Christianity: A Brief About Religion. Christianity as a world religion Communication world religions Christianity

abstract

on general history

World religion Christianity:

From the beginnings to the present day.

(analysis provided by Levada Center)

Introduction.

A huge number of books, articles and other publications have been written about the origin of Christianity. Christian authors, philosophers-educators, representatives of biblical criticism, and atheist authors worked in this field. This is understandable, since we are talking about a historical phenomenon - Christianity, which created numerous churches, has millions of followers, which occupied and still occupies a large place in the world, in the ideological, economic and political life of peoples and states.

This topic was chosen by me because it turned out to be the closest to my personal interests among the other topics offered in the examination paper. I began to think about the questions of religion for a long time. It is interesting for me to observe and analyze the processes that are taking place in the world and in our country and are related to religion. After all, it's not a secret for anyone that a few years ago religion in our country was practically prohibited: they condemned those who went to church, baptized children, etc. "Religion is the opium of the people," declared the well-known historical figure, Karl Marx, and V.I. Lenin later declared: "Every religious idea, every idea about every god ... is an ineffable abomination." This was enough for many years of believers to endure persecution, both moral and physical. “During the reign of Joseph Stalin, in the late 1920s and 1930s,” says the Britannica, “the church suffered severe persecution that claimed thousands of lives. By 1939, there were only three or four officially appointed bishops and about a hundred active churches in the country. ” However, Russia is a lover of extremes. When the USSR unexpectedly collapsed, people began to think about the question of why the Soviet government fought so hard against religion. Many of those who had been raised for decades to be atheistic began to take an interest in religion. It has become not only honorable to baptize children and go to church, but it is also fashionable to observe fasting, to consecrate buildings, cars, etc. Religion in our country has turned into a kind of commerce and has become very friendly with politics, which in principle contradicts Christian canons. At the moment, the Christian church is developing at an accelerated pace. On this occasion, contradictory rumors soar in society. Opinions are heard that the church even seeks to spread influence over state power. To understand, it is necessary to understand the issue and study the history of Christianity from the very beginning.

Besides, I consider myself a Christian. New this concept, I do not mean the rituals of going to church and wearing the cross, but the desire to live according to the Christian canons, to observe the Christian commandments, i.e., which are written in the Bible. And for this, it is also necessary to know and study issues related to religion, Christianity, the Bible. In this regard, I stopped on this topic, choosing it for writing this research paper.

In this research work, the following issues will be studied: the origins and socio-historical conditions of the emergence and spread of Christianity, the development and spread of Christianity around the world, the divergence between the Western and Eastern churches in the VI century, varieties of Christianity and a sociological study of the modern position of religion in Russian society , which is provided by the Levada Center. So let's start exploring the above issues.

The origins and socio-historical conditions of the emergence and spread of Christianity.

Until the eighteenth century, the study of the beginnings of Christianity was prohibited. Excessive curiosity, a desire to learn more than the New Testament and church tradition tell, seemed to orthodox Christians to be highly reprehensible, bordering on heresy. Many scientists did not dare to publish the results of their research. These works were published only after their death. It was only thanks to the educators of the eighteenth century that scientific research into the origins of Christianity became possible. A variety of sources were studied: the works of ancient writers who mentioned Christians, the works of Christian theologians and their opponents, as well as, of course, those books that Christians themselves consider sacred and divinely inspired, which set out the main dogmas of the Christian religion, legends about the life of its founder - Jesus Christ, his words and teachings are given.

Like any new religion, Christianity did not arise from scratch. That is why it is necessary to consider the phenomena that influenced the origin, development, formation of the Christian religion and, consequently, its main ideas. Such phenomena are usually divided into social and ideological. Let's take a quick look at each of these sources.

By the social origins of Christianity (and this concept is quite ambiguous), we mean social phenomena (spiritual and material) that contributed to the wide and fairly rapid spread of this religion. Social origins should also include the socio-political situation of the historical period in which Christianity was born. As you know, Christianity arose in Palestine in the 1st century. AD, which, like the whole Mediterranean, was part of the Roman Empire. At that time, this huge empire was torn apart by the deepest socio-political antagonisms, and Christianity acted first as the religion of slaves and freedmen, the poor and the powerless, subjugated and scattered by Rome peoples - as a movement of the oppressed.

F. Engels gave the following characterization of the spiritual and material state of society at that time: “The present is unbearable, the future is perhaps even more formidable. No way out. " In a situation of this kind, the poor were ready to believe any call, as long as it promised release.

However, “in all classes there must be a certain number of people who, desperate for material liberation, would seek spiritual liberation. , consolation in consciousness that would save them from complete despair. " As the state of despair intensified, literal flight from the outer world to the inner world intensified. And from this situation of general economic, political, intellectual and moral decay, a way was found. In that situation, this way out could only be in the field of religion. This religion turned out to be Christianity.

Having emerged, Christianity came into sharp conflict with all religions that had existed until then. It becomes the first possible world religion. Why? First, the Christian religion denied the inherent rituals of all others. Secondly, it becomes a supranational religion. The previous religions that existed on the territory of the empire were narrowly ethnic in nature (a striking example is Judaism), and were unable to unite slaves and oppressed of different ethnic origins; moreover, they separated them. Christianity was born as a religion addressed to all nations. It corresponded to the conditions of the time when the most diverse ethnic groups were mixed, the natural boundaries between which were destroyed by the Roman conquests. That is, the unity of peoples under the shadow of Roman power contributed to the success of such a universal religion as Christianity was - especially since the time when this power found a specific representative in the person of the Roman emperor.

Early Christianity associated its social ideas with the ideas of equality of all before God, justice and mercy, with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe right of all to freedom and happiness. These are the basic ideas of Christianity. Quite naturally, they were in tune with the dreams of slaves and poor free citizens. Indeed, Christianity struck a chord that was to resonate in countless hearts. The generally recognized feeling that people themselves are sinful in universal corruption, Christianity gave a clear concept of the sinfulness of each individual person; at the same time, in the sacrificial death of its founder, Christianity created an easily understandable form of inner salvation from the corruption of the world, gave consolation in the consciousness of why everything is so passionately strived. Christianity taught to love and value in a person not his external attributes, not his dignity, but his soul. It was a truly new, if not revolutionary idea in that historical situation: in that world, the personality was important only as a part of the clan, the state. Christianity cleansed the soul of everything that was accidental and showed its endless beauty and value. This is one of the reasons for the popularity of Christianity. Desperate in the material world, any person (!), Whether he is a slave or a free one, could count on gaining spiritual freedom, on a special spiritual state. Thus, "Christianity was created by people who sought to find an illusory way out of the socio-psychological deadlock into which ancient society and ancient ideology entered."

The ideological sources of Christianity were the ideas and representations of a number of other religions, primarily Judaism. In general, one can point to an important continuity that invariably exists between the early forms of religion - myths, with their polytheism and ritualism, and the religion itself that arises on their basis. According to V. S. Nersesyants, this continuity is of great importance in the field of political and legal views and is directly manifested, for example, in the form of teachings about the divine nature of power and order, about divine law, etc. The connection of the new religion with Judaism manifested itself in particular in the fact that the Holy Scripture of Christians - the Bible - included both the Christian works proper that formed the new covenant, and the sacred books of the followers of Judaism - the Old Testament.

Christianity borrowed several basic ideas from Judaism: first, the idea of \u200b\u200bmonotheism, i.e. recognition of one god who created the world and governs it; secondly, the idea of \u200b\u200bmessianism, and, thirdly, eschatology, i.e. the idea of \u200b\u200bthe death of the existing world as a result of divine intervention. At the same time, it should be noted that in Christianity they all significantly transformed: monotheism was subsequently weakened by the doctrine of the divine trinity, messianism from narrow ethnicity turned into a doctrine of the salvation of all people through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The early Christian communities did not know the dogma and cult of later Christianity. The communities did not have special places for worship, did not know the sacraments, icons. The only thing that was common to all communities and groupings was the belief in a voluntary atoning sacrifice offered once and for all for the sins of all people by an intermediary between God and man.

In addition, the emergence of Christianity was also influenced by three philosophical schools - stoic, epicurean and skeptical, in a complex focused on creating the bliss of personal life.

