Orthodox family traditions. Orthodox traditions as an element of preserving family values, the special spiritual meaning of the sacrament of weddings

10.08.2015

1. History of the topic, history of the problem

The topic of legend and religious traditions in modern Russia contains a problem. This problem has a strong impact on the development of relations between various branches of the Church of Christ. But the problem lies not within tradition or tradition, but between Holy Tradition (tradition) and Holy Scripture. It sounds like this: what is the authority for a Christian - only Holy Scripture or the entire church tradition, i.e. Holy Tradition.

The topic is relevant for the development of relations between Orthodox and Protestants in Russia, but it arose a very long time ago, practically it was incorporated into Russian Christianity when it appeared in Rus', since Christianity came, accompanied by a written source in the Russian language. The written source was the Cyril and Methodius translation of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Psalms, the book of Proverbs, and the experienced practice of spiritual life was the tradition of Byzantium.

The Russians, who adopted a new religion by decision of Prince Vladimir, had to master both the system of spiritual culture of Byzantium and the way of thinking of Christianity. The image of thoughts is best recorded in texts. The Russian princes had no intention of being vassals of Byzantium; for this reason, they themselves read the original source and encouraged Russian theological thought.

Noteworthy in this regard is the statement of Metropolitan Hilarion in his “Sermon on Law and Grace”: “Faith is from God, not from the Greeks!” He starts his thinking from the ideas of a written text, which is natural when mastering a new spiritual culture. But, of course, in general, Russian spirituality has followed the path of mastering the Byzantine model.

The further complex development of Russian spirituality led to the establishment, first of all, of ritual belief, which was natural for Rus', which was “spiritual” in its inner essence. When Christianity, spiritual in its essence, came to the spiritual soil of Rus', Rus' accepted in Christianity what it was ready for - its spiritual side.

The process of “growing up” into the spirit of Christ’s Gospel began, but continued in a way that was natural for the culture of Russian society - through the gradual experience of communication with God along the paths of one’s own spiritual choice, and unevenly. If the south-eastern part of Rus', which was under the Tatar yoke, was based on the ascetic contemplation of monks, then in the north-west, where there were no Tatars, and natural development based on the assimilation of book teaching continued, criticism arose of the structure of Russian religious life, and in such directions , as a denial of the church hierarchy, ritual belief, and acquisitiveness.

These ideas could be obtained in a simple and natural way - through reading the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Thus, the movement of bookish Orthodox Christians of the 14th century (“Strigolniki”) was destroyed physically, but continued to influence the spirit of Orthodox Christians in Northwestern Rus', since ideas can only be overcome by higher spirituality, and not by prohibition.

For this reason, in the 15th century they “resurrected” in the movement of “Judaizers” during the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow state of Ivan the Third. The basis was the same “bookishness” of the faith of the Novgorodians and Pskovians, passed down from century to century.

Surprisingly, the main line of criticism from the official church against these “heretics” was that they were using the Old Testament. Indeed, they knew it, since translations in Old Church Slavonic form already existed.

Archbishop Gennady decided the issue on the merits! He began to collect biblical translations from all over Russia, which were then published in the Gennady Bible 1. And a deeper study of it began within the framework of the official church, although, of course, the forced nature of these actions, the tradition of a different way of church life caused a passive attitude towards the Bible among a large number of priests. However, for the Russian people it was important that texts from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were included in the circle of church readings 2.

A little later, a clash between the positions of official Orthodoxy and “book” Christianity took place in Moscow, now right at the court of Ivan the Third. The leader of this pseudo-heresy was the clerk-diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn (a record of whose clan was included in the Velvet Book of the Higher Clan of Russia). From the mouth of Fyodor came criticism of Tradition, but based on Scripture. Joseph Volotsky at the council of 1504 achieved the rejection of the position of heretics.

It is important to note that the evangelical movement in Russia followed its own path, but a path parallel to the conciliar movement in Western Europe. Both in the West and in Russia, initiatives to reform the Church from within were unsuccessful. But at the moment it is important to show that the approach of the evangelical movement, oriented towards the authority of Holy Scripture as opposed to Holy Tradition, for Russia emerged naturally and originally.

The evangelical tradition is called evangelical because it found a very important idea for revitalizing Christian life, an idea that several centuries later formed the basis of the Reformation, namely, a return to the model of the 1st century, to the word of Christ and the apostles through the text of the Holy Scriptures.

The history of the evangelical movement in Russia later (two centuries after the Strigolniks) included the influence of Protestantism itself (Lutheranism, Reformation and even Anglicanism). But the main issue in the theological discussion between Evangelical and Orthodox Christianity in our country continued to be the opposition to adherence either to the total church practice (Tradition, Tradition), or exclusively to the Holy Scriptures.

As can be seen from the examples given, the opposition between Tradition and Scripture is of a general Christian nature. It was born as an attempt to solve the problem of the adequacy of the practice of the Church of Christ with the teachings of its Founder, Jesus Christ.

The issue remains relevant in the 21st century, as it has not been resolved. The opposition between the Orthodox and Evangelical approaches continues, causing serious damage to the fulfillment of the will of God in our country.

