Orthodox culture as a determinant of Russian culture. The origins of Orthodox culture in Russia

The concept of culture, unfortunately, is often perceived as the breadth and volume of knowledge. If a person has read Shakespeare and Dante, has an understanding of painting, can at least read foreign languages, then it is considered cultural. That is, culture is identified with education. In fact, culture comes from the word “cult,” and culture depends on how much you fulfill God’s commandments. The Apostle Paul said: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, then I am a ringing brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I can even the mountains rearrange, but do not have love, then I am nothing."

(1 Cor. 13, 1. 2).

In Orthodoxy and once throughout Russia, the word “culture” has always meant precisely love for one’s neighbor. If an illiterate peasant, like a good Samaritan, helped and gave shelter to a completely unknown person, it was cultured person. In the Russian village it was customary to greet everyone you met, and it was cultural. Culture is the fear of offending people around you with a careless word or deed. Culture is, first of all, respect for one's neighbor.

And if you sympathize and take pity on a person, even if unpleasant to you, you will show Christian love for your neighbor. And your sympathy does not have to be expressed by some external actions or words. If you at least mentally wish him correction, then show Christian, Orthodox care for him.

Therefore, if Orthodox culture is taught at school by a culturologist, for whom Orthodoxy is one of many religions, he strives for his listeners to know the subject, like history, physics, biology, etc. Religious education aims to lead children to God's love.

Not only supporters of other religious denominations, but also former communists and atheists are afraid of Orthodox culture. After all, seventy years of struggle against religion cannot pass without leaving a trace. And these remnants of a godless time will affect us for a long time, even where we do not expect it. Many such people, even declaring themselves believers, do not demonstrate their faith in any way.

Sometimes the behavior of some parents is surprising. They are ready to send their children to an Orthodox school, but at the same time they themselves remain indifferent to the faith, or even attend some Protestant sect or become interested in the occult.

I sometimes have to talk to soldiers in military units. Unfortunately, a strange attitude towards faith can be observed on the part of commanders. Officers sometimes declare that they themselves are non-believers, but such conversations are useful for soldiers: they improve discipline, reduce hazing, etc. But soldiers are not children or naive simpletons. In the end, they will begin to perceive such conversations as once boring political exercises for everyone. The Russian philosopher of the 19th century, Yuri Samarin, said: “Faith is inherently intractable, and one cannot enter into transactions with it. We cannot recognize it conditionally, to the extent that we need it for our purposes, even legal ones. Faith fosters patience, self-sacrifice and curbs personal passions - this is so, but you cannot resort to it only when passions are playing out, and only in order to reason with someone or inflict punishment in the next world. Faith is not a stick, and in the hands of the one who holds it is like a stick to protect oneself and frighten others, it is broken into pieces. Faith serves only those who sincerely believe; and whoever believes, respects faith; and whoever respects it cannot look at it as a means. Requirement from the faith of any police service is nothing more than a kind of preaching of unbelief, perhaps the most dangerous of all in its general intelligibility." According to Yu. Samarin, such official preaching of faith led to the spread of everyday unbelief in Russia, when faith began to be used for practical, purely material purposes.

Is it possible to awaken in former atheists at least an interest in faith, in Orthodoxy? Fortunately, most of them are not fanatics. They do not believe only because they were raised that way and are not accustomed to turn to God. Therefore, it is worth turning to the basics, to the very origins of religion in general. Why do people believe in God? In the days of scientific atheism, we were told that man invented gods because he was afraid of the elemental forces of nature and his dependence on these forces. The explanation is primitive, humiliating and, moreover, illogical. After all, man not only invented God or gods, but served them, made sacrifices, prayed, and performed various rituals. And he did this for many thousands of years. If these actions of a person, his services to God were unrequited and did not produce results, it is unlikely that these services would continue for so long. This means that there was an answer from God that man felt, that is, there was a connection between man and God. The man knew that God would answer his requests, his prayers and his service. But retreating from God, violating His laws, accumulating his sins, over the centuries, man gradually lost this feeling, and his faith weakened, and his service became less and less sincere. And Christ says: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth” (Luke 18:8).

The Holy Fathers of the Church called this feeling a spiritual, Divine feeling of the presence of God. I will also quote the words of an outstanding surgeon, Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky, St. Luke, Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol. Who, if not a professor of medicine, should know the human body, know its biology, physiology, psychology, He says: “I believe that the undoubted facts of a mental order ... oblige us not only to allow the possibility of aggravation of our five senses, but also to add to them the heart as special sensory organ." That is, the organ of perception of spiritual feeling is the heart. This is stated both in the patristic works of the Church and in the sacred books of not only the Christian religion. How important and understandable are the words of Christ: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).

This feeling exists to varying degrees in every person, but it is especially pure and strong in children. Therefore, Christ says: “Truly I tell you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3). It is very important from the first days of a child’s life to support and strengthen this feeling in him, first by the personal example of his parents, and then by teaching at school.

Spiritual, Divine feeling connected man, as a part of nature, with all its creations. It was not for nothing that Christian ascetics tamed wild animals and could foresee events, because they knew the Divine law according to which this world exists.

By the way, it should be said that the problem of the influence of religious feelings, prayers and rituals on human health has not been studied at all. I think that in this respect we are far behind Western world, and this is used by Western propaganda most often for its own far from noble purposes.

The difficulty of teaching Orthodox culture and restoring traditions also lies in the fact that we constantly have to deal with concepts and stereotypes embedded in our society over 70 years of godlessness. In those days, the model of behavior and formation public opinion there were media: television, radio, cinema, theaters, etc. Therefore, now our people find themselves unprotected from the propaganda of vulgarity, cruelty and depravity that prevail in our media.

Many generations Soviet people were brought up on the fairy tales of G.Kh. Andersen. But for our children, Andersen's fairy tales were given with significant denominations. Everything that could make children think about God was excluded from the texts. For example, in the fairy tale about the Snow Queen, sister Gerda got into her castle and saved her brother Kai with the help of the Lord's Prayer. And when the two of them returned home, they found their grandmother reading the Gospel. Andersen even indicated a passage from the Gospel: “If you are not like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” All such episodes were excluded from our children's publications.