Development and spread of Christianity.

The Roman Empire during this period extended from the Euphrates to the Atlantic Ocean and from North Africa to the Rhine. After the death of Herod, dissatisfied with civil strife between his sons, in 6 AD. the Romans transferred the administration of Judea to the imperial procurator. Christianity initially spread in the Jewish environment in Palestine and the countries of the Mediterranean basin, but already in the first decades of its existence it gained a large number of followers from other nations.

In the second half of the 1st century and in the first half of the 2nd century, Christianity was a number of communities consisting of slaves, freedmen, and artisans. In the second half of the II century, Christian writers already noted the presence of noble and wealthy people in the community.

One of the important elements of the transition of Christianity to a fundamentally new level was its break with Judaism in the 2nd century. After that, the percentage of Jews in Christian communities began to steadily decrease. At the same time, Christians are rejecting the Old Testament laws: Sabbath observance, circumcision, and strict food restrictions. The expansion of Christianity and the involvement in Christian communities of a large number of people of various religions led to the fact that Christianity of this period was not a single church, but a huge number of trends, groupings, theological schools. The situation was complicated by a large number of heresies, the number of which by the end of the 2nd century the church historian of the end of the 4th century Philastrius defines the number as 156.

In the second half of the 3rd century, there was a process of further centralization of the church, and by the beginning of the 4th century several metropolises emerged from the existing dioceses, each of which united a group of dioceses. Naturally, large church centers were established in the most important political centers of the empire, primarily in the capitals.

At the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. At this time, the church organization was strengthened and the official formation of the church hierarchy took place, the highest and most privileged part of which was the episcopate. The emerging church organization, headed by influential bishops who constantly maintained contact with each other, gathered for their congresses (councils), grew into a major political force in the Roman Empire. The imperial power, sensing it as a dangerous rival, tried to destroy it under the conditions of a fierce class struggle during the crisis in the third century.

Emperor Decius (249-251) began persecuting Christians. His reign is marked by the first widespread persecution of Christians. In scale, it surpassed all the persecutions that were before.

The persecution continued under Valerian (253-260). He issued a decree according to which all ministers of the Christian church were put to death without exception. However, this decree did not provide for any punishment for persons of a lower condition, that is, for the bulk of believers.

Persecution intensified significantly under Diocletian (284-305). They differed from other persecutions in that they were instructed to burn the books of Holy Scripture. Persecution under him took on a wide state scale.

The persecution did not break the Christian church organization, and their futility showed that the new religion has a significant mass base. As the imperial power learned the essence of Christian ideology, the nature and significance of church activity, it became more and more convinced that Christianity is a force that is capable of sanctifying the power of rulers and ensuring the obedience of the masses. Therefore, the empire is gradually moving from attempts to break the church organization that seemed to it dangerous to a policy aimed at putting this organization at its service.

At the beginning of the 4th century, when a fierce struggle for imperial power unfolded, the importance of the Christian church increased even more. This was taken into account by Emperor Constantine I, who switched to a policy of reliance on the church. In 313, he issued an edict which revoked all of Diocletian's decrees against Christians. Christianity was declared an officially permissible religion, and property previously confiscated in favor of the treasury was returned to the church. In the same year, the union of the Christian Church with the Roman state was officially announced, the church became a state organization led by the emperor. Not a single church issue was resolved without his knowledge. Thus, the beginning of the transformation of Christianity into the state religion was laid; in the world empire the world religion was established. In 325, the emperor convened the first "Ecumenical Council" (Nicene), which consisted of representatives of the ecclesiastical leaders. This council condemned as heresy the teaching of Arius that Christ is inferior to God the Father. The Council worked out the "Symbol of Faith" - a summary of the basic dogmas of the Christian religion. At the cathedral, the union of the church with the imperial power was formalized. The church recognized the emperor as its head, the representative of Christ on Earth. Soon after the death of Constantine (in 337), who was distinguished by extreme cruelty, stained himself with many murders, incl. by the murder of his son, wife and many relatives, the church declared him a saint. Constantine himself did not break with paganism during his lifetime.

An attempt under one of Constantine's successors - Emperor Julian (361 - 363), who received the nickname “Apostate” by Christians, did not succeed to return to paganism: the time of the ancient religions of the ancient world has irrevocably passed.

Emperor Theodosius I (379-395) ordered the closure of pagan temples. The Christian Church took up arms not only against the pagan religion, but also against science, which was also declared pagan, against scientific knowledge. One of the first martyrs of science, a distant predecessor of scientists who died at the stake of the Inquisition, was the woman scientist Hypatia, who was torn to pieces in 415 on the streets of Alexandria (Egypt). "Pagan" manuscripts were ruthlessly destroyed, many works of ancient art perished.

A fierce struggle was waged against all dissidents and within the Christian Church. In the II century. "Docetists" were declared heretics, who taught that Christ only seemed to be a man, that he was not a God-man, but a god. This trend, openly opposed to the mainstream, despite the fact that it was condemned, remained in Christianity for a long time. It was especially dangerous for the church, because, undermining the foundations of the cult, which was focused mainly on the events of the "earthly life" of Christ, led to the denial of church organization. Subsequently, the doctrine of the Docetians became the basis of the Monophysite heresies, which spread in the Coptic (Egypt) and Ethiopian churches. They were recognized as heretics in the II century. and supporters of the prominent church leader Marcion, who called on the new religion to more boldly break with biblical traditions. At the turn of the II-III centuries. the Montanists were condemned for opposing the omnipotence of the bishops; The church hierarchy that had developed by this time already firmly held the power in the Christian communities in its hands, the Montanist opposition did not succeed in changing the established order. At the same time, the church finally put an end to preachers, prophets, and apostles. The bishops advanced the teaching that only the direct disciples of Christ can be called "apostles". During this period, the myths that the apostles had transferred their power to the bishops were especially popular and diligently developed. Nevertheless, opposition to the episcopate continues for a long time to manifest itself in various currents called heretical (for example, among the Donatists). Democratic opposition to the church is especially evident at the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries, in the agonistic movement. Distributed at the beginning of the IV century. Manichaeism, having absorbed many elements of early Christian ideas and recognizing Christ as only one of God's messengers on earth, in fact was already an independent religion. With this religion, the Christian Church entered into a fierce struggle. All these religious movements and communities of supporters of "heretical" beliefs became a refuge for those who were dissatisfied with the official church, its politics and ideology, and most importantly - the social and political system that was sanctified by it. This was the significance of such heretical movements.

With the separation of the "clergy" from the "laity", the cult becomes more and more complicated and develops - rituals, divine services performed by the clergy and serving to strengthen its power. Christian worship takes on the form of a modern Orthodox service. From about the 4th century in Christianity, faith in various kinds of saints began to spread, most of whom were the direct successors of the gods of ancient religions. So, "Saint Nicholas" actually took the place of the ancient god of the seas and navigation, saints appeared - patrons of livestock, agriculture, etc. The Christian pantheon, which already numbered God the Father, the Mother Goddess, God the Son and the Holy Spirit, has now been replenished with numerous demigods, saints, saints, martyrs, as well as the veneration of spirits borrowed from Judaism (angels, archangels, seraphim, cherubim, etc.) ...

In the 4th century, the character of Christian asceticism changed dramatically. If earlier some people, having adopted Christianity, sought to leave the world they recognized as sinful and start a righteous life in the bosom of nature, now such settlements of Christian ascetics are increasingly acquiring economic importance: they have land, members of the church community under the leadership of the clergy perform various chores. The ruined peasantry, especially in Egypt, rushes to such church communities. In the IV century, the abbots of Egyptian monasteries, in written teachings that have come down to us, develop not only cult issues, but also instruct their subordinates in various economic matters. This is how monasteries or hermitages were born. Soon, monasteries appeared in Western church organizations. In the hands of church leaders, monasteries are an important means of strengthening their economic and political influence in the state.

In the 6th century, the Christian Church proposed to introduce a new era of chronology - from the emergence of a new religion. In 525, the Roman monk Dionysius the Small calculated the date of Christ's birth and proposed to establish the counting of years "from the birth of Christ". This era, however, did not take a long time.