2. Current state of the problem

The root of the problem lies in the fact that the paradigms that have developed historically have their basis in the movements of human hearts (in the language of science - passions), that is, in the historical aspirations of feelings. This idea was first expressed by Eugen Rosenstock-Hüssy 3 . Passions are sometimes caused by unique combinations of factors that influenced the worldview of people in a particular era.

One of the discussed paradigms, the Orthodox (in essence, “Old Christian”, having its beginning in apostolic times, but revealed in full, starting from the end of the 1st century), was based on the idea of ​​​​life with God, with Christ, in the Holy Spirit, emanating from assimilation of the Gospel as an idea, and not a letter (“And now I commend you, brethren, to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to edify you more and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified” - Acts 20:32). For her, the New Testament Scriptures of the apostles and disciples of Christ were only brief, partial and often ad hoc records of the basic values ​​of the new life in Christ.

The essence of the movement of hearts in this direction can be framed as follows: “Life, not a letter.” But for Christians of the first centuries, recordings were also important (they re-read them), which became part of the tradition of treating them - the recordings recorded the common opinion of listeners about their spiritual experience; they could be the arbiter of the controversy. This was the feeling of life in those distant times, and, of course, it corresponded to it.

Another, the evangelical (often “Protestant”, as many perceive it), paradigm emerged during times of criticism of historical church practice. Practice, as a result of people’s creativity, has gone so far from written sources, which, of course, limitedly recorded reality, but preserved relatively unchanged the ideas and values ​​of the New Testament and the apostolic time, that the question involuntarily arose: what is practiced by modern Christians of the XIV-XVI centuries (or later), is it Christianity at all?

And the written Word said: there was a departure from the original spirit and letter of the Gospel. The bearers of these beliefs were people who knew how to read and think based on what they read. The movement of their hearts was fidelity to the original gospel. Of course, this is also a passion, although it adequately corresponded to the time, but, in turn, has boundaries of life scope.

So, two paradigms collided: the paradigm of the fullness of life in God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, which embraced all Christian existence, and the paradigm of fidelity to God’s Word as opposed to human customs. Opponents saw each other's weak points and pointed them out publicly. Old Church theologians spoke of the limitations of relying only on Scripture as the main weakness of the evangelical position; Evangelical theologians talk about the fundamental defect of man in the assimilation and fulfillment of God's will, which inevitably leads to distortions and even a turn towards “humanity” as a result of the historical development of Tradition.

The modernity of the 21st century testifies to the intensified conflict of global ideological systems (atheism, theism, pantheism) and various faiths that grew up within these systems, but have become very strong and are trying to win in order to dominate even on a global scale. Christianity, attracted by the ruling elite of the world to justify its activities, was largely reduced to the interests of the ruling elite, revealing in this form of its existence significant flaws in its worldview, which led to direct contradiction to the will of God.

But according to the conditions of God's Revelation, Christians are strong only when they are faithful to the truth that comes from the Lord Himself. Thus, the internal church reason for the need to explore the nature of the crisis in the practice of the Church of Christ is complemented by an external one. Critics of Christianity succeed when they “hit” the real weaknesses of the Church, which has consolidated in its practice, custom, and tradition that which was close to the hearts of people in ancient times, but is now blatantly discordant with the Gospel.

The Scripture-Tradition problem is very important, its solution either destroys or strengthens the foundation of the modern Christian worldview. It must be examined so that the solution found, like the decision of the Council of Jerusalem of the 1st century (Acts 15), satisfies the aspirations of Christians, calms their conscience in the Lord, corresponds to the will of God and thereby ensures the victory of the Kingdom of God (naturally, not in the physical, but in spiritual sense of the victory of truth over lies).

3. Scientific and theological approaches

The concepts of Tradition and Tradition are deeply developed in Orthodox theology (due to the need to protect the theological position of the Orthodox Church) and in sociological science/sciences that explore all areas of the transmission of human experience to new generations. The basis for the theological attraction of scientific data is the position that everything discovered by people is intended for them on behalf of God Himself. This is His General Revelation.

Christian theology takes God's Special Revelation as the methodological basis for approaching the discoveries made by humans regarding God's General Revelation. The data of General Revelation is absorbed by Christians into the holistic picture they create of the world intended by God for human knowledge. Knowledge is followed by the process of ruling the earth (Gen. 1:26: “And God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule... over all the earth..."), which is natural as a transition of the theory into practice.

Involving scientific data with Christian theology allows us to have some kind of mediator so that a way out can be found in the acute opposition of the traditions of theological thought of the Old Church and Evangelical movements. Let us note that the term “Old Church” seems more useful for discussion than the term “Orthodox,” since the term “Orthodox” contains a large amount of evaluativeness, which in theological research is not only not useful, but also harmful.

In this article there is no need to present the old church, evangelical and scientific definitions of tradition and tradition. Many articles and books have been written on this issue. But there is a need to propose some other approach that would allow us to respect the achievements of Orthodox thought regarding Tradition and, at the same time, would open a way out of the vicious circle of reasoning only in the paradigm of Orthodoxy (or Old Churchism). It seems that the evangelical discovery and the independent approach of science can be fruitfully combined with the achievements of Orthodox theologians.