Although Denmark is considered one of the most atheistic countries in Europe, its children, who read fairy tales without abbreviations, had some immunity against vulgarity and debauchery, and knew that prayer could help. Our children did not receive such immunity.

In our time, young men and women sang songs and read poems exclusively by Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Galich, Joseph Brodsky, Bulat Okudzhava. These are the teachers of our children.

The Orthodox faith has always played the greatest role in the history of Russia. Everything, both good and bad events, occurred in direct connection with the way our people believed. After all, the October Revolution was also the result of the impoverishment of faith. This is how the famous church figure, Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), speaks about this pre-revolutionary time: “...spiritual life and religious fervor by that time began to fall and weaken... There was no fire in us and those around us. The example of Father John of Kronstadt was an exception, but it captivated predominantly simple people. And the “higher” circles - courtiers, aristocrats, bishops, clergy, theologians, intellectuals - did not know and did not see religious inspiration. Somehow everything with us became desalinated..., we ceased to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Not at all It surprised me, neither then nor now, that we did not carry anyone along with us: how could we ignite souls when we did not burn ourselves?!

And now only strengthening faith and restoring traditions can, if not revive great Russia, then at least slow down its final collapse and fall. I’ll end with the words of the famous patriot, the untimely departed Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga John (Snychev): “It’s time to admit that until we restore traditional moral and religious values, until we stop the propaganda of violence and depravity, until we begin to cultivate in Russians a sense of national unity instead "The current spirit of profit - no one can guarantee that the tragedy will not happen again. There is less and less time left. God grant that this time there will be enough wisdom and faith to avoid the final destruction of Russia and the Russian people."

A characteristic feature of Russian culture is its historical connection with Orthodoxy. In the Middle Ages, Orthodoxy was the main dominant of Russian spirituality, determining almost all directions public life- in ideology, politics, education, ethics, literature, art, etc. d. In modern Although Orthodoxy has lost this initial universality, it continues to remain an essential part of Russian culture. During the celebration (in 1988) of the 1000th anniversary of the adoption of Christ in Rus', scientists once again raised and analyzed a huge amount of documentary material testifying to the beneficial influence of Orthodoxy on the development of national culture.

Christ, having come to Rus' from Byzantium, received from us specific properties and features. When noting the Byzantine influence on the spiritual life of Russia, one must take into account the complexity and well-known inconsistency of this process, which extended over time and went through periods of rapprochement and estrangement. Orthodox approval culture in the Russian expanses is a whole period of historical development. Having replaced the early Slavic beliefs, Orthodoxy did not discard previous cultural traditions; the ancient heterogeneous layer of pagan culture was not completely destroyed, but continued to be preserved in the conditions of new religions. relations, and such spiritual assimilation benefited the culture as a whole, which researchers already in our century (for example, G.P. Fedotov) called pagan-Christian culture. The process of formation of this culture took place not only among the Russian population, but also spread to other peoples of our country. The saintly (missionary) activities of the Russian Orthodox Church contributed to the familiarization of the local population with Russian culture. But as soon as officials began to use violent methods of Christianization, alienation and hostile confrontation immediately set in.

With the well-known achievements of the Russian Orthodox Church in the field of familiarization with Christ. The faith of the non-Russian population should recognize that pagan traditions, to a greater or lesser extent, have always been preserved and manifested in everyday life, in ritual celebrations, in some forms of worship of natural elements. This situation continues to this day.

The role of Orthodoxy in the formation of Russian spirituality does not fit within the framework of the church. relations, but enters the wide field of secular culture, which itself influences religion. consciousness and at the same time receives nourishment from religions. worldviews. In different historical periods relationship between religions and the secular principles in culture were not the same: at the dawn of the Christianization of the country, religion only gradually gained the strength of its influence on the broad masses of the population. Only from about the 13th century. Orthodoxy strengthens, enters everyday life, and the general background of spiritual culture becomes religious. And starting from the 18th century. Secular culture rose especially high, gaining its independence. Currently vr. religious culture began to noticeably strengthen its position.

An important area of manifestation and combination of religions. and secular directions in the development of culture is enlightenment. Church, turning to religions. consciousness, poses both moral and ideological tasks to a person; The school, in various forms of organizing education (under the auspices of the state or the church), strives to give students a certain amount of systematized knowledge. Education centers Ancient Rus' were ch. arr. monasteries. Chronicles were created here, and later printed works; religion was practiced here. training of young novices. For example, in the Miracle Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin there was a famous book-writing workshop, and the first Greek Latin school in the country was opened within its walls. In the 18th century the beginning of the division of education into secular and church was laid. Peter I took the initiative to create (along with church schools) new secular schools, called “digital” (their main subjects of instruction were arithmetic and geometry). In 1716, 12 such schools were opened in different cities, and in 1720–1722 another 30. The division of education into secular and religious. benefited science and art in general. Already on Tue. floor. 18th century for social needs - economical development in various educational institutions a large number of educated people; by the end of the century there were already more than 300 thousand people. receive education in state educational institutions. The increase in the general educational level inevitably manifested itself in the sphere of religions. education at its various levels (parochial schools, seminaries, theological academies). However, certain ideological and ethical differences between the churches. and secular approach to knowledge inevitably affected, sometimes manifesting itself in ideological clashes between representatives different directions training. Church Dogmatism narrowed the field of knowledge acquisition.

Largely modern. The face of our national culture is determined by aesthetic consciousness. And in Orthodoxy, since its establishment in Rus', it has always been given place of honor artistic "splendor". It is characteristic that, according to the chronicle legend, the young Kiev prince Vladimir, when choosing a religion for his country, having become acquainted with the rituals of different faiths, gave preference to the beauty and magnificent solemnity of the Byzantine church. This tradition of “ritual beauty” was preserved and carried by the Russian Orthodox Church through centuries of history.