During the first five centuries, the Christian church showed remarkable growth. Numerically, it grew from 4,000 followers after the resurrection of Jesus to 43.4 million formal followers, which at the beginning of the 6th century amounted to 22.4 percent of the world's population. Geographically, it spread from its origin in Palestine to all ends of the Roman Empire and beyond. Although there were factors that contributed to growth in those specific conditions, there was nevertheless enormous resistance. Religious, cultural and political opposition peaked during periods of devastating persecution. Theological and legal differences were destructive within the Christian community and confused people outside of it. There were also periods of relaxing apathy and preoccupation with earthly affairs. However, the growth continued. Despite opposition and setbacks, Christians continued to carry out missionary work and helped to spread the influence of the church. In various ways and for various reasons, they managed to lead people to Jesus Christ. The spread of Christianity in Europe everywhere entailed the development of writing, and with it some elements of ancient culture were perceived. Christianization marked the formation of feudal statehood, an intensification of the struggle against ancestral vestiges.

Until the 5th century, the spread of Christianity took place mainly within the geographical boundaries of the Roman Empire, as well as in the sphere of its influence - Armenia, Ethiopia, Syria. In the second half of the 1st millennium, Christianity spread among the Germanic and Slavic peoples, and later, in the XIII-XIV centuries, among the Baltic peoples. By the XIV century, Christianity had almost completely conquered Europe, and, from that time on, began to spread outside Europe, mainly through colonial expansion and missionary activities.

So, Christianity originated in the Middle East and in the earliest stages also appeared in North Africa. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a noticeable revival of the missionary movement, as a result of which the Christian church took root on all continents and exists in almost all countries. By the end of the 20th century, the number of adherents of Christianity around the world exceeds one billion, of which about half live in Europe. More than half of Christians are Catholics, about a third are Protestants, the rest are Orthodox and adherents of other Eastern churches.

The Christian faith continues to spread, but the center of gravity is rapidly shifting: from Europe and (to a lesser extent) the United States to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Due to demographic trends in these countries, some researchers suggest that the church of the 21st century will be represented by increasingly young, energetic and poor people who do not belong to the white race.

The discrepancy between the western and eastern churches in VI century.

In the sixth century, there was a divergence between the western and eastern Christian churches. It can be said that, starting from the sixth century, the Eastern Church (that is, the four Eastern Patriarchates) were conserved in their deviation from early Christianity. Having traveled the path of withdrawal from early Christianity during the second to fifth centuries, the Eastern Church basically stopped there. But the Western Church has gone further along the path of moving away from early Christianity. The gradual transition of the entire Western clergy to celibacy (celibacy) was the first serious step towards the divergence between the Western and Eastern churches, was a further step towards the removal of the Western Church from early Christianity.

The first step was followed by other steps. In the Western Church, more and more violent incitement to accept Christianity began to be practiced. The facts of forced conversion to Christianity took place in the Eastern Church, but they took on a particularly large scale in the Western Church. It was here that the attitude towards dissidents began to be more implacable.

At the end of the fourth century, the Roman emperor Theodosius first uttered the fatal word "inquisition". This word of Latin origin, translated into Russian, means "investigation". The "Inquisitors of Faith" established by Theodosius were at that time engaged in investigating the affairs of the so-called Manichean sect. In the sixth century, the word "inquisition" in the Western Church began to figure frequently in the analysis of various internal church affairs.

Until the 13th century, all bishops of the Western Church had inquisitorial powers. In the 13th century, the Inquisition emerged as a special institution under Pope Innocent III, and then it began to figure as a special institution under subsequent popes. Many prominent scientists and thinkers, as well as many faithful servants of Christ, later became victims of the Inquisition.

Speaking of Christianity in the sixth century, one should also note such an essential detail. In the first centuries, all followers of Christ were called only Christians, this was their only name. "Christian communities", "Christian church", and other names did not exist. In the fourth century, in some official church papers, the words “Catholic”, that is, worldwide, and “orthodox,” that is, Orthodox (praising God correctly) began to be added to the name “Christian Church”. In the sixth century, when the Western patriarchy of the Christian church expanded its borders throughout Europe, Western bishops began to place special emphasis on the name "Catholic", thus emphasizing the worldwide character of the church they lead. Although in the sixth century there was still no official division of the church, speaking of the Western patriarchy of the Christian church, we can quite definitely call it the Catholic Church, since later this name has become the official name of this church to this day.

The sixth century is characterized by the fact that in this century Christian churches began to be decorated with paintings and sculptural images. Moreover, in the western part of the Christian Church (in Catholicism), preference was given to sculptural images (statues), and in the east, preference was given to paintings (icons). Bishop Leontius of Naples in the sixth century especially strongly advocated the worship of icons and sculptural images as a sign of deep respect for those whom they represent. Bishop Philoxenus of Hierapolis ordered the icons and statues to be thrown out of the church, so that they would not serve as a pretext for idolatry. But most bishops were inclined to decorate temples with images, believing that these images would add splendor to temples and, thus, more people would be attracted to worship. In addition, the clergy began to look at the images as aids, reminiscent of sacred events to the simple, illiterate people. But it would be better, instead of these "manuals", to speak more profound sermons. However, with the sermons, things became very bad: the service consisted of a long ceremonial, and there was almost no time left for sermons. Church teachers began to say that when a person praying looks at an image, it is easier for him to pray: the image supposedly makes prayer easier.

Already in the fourth century, Christian churches had altars in which worship was performed. Only the ministers had the right to enter the altar, while the parishioners listened and watched the service, standing outside the altar. Subsequently, the arrangement of the altar in the western (Catholic) and eastern churches turned out to be somewhat different. In a Catholic church, the altar is separated from the rest of the church by a barrier, in the eastern church it is separated by an iconostasis, that is, a partition hung with icons, in the middle of which there are the so-called "royal gates". In the sixth century, altars looked simpler, but there was already a custom to be sure to decorate them with a cross.

By the sixth century, the biographies of many ascetics of Christ were compiled, but, unfortunately, features designed to adapt to the tastes of the time were introduced into these biographies or the lives of the saints. Christ's ascetics were endowed with such traits that were especially to the heart of the authors of these biographies. In a word, the authors of these biographies often put their wrong concepts on a whole range of issues into the mouths of the deeds of those ascetics whose lives they described.

Varieties of Christianity.

As we have found out, the Christian religion is not united. It, like other religions, is divided into a number of independent areas. During its formation, Christianity split into three main branches: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism. In each of these branches, the formation of its own, practically not coinciding with other branches, ideology began. Let's consider three of the most significant areas.

Catholicism . The word "Catholicism" means universal, universal. Its origins come from a small Roman Christian community, the first bishop of which, according to legend, was the Apostle Peter. The process of isolation of Catholicism in Christianity began in the III-V centuries, when the economic, political, cultural differences between the Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire grew and deepened. The beginning of the division of the Christian Church into Catholic and Orthodox was laid by the rivalry between the Popes and the Patriarchs of Constantinople for the supremacy in the Christian world. Around 867, there was a break between Pope Nicholas I and Patriarch Photius of Constantinople. Catholicism, as one of the directions of the Christian religion, recognizes its basic dogmas and rituals, but has a number of features in doctrine, cult, and organization.

Protestantism. Protestantism is one of the three main streams of Christianity that arose in Northern Europe at the beginning of the 16th century during the Reformation. In 1529, a group of heads of small state formations (mainly of German lands) and representatives of free cities who participated in the work of the imperial Diet in the city of Speyer, where the majority of the delegates were Catholics, made an official protest against the Diet, aimed at suppressing movements for the reform of the Roman Catholic Church.

The essence of Protestantism is as follows: divine grace is bestowed without the mediation of the church. Man's salvation occurs only through his personal faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The laity are not separated from the clergy - the priesthood extends to all believers. Of the sacraments, baptism and the sacrament are recognized. Believers do not obey the Pope. The service consists of sermons, joint prayers and the singing of psalms. Protestants do not recognize the cult of the Virgin, purgatory, they reject monasticism, the sign of the cross, sacred vestments and icons.

We will not dwell on these two varieties of Christianity in detail, since they are not particularly widespread in Russia. It is necessary to study Orthodoxy in more detail, as the dominant religion in our country.