4. Suggestions for a new approach to the analysis of Christian legends and traditions

4.1. About Revelation and Discovery

So, all the evidence of the opposing parties comes from the practice of applying two paradigmatic settings:

1. life, not letters;

2. fidelity to Scripture.

Their rapprochement turned out to be impossible in practice. The reason is the incorrect methodological approach. The parties use artifacts of established theological cultures that fundamentally “do not hear” each other. In fact, this is not about searching for the truth of God, but about establishing dominance of one of the already formed positions. But the Lord said through the mouth of the Apostle Paul that we must “know what the good, acceptable and perfect will of God is” (Rom. 12:2). It is this, the will of God, that should become the “common denominator” in the dialogue.

How does this or that culture of church practice relate to the will of God?

It seems necessary to clarify the concept of “the will of God.” The Will of God is the Revelation of God (General and Special), but passed through the perception of man - the Discovery. Revelation to people cannot be expressed in any other way than through their perception. This perception gives rise to a Discovery regarding Revelation by imposing a “frame” of human hypothesis on the perceived phenomenon (in this case Revelation).

All the weaknesses of human nature are revealed in this act. God's Revelation is always distorted in human Revelation. But the historical process of human development takes place in such a way that the Discovery, being applied in practice, receives approbation, in which the Discovery relative to the Revelation is clarified. Human discovery is always dynamic, exponential.

God also expands Revelation, but in a special way, when He Himself wants it.

There are two logics of human knowledge of God's will:

1. Revelation is constant for a long, albeit limited period. Under these conditions, the Discovery only clarifies its perception (for example, the Law of Moses as the Discovery that conveyed the Revelation was only learned and experienced with the help of the Discovery for a long time (i.e., before the coming of Jesus Christ);

2. Revelation is expanding, and Revelation must take into account both this circumstance and the imperfection of human nature, which cognizes Revelation (a person needs to overcome two difficulties at the same time; an example is the time of the New Testament for Israel, when there is a sharp leap in God's Revelation, and it had to be mastered through cognition and experience in the form of Discovery).

The Church of Christ in the post-apostolic period again found itself in a situation of constant Revelation of God. She can clarify its understanding and practice its application, but there has been no new Revelation since the time of the last apostle.

Thus, we can speak, comparing the ideas of Israel and the Church as a whole, as differences having the basis of a revolutionary expansion of Revelation (produced by Jesus Christ), and differences within the ideas of the Church - as having the nature of clarifying the Revelation regarding the constant Revelation given by the Messiah.

4.2. About Discovery and culture

Discovery is always a step of faith, but faith in the general psychological sense of the word. The nature of human thinking requires the establishment of axioms, foundations, which are simply observations that are preferred after some mental work and which are not subsequently changed. The discovery regarding Revelation forms Dogma (ancient Greek dogma - opinion, teaching, decision) 4. This action is similar to the action of a judge choosing the most appropriate decision for the situation. It is a decision of faith in a general psychological sense. Faith accepts something as truth (i.e., an adequate reflection of reality), but the difference between faith and superstition is that true faith has sufficient grounds, while superstition does not.

The concept of Dogma is narrower than the concept of Discovery, since it fixes the decision of specific people in a specific situation. The discovery appears in the form of Dogma. For human practice, thinkers develop many Dogmas. Dogmas appear in various ways, for example, through the reflections of the most gifted people, which are accepted by the community as being fully consistent with the practice of the community. Dogmas are often more movements of the heart (passions) than arguments of the mind, but they begin to work as unchangeable foundations. A practice repeated many times - a custom - can become a dogma. In turn, the decisions of a judge or public leader, etc., become dogmas.

In large centralized systems, Tenets are coordinated.

Dogmas are the pillars of culture, its framework. The actions of people in a community are cultural creativity (individuals or subcommunities). Many factors of historical reality influence people, and they, guided by customs, decisions of judges, rulers, tenets of faith and other factors of this series, live, making many decisions secondary to the framework of culture.

Naturally, when problematic situations arise within a culture, there is an appeal to authorities at the dogmatic level (in the broad sense of the word, relating not only to religious life, but to the entire practice of the community).

However, correlating arguments from different cultures with different dogmatic foundations and, especially, different experiences cannot be productive. This is precisely the process that occurs in the discussion between Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants.

The matter is further complicated by the fact that all of these religious cultures are guided by God's will, Revelation, but at the same time are unable to recognize the right of Christians from other cultures to hear God in their original way, as well as to act in accordance with the Discoveries made.

4.3. Dynamics of life of church cultures and their changes

Church cultures are in most cases tied to and part of broader human cultures. It cannot be otherwise, since relationships with God are a property of man as a being.

For this reason, it is necessary to take into account the influence on a person of all factors of life reality, which are then reflected in religious practice itself.

Naturally, the cultures of countries (or groups of countries) in which Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism developed predominantly were each significantly influenced by these forms of Christianity. But the sad fact is that the emerging churches value their cultural identity more than the general spiritual basis of the Gospel.