High moral principles determined the substantive essence of Russian literature. This quality of hers is closely connected with the centuries-old traditions of Christ. morality. Despite all the secular openness and secularization of our classical literature, it has never been divorced from religions. roots, although at times she did not avoid sharp criticism of certain churches. rules On the other hand, the Russian Orthodox Church, being critical of the ideological positions of a number of writers, recognized the enormous significance for culture artistic literature generally. Currently vr. The position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue has become even more open: it is not only religious writers who approve of it. mood (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tyutchev, Leontyev), but also those who were not so close to the church (Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov); The enormous talent of Leo Tolstoy, who was once excommunicated from the church, is even recognized (albeit with a reservation). A kind of center of spiritual attraction for writers (and not only for them) was the famous Optina Vvedenskaya, Kozelskaya hermitage (familiar to the modern reader Ch. arr. based on Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov"). Gogol came to this monastery twice, Dostoevsky visited here many times, Leo Tolstoy visited Optina Pustyn at least six times. The Kireyevsky brothers Peter and Ivan worked in the desert for a long time (both are buried in the monastery fence), lived within the walls of the monastery for four years and took the secret tonsure of K.N. Leontyev. V.A. also came to Optina Pustyn. Zhukovsky, I.S. Turgenev, A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, A.K. Tolstoy, A.N. Apukhtin, V.S. Soloviev, V.V. Rozanov et al.

But not only the field literary creativity was influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church. As Alexander Blok noted, Russia is a country synthetic culture, where “word and idea become paint and building, church ritual finds an echo in music; Glinka and Tchaikovsky bring “Ruslan” and “The Queen of Spades” to the surface; Gogol and Dostoevsky of the Russian elders and K. Leontyev; Roerich and Remizov native antiquity." Turning to religions. artists of the 19th–20th centuries, it should be noted that modern. church criticism distinguishes their work on the basis of canonical. following christ plot or deviations from the Orthodox. canons. For example, in the works of artists N.N. Ge (“ last supper", "What is truth?", "Calvary", "Crucifixion") and V.D. Polenov (“Christ and the Sinner”), other critics see affectation “at the level of earthly passions” and too free treatment of the original source. But the canvas by A.A. Ivanov’s “The Appearance of Christ to the People” is recognized as the pinnacle of religion. painting. The paintings of M.V. are also highly appreciated. Nesterov (“Vision to the youth Bartholomew”, “Holy Rus'”, “Great tonsure”, “Under the good news”, “The Hermit”), temple painting by I.V. Surikova, V.M. Vasnetsova, easel design by P.D. Korin's theme "The Passing Rus'".

Orthodoxy is inextricably linked with such types of art as sacred music, church. singing, where original national roots Russian culture. Back in the 12th century. churches formed so-called “Znamenny chants” written in “hooks”. At first the singing was monophonic, and from the 16th century. becomes polyphonic. The chants were sung at the church. - Slavic language, without instrumental accompaniment. In the 19th century There is a significant reform of singing skills. A lot has been done in this area by composers and teachers such as S.V. Smolensky, M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, P.I. Turchaninov, A.V. Nikolsky, A.T. Grechaninov, A.F. Lvov, A.D. Kostalsky, D.S. Bortnyansky, P.G. Chesnokov. Secular music played a huge role in the development of Russian sacred music. professional composers, based on national traditions and creatively perceived best samples Western European music school: II. I. Tchaikovsky wrote “The Liturgy of John Chrysostom”, “All-Night Vigil”, etc.; M.I. Glinka “Great Litany” and others; A.G. Rubinstein " Lost heaven", "Moses", "Christ", etc.; S.V. Rachmaninov “All-Night Vigil”, “Bells”, etc. These composers, with their enormous talent, greatly expanded the audience of church admirers. music, bringing it to the stages of large concert halls.

The centuries-old experience of the formation of Russian spirituality, the establishment of self-awareness is the foundation on which modern times are based. Russian culture in the interrelation of their secular and Orthodox. began. In this experience there was an accumulation of positive achievements, but there were also wrong steps, misconceptions, and mistakes. It is known that after the victory October revolution The proletarian state was in harsh confrontation with the Russian Orthodox Church for a long time. It came to the point of repression against the clergy and the destruction of churches, which has no justification. At the same time, the problem of attitude to the heritage of the past was not limited to the sphere of religious buildings, and many miscalculations were made in the wide field of general transformations. But one cannot help but see something else: after all, in the general approach of the state to the cultural riches of the country, the Soviet government already in the first years of the revolution did a lot to preserve ancient monuments. For example, the well-known decree “On registration, registration and preservation of monuments of art and antiquity” was adopted and whole line other similar legislative acts. Yes and in relation architectural monuments church use, over time, an understanding of the need to save them came. Especially after the Great Patriotic War Mass restoration and conservation work began: for example, comprehensive restoration of architectural monuments in Suzdal, Novgorod, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and Kizhi. In 1976, a special law “On the protection and use of historical and cultural monuments” was adopted and allocated necessary funds. Subsequently, social and cultural ties with the Russian Orthodox Church began to strengthen. Many years had to pass for relations with the church to finally enter the normal course of benevolent cooperation based on respect for universal, humanistic values and love for their common indivisible Russian culture, the region has absorbed useful achievements and religions. experience, and materialistic traditions (see also “Education and religion”, “religion and culture”, “religion and intelligentsia”, “Orthodox sacred music”).

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

I.G. Sharkov, M.S. Leonova

Orthodox

Culture

in the disciplines “History of Religion”, “History of World Civilizations”, “Cultural Studies” for students of specialties 080111 “Marketing”, 032401 “Advertising” and other full-time and part-time departments

Published with the blessing of His Eminence Panteleimon, Archbishop of Rostov and Novocherkassk

Approved by the Theological Commission of the Rostov-on-Don Diocese

GOU VPO "YURGUES"

UDC 261.6(075.8)

Reviewers:

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Head. Department of Philosophy and History

Don State Agrarian University

A.F. Polomoshnov

Doctor of Social Sciences, Professor, Head. Department of Humanitarian and Social sciencies» Shakhtinsky Institute of the South Russian State

technical university

O.V. Bondarenko

Doctor of Social Sciences, Professor, Head. Department of Social Technologies

South Russian State University of Economics and Service

E.L. Shilkina

candidate of theology, dean of the parishes of the Shakhtinsky district

Rostov-on-Don Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Archpriest

Georgy Smorkalov

Sharkov, I.G.