In the XI century. The Roman Catholic Church unilaterally included a fundamentally new statement about the Holy Trinity (the so-called "Filioque") in the general church confession of faith ("Symbol of Faith"), which was one of the reasons for the "Great Schism". Eastern churches from that time began to be called Orthodox, and all Western dioceses (regions) subordinate to Rome ended up in the Roman Catholic or simply Catholic Church.

Currently, there are fifteen Autocephalous (i.e. independent) churches, including the Russian one, containing the Orthodox faith common to all of them.

Orthodoxy - one of the three main directions of Christianity - has historically developed, formed as its eastern branch. It is distributed mainly in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Balkans. The name "Orthodoxy" was first encountered by Christian writers of the 2nd century. The theological foundations of Orthodoxy were formed in Byzantium, where it was the dominant religion in the IV-XI centuries. The basis of the doctrine is the sacred scripture (Bible) and sacred tradition (the decision of seven Ecumenical Councils of the IV-VIII centuries, as well as the works of the largest church authorities, such as Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Damascene, John Chrysostom). It fell to the lot of these church fathers to form the basic tenets of the doctrine. In the Creed adopted at the Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, these foundations of the doctrine are formulated in 12 parts or members:

· The first term speaks of God as the creator of the world - the first hypostasis of the Holy Trinity;

· In the second - about faith in the only begotten Son of God - Jesus Christ;

· The third is the dogma of the Incarnation, according to which Jesus Christ, while remaining God, at the same time became a man, having been born of the Virgin Mary;

· The fourth member of the Creed is about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine of atonement;

· Fifth - about the resurrection of Jesus Christ;

· The sixth speaks of the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven;

· In the seventh - about the second, coming coming of Jesus Christ to earth;

· The eighth member of the Creed is about faith in the Holy Spirit;

· In the ninth - about the attitude towards the church;

· In the tenth - about the sacrament of Baptism;

· In the eleventh - about the future general resurrection of the dead;

· In the twelfth term - about eternal life.

In the further philosophical and theoretical development of Christianity, the teaching of St. Augustine played a significant role. At the turn of the 5th century, he preached the superiority of faith over knowledge. Reality, according to his teaching, is incomprehensible to the human mind, since the will of the omnipotent Creator is hidden behind its events and phenomena. In Augustine's doctrine of predestination, it was said that anyone who believed in God could enter the realm of the “elect” predestined for salvation. For faith is the criterion of predestination.

An important place in Orthodoxy is occupied by sacramental rites, during which, according to the teaching of the church, a special grace descends on believers. The Orthodox Church recognizes seven sacraments:

1. Epiphany - the sacrament in which the believer, when the body is immersed in water three times with the invocation of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, gains spiritual birth.

2. In the sacrament anointing the believer is given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, returning and strengthening in the spiritual life.

3. In the sacrament communion the believer, under the guise of bread and wine, tastes the very Body and Blood of Christ for Eternal Life.

4. Sacrament repentance or confession is the confession of one's sins before the priest, who forgives them in the name of Jesus Christ.

5. Sacrament priesthood takes place through episcopal ordination during the elevation of a person to the dignity of a priest. The right to perform this ordinance belongs only to the bishop.

6. In the sacrament marriage , which takes place in the church at the wedding, the marriage union of the bride and groom is blessed.

7. In the sacrament anointing (unction) when anointing the body with oil, the grace of God is called upon the sick, I heal wowing infirmity neck and body.

Old Belief. In the middle of the 17th century, there was an urgent need to reform the Russian Church, to increase its authority, to strengthen its influence on the masses, and to strengthen the alliance with the state. During the period of feudal fragmentation (17th century), the unity of the church rite and the content of liturgical books was disrupted. The establishment of religious unity was supposed to strengthen political unity. Foreign policy circumstances also forced the church reform. Patriarch Nikon began to introduce new rituals, new liturgical books and other innovations into the Russian Church without the approval of the council, without permission. This was the reason for the church schism. All the innovations introduced by Patriarch Nikon seemed to the conservative part of the Russian clergy to be a complete deviation from the "old faith", the principles of which were bequeathed by the Stoglav Cathedral (1551). She declared the new liturgical books and rites heretical and objected to their acceptance. The protests were expressed in places in a very harsh form. So, for example, the Moscow priest Ivan Neronov allowed himself to stop the service in the Assumption Cathedral when the triple hallelujah was sung there. And when in the Nilova Hermitage they began to serve on five prosphora instead of seven, the parishioners were outraged by this. The sexton hit the priest with a censer with hot coals on the head so that the coals flew away, after which a general fight ensued in the church. The clergy of the Vyatka Territory also protested against Nikon's innovations. In 1663, the head of the diocese, Bishop Alexander of Vyatka and Great Perm, sent a petition against the patriarch to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in which he condemned the correction of liturgical books and the creed. As a result, he was summoned to Moscow to respond to the council of 1666, where he tried to defend his position in relation to Nikon's reforms, but ultimately repented, was forgiven by the council, and returned to his diocese in 1669. Hegumen Feoktist, who at one time came to Khlynov together with Bishop Alexander, turned out to be a noticeable opponent of church reforms in the Vyatka land. He was an ardent supporter of Archpriest Avvakum, this recognized leader of the defenders of the "old faith." Hegumen Feoktist maintained a written connection from Khlynov with the boyaryna F.P. Morozova, the famous patroness of the Old Believers. For the ardent and open support of Archpriest Avvakum, the hegumen was arrested and sent to Moscow. Feoktist himself disappeared without a trace, but his sermons about the "old faith" had a significant impact on the believers. There were a lot of such dissatisfied people in Russia and the Vyatka province of that time. These included the provincial clergy and representatives of the old boyar families, and part of the merchant class associated with internal trade, and the urban lower classes. But the peasants had more grounds for dissatisfaction than others, for the brunt of the consequences of the final strengthening of feudal-serf relations in the country fell on them. They became the force that split Russian Orthodoxy into the so-called "old faith" and official Orthodoxy.

At the direction of the Vyatka Right Reverend Ioannikios, in the first third of the 19th century, the Vyatka spiritual consistory tried to determine the total number of Old Believers in the diocese. It turned out, according to the information she collected, that in 1834 there were 28689 supporters of the "old faith" in the province, including 16,519 people in the territory of modern Udmurtia, or about 58%. Subsequently, the number of Old Believers in the province increased rapidly. According to the Provincial Statistical Committee, by the beginning of the 60s, there were already 46,020 of them, in particular, on the territory of the counties, of which the present Udmurtia was formed, 28,231 people, or 61%.

The further fate of the Vyatka Old Believers was significantly influenced by the peasant reform of 1861 and the subsequent bourgeois transformations that were carried out by the tsarist government. All these phenomena in the Vyatka Old Believers were accompanied by a numerical increase in its adherents, because the need for religious consolation within the framework of the "old faith" among the peasants of the province remained due to the predatory nature of the peasant reform.

According to the information of the provincial statistical committee, the number of Old Believers by the end of the century increased almost three times compared to the beginning of the 60s: in 1900 there were 104,523 people in the province, and together with co-religionists - 113,322, including in the territory of counties, of which the present Udmurtia was formed - respectively 68422 people and 74,719.

In recent years, there has been a tendency towards a decline in the religious activity of the Old Believers. This decline found its expression in a decrease in the attendance of believers at prayer meetings, a decrease in the number of rituals performed. The Old Believers as a whole are currently in a state of deep crisis. At the present time, it can be said with certainty that the Old Believers have decreased in quantity. Although now the Old Believers in Russia, according to the most optimistic estimates, there are only a million to four.

Christianity Today: A Case Study.

What is the position of Orthodoxy, Christianity and faith in general in Russia today? What processes are taking place in this area? Let's take a closer look at this.

Many centuries later, Christianity remains one of the world's religions. Having undergone many changes, it lives and continues to fulfill its main function - rapprochement with God, with moral values \u200b\u200band foundations.

The crisis of communist ideology and the democratization of society caused a surge of religious sentiments among various strata. According to statistics, in the 90s in Russia 54% of citizens considered themselves Orthodox, 5% - followers of Islam, and 4% - of other religions and cults. The rest considered themselves to be unbelievers.