What matters is how the cultural forms of Christianity are formed. They, as connected with the culture of the country, are necessarily influenced by all factors influencing the development of peoples - economic, geographical, political, social. Each time, historical situations provide not only different sets of factors and their contributions to the culture of the historical moment, but also a spiritual reaction to them (new passions). Established national cultures “feel” the new situation in accordance with the spiritual paradigm underlying the spiritual genotype of the people and only correct the idea of ​​life on its basis (correct the Discovery). However, it is also possible for new cultures to emerge, which most often are sprouts, shoots from old ones, but adopting a new paradigm of the time. A gap arises, new grounds for Discovery, new Dogmas, new cultural creativity.

In humanity, there are cultures that go back thousands of years (for example, Chinese, Indian, Jewish), and there are cultures that are not simply derived from them, but are revolutionary in opposition to them. Revolutions were carried out under the influence of changes in geography, type of economic activity, and ideological updates.

In Christianity, all these events affected national church cultures. If in imperial-type cultures, old and modern, the state itself was interested in the unity of worldview and social culture, then Christian cultures also sought to unify doctrine and church practice. When, within the framework of political alliances, the interaction of already established Christian cultures took place (for example, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, expressed in the resulting form of Uniatism; or Catholicism and Protestantism in the USA), then the Discoveries and Dogmas regarding God's will and Revelation began to include new influences from other Discoveries and Dogmatov.

Let us recall that the subject of this article is not so much the study of unique historical practices-cultures, but the question “What are the possibilities for fruitful coexistence and interaction of various church practices, traditions, and legends?”

A historical fact of our time is the rapidly increasing diversity of ideological reactions to life. All together, to one degree or another, they strive to give the right response to the global situation. Under these conditions, Christians cannot feel more at ease within the framework of their personal, family, community, denominational, confessional, church (mega-confessional) worldview. Challenges to Christianity are challenges to alternative worldview systems, which in other cases generally reject the existence of God, and in others remove the task of responsibility before Him. The struggle of ideological paradigms accompanies the struggle of cultural communities for dominance. And for opponents, what is important is not so much the victory of truth as political self-affirmation.

But Christianity recognizes itself as faithful to God's purpose for humanity in its history, rushing into the future, into the Kingdom of God. This is not only fidelity to God, it is fidelity to the project of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18-20), it is fidelity to the preparation of the Bride Church for the heavenly marriage of the Lamb of Christ.

In other words, the Church cannot simply follow the struggle of national or global elites; it must, recognizing God’s will, salt human society, directing it to the implementation of God’s command to Adam, the owner of the earth. Humanity must give an account to God for the stewardship of the earth in the time God has provided, and the Church is the leader in this process, for it is composed of people reconciled to God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and committed to fulfilling God's purpose.

The unity of difference is the principle for solving the modern problem of the Church.

5. Modern Russian spiritual Christian culture within itself and in the culture of society (what are the challenges, how to seek God's revelation for modern Christian culture)

Modern Christian culture includes three main Christian churches - Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. The dominant national branch, formed from the Byzantine impulse, is the Russian Orthodox Church. Its tradition is most directly connected with the life of the Russian state, the Russian people.

The tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church has absorbed not only the Byzantine approach to God's Revelation, but also the Old Church approach. At the same time, the Slavic origin itself, associated with the Cyril and Methodius Bible, and then the activities of the Moscow State and the Russian Empire had a great influence.

This example of Christian culture experienced its crises. Perhaps the most severe crisis was the communist period, as there was a massive departure of Russians from Christianity and religion in general. Adequacy of the new reality of the post-Soviet era, adequacy in accordance with God's will is a great challenge of the time. It can be assumed that traditional recipes from previous centuries can only provide partial help. But the search must, first of all, be initiated by the Russian Orthodox Church itself, since otherwise even good help from other Christian churches will be perceived by it as an attempt to dominate.

The Catholic tradition in Russia (especially after the destruction of the Soviet Union) is more about the presence of individual representatives of Catholicism on the territory of another religion than the functioning of real Russian Catholicism. After the departure of the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus, there is no active participation of Catholicism in the Russian Federation. But, naturally, Russian Catholics must develop the paradigm of the national Russian Catholic Church, since otherwise it is difficult to expect not even growth, but simply the existence of the Catholic model of Christianity in Russia.

The Protestant tradition in our country could be in the position of the Catholic one, but its nature is more complex than the Catholic one. As mentioned above, Catholicism is a development of the same old Christian paradigm as Orthodoxy, and evangelicalism is an alternative to this paradigm.

Protestantism entered the evangelical tradition two centuries after its emergence in Rus'. In the evangelical tradition there is an answer to the burning challenge that is addressed to the Old Christian churches - a protest against the Church’s departure from the Gospel. The point is not the authority of tradition (Evangelical Christians have their own established and already outdated traditions), the point is that the human practice of Discovery, the process of dogmatization and culture must be constantly verified by Revelation. And the Holy Scriptures are closer than all the written sources used by the Church to God's revelation (especially the revelation of the New Testament type).