Ш280 Orthodox culture: textbook. allowance / I.G. Sharkov, M.S. Leonova. – Mines: GOU VPO “YURGUES”, 2009. – 252 p.

ISBN 978-5-93834-497-6

This textbook was developed for students of specialties 080111.65 “Marketing” and 032401.65 “Advertising” and others, intended for studying the main issues in the courses “History of Religion”, “Cultural Studies”, “History of World Civilizations”. It reveals the content of the Orthodox Christian culture, lecture material, a terminological dictionary, a list of basic and additional literature are given, topics of abstracts, as well as applications are given.

Knowledge of the fundamentals of Christian culture helps to increase the level of general humanitarian training of students, broadens their horizons and enriches the thesaurus. The materials of the manual are aimed at developing a holistic worldview in students, as well as awareness religious values in the spectrum of public attitude towards religion as an integral part of spiritual culture.

UDC 261.6(075.8)

On the cover is the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery of Fr. Balaam.

ISBN 978-5-93834-497-6© Sharkov I.G., Leonova M.S., 2009

University of Economics and Service", 2009

Introduction........................................................ ........................................................ 4

1. The origins of Orthodox culture in Russia.................................................... . 5

Control questions................................................ ............................ 10

2. The Bible in Russian written culture.................................................... .. 10

Control questions................................................ ............................... 34

3. Orthodox church............................................................................ 35

Control questions................................................ ............................ 47

4. Religious fine arts. Icon................................... 48

Control questions................................................ ............................ 70

5. History of Christian symbolism. Cross........................................ 70

Control questions................................................ ................................... 93

6. Symbolism of liturgical vestments.................................................................. 94

Control questions................................................ ........................ 104

7. Bells and bell ringing.................................................... ............... 105

Control questions................................................ ............................ 119

8. Russian church singing art.................................................... .... 119

Control questions................................................ ............................... 125

9. Monastic culture of Rus'.................................................... ............... 126

Control questions................................................ ........................ 141

10. Church year: holidays and fasts of the Orthodox Church........... 142

Control questions................................................ ............................ 173

11. Orthodox traditions.................................................... .................... 173

Control questions................................................ ........................ 190

12. Church art of small forms.................................................... ....... 191

Control questions................................................ ............................... 209

13. Easter eggs............................................................................... 209

Control questions................................................ ........................ 220

14. Charity as a sociocultural phenomenon.................................... 221

Control questions................................................ ........................ 226

Topics of reports and abstracts.................................................... .................... 227

Terminological dictionary(glossary)................................................... 228

Bibliography................................................................ .................... 243

Appendix 1. Chronological list of Byzantine emperors. 247

Appendix 2. Primates of the Russian Church.................................................... 250

INTRODUCTION

Spiritual culture, being formed over centuries and millennia, was oriented towards the fulfillment of at least two social functions– identification of objective laws of existence and preservation of the integrity of society. In modern public consciousness, there is a process of rethinking the role of religion and the Church, and there is a clear departure from the stereotypes of vulgar atheism. Today society is re-understanding original meaning the very word “culture” - cultivation, cultivation, veneration - and recognizes that the words “cult” and “culture” are the same root.

One of the oldest forms of culture is religion. In the history of world culture, the emergence of three world religions was of particular importance: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. These religions made significant changes in culture, entering into complex interaction with its various elements and aspects. The central, core moment of any religion is faith. Satisfying one of the basic needs of human nature - to have an ideal and an object for worship, faith was, is and remains one of the main means of sociocultural integration. Being the most important connecting element of any society, the religious worldview and belief in higher values generally visibly manifest themselves in such basic areas of human spiritual life as science, art and morality. The history of each country, while remaining part of the whole, has its own specific characteristics, its own individuality, its own uniqueness. According to academician D.S. Likhachev, “culture is what largely justifies before God the existence of a people and a nation... Culture is the shrines of the people, the shrines of the nation.” A modern person living in Russia and interested in its culture needs a comprehensive and objective understanding of the history and cultural traditions of our Fatherland. For our country, Orthodox Christianity has become the culture-forming one, nurturing and creating the beautiful and powerful tree of Russian culture. And today in Russia the majority of believers are adherents of Orthodoxy. The spiritual culture of Russia is a system of values created by the grace-filled creativity of people in the bosom and the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many phenomena of the secular culture of our homeland (literature, painting, architecture) cannot be adequately understood without analyzing their close connection with the phenomena of spiritual culture and the traditions of Orthodoxy.

Since ancient times, our land has been fertile soil, where foreign cultural values, as equals, matured on this tree of our primordial culture, morality, and existence. Tolerance - respect for a person of other beliefs, a different position, a different way of thinking - is the same characteristic feature of our people as kindness and openness. Now all over the world there is a great attraction to spiritual values. And when we talk today about the creation of a civilized civil society, then, of course, we also mean spiritual renewal, when, from under the layers of everything alien, unnatural to human nature, what is original to human nature comes to life: pain, compassion, tolerance.

More than a thousand years of Orthodox cultural tradition- a rich heritage that we are called upon to preserve, study and increase, passing on to future generations.

Every patriot should love and honor their ancestors, know and be proud of their history. But at the same time, we must respect other peoples, their history, their cultural values. Christianity has always called and calls for mutual understanding, for communication, and therefore for mutual enrichment.

Religion, and especially Christianity, has always been a symbol of spiritual search, service to goodness and the affirmation of morality. At the same time, religion consoles, reassures those who are lonely and bad in this world, provides examples of the lives of ascetics of the Church who have risen above the vanity of everyday life and devoted themselves to serving the highest ideal, God, and selflessly helping people. Thus, religion is inextricably linked with morality.