After the fall of communism in the 90s, restoration and construction of churches, mosques, synagogues began throughout the country. In Moscow, in a short time, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was blown up in the early 30s, was restored, erected in the 19th century with the money of millions of ordinary people in memory of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. Currently, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is one of the main shrines of Russia; the Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II himself conducts divine services here.

Today, the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees every citizen "freedom of religion, including the right to profess, individually or jointly with others, any religion or not to profess any religion, freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and act in accordance with them." However, propaganda of "religious hatred and enmity" and "religious superiority" is not allowed.

In 1997, the Federal Law "On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations" was adopted, which significantly restricted the activities of totalitarian sects (Satanists, Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) that entered the territory of Russia from abroad. But, despite this, the problem of the spread of various sects throughout the country is very, very urgent today. People join such organizations, pledging all their property and completely devoting themselves to the sect and serving its leaders.

One of the most important events of the early 21st century is the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church, which ended in 2007. All previous contradictions were debunked.

The other day, sad news came that the I hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus, who was one of the main figures in the reunification of churches, died on March 16. The election of the new head of the Russian Church Abroad will take place approximately after Easter.

Now let's turn to a case study that was organized by the Levada Center earlier this year.

On January 18-22 and February 22-25, 2008, the Yuri Levada Analytical Center (Levada Center) conducted polls, representative of the country's adult population, on the problem of religion (a sample of 1600 Russians). The absolute majority, three out of every four, believe that religion helps a person. To someone she gives first of all "oblivion, consolation, relief of emotional experiences and pain." More often than average, this is noted by those who need oblivion more than others: the poor and representatives of the lower social stratum. The atheists we interviewed recognize this role of religion in the same way as believers. Religion gives someone a "cleansing of the soul", but atheists no longer recognize this. More often than others, the religious cleansing of the soul is celebrated by villagers, less often - by Muscovites and wealthy people. "The salvation of the soul, the path to eternal life" is, obviously, the central and main role of religion. Atheists deny it by definition. It receives the greatest recognition from the representatives of the lower social stratum and the elderly, the least - from the youth. "The meaning of life" is for those whose whole life is permeated with religion, is reduced to it. Atheists recognize this role as often as believers. She receives the greatest recognition from Muslims and representatives of small denominations. Finally, religion can help not only an individual person in his individual life, but also the people around him, in the life of people together. The most widespread opinion (shared by a third of all adult Russians) is that people acquire in religion "the moral and ethical norms of everyday life." The higher the educational level, the better the financial situation, the more often this is recognized. Relatively rarely, but atheists, and comparatively often, the Orthodox and representatives of small denominations, recognize the normalizing role of religion.

42% of Russians, a little less than half, consider themselves religious people - “very much” or “to some extent”. Recognition of one's religiosity has little to do with the material situation, educational level and social status of a person. (Increased religiosity is noticeable both among the poorest and those with a high social status. Highly educated citizens, more often than others, find it difficult to answer the question posed). In this case, gender and age factors are much more important. Religiousness among women is significantly higher than among men (51% versus 30%). With age, religiosity gradually increases (18-24 years old - 29%, 25-39 years old - 38%, 40-54 years old - 44%, 55 years old and over 49%). By occupation, retirees, employees without special education, and leaders, administrative workers are distinguished by their increased religiosity. Religiousness among workers is lower than the average, much lower among students, and the least religious people are among employees of power structures.

Every second of those who consider themselves a religious person noted that “religion makes me think about the meaning of life, about the soul, eternity”, slightly less than half (40%) - that “religion helps me to be tolerant of people, their shortcomings ", Every third - that" religion is simply necessary for me as a believer. " Religious feelings of the surrounding people and manifestations of these feelings by religious people are most often taken seriously: “people used to hide their religious feelings, but now they have stopped hiding them” (35%), “more and more people are being introduced to the Faith” (32%). Only a few (14%) do not trust their manifestations: "this is all just an outward fashion that does not have any deep religious feelings under it."

According to the results of a sociological survey to the question "What religion do you profess?" 71% of the respondents answered "Orthodoxy", 15% of the polled citizens stated that they do not profess any religion. 1% of citizens answered that they are Catholics, Protestants. Less than 1% of the respondents identify themselves as Jews and Buddhists. 5% of respondents are Muslims and atheists. About 2% of citizens found it difficult to answer, 1% chose another answer option.

Thus, it can be noted that Orthodoxy still dominates in Russia.

To the question "How much influence do the church and religious organizations have on public policy in our country?" 4% of the respondents say that "too much", 14% "a little more than necessary", 45% of the respondents "exactly as much as it should be", "a little less than necessary" - 11%, 7% - "too few ”, 19%“ found it difficult to answer ”.

The question was also asked "Should a certain place be given to religious knowledge in the curriculum of a general education school?" The results are as follows: “there should be no place for religion in school” - 20%, “at the request of students and their parents, it is possible to study the history of religion, the basics of religious morality at school” - 60%, “it is necessary to restore the teaching of the Law of God in secondary school for everyone "- 12%, another answer option - 1% and 8% of respondents found it difficult to answer.

Thus, we get a general picture of modern reality. Orthodoxy dominates in Russian society, the percentage of non-believers is quite high. Different confessions coexist on the same territory. Today both rich and poor believe in God. Therefore, faith in God is not related to social status.

Religious processes are still in full swing in the church environment, the church today is connected with society and the state as a whole.

Conclusion.

The scientific study of Christianity began in the 18th century and continues to this day. Attention to religion as the most powerful ideological tool of the state is unlikely to dry out, as long as interstate, interethnic conflicts unleashed on religious grounds continue, as long as religion itself exists.

If you look at the result of the impact of Christian ideas on society and the state, then, perhaps, no one will doubt that the power of their effect on humanity turned out to be unparalleled . This tells us that the whole history after Christ has become qualitatively different under the influence of Christian ideas. That is, the political and legal nature of these ideas is revealed in their impact on humanity.

Does religion inspire good or are many of the problems of humanity rooted in it? Perhaps God himself is deeply abused by religion, which incites enmity, makes conscience insensitive, evokes fantasies that are far from reality and sows prejudice, superstition, hatred and fear in people! There can be only one way out - to look for the true religion, the one that does not contradict his commandments. Faith has the right to be called true only if it prompts you to show compassion in practice. Everyone must decide for himself this question himself - in reflection, in research, in search.

We need to summarize. The church is important today. It is necessary, first of all, for instilling moral and moral qualities in a person, it is necessary as a shelter for those who are tired of the vulgarity of life, it is necessary for the simplest things, for which the church was created, for faith.

List of references.

1. The Bible.

2. B. Russell. Why I'm not a Christian - Moscow: Politizdat, 1978.

3. Brochure "Prayer is a conversation with God" - Kazan: New edition, 2000.

4. Brochure “Your Word is Truth” - Kazan: New edition, 2000.

5. Brochure "The Existence of God" - Kazan: New edition, 2000.

6. Brochure "Essence of God" - Kazan: New edition, 2000.

8. Ivonin Yu.M. Christianity in Udmurtia: history and modernity. - Izhevsk: Udmurtia, 1987.- p. 30, 40, 42.

9. I.S. Sventsitskaya. Early Christianity: Pages of Stories - M .: Politizdat, 1987.

10. The history of political doctrines, ed. Nersesyantsa - M .: Infra M-Codex, 1995.

11. History of Religion - M .: Runik Center, 1991.

12.History of Russia, 20th - early 21st century: textbook for grade 11. / A. A. Levandovsky. - M.: Education, 2005.

13.K. Kautsky. The origin of Christianity - M .: ed. polit. lit., 1990.

14. Konstantinova T. I. F. Kapterev about Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich // Calendar of the Old Orthodox Pomorka Church. - 2004 .-- p. 72.

15.F. Engels. About original Christianity - M .: ed. polit. lit., 1990.

About the author: Alexey Filippov, Ph.D. in Philosophy, laureate in the nomination "Best Young Teacher of Moscow" in 2008, laureate of the Moscow Mayor's Prize in Education, teaches history and social studies, parishioner of the Church of St. Thomas on Kantemirovskaya.

