wandered along the roads of the empire, declaring themselves prophets, saviors, and among them - one named Jesus, perceived by his followers as Christ. His preaching attracted people to him and met their expectations.

The books of the New Testament, supplementing Old Testament(a list from Hebrew - “Tanakh”), and together with it they make up the Bible (Greek - “books”). The New Testament includes the four Gospels (Greek - “good news”), the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of the Apostles and the Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse). Church tradition considers the authors of the Gospels to be Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke. The Gospels contain a detailed description of the life of Jesus, the miracles he performed, his preaching, his terrible death on the cross and, finally, his Resurrection.

From the end of the 1st century. n. e. the process of spreading Christianity begins, which covers the period of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Christianity was turning into a powerful ideological movement that no force could stop.

Christianity gave consolation to everyone: the poor and dependent expected rewards after death for all earthly suffering, the rich and educated came to terms with this life in which they depended on the arbitrariness of imperial power. And everyone was attracted by the moral purity of Christianity. Ultimately, the rapid spread of Christianity was due to the fact that it developed principles that met the conditions for turning a religion into a world one. Such conditions are abstractness, supranationality and the humanistic moral content of religion.

Orthodoxy arose with the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern in 395: “The name “orjodoxuv”, “Orthodox”, remained with the Eastern Church from the time of separation from its Western Church, which adopted the name Catholic Church.”

Orthodoxy became widespread in Greece. A penchant for abstract thinking about objects of a higher order and the ability for subtle logical analysis were the innate properties of the Greek folk genius. Hence it is clear why the Greeks recognized the truth of Christianity more quickly and easily than other peoples and perceived it more holistically and deeply. Since the 2nd century. educated and scientific people are joining the church in ever-increasing numbers; Since that time, the church has established scientific schools, in which secular sciences are also taught, modeled on pagan schools. Among the Greek Christians there are a mass of scientists for whom the dogmas of the Christian faith replaced the philosophemes of ancient philosophy and became the subject of equally diligent study.

In the 4th century. In Byzantium, the whole society was interested in theology, and even the common people, who discussed dogmas in markets and squares, just as rhetoricians and sophists had previously argued in city squares. While dogmas were not yet formulated in symbols, there was a relatively large scope for personal judgment, which led to the emergence of new heresies. Then the ecumenical councils appear on the stage. They did not create new beliefs, but only clarified and expressed in brief and precise expressions the faith of the church, in the form in which it existed from the beginning: they protected the faith, which was preserved by the church society, the church in its entirety. The decisive vote at the councils belonged to the bishops or their authorized deputies, but both clergy and ordinary laymen had the right to an advisory vote, especially philosophers and theologians, who even took part in the council debates, proposed objections and helped the bishops with their instructions.

Around the time of the division of churches, new peoples - Slavic, including the Russian people - entered the Orthodox Church.

3. The history of the emergence of Orthodoxy in Rus'

The official history of the Russian Orthodox Church begins in the 10th century. Needing an ideological justification for his power and new social orders, Prince Vladimir is looking for a teaching that would correspond to this goal. “The Tale of Bygone Years” tells about Vladimir’s “choice of faith.” Church tradition claims that Christianity appeared in this region as a result of the missionary activity of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called already in the 1st century. n. e., which created the preconditions for the subsequent adoption of Christianity by Prince Vladimir. However, the reasons for the adoption of Christianity lie in the fact that it most closely corresponded to the needs of the princely power.

In the summer of 988, by order of Prince Vladimir, Byzantine priests performed the rite of Orthodox baptism over the residents of Kyiv. The Christianization of Russian lands continued for several centuries, sometimes causing active rejection. The old religious beliefs that persist in people's minds as a result of long-term coexistence with Orthodox Christianity have given rise to the so-called dual faith - a kind of fusion of Christianity and primordial Slavic beliefs.

The Orthodox Church in Rus' was subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, its metropolitans were “supplied” by Byzantium. The metropolitan department, first located in Kyiv, at the end of the 13th century. was moved to Vladimir, and in 1325 Metropolitan Peter moved it to Moscow. In January 1559, Metropolitan Job became the first Patriarch of Moscow. Permission to create a Russian Orthodox autocephaly was literally wrested from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Council of Orthodox Patriarchs, convened in 1590, approved the creation of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The emergence of the autocephalous Russian Church had unexpected consequences: the division of the previously united Russian metropolitanate, as a result of which the independent Kiev metropolitanate arose. In 1696, Metropolitan Michael of Kiev concluded an agreement (union) with the Pope. And the result of the union was the emergence of a new church that retained the liturgical features of Orthodoxy, but had Catholic subordination to the Pope.