The impact of religion as one of the forms of spiritual culture on society is carried out directly and indirectly. On the one hand, religious orientations and norms directly regulate the spheres of production and consumption, on the other hand, they indirectly influence them through other areas of culture (moral and ethical consciousness, artistic and aesthetic orientations and scientific views).

The origins of Orthodox culture in Russia

Religion is an integral part modern world, since it performs three blocks of social functions. Firstly, religious institutions provide spiritual nourishment to believers, which is manifested in the education of religiosity and citizenship, in saturating a person with good and overcoming evil and sins. Secondly, religious organizations are engaged in religious and special secular education, mercy and charity. Thirdly, representatives of churches actively participate in public activities, contribute to the normalization of political, economic and cultural processes, interethnic and interstate relations, solutions global problems civilization.

In the history of social thought, the problem of the connection between religion and culture has been understood in different ways, but the importance of religion has always been assessed very highly. Religion, of course, is one of the determining factors in changing the forms of human society and changing civilizations.

Since Rus' adopted Christianity in its eastern, Orthodox form, the Church has played vital role in the history of Russia. Orthodoxy permeated the entire Russian culture. It was Orthodox Christianity that created that great and rich national culture, which we have the right to be proud of, which we are called upon to carefully preserve, worthily increase and study. Monasteries set an example of both piety and prudent, exemplary management, and were sources and centers of education and enlightenment. The Metropolitan, and later the Patriarch of All Rus', was the second person in the country after the Sovereign and, in the absence of the monarch or during his minority, sometimes exercised a decisive influence on governing affairs. Russian regiments went into battle and won under Orthodox banners with the image of Christ the Savior. They woke up from sleep with prayer, worked, sat down at the table and even died with the name of God on their lips. Rus' owes its written language and bookishness, as well as its full-fledged statehood, precisely to Christianization, to the Church. Russian paganism, unlike Hellenic or Roman, was very poor and primitive. There is and cannot be a history of Russia without the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Church tradition connects the beginning of the spread of Christianity in Rus' with the name of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called - one of the twelve disciples of Christ, according to church tradition, who undertook a “walk to Rus'” back in the first century. Ancient authors report on the missionary activity of the apostle “in Scythia,” and Russian chronicles say that St. Andrew the First-Called reached the Kyiv mountains. Here he erected a cross and predicted to his disciples that “on these mountains the grace of God will shine and there will be a great city” with many temples. Further, the legend tells of Andrew the First-Called’s visit to the place where Novgorod later arose. Most modern historians consider this tale to be a later legend.

Reliable information about the spread of Christianity in Rus' dates back to the 9th century. The “District Epistle” of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Photius, in 867 speaks of the baptism of the “Russians,” who shortly before had undertaken a campaign against Byzantium. Russian chronicles contain a story about the campaign against Constantinople in 866 by princes Askold and Dir. Then Saint Photius, seeing hordes of pagan barbarians at the walls of Constantinople (Constantinople), began to pray earnestly and made a religious procession with the robe of the Mother of God around the city. When did St. Photius immersed the holy robe in the waters of the Bosphorus, a strong storm began in the strait and scattered the enemy ships. Frightened by the elements and God's wrath, princes Askold and Dir adopted Christianity. In this regard, a number of historians suggest that the first baptism in Rus' took place under these princes. Other, later chronicles also confirm this fact.

Similar story also occurred during the reign of Emperor Leo the Philosopher (886–912): the phenomenon Mother of God in the Blachernae Church of Constantinople (Protection). Then the frightened and admonished Russians also returned to Kyiv as Christians.

Around 944, the chronicles mention the conclusion of an agreement between Byzantium and Kievan Rus, which, in particular, mentions the church of Elijah, called the main one, which means that already in 944 there were several churches in Rus'. Moreover, according to the custom of that time, the agreement was sealed with religious oaths. The Greeks, naturally, made a Christian vow to fulfill the contract, and among the Russian oaths with pagan Peruns, Khors and others there were also Christian vows. That is, there were already Christians among the Russian nobles. It is known that Princess Olga, the wife of Prince Igor, became a Christian. Thus, even before the baptism of Rus' under Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Christianity on Russian soil had a history of more than a century.

With the name of St. Princess Olga most people personify such historical facts, as the strengthening of princely power, the subjugation of rebellious tribes (Drevlyans), the beginning of collecting tribute from the inhabitants of Novgorod, Pskov, etc. Princess Olga also tried to increase the prestige of Rus' through skillful and wise diplomacy. And in this regard, Olga’s baptism acquired special significance. According to the chronicler, she “from an early age sought with wisdom what was best in this world, and found a pearl of great value—Christ.” But the point is not only that the princess, disposed towards Christianity, found the true faith, despite her pagan surroundings. Her baptism became not only a private affair of a pious elderly woman, but acquired important political significance and contributed to the strengthening of the international position of Rus'.

Historians are still arguing when and where exactly this event took place - in Kyiv or Constantinople.

According to the chronicle, in the mid-50s of the 10th century she went to Constantinople and there “loved the light and left the darkness,” accepting the “Greek law.” The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenet (Porphyrogenet), struck by Olga's beauty and intelligence (in fact, she was about sixty years old at the time), allegedly invited the princess to become his wife. But the Russian princess, showing wisdom and cunning, deceived him: at her request, the emperor became godfather Olga, which, according to Christian canons, excluded the possibility of marriage between them. Rather, it's beautiful legend, proposed ancient Russian chronicles: after all, Olga was no longer young, and the Byzantine basileus was married.

In all likelihood, Olga was familiar with Christianity back in Kyiv, there were Christians in her squad, and she was accompanied to Constantinople by the Kiev priest Gregory. But the baptism of Princess Olga in Byzantium acquired a pronounced political connotation: having received the title of “daughter” of the Byzantine emperor, which distinguished her from other sovereigns, having received baptism from his hands, Olga thereby unusually increased the prestige of the secular power of Kyiv internationally. The Byzantine emperor still had the crimson glow of the glory of great Rome, and part of this glow now illuminated the throne of Kiev.