In the Old Testament, the voice of the prophets was constantly heard so that there could be an assessment of the conformity of Israel's life with the Law of Moses. There is a principle of some deficiency in the authority of human practice, and this deficiency is overcome by the intervention of God's word, once fixed in an unchangeable form as a standard. Thus, Protestantism continues to be used to answer the essential question of the Church as an integral organism, “Is it faithful to the Revelation of Jesus Christ?” appeal to the Holy Scriptures.

But, as noted above, the Russian Christian Church cannot be satisfied only with the peaceful coexistence of its various mega-confessional forms. God included the members of the Church into society, and His will for human society was not canceled. Adam was called to be in charge of the whole earth; Russian Christians must be responsible for fulfilling God’s command to Adam on Russian territory.

The challenges of our time are that there cannot be a more mono-church country. There cannot be mono-religion. The Church of Christ is in a competitive relationship with other religions and worldviews. For this reason, the basic settings of its church paradigm should include as an object the entire Russian people (from an atheist and postmodernist to a shamanist, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew). The Church must show how man, created in the image of God, fulfills the will of the Lord on earth, that will that is unconsciously or consciously fulfilled by the entire population of Russia.

Fulfilling the will of God in contact with God is always more productive than through the efforts of the human person alone. The Church must, in getting to know God, set an example of God's attitude towards man (free to do good and evil). In the person of Christians, it must show that it is not the predatory attitude of the man-god towards the reality given to him by God, but the masterful, zealous, caring attitude of a being to whom God has entrusted responsibility for part of the world He created.

Methods of domination (state, ideological) have outlived their usefulness. People of the postmodern era want recognition of their right to choose their own path, and any other - only because of free conviction, and not violence. For this reason, it is necessary to preserve and develop everything that works in already established traditions, and to create a new answer based primarily on Revelation.

God’s promise of blessing to all who want to do God’s will is His support (“And this is the boldness we have towards Him, that when we ask anything according to His will, He listens to us. And when we know that He listens to us in everything, whatever we no matter what we asked, we also know that we receive what we ask from Him” - 1 John 5:15).

The call of the Lausanne Conference of 1974 is fair - “The whole Church brings the whole Gospel to the whole world” 5 - which can become a solution for the modern Russian Church.

1 The Gennadian Bible includes Cyril and Methodius translations of the Pentateuch, the book of Kings, Job, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, the Apostle, Judges, Joshua, Ruth and the Psalter. Some of the books could not be found (Chronicles, the books of Ezra, Maccabees, Tobit, Judith), and they were translated from the Latin Vulgate by the Croatian monk Benjamin.

2 The Orthodox liturgy contains 98 quotations from the Old Testament and 114 from the New Testament.

3 Rosenstock-Hussy O. Great Revolutions. Autobiography of a Westerner. BBI St. Apostle Andrew. M., 2002. P. 3.2

4 Dogma in Orthodox theology has a specific meaning.

5 Lausanne Manifesto. Lausanne. 1974.

Alexander Fedichkin

Modern society is divided into people of believers and atheists, into true Christians who live according to the laws of the church and honor God and people who are far from the Faith and vegetate in the vanity of the world. Family spiritual values ​​are passed on from generation to generation, but many families are just starting their Orthodox path from the very beginning, having lost continuity due to almost a century of persecution of the Church. How to create an Orthodox family in modern society and preserve the traditions of the Orthodox family is a question that many true believers ask themselves, striving to create a Small Church out of a family.

Marriage according to Orthodox customs

The Russian Orthodox family implies a union of a baptized man and woman, blessed by the Church, and living according to the laws of the Orthodox faith. The bride and groom, who are in love with each other, gradually come to mutual love in Christ. One of the most important goals of an Orthodox family is the goal of maintaining an honest, immaculate marriage, which is to avoid lust, carnal pleasures and adultery. The undeniable wisdom of a Christian marriage is that the husband and wife do not exert pressure and do not limit each other’s freedom of action, that is, such a marriage is built on the absolute trust of the husband and wife. And this trust and confidence in each other is secured by God’s blessing on marriage.

How are children raised in an Orthodox family?

An Orthodox family often has many children and every child is loved. Raising children in an Orthodox family is based on love and trust in each other. The elders help the parents raise the younger ones, while gaining experience for their future family life, and the younger ones take their example from them. Children who are baptized at an older age have a harder time accepting the Church than children baptized in infancy. Kids live and grow up with a sense of Faith instilled in them by their parents. Joint prayers support the traditions of the Russian Orthodox family, unite it and allow children to get used to the fact that it is impossible to live without talking with God. Children in an Orthodox family for the first time in their lives are faced with submission to the authority of their father and mother, and this experience is the most important on the difficult path of life, softened by love for the person who rules and demands obedience. By following the instructions of the parents and observing the prohibitions, the child gains inner freedom, realizing that the authority of an older person is not intended to break his character, humiliate or enslave. By accepting punishment not as punishment, but as an instruction, the child learns to live correctly. In an Orthodox family, parents must learn to restrain and suppress their anger, not get irritated, and be able to punish with love.