Fairy tale and gray days

Why am I here? Does God exist? If so, how can you see Him? These questions tormented me for many years. I knocked on all doors, read many books, deeply studied Hinduism, Buddhism, even Satanism. But there was no answer that I could accept not only with my heart, but also with my mind. And then one day in my hands was the book by Alexei Losev "Dialectics of Myth."

This was probably the most difficult text I have ever read. This book turned my world upside down. But first things first.

I was born into an unbelieving family. My parents were technical engineers, and there was never any talk of God or faith at home. I only know that my great-grandfather was a church head and that for this he was exiled to Siberia. But in general, from the very beginning, I was completely excluded from the religious environment. Only my love for books compensated for this ideological vacuum.

I especially enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy. Being under the charm of these books, I still dreamed of seeing the real world around me as pure, mysterious, beautiful. But every time this dream was faced with everyday dullness, vanity, prosaicity. I pondered a lot about this conflict, about the tragic discrepancy between the world of books and the world outside my window.

I remember that as a child I somehow accidentally fell into the hands of Slobodsky's "Law of God". For a long time I looked at the beautiful and bright Church Slavonic letters, pictures, which depicted God creating the world. But I began to seriously think about the meaning of life and about God after school, when I entered the history department of the pedagogical college, majoring in the history of world religions. I started reading Buddhist, Hindu religious texts, the Egyptian Book of the Dead. I was especially deeply touched by the religious and philosophical treatise "Tao Te Ching".

This study of the religious heritage of world history was dictated not only by the program that had to be mastered, but also by my personal, existential need. I seriously began to look for answers to deep, worldview questions.

True, I had one prerequisite: I could accept the Answer only if it met the principles of rationality with scientific rigor. But I really wanted to see the Truth behind the religious literature, and not just various variations on the theme of the delusions of the peoples of the world.

At first it seemed to me that Confucianism, Buddhism, or the Vedic religion can be reduced to the intoxication of the masses by those in power, to the possibility - according to Marx - to give exploited people some hope for afterlife compensation for the hardships and suffering suffered here. But the further I plunged into the subject, the more I realized how vulgar and one-sided such a vision of the religious world is.

No, I thought, this is too easy. Some kind of special truth must be present in these teachings. " But which one? And how to reconcile the irrationality of faith with the demands of my mind? And then I made an amazing discovery.

Philistine Satanism

In my last year of college, I was supposed to write my graduation paper and decided to take up the study of Satanism. I will not say that he attracted me with something. It just seemed to me that I already knew enough about other religious teachings, but Satanism passed me by.

I plunged into research. I started reading about Charles Manson (American serial killer, founder of the "Family" sect. - Approx. ed.), about dogma, rituals and finally got to the "Satanic Bible", which was written by Anton Sandor LaVey. And this text threw me into a stupor. I thought that I would come across descriptions of plots horrible in their cruelty, with calls to sacrifice cats and babies to the devil, but I found ... the foundations of modern social psychology. That is, any modern materialist will subscribe to the ideas contained in this book: if you do not want to believe - do not believe, if you want to believe - believe, do not offend your enemy if he did nothing wrong to you, and if he did, take revenge and forget, be strong, endure adversity, take advantage of everything, learn from your own and others' mistakes, and so on.

“It turns out,” I thought, “that life without God is Satanism? Moreover, this life itself is completely harmless, typical - the standard philistine approach: I do not touch you, and you do not touch me. " This thought jarred me terribly. With this "baggage" I ended up at the university.

Losev became the "last straw"

I felt more and more acutely some kind of deep "lack". My desire for the miraculous, the irrational, the otherworldly intensified, colliding with even greater drama with the stubborn arguments of reason, which every time reminded me: everything must be tested scientifically, rationally. Religion remained beautiful for me, of course, and very attractive, but a fairy tale, a myth that reflected, as it seemed to me then, the feelings and aspirations of people, but nothing more.

And at that moment in my hands was the book of the great Russian philosopher Alexei Losev "Dialectics of myth", from the very first pages of which amazing words fell upon me that a myth is "The brightest and most authentic reality ... an absolutely necessary category of thought and life."

I read it for a very long time. He literally pushed his way through every line. Several times I passed my metro station while reading. I must say right away that before I read this text, it seemed to me that a myth is something fabulous that has nothing to do with reality or a naive pre-scientific way of explaining the world. It is clear, I thought, that myths became a thing of the past when man grew up and science appeared. And Losev's book shocked me. By the way, it was given to me by my supervisor, with whom I wrote a diploma, and then - already in graduate school - a candidate's dissertation. It is difficult to convey how grateful I am to him - not only for the fact that he taught me so much, but also for this book once handed to me.

“Dialectics of myth” showed that behind the word “myth” a completely different meaning can be hidden, that myth, in Losev's understanding, is the most living reality that is directly related to how I perceive the world. And science, which I sympathized with so much, with its abstract ideas of matter and number, with its emasculated rationality, is only one type of "relative mythology", and far from being the most interesting one.

Everything in the world is a myth

For Losev, a myth is an "idea of \u200b\u200ban idea", something that actually exists and only thanks to which everything in this world can be cognized. And it has nothing to do with the ordinary understanding of the word.

This is not synonymous with unreality, but exactly the opposite. Imagine that from childhood you were convinced that your maternal (or paternal) ancestor was a German spy, saboteur, traitor to the Motherland and ended his life on the gallows. However, after opening the archives, it turned out that in fact he is a hero who saved thousands of lives, has hundreds of international awards, and he is still alive and ready to meet you. So it is with the myth. Everyone thought that he was just a fairy tale, but it turned out that this is the true reality of our consciousness. Everyone assumed that the world has two dimensions, but suddenly the reality of the third dimension was revealed to them.

We never perceive the world as it really is, we see it through the prism of myth and with its help. Even science is forced to use analogies and images that are understandable to humans, regardless of what it describes - the Universe or the structure of the nuclear nucleus. In this sense, according to Losev, the myth is the "organ" that makes the world not just knowable, but actually human.

If we could go beyond our own body, we would see the world as it is, without distorting it by the organs of perception, but we must “go beyond” the ontological boundaries of the human to see the world outside the myth ... However, when it happens, like this it was with the Apostle Paul, it turns out that human words are completely powerless before what is revealed.

In the myth, according to Losev, the ideal and the material are identified, in close contact. The myth reveals to us not only how the world is must be, but also that for granted, the ideal is embodied in reality, has become a true, integral reality; in the myth, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe world is fully actualized.

Moreover, a person always relates to the world personally. “Every living person is, in one way or another, a myth,” says the philosopher, and shows this on a mass of examples. A person, if he is in his right mind, will never perceive the room where he got to as the sum of tables, chairs, lamps, and so on. First of all, he will appreciate whether he is comfortable here or not, whether he likes the color of the walls or not, and this, you see, is completely irrational. This is mythologization. Otherwise, we cannot interact with the world. We mythologize reality involuntarily, most often without even thinking. As AF Losev says, "everything in the world is a myth."

Moreover, if a person did not think mythically, then the world around us would lose its colors, smells, some kind of living and dear aura for us. In the rational there is no place for mood, life, surprise, only dry, naked and meaningless matter for us (nameless matter!), A random combination of some molecules, atoms - and nothing else.

Losev writes that when they try to prove to him that the world is naked matter, consisting of atoms, it seems to him that he is kicked out of the house with a filthy broom and left to sit on an empty, cold street. The world without myth is an empty, emasculated, dead space, meaning nothing for a person.

Christianity as an absolute myth

And when I read all this, when I realized what a myth is in the understanding not of an ordinary person, but of a thinker, everything fell into place. "Dialectics of myth" allowed me to understand that the entire complex of religious texts that I had read before, all the rituals described by Eliade, Fraser or Taylor are something extremely serious, and not just some eccentricities of ancient people. Moreover, I saw the mythological in my life. And I realized that my desire to explain everything rationally is also dictated by a certain mythological ideology.

At the end of the book Losev very neatly, I would even say cautiously, leads the reader to the conclusion that the absolute, ultimate myth is contained in Christianity. Of course, he does not speak about this directly - it was the 1930s, the time of the terrible Stalinist terror. But those who have managed to live the previous chapters of this book will understand that the philosopher writes about Christianity as an absolute truth.