V. - special in the history of Russian Orthodoxy. Since 1652, Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod (Nikita Minov, 1605-1681) became the primate of the Church. His name is associated with the reform of the Church, which had tragic consequences: church schism and conflict between the Church and state power. A favorite of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was extremely attracted by the idea of ​​“Moscow - the third Rome,” Nikon wanted to implement the “Ecumenical Orthodox Kingdom” through Moscow. To do this, first of all, it was necessary to unify worship.

The main changes made by Nikon were the following: making the sign of the cross with three fingers instead of two, replacing bows to the ground with waist ones, replacing polyphony (when two or even three priests read different texts) with monophony, replacing walking around the temple during baptism and wedding according to the sun - bypassing against the movement of the Sun; the service itself was shortened, the name Jesus was changed to Jesus, the regularity of preaching was established, books and icons were copied according to modern Greek models. There were other changes, but they were all only liturgical. The reform did not concern either the dogmatic or canonical spheres of Orthodoxy. There were no changes in the essence of the doctrine. Nevertheless, these reforms caused protest and then a split.

The church reform undertaken by Nikon was combined in his activities with an attempt to establish such a relationship between church and secular power, in which secular power would be dependent on church power. However, Nikon's attempt to subjugate secular power failed. He was deposed by the decision of the council in 1667, expressing the royal will, and exiled to one of the northern monasteries.

The question of the relationship between church and secular authorities, resolved in favor of state power, was finally removed from the agenda under Peter I. After the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, Peter I “temporarily” prohibited the election of a patriarch. The locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, a supporter of Peter, Stefan Yavorsky, was installed at the head of the Church. In 1721, Peter approved the “Spiritual Regulations”, according to which the highest church body was created - the Holy Synod, headed by the chief prosecutor - a secular official with the rights of a minister, appointed by the sovereign.

The synodal period of the Russian Orthodox Church lasted until 1917. The State Orthodox Church occupied a privileged position, all other religions were either simply persecuted or tolerated, but were in an unequal position. The February Revolution of 1917 and the liquidation of the monarchy confronted the Church with the problem of strengthening it. A Local Council was convened, at which the main issue was decided - the restoration of the patriarchate or the preservation of synodal governance. The debate ended in favor of restoring patriarchal rule.

In January 1918, a decree “On the separation of church from state and school from church” was published. Viewing religion as an ideological enemy hindering the construction of a new society, the Soviet government sought to destroy the structures of the Church.

The destroyed Church still did not become a marginal organization, which became obvious during the Great Patriotic War. State policy towards the Church was changed: in September 1943, Stalin met in the Kremlin with three church hierarchs - the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius, the exarch of Ukraine, Metropolitan Nikodim, and Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad and Novgorod. The Church received permission to open churches and monasteries, spiritual educational institutions, enterprises serving the liturgical needs of the Church, and, most importantly, for the restoration of the patriarchate.

At the end of 1958 N.S. Khrushchev put forward the task of “overcoming religion as a relic of capitalism in the minds of people.” This task was solved not so much in the form of an ideological struggle against a religious worldview, but in the form of persecution of the Church. The mass closure of Orthodox churches, monasteries, religious educational institutions began again, the authorities began to regulate the number of episcopates, etc.

A trend towards liberalization of policy towards the Church appeared in the country in the late 70s. Subsequently, this trend intensified - in practice, this meant the return of the Church to its previous positions. Temples and religious educational institutions were reopened, monasteries were restored, and new dioceses were created.

Today, the Russian Orthodox Church is the largest and most influential religious organization throughout post-Soviet Russia and the largest Orthodox Church in the world.

However, the Russian Orthodox Church has lost its status as a state church; it lives in a secular state in which there is no state religious ideology. In state documents, Orthodoxy is classified among the four “traditional religions”, declared “respected”, but it has equal rights with all other faiths and denominations. The Church has to reckon with the constitutional right of freedom of conscience.

Conclusion

In this work, we were able to outline the main milestones in the history of Orthodoxy, conventionally divided into the time of Byzantine and Russian Orthodoxy.

The work reflects the main theoretical principles of the Orthodox worldview and the origins of its origins. In addition, the work covers quite extensively the history of the origin and development of Orthodoxy on the territory of Rus' and its successor - Russia.

Orthodoxy played a significant role in the formation of Russian statehood. In different historical periods (the Mongol invasion, the Patriotic War of 1812, the Great Patriotic War), Orthodoxy became the only stronghold of the unity of the Russian people. With the advent of Orthodoxy in Rus', the state embarked on the path of cultural development - the origins of the development of writing, architecture, and painting should be sought precisely in Orthodoxy.

The Orthodox religious worldview is characterized by humanism, tolerance of other faiths, and deep faith in miracles. All this is reflected in the modern worldview of Russians. Over time, human living conditions and attitudes toward religion change, but the foundations and dogmas of the Orthodox Church remain practically unshakable.

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