Seeing how his parents love him in a Christian way, the child adopts experience that will be useful to him in the future in the matter of how to create an Orthodox family, create in her an atmosphere of striving for God, i.e. affirm the statement “family is the Small Church.”

Unchanging traditions of the Orthodox family

Keeping Orthodox family traditions, we become a part of the body of the Church and pass on from generation to generation the national characteristics of the Russian Orthodox Church. The behavior of each member of an Orthodox family in everyday life, at feasts, and on holidays should be of a religious nature while preserving spiritual values. It is difficult to imagine a Christian family without traditions and customs passed down by their great-grandfathers. The culture of patriotic loyalty and national feeling was brought up in the family, based on a special attitude towards the veneration of ancestors and paternal graves. The main goal of the Orthodox family today, as at all times, remains the preservation and transmission of spiritual and religious values ​​from generation to generation.

Just a year ago, the topic “Orthodox traditions of the Russian family” would have seemed new to me to a certain extent. Of course, every clergyman, especially every bishop who has some experience in church activities, has ideas about family problems that have been formed in practice. But not everyone can speak about them knowledgeably and professionally. I’m not trying to sound like a professional, but I’ll just say that this topic has become especially close to me over the past year.

This is due to the fact that last fall in the ancient Russian city of Galich and in the regional center itself - Kostroma, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs carried out a large-scale project - the II All-Russian Film Festival of Short Films "Family" was held Russia". More than 200 short films, presented by authors from 48 cities in 28 regions of Russia and neighboring countries, took part in the festival’s competition program. Both in the preparation process and, of course, at the festival itself, lively discussions were held, various ideas were expressed about the place of the Orthodox family in the modern world, and ways and prospects for the formation of Orthodox family values ​​among the younger generation were discussed. I also had to take part in many discussions. With great attention, festival participants got acquainted with beautiful, and in some cases, highly artistic films, designed to affirm traditional Orthodox family values ​​in society - the joy of fatherhood and motherhood, the moral beauty of a pious marriage and the ideal of a strong large family.

By the grace of God, I have been serving in the priesthood for over twenty years. Over the years I have seen many families - happy and unhappy, pious and not so pious, strong and broken. Probably, many will agree with me that nowadays it is very rare to see an ideal Orthodox family, where the relationship between spouses and children is not overshadowed by anything. Just as true personal holiness is a precious and rare gift of God, so the perfection of family relationships is also a gift of God. And just as personal holiness is achieved through constant spiritual struggle, so family virtue comes to spouses over time and due to their spiritual labors.

The secret of Christian marriage is simple. Christian marriage is based on love. It was not by chance that the ever-memorable wonderful Moscow shepherd Archpriest Gleb Kaleda called the Christian family a true “school of love.” But what kind of love are we talking about here?

Family is a certain fundamental sign of a person, the same as reason and religiosity. Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow said: “God, having created the first people, entrusted to them and their descendants the further production of people into the world, entrusted, as it were, the continuation of His creative action. What a great gift!” This gift, according to the saint, is associated with the gift of natural mutual love, which both parents and children have by nature: “Does a father and mother need a feat in order to love their child? Does a baby need to learn to love his father and mother? But if in this love everything is done by nature, without feat and almost without the knowledge of man: where is the dignity of virtue here? This is simply a natural feeling, which we notice even in the dumb. Not loving parents or children is a deeply low vice; but love for parents or children is not yet a high virtue, except special cases when it is elevated by the self-denial and self-sacrifice associated with it.” And yet, the great teacher of the Russian Church believes that “natural” love alone is not enough for life in a family. “A sensitive and loving heart must be elevated from natural to spiritual love so that, immersed in family ties, it does not become completely bogged down in natural love alone. Therefore, placing the source of good in God and His blessing that we have or receive, and the hope of good, which we desire, we must elevate and illuminate the affairs of nature with the spirit of grace.”

We all know works of world literature about “first love”. Of course, first love is a strong feeling. The person who falls in love experiences this state for the first time as the most extraordinary event in his (still so short) life. But, alas, we adults know well: the feeling of first love does not last a lifetime. And, if, obeying mutual attraction, a young man and a girl decided to link their destinies in marriage, then it should be replaced by some other, much deeper relationship than the romantic feelings of the first days. If this does not happen, the laws of fallen human nature take their toll. “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world... And the world and its lusts pass away, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17). A marriage based solely on earthly feelings is easily destroyed over time.

There is also a flip side to such love: the burning despair that overwhelms the soul if the object of love does not reciprocate. Let us remember that after the publication of Goethe’s notorious novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” a wave of suicides shook Europe.

Here we can also recall that dark love, which “... jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both, as lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes!”, but reasoning on the topic “ The Master and Margarita" has set people's teeth on edge lately.

But let us now turn to the lives of the saints of the Orthodox Church. Many are familiar with the life of St. Alexy, the man of God. Even in his youth, the ascetic, who lived in Rome, left his parents' house, running away from his beautiful bride, and some time later, he returned and lived in the guise of a beggar at the threshold of his own house, in front of his parents, who missed him but never recognized him.