However, Olga's baptism did not lead to the mass spread of Christianity in Rus'. But the baptism of the times of Princess Olga, whom the Church called saint and equal to the apostles for her piety and preaching zeal, became the dawn that anticipated the sunrise - the baptism of Rus' under Prince Vladimir.

Having come to power, Vladimir initially tried to strengthen paganism. By his order, idols of Perun, the patron saint of the prince and his squad, as well as idols of Dazhdbog, Stribog, Khors and Mokosha, the gods of the sun and air elements, were placed on a hill near the princely palace in Kiev. That is, he made an attempt to create a Russian pagan pantheon based on the Hellenic or Roman model. The states neighboring Kievan Rus professed monotheistic religions. Christianity dominated in Byzantium, Judaism in Khazaria, and Islam in Volga Bulgaria. But Rus' had the closest ties with Christian Byzantium.

The Tale of Bygone Years tells that in 986, representatives of all three of these countries appeared in Kyiv, inviting Vladimir to accept their faith. Islam was immediately rejected because it seemed too burdensome to abstain from wine, as well as the unacceptable and “vile” circumcision. Judaism was rejected due to the fact that the Jews who professed it lost their state and were scattered throughout the earth. The prince also rejected the proposal of the envoys of the Pope. The sermon of the representative of the Byzantine Church made the most favorable impression on him. Nevertheless, Vladimir sent his ambassadors to see how God was worshiped in different countries. Upon returning, the Russian ambassadors declared that Muslim law was “not good”, that in German church service there is no beauty, and the Greek faith was called the best. They enthusiastically noted that in Greek temples The beauty is such that you cannot understand where you are - on earth or in heaven. The latter circumstance strengthened the prince’s choice of faith.

The story of his marriage to the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of the emperors - co-rulers Vasily II and Constantine VIII, is closely connected with Vladimir’s decision to accept the Christian faith. The chronicle reports that in 988 Vladimir besieged Korsun and, having taken it, sent messengers to the emperors Constantine and Vasily to tell them: “I heard that you have a maiden sister. If you don’t give it for me, then I will do to your capital the same thing that I did to this city.” Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the Byzantine basileus demanded that Vladimir be baptized, since according to Christian laws it is not permissible for Christians to marry pagans. Vladimir, who had earlier decided to be baptized, demanded that Anna come to him in Korsun, accompanied by priests, who would baptize him in the city he captured. Seeing no other way out, the Greeks agreed, and Vladimir was baptized in Korsun with the name Vasily.

The narratives of Russian chronicles are supplemented by Byzantine sources. They report that Emperor Vasily II turned to Vladimir for military assistance against the rebellious commander Vardas Phocas, who laid claim to the imperial throne. The Kiev prince agreed to help, provided that the princess was given in marriage to him, and, in turn, promised to be baptized. For Byzantium this was something new, because even the son of the German emperor, the future Otto II, was refused when he wooed the Greek princess in 968. Moreover, the then emperor Nicephorus Phocas contemptuously declared that one born in purple could not be the wife of a barbarian. And everyone gradually began to forget about the agreement, except for Prince Vladimir, who reminded himself of himself by besieging Korsun. Byzantium had to remember the concluded agreement.

Returning from Korsun to Kyiv, Vladimir ordered the destruction of pagan idols. Overthrown, they were burned or chopped into pieces. The statue of Perun was tied to a horse's tail and thrown from the mountain into the waters of the Dnieper, and the people of Kiev had to push the idol floating along the river away from the shore until it was beyond the thresholds of Rus'. The prince sought to demonstrate to his subjects the powerlessness of the pagan gods. After the defeat of pagan idols, Prince Vladimir began converting the people of Kiev to Christianity. Priests who came from Constantinople and Korsun baptized the residents of Kyiv in the Dnieper in 988; according to other sources, this happened on a tributary of the Dnieper - Pochaina.

There is another hypothesis according to which Christianity came to us not from Byzantium, as is commonly believed, but from Bulgaria. Historians have noticed that the Byzantine chronicles are silent about such a seemingly important event, like the baptism of Rus'. Hence they put forward a version from which it follows that Prince Vladimir, seeking independence from Byzantium, was baptized somewhere on the territory of Bulgaria, which had its own Ohrid archbishopric, independent of Rome and Constantinople. In confirmation of this fact, historians cite the mention in Russian chronicles of Metropolitan John, who, in their opinion, was the Archbishop of Ohrid. Historians also point to the fact that Princess Anna died before her husband. And the chronicles say that Vladimir married a second time to a certain Bulgarian woman, who became the mother of Boris and Gleb, as well as the stepmother of Yaroslav. But still, the first hypothesis is more plausible, since it has more evidence in chronicles and historical facts.

It is difficult to say how long-lasting our Russian civilization would have been if, at the end of the 10th century, the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich had not begun the Christianization of Rus'.

The history of the spread of Christianity throughout Rus' and the history of the Russian Church are traditionally considered according to periods associated with the characteristic periods of the history of the state. Typically distinguished: the pre-Mongol period (988–1237), the period from the Tatar-Mongol invasion to the division of the metropolis (1237–1458), the period from the division of the metropolis to the establishment of the patriarchate (1458–1589), the patriarchal period (1589–1589). 1700), synodal period (1700–1917), Recent history Russian Orthodox Church (from 1917 to the present).

Control questions:

1. Which holy apostle does church tradition call the patron of Rus' and why?

2. The names of which Kyiv princes are associated with the first Christianization of Rus'?

3. What chronicle sources report the Baptism of Rus'? How reliable are they?

4. With what name did the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich convert to Christianity? What is this connected with?

5. What impressed the Russian ambassadors sent to Constantinople Prince of Kyiv explore different faiths around the world?