Why is the truth in Christianity? Because its foundation is a testimony of Christ as God and man. The life of Jesus Christ, described in the Gospel, is a true story about how the mystery of God, whom no one has ever seen, was revealed in a person, as what a person is must was to be as it was intended, became reality... Let us recall that for Losev the myth is the identity of the ideal and the material, their absolute interdependence, integrity. And it is in this sense that Christianity is absolute mythology. I will repeat once again so that no one will be confused by this word: this is not about an invention or a fairy tale, but, in Losev's understanding, about reality itself.

Then I realized: if other religions are grandiose evidence of man's search for God, but alas! - not ending with His acquisition, then Christianity, on the contrary, is an amazing story about how God was looking for a person, and how He found him.

The tragic conflict between the irrational and the rational was overcome. The cherished desire that originated in me as a child - to find magic, wonderful, light in this world around me - has come true. And it turned out that the concentration of this light, penetrating the fabric of reality and transforming it, a miracle that turns out to be more authentic, more real than any scientific fact, is in Christ and in His Church.

The most powerful, influential and numerous of all the existing mainstreams, ahead of Buddhism and Islam, is Christianity. The essence of religion, breaking up into the so-called churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and others), as well as many sects, consists in reverence and worship of one divine being, in other words, the God-man, whose name is Jesus Christ. Christians believe that he is the true son of God, that he is the Messiah, that he was sent down to Earth for the salvation of the world and all mankind.

The religion of Christianity was born in distant Palestine in the first century AD. e. Already in the first years of its existence, it had many adherents. The main reason for the emergence of Christianity, according to the ministers of the cult, was the preaching activity of a certain Jesus Christ, who, being essentially a demigod-half-human, came to us in a human form in order to bring people the truth, and even scientists do not deny his existence. Four holy books have been written about the first coming of Christ (the second Christian world is just awaiting), which are called the Gospels. Written by his apostles (Matthew, John, as well as Mark and Luke, disciples of two others and Peter), the scriptures tell about the miraculous birth of the boy Jesus in the glorious city of Bethlehem, how he grew up, how he began to preach.

The main ideas of his new religious teaching were the following: the belief that he, Jesus, really is the Messiah, that he is the son of God, that there will be his second coming, there will be the end of the world and the resurrection from the dead. Through his sermons, he called to love others and help those in need. His Divine origin was proved by the miracles with which he accompanied his teachings. Many sick people were healed by his word or touch, three times he raised the dead, walked on water, turned it into wine and fed about five thousand people with only two fish and five cakes.

He expelled all merchants from the Jerusalem temple, thereby showing that dishonest people have no place in holy and noble deeds. Then there was the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, accusation of willful blasphemy and impudent encroachment on the royal throne and a death sentence. He died being crucified on the cross, taking upon himself the torment for all human sins. Three days later, Jesus Christ was resurrected and then ascended to heaven. About religion, Christianity says the following: there are two places, two special spaces, inaccessible to people during earthly life. and paradise. Hell is a place of terrible torment, located somewhere in the bowels of the earth, and paradise is a place of universal bliss, and only God himself will decide who to send.

The religion of Christianity is based on several dogmas. The first is that the second is that it is threefold (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The birth of Jesus took place on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God was incarnated in the Virgin Mary. Jesus was crucified and then died, having atoned for human sins, and then resurrected. At the end of time, Christ will come to judge the world, and the dead will be resurrected. Divine and human nature is inextricably linked in the image of Jesus Christ.

All religions of the world have certain canons and commandments, while Christianity preaches to love God with all our heart, and also to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you do not love your neighbor, you cannot love God.

Religion Christianity has its adherents in almost every country, half of all Christians are concentrated in Europe, including Russia, one quarter in North America, one sixth in South America, and significantly fewer believers in Africa, Australia and

THEME: "CHRISTIANITY"

Lesson number 3 “Christianity as a world religion. Affirmation of dogma and cult "

Lesson type: lesson-lecture.
The purpose of the lesson: to give an overall picture of the history of Christianity.
Tasks: 1. To teach:to form the integrity of students' knowledge about the personality of Jesus Christ, about the great Christian holidays, the foundations of Christian doctrine and cult, the stages of the transformation of Christianity into a world religion.
2. Develop: develop students' abilities to assimilate knowledge about Christianity, cognitive activity, independence and initiative, critical thinking, the ability to highlight the main thing, analyze, compare, compare and distinguish the values \u200b\u200bof Christianity from other religions.
3. To educate:educating students of intellectual culture (hard work, attention, culture of communication and speech, the ability to work with information in the field of religion); education of students' emotional and value attitudes towards the cultural and moral values \u200b\u200bof Christianity.

Equipment: computer, lesson presentation, application, student workbooks.

DURING THE CLASSES

1 slide -topic of the lesson “Christianity as a world religion. Affirmation of dogma and cult "
The teacher informs students that they are continuing to introduce students to a new subject and introducing the lesson plan. The goal is set for the students: to give a general picture of the history of Christianity, the transformation of religion into the world.

2 slide

LESSON PLAN
1. Checking homework:
2. Lecture of the teacher “Christianity as a world religion. Affirmation of dogma and cult. "
3.
Homework:
1. Make SINKWAYN on the topic "Christianity".
2. Prepare for a generalizing lesson on the topic "Christianity".
DURING THE CLASSES

Teacher: Today we are meeting again at the lesson "Religions of Russia". What big topic are we studying?
Answer: We study the religion of Christianity, one of the oldest living monotheistic religions in the world.
Teacher: What have we learned in the previous lessons?
Answer: We have studied in more detail the history of the emergence of Christianity, that the holy book of the Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Old Testament consists of four Gospels that were written by the disciples of Jesus - the apostles, the acts of the apostles, the prophecy about the future.
Teacher: How many new words have appeared in our dictionary. What helped us remember them?
Answer: Analyzing the topics, we were able to understand the meaning of many words and concepts.

Teacher: Yesterday we did not understand the meaning of many words, but today we freely understand the meaning of the New Testament, the Old Testament, the Gospel, the apostles. And now the question: Why are we studying the course "Religions of Russia"?
Answer: Among us live people of different nationalities and religions, and we should know each other better, and therefore should get acquainted with the culture, traditions of the people inhabiting our multinational, multi-confessional country. Moreover, we are Orthodox. And Orthodoxy is one of the branches of Christianity.
Teacher: The topic of our lesson is “Christianity as a world religion. Affirmation of dogma and cult "

3 slide: Teacher:You have a lined table on the table
(Appendix # 1):

I KNOW	I WANT TO KNOW

And we will fill it in now. This form of work is very familiar to us. What will we put in the first column?
Answer: In the first column we will enter everything that we already know on the topic "Christianity" - keywords.
Teacher: What do we write in the second column? What do we want to know?
Answer: Of course this is the topic of the lesson.
Teacher:Some of your classmates will play the role of teacher during the lesson today.
(homework ahead of schedule).

4 slide: Stages of the formation of Christianity. Pupil: Christianity as a world religion has been taking shape for a thousand years. Researchers distinguish three main stages in it. The first stage (the first three decades of the 1st century AD) is the appearance of the first Christians. The second stage (30s - 325 AD) - the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and its official recognition as the state religion. The third stage (325 - 1054) - the organizational formation of Christianity as a world religion, the unification of Christian teaching and cult and the split of the Christian Church into Western (Catholicism) and Eastern (Orthodoxy). Let's briefly describe each of these stages.

5 slide: Stage I. Pupil: The main events of the first stage should be considered the formation of the beginnings of the Christian doctrine, the creation of the first Christian community in Palestine, the beginning of the active preaching of a new religious teaching by Jesus Christ. This stage ends with the martyrdom of the founder of Christianity.