A modern psychologist might interpret Alexei's flight as a typical emancipatory reaction to a parenting style defined as "indulgent hyperprotection." Imagine what the life would look like as retold by popular Moskovsky Komsomolets journalists: What an outrageous incident! What a scandal! What heartlessness of religious fanaticism towards parents and fiancée! This, they say, is the dark side of Orthodoxy, an eastern contemplative religion, indifferent to the values ​​of civilization.

Meanwhile, in Russian Orthodox families, the life of St. Alexy was perhaps the most favorite reading, to which both adults and children listened. Why? After all, the author of the biography openly preaches the ascetic path, and even in the radical form of foolishness for Christ’s sake. But Saint Alexy was loved and revered in large and friendly Orthodox families for a very simple reason: the members of these families felt well: their family was united and bonded by the same “spirit of grace” that the ancient ascetic carried in his heart, leaving his parental home and his young bride . This gracious spirit makes a marriage strong and indestructible. The Christian family becomes a container of divine love; it accumulates this love, spreads the fragrance of an atmosphere of love around itself, attracting other families. Let us remember that St. Seraphim of Sarov said: “Acquire a peaceful spirit and thousands of people around you will be saved.” It would be fair to complement the thought of the great saint: “Acquire a peaceful spirit in your family and thousands of families will be saved next to yours.”

First of all, the family becomes a source of love for children. The family atmosphere greatly influences the formation of a child’s mental image and determines the development of children’s feelings and children’s thinking. This general atmosphere can be called the “family mentality.” Children who grew up in an atmosphere of love carry it within themselves and further, creating their own families, fill the earth with this love. Love is the only creative force. So, the family was created as a source of love and creative power for all humanity. There is no love - and any methodology of the educational process is doomed to failure.

The state is rightly accused of insufficient attention to the problems of motherhood and childhood. Despite the recent increase, the mother's benefit remains meager. As conscious citizens of society, we can only welcome the introduction of maternity certificates, as well as initiatives of local authorities aimed at supporting the birth rate in the regions. In this regard, I cannot help but mention with the warmest feeling the program approved by the Governor of the Belgorod Region, Evgeny Savchenko. It is possible and necessary to invest money in the social sphere. But money alone will not solve the problem. Money will not bring love. Money can relieve social tension and make life easier, but it is impossible to create a happy family. I think each of you is familiar with Orthodox families raising two, three, and sometimes four children in the extremely cramped conditions of a Moscow one-room apartment. And there are countless examples of tragic family conflicts in elite ruble mansions. Such a quality as the willingness to sacrifice oneself every day for the happiness of a loved one is not adopted in the process of becoming acquainted with the basics of family psychology, but comes as a gift of God’s grace. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her...” (Eph.: 25).

Most of the films presented at the aforementioned “Family of Russia” film festival tell about real strong Orthodox families in which a genuine spirit of love reigns. There are more and more such families. But in general, the institution of marriage and family is experiencing an acute crisis. It is a mistake to believe that this crisis began during perestroika. The Russian family was destroyed by communist ideology. Let us remember that the classics of Marxism believed: the family, based on private property, the right of inheritance and home education of children, should be abolished by the victorious proletariat. You can read about this in the “Communist Manifesto” of Marx and Engels;

In the first years of Soviet power, they tried to take away the opportunity to raise children from parents (primarily the father). Leon Trotsky perceived the family as the main obstacle to the revolution. It was he (certainly, not without Lenin’s approval) who in 1918 became the author of the revolutionary decree on the “socialization of women.” By “socialization” the Bolsheviks understood the rape of female students and high school students by revolutionary sailors and Red Army soldiers, as well as in the basements of the Cheka. This cynical decree quickly penetrated into the very depths of Soviet life. Of course, mass rape of women ended in unnecessary pregnancies. Therefore, instructions and rules for conducting abortions were urgently developed so that tracks could be quickly covered. Soviet Russia became the first country on the globe to legalize the mass murder of its unborn citizens. Abortion became the norm of Soviet life. Oddly enough, our country still uses these revolutionary abortion instructions to this day. To this day, the number of abortions in our country remains unheard of for any civilized country.

In the minds of the classics of Soviet political education (such as A. Kollontai and A. Lunacharsky), a man and a woman in a family were supposed to be, first of all, bound by bonds of love and camaraderie, as well as a sense of collective responsibility. The educational function of the family was delegated to society. The family, as an independent agent in raising children, could not fit into a totalitarian system. The entire policy of the Soviet government was aimed at reducing the educational role of the father to zero, and shifting all responsibility for education to society. But society could not cope with the task, and, gradually, as modern psychologists convincingly show (for example, V.N. Druzhinin), the entire burden of responsibility for the family and children fell on the shoulders of the mother. The ease of divorce procedures placed additional parenting responsibilities on women. The role of women increased even more due to the mass death of men during the period of mass repressions and the Great Patriotic War. In the Decrees of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, in the fine arts, in cinema and architecture, in mass propaganda campaigns, the role of women was exalted in every possible way. 0 men were silent.