6. Tell us about the two most substantiated hypotheses of Russia’s perception of Christianity. Bishops of which lands baptized and enlightened Russians in the 10th century?

Speaking about Orthodox culture, we must understand that it is based on two principles. The first is Divine revelation. When reading the Holy Scriptures, we do not always realize that the Lord Himself speaks to us in our language, the Lord gave us the word, and through this gift we received the opportunity to communicate with God. Evidence of this is Divine Revelation expressed in human language. This means that human language can express Divine Revelation. Divine Revelation can be revealed in sound, in color, and in the tradition of life. Orthodox culture is the expression of the Divine through human means, this is the spiritual experience of internal communication with God, which we can express in music, painting, in words, in architecture, in our way of life.

The second beginning is the Incarnation. Christ is God incarnate. God, who took on the form of a servant. God, Who humbled Himself to the level of a creature, entered the created world to save it, to save the human race. In Christ the union of the Divine and the human took place. This means that the union of the Divine and the human can occur in the life of every person. A person can rise to such a height. We find this connection in the church world. Therefore, outside the Church we cannot be cultured, we cannot be inspired, we cannot be saved. Outside the Church there is no life, there is only death. The main thing that a person lost when he cut himself off from God was life. He has lost the source of life. When the Lord gave people in paradise the commandment that they should not pluck fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He warned: “You will die.” That is, you can live according to your own will, follow the path of your own knowledge of this world, and not the path of Divine Revelation, but at the same time you will die. A man, having picked the fruit, received death. Salvation is overcoming death. Christ came to unite the Divine and the human and restore to us the source of life. We gain life, and with it we gain true theology and true culture. The culture of love, the culture of life, the Divine culture. Outside the Church we cannot do this, which means outside the Church there is a culture of dying, a culture of death. Look at what philosophy has come to today: to the idea that a person is born to die... All suffering is meaningless. This is the philosophy of a dying man, and theology is the joy of man, resurrecting and enlivening. What lies ahead is not death, but joy, and a person does not grow old, but grows up. All the most interesting things are yet to come.

The main task of Orthodox culture is for a person to see the Divine Light in everything that surrounds him. Our main task in the field of education is to lead a child to life and not to death, which means to bring him into the Church. Everyone is afraid that it is forbidden to do this at school, but you need to understand that the child lives in the family, in the Church, in the school, in society, and each of these areas must mind its own business. Churching a child is not a matter of the school at all, but of the family and the Church. The task of the school is to educate the child. But at the same time it is necessary that educational space did not contradict the traditions of the people, the traditions of family education.

Now a conflict arises when people turn to faith, to their tradition, and the education system clings to atheism - an unnatural worldview. We must understand that the education system is the child’s life itself, which gradually includes some educational establishments: kindergartens, schools, universities. It is not the child who goes to school, but the school that enters the child’s life. And teachers must think with what they enter his soul, his heart, his mind. We must understand that he did not come" blank slate", but came from a family, from a people, from society, from the world of culture in which he was brought up. And the main task is that this world of the child is not destroyed, but strengthened and enriched.

The school should open to the student a joyful, saving world, a gracious and spiritual world. A person will always prefer to drink from a clean well rather than from a dirty one. He's naturally drawn to it. There is a proverb: people don’t go to an empty well. People go to churches, to monasteries, people want to receive theological education. After all, it has never happened that a theological faculty was opened and students were forced there. They go on their own. They even pay money for studying at commercial faculties. People have a thirst, and this thirst must be quenched. The subject "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" provides an opportunity to understand the culture that is already being studied at school. Why is interest in literature and painting falling? Because children do not understand what the writer is talking about, what the writer is thinking about, and why the hero suffers. Because children do not know the language of this culture. When there was an Orthodox environment in the state, there was no need to study this subject. The child knew everything from childhood, and since this environment does not exist now, the teachers are faced with difficulties. Trying to study Russian literature, Russian painting, they understand that it is impossible to teach this to a child. He does not know such concepts as “God”, “conscience”, “shame”, “sin”, “chastity”, “suffering”, “sorrows”, “hierarchy”, “veneration”, “obedience”, etc. . He doesn't understand why people lived like this. For some reason, our education system, having actually introduced Orthodox culture in the lessons of literature, history, painting, music, does not provide a language for understanding it.

This can only be explained by ideological motives. It's not even about the laws, it's about the people. Remember, Moses led the people through the desert for forty years so that those who were accustomed to living in captivity would die. When all these people died, he led the rest to the Promised Land. Because it is very difficult for someone who is accustomed to living in captivity, captivity, slavery to master another, free life. We are probably faced with this paradox: we have to wait until forty years have passed. Wait for those people who lived in captivity of atheism to give up their positions. But in general, time shows that everything is moving faster.

I have to give lectures on Orthodox subjects in secular universities. These courses are always personally oriented. Orthodoxy addresses specifically a person, his soul. And a person must answer the questions that Orthodoxy puts before him. I'll give you one of them latest examples. When the conversation turned to monasteries and monasticism, the students began to say: “How can you leave, give up everything?” Then I asked them to list what exactly needs to be given up, what pleasures and joys there are in the world, about which you can say that you can never do without it. And everyone fell silent, they thought for about five minutes, and after that they could not say anything. I had to list the “benefits of the modern world” myself. “What are you going to give up?” I asked the students, “Nightclubs, discos, fornication, debauchery, lewdness, disobedience, self-will, the desire to live to please passions and sin.” They sat, listened and were silent, and lowered their heads lower with every word. It turned out that in fact, there is nothing so expensive in this world that they could firmly say: “This is something valuable, I can’t give it up.” Then I began to list what a person receives in the Church: grace, prayers, purity, chastity - he receives the path to holiness, God's help, inspiration. So is it worth swapping one for the other? There is no value in the world to which a person could become so attached that he could not live without it. There is nothing in the world that can save a person. We are saved only by Christ, only by God. It was very important point, when the students realized that they had nothing in their lives for which they could give their lives.