6 slide: II stage. Pupil:The second stage is characterized by the persecution of Christians by the official Roman authorities, the growth of the authority of the Christian religion among the people and, in the future, its transformation into the state religion of the Roman Empire.
During this time, Christianity gradually spread throughout the empire, including Europe, North Africa and Asia. In the first three centuries of the new era, the Roman authorities impeded the spread of Christianity, since they saw in this religion a threat to the existing state system. The Roman emperors were pagans and adhered to a lifestyle that was directly opposite to the commandments of Christ. Christians were cruelly persecuted: they were crucified on crosses, given up to be torn apart by wild animals in the arenas of Roman circuses, and burned alive. The apostles Peter and Paul were executed. Thousands of Christians died during these persecutions. But the repression failed to suppress the spread of the new religion. She found more and more supporters who secretly gathered in the forests, catacombs, listened to sermons, and helped each other in everything. Over time, the attitude of the Roman authorities towards Christianity changed. The persecution of Christians ceased, and in the 4th century Christianity becomes the official religion of Rome. In 324, Christianity was finally recognized as the state religion of the Roman Empire.

Slide 7: Dictionary work. Teacher: At this stage, Christian communities are united into centralized church organizations and cult rites and rules are gradually formed: collective meals, which later turned into a rite of communion with bread and wine; prayer texts were read, which became the prototype of the liturgy; baptism was practiced; fasts began to be observed; a separate group of clergy is being formed.
Elders- “elders” of communities.
Deacons (Greek “servants”) - people who help the elders to perform the liturgical rituals.
Bishop (lit.: "overseer") - a senior official (represented the community in external relations with other communities; supervised liturgical activities and ordained elders and deacons; forgave sins and forgave community members who stumbled; disposed of the community's property and supervised its economic activities. The bishop gradually became the sovereign head of the church organization within a certain territory).
Metropolitan (Greek "a man from the main city") - the bishops of the main cities of the provinces, which were assigned the right to appoint other bishops.
Lay people - simple believers.
Clergy (Greek "lot", which may mean a special apostolic vocation, which is not given to everyone) - clergy (metropolitans, bishops, presbyters, deacons).
Hierarchy (lit. from Greek - "sacred power"). with the appointment of metropolitans, five metropolitanates were created - Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rpim and Constantinople. In Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy), such a structure has survived to this day. Monasticism appeared in the 4th century. Some Christians even earlier began to move away from the world, turning into hermits, hermits. The idea of \u200b\u200babstinence, self-restraint in the name of spiritual improvement has become characteristic of Christian teaching. Gradually, the idea of \u200b\u200ba collective, common life of monks arose and monasteries began to arise.
Monk (from the Greek. monos) - one.
Monastery (from the Greek. Monos - one; lit. "secluded dwelling").

8 slide: III stage. Pupil: The third stage marked the unification, the establishment of the unity of the Christian doctrine and cult. This took place at the Ecumenical Councils, which began to be regularly convened since 325. The principle of conciliarity, that is, the free "gathering" of people into a single church organism, becomes the most important in the life of the early Christian church. All the most important issues of doctrine and church administration were decided collectively at the Ecumenical Councils. The most significant milestones in the unification process were the first two Ecumenical Councils - Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

Teacher: At these councils, the Christian Creed was adopted.

Slide 9: Dictionary work. Symbol of faith - a summary of the main dogmas.
Dogma- position not subject to change.

10 slide: Symbol of Faith. Teacher:the Christian Symbol of Faith consists of 12 points (faith in the one born of God the Father and who came to earth for the salvation of all people; in the fact that Christ died a martyr's death, as a man who accepted suffering for all people; in the fact that he was resurrected on the third day, and then ascended to heaven; that Christ will come to earth a second time to judge the living and the dead, who will be resurrected, etc.); - seven main Christian sacraments have been approved: baptism, chrismation, communion, repentance, blessing of oil (mandatory for all Christians), as well as marriage and priesthood (optional); - the canonical New Testament was approved, the composition of its books was determined.

At the Chalcedonian (451) and II Constantinople (533) cathedrals, the cult of the Mother of God was established, which is of great importance for both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The decisions of the subsequent fifth, sixth and seventh Ecumenical Councils were directed against religious heresies and their spread, related to overcoming disputes in the field of religious dogmas and ritual cults. After the first seven Ecumenical Councils in the middle of the 11th century, Christianity split: it split into two directions - Eastern (Orthodoxy) and Western (Catholicism).

Assignment (Appendix # 2): Teacher: Here is Appendix # 2. Read the text carefully. Tell me, what have you read now? How did this text make you feel? What do you agree with and what do you disagree with? Why is it called the SYMBOL OF FAITH? What is the SYMBOL OF FAITH? Do you consider yourself a believer? How is it shown? What conclusion can we draw from the text of the SYMBOL OF FAITH? And now back to Appendix # 1.
The task: Fill out the table to the end.

Anchoring:

Teacher: We closed the notebooks, put them aside. There is a text on the table in front of you. Appendix No. 3, which offers definitions of religion.
THE TASK: Find a match. (Appendix No. 3)

Summing up the lesson. Homework:1. Make SINKWAYN on the topic of religion. 2. Learn definitions.

Christianity
Belong to the number
world religions,
considering the impact on the move
world history, and
scale
distribution. Number
adherents
Christianity
approaching
2 billion people.

IN I AD IN VOSTOCHNAYA
part of the Roman Empire, this
religion. It arose in conditions
decomposition of the slave system and
was originally an expression
powerless protest of slaves and the poorest
sections of the population against oppression
slave owners. Seeing no way out
this situation, the poor paid
gaze to the sky.

The Roman Empire, at that time included the entire
Mediterranean world, was founded on slavery, to
besides, civilization was already on the decline.
By the 60s. 1st century AD there were already several
Christian communities other than the very first,
Jerusalem, which consisted of disciples gathered
around Jesus.

The Christian religion is based on faith
into the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ,
who by his martyrdom
atoned for the sins of humanity. These
dogmatic provisions are
essential for all Christian
currents. They contain a creature
Christian faith giving
adherents of Christianity hope for
deliverance from the burdens of the earth
existence in eternal life, which
should come after death.

At the beginning of the second millennium
development of Christianity in the East
and the West parted, formed
hardly communicating between
are churches:
Eastern
(Orthodox)
church
Western
(catholic)
church

Today in Christianity there are the following main directions:

Orthodoxy
Catholicism
Protestantism

Orthodoxy
The first kept the doctrine unchanged,
formed in the first millennium, and before
our time is called
Orthodox.
Orthodox
churches

Christian religion
proclaims the principle
monotheism. At the same time
main directions
Christianity adhere to
provisions on the divine trinity.
According to this provision, God
although one, however, appears in
three hypostases (persons):
God is the father
God the son and
God is a holy spirit.

Until recently, there were 15 autocephalous
(independent, not subordinate to a single center) Orthodox churches:
Constantinople
Alexandria
Antioch
Jerusalem
Russian
Georgian
Serbian
Romanian
Bulgarian
Cypriot
Helladic (Greek)
Albanian
Polish
Czech lands and Slovakia
Orthodox Church in America

Catholicism
The second, for which the name stuck
Catholic (universal),
has deviated sufficiently from the Orthodox faith.
Catholic
churches

Catholicism is the largest branch of Christianity in terms of the number of adherents. The head of the Catholic Church is the Pope

Catholicism is practiced in almost all countries of the world

He is the main
religion in many
European countries:
Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Austria,
Belgium, Lithuania, Poland,
Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Croatia,
Ireland and Malta).
In total in 21 states
Europe Catholics
make up the majority
population.

Protestantism

Originated in the sixteenth century,
anti-Catholic movement,
Reformation- led to the emergence of a third direction in
Christianity - Protestantism.
Protestant
churches

Protestantism is one of the three main directions of Christianity, which is a collection of numerous and independent Churches

Protestantism is one
of three main directions
Christianity,
representing
aggregate
numerous and
independent Churches.

Protestantism in
the opposite of Catholicism
and Orthodoxy represents
a collection of many
currents and churches, the most
influential of which Lutheranism (mainly
Nordic countries),
Calvinism (in separate
countries of Western Europe and
North America) and
Anglicanism, half
whose adherents
make up the British.

The fundamental difference
three Christian denominations
is their choice
authority in matters of faith.

Christianity unites all people
believing that
that Jesus Christ is God who came into
flesh to save the world.
What should be
saved the world?
From sin, curse and death, or,
in other words,
from all forms of evil.

Christianity develops with an idea
one God. All creatures and
items are his
creations. Two central
dogma of Christianity speak of
the trinity of God and
Incarnation. Man is created
as a carrier of "image and likeness"