The philosopher Ivan Ilyin writes about this that if there is nothing valuable in a person’s life for which he is ready to die, then this life is meaningless. Orthodoxy gives these values, gives such wealth to a person that he is ready to die for it. He understands, for example, what the Fatherland is, that it is not just some land, as some democrats now say: “Where it is good, there is the Motherland...”

Ivan Ilyin said that as soon as the last crumbs of Christianity are extracted from communism, it will collapse. And so it happened. As long as under communism there was a moral code, patriotism, as long as there was a family, elders were respected - it stood. The human soul was rested on foundations that were essentially Christian, they were taken from the past. The communists, who destroyed tradition, built a new one from the roots of this very tradition. During the so-called perestroika, even these foundations were destroyed, and when nothing remained, then Western views prevailed that life is the highest value. But our man cannot accept this. When they tell me: “How good: life is the highest value,” I ask: “And if you have to fight and die for the Fatherland, will you save your life, will you become a deserter?” To say that life is the highest value is great stupidity for a Russian person. A Russian person has a lot of things for which he is ready to give his life: for the Fatherland, for his children, for his views, ideas, for his faith! If there is no value in life for which you are willing to give your life, then what are you living for? Why do you need this life?

Ivan Ilyin says that in a person’s life there must be an understanding that you are called into this world for something and carry your calling, talent, cross that the Lord gave you; that you stand before the Almighty, who called you, you answer before Him for this calling, for this life. And this fills a person with high spiritual meaning. But they don’t talk about this today. Nobody tells this to children. Nobody says why we need to honor traditions, why maintain purity. They don’t say that raising children should be combined with maintaining one’s own purity. In general, no one talks about this, for example, to students, 20-25 years old. When you start telling them essentially simple things about why our people lived this way, their stereotypes break so much that for the first two or three lectures they sit and look at you with some crazy eyes. They suddenly realize that everything is being said correctly. There is nothing to object to. But they all live differently.

“We cannot, having children, expect that someday, having become mature, they themselves will understand that their path lies to the Church - for they may not understand, they may become coarse, the path of the Church may be forever obscured and closed. Children must be led to the Church from early childhood... Not from youth, but earlier, the child should begin to be nourished by the grace-filled powers of the Church, so that the young man’s heart does not turn out to be deaf when the hour of creative quest comes.”

Prot. Zenkovsky V.V.

To consider the formation of the Orthodox culture of students in secondary schools, it is necessary to turn to the concept “ Orthodox culture“, where both components of the term: “Orthodox” and “culture” are defined by the means of the conceptual apparatus of theological, philosophical, aesthetic and pedagogical sciences. “The adjective “Orthodox” comes from the noun “Orthodoxy” and means a feature that distinguishes the Orthodox Church from other Christian denominations.

The word “orthodoxy” refers to true knowledge about God and creation. The Greek term “orthodoxy” consists of two words - “right, true” and “glory” (in two meanings: “faith” and “doxology”).

Correct teaching about God includes correct praise. God's teaching to people is the Revelation of God to holy people through teaching and through the Sacraments. The Holy Fathers captured this experience and knowledge in dogmas."

The concept of “spirituality” is associated with the concept of “Orthodoxy”. "Spirituality is a state spiritual person having a certain type of behavior, motives and way of thinking that distinguishes him from a non-spiritual person. Spirituality is not identical to the concept of “soulfulness,” which is associated with spiritual manifestations: mind, feelings, etc. Orthodox spirituality is the experience of life in Christ of a person transformed by the grace of God.

Orthodox spirituality is Christocentric (since in Christ there was a hypostatic union of the Divine and human natures), triadocentric (since Christ cannot be considered separately from the other persons of the Holy Trinity) and church-centric (since the Church is understood as the Body of Christ). Thus, the core of Orthodox spirituality is Christ, the Holy Trinity and the Church.

The bearer of Orthodox spirituality is a person who has acquired the gift of the Holy Spirit. A person with developed creative abilities V different areas art, but who has not acquired the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the soul, is a natural and carnal man.”

"Culture" as a philosophical concept means form public consciousness and reflections of reality, as well as the human environment, represented by the products of his activities. Culture is the embodiment human spirit into forms accessible to objective observation.

For a more complete understanding of the concept of “Orthodox culture,” I will give the most significant definitions of theologians, art historians, and philosophers.

In my opinion, the most accurate Orthodox philosophical definition of the concepts of “spirituality” and “culture” was given by I.A. Ilyin: “Culture is an internal and organic phenomenon: it captures the very depths of the human soul... In this way it differs from civilization, which can be acquired externally and superficially... Therefore, a people can have an ancient and refined spiritual culture, but in matters of external civilization ( clothing, housing, communications, industrial equipment, etc.) present a picture of backwardness and primitiveness. And vice versa: a people can stand at the last height of technology and civilization, and in matters of spiritual culture (morality, science, art, politics and economics) experience an era of decline."

“Man’s spirituality consists in the confidence that within his soul there is the best and the worst, qualities that do not depend on his arbitrariness.” “In spiritual activity, a person learns to bow before God, honor himself, see and appreciate spirituality in all people and desire creative revelation and implementation of spiritual life on earth. This is real culture."

Thus, “religiosity is the living basis of true culture. It brings to a person precisely those gifts without which culture loses its meaning and becomes simply unrealizable: a sense of anticipation, a sense of assignment and calling, and a sense of responsibility.”

Orthodox culture, according to N.A. Lacoste, is the sensual embodiment of the absolute values of existence in the creative forms of human life. The philosopher associates the concept of spirituality with personal development person, because real personality is an actor who is aware of the absolute values of existence and the duty to implement them in his behavior.

The most pressing circumstance characterizing Orthodox culture is that all of it, even in its smallest components, was and remains spiritually, morally, aesthetically significant, and this alone determines the need for its study in our pragmatic age.

Thus, a cultured person (in the Orthodox sense) must have developed feelings predestination, calling and responsibility. And where, no matter how in school, the development of Orthodox spiritual and moral values is given, the foundations of Orthodox traditions, customs, and morals are laid.