All this led to the deformation of the entire system of family relations. After all, the Orthodox teaching about the family is quite definite: “The husband’s dominance over his wife is natural. The husband is older than the wife by creation. He appears as something basic, and the wife as something subsequent... But as soon as the wife seeks and actually achieves primacy over her husband, she will immediately bring disorder in one’s own life and in the whole house,” wrote Archpriest Evgeniy Popov, a prominent expert in the field of Orthodox family psychology, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the 60s and 70s, the crisis of the Soviet family continued. The fact is that during this period there was a strengthening of the economic and ideological independence of the family from the totalitarian state, and the socio-political role of men increased. St. Petersburg psychologist V. Semenov conducted interesting research. He reviewed art publications in the most popular magazine of those years, Yunost, for the period from 1955 to 1984. A total of 123 novels and stories with 236 conflict situations were analyzed. The number of insoluble family conflicts increased from the 50s-60s to the 70s-80s by 6 (!) times. There is clear evidence of family disintegration and marital breakdown.

Over the past decade and a half, in Russian society, already free from totalitarian ideology, the institution of family and marriage has changed continuously and so rapidly that it is sometimes quite difficult to grasp the trends of these changes. The very concepts of “marriage” and “family” seem familiar and understandable to us only at first glance. In fact, in the representations of various social groups and, in particular, in the representations of modern youth, they have a meaning that we often are not even aware of.

Horrifying statistics are known regarding a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in the number of divorces and officially registered marriages, an increase in out-of-wedlock births, an increase in the number of single-parent and so-called problem families, and an increase in domestic crimes.

Here are observations that describe one of the contradictory trends: Today, the traditional family model and officially registered marriage are being replaced by new forms of marriage: trial marriage, marriage not for life. Family structure has changed everywhere. One of the main distinctive qualities of marriage and family relations in recent decades has become the so-called nuclearization of the family. (from Latin nucleos - core). Unlike the patriarchal family, where living together for three or four generations was considered the norm, today the nuclear family, consisting of one core: parents and children, has become such a norm. On the one hand, the nuclear family implies a simpler structure of relationships. But, on the other hand, in such a family the household and psychological burden falling on the spouses sharply increases: numerous responsibilities for housekeeping, raising children, organizing leisure time, etc. are carried out only by husband and wife, which entails their interdependence and connectedness. And as a psychological consequence - an increase in the personal responsibility of each family member, a variety of family roles, often not traditional for men and women. What happens next? A man, as you know, is not very keen to share household responsibilities with a woman. For example, men show relatively little activity in a very labor-intensive task - raising their children. They are even less willing to participate in household work. Thus, the workload for women increases over the years, and for men it decreases. The greater the workload gap between husband and wife, the less satisfied the spouses are with the marriage. A man’s reluctance to take on part of his daily worries leads to the formation of a conflict situation and to a woman’s growing dissatisfaction with her marriage. The family is rapidly heading towards divorce.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy has repeatedly pointed out that “... the center of all educational work should be the church parish. Boys and girls should be given the opportunity for interesting and useful activities, social service at the church.” Years have shown that in those parishes where rectors offer a meaningful program of extra-liturgical activities; and also where intense spiritual life takes place, that is, near monasteries, Orthodox communities are formed, including dozens of strong young families.

One of the most successful examples here was the St. Petersburg Orthodox youth club "Chaika", created in 1996 and uniting young people, parishioners of the Church of St. John's Monastery on the Petrograd side. "We came together for the sake of mutual help, communication, organizing joint leisure, serving the Church and our neighbors. We are mainly young people from 17 to 30 years old. We are grateful to God for giving us the opportunity to get together and make friends and gain spiritual unity in living together in Christ. The desire for unity and mutual understanding is one of our goals. We would like to convey a piece of our joint joy to all of you," they say about themselves in “Chaika”.

It is unthinkable to talk about the revival of the Orthodox family without preparing young people for marriage. The latter should consist in nurturing all those virtues without which it is difficult to imagine a prosperous family: mutual understanding, goodwill, attentiveness, participation, willingness to help, and, if necessary, to sacrifice oneself. In order for young people to be able to harmoniously build their relationships in a future marriage, they need to know the features of the psychology of communication and interpersonal relationships in a modern family. Young people need to be told about all this patiently and clearly.

All these personal qualities are formed during school years. And, above all, as early as possible, it is necessary to instill in young people ideas about the value of family as such. Along with the school system of preparing young people for marriage, it is necessary to continue the educational work begun with students within the framework of university courses: “Psychology of Family and Marriage”, “Social Psychology”, “Family in Psychological Consultation”. And in parallel with this, the values ​​of family and marriage should be promoted by the media.

It is very difficult to replace the gaps in family upbringing of children with school upbringing and upbringing in a church parish during non-school time. In parish life we ​​are faced with the following phenomenon: it is easier to raise a whole family than individual offspring. For many years, family-type summer camps have successfully proven themselves in the activities of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs. These camps are run by the Brotherhood of Orthodox Pathfinders during school holidays. Children and parents are invited to participate. Here, both children and their mothers and fathers are churched and raised in Christian virtues.

A people who have no concept of family has no future. He is simply doomed to extinction. Entertainment culture and the consumerist worldview imposed by the media are doing their job. Those substances that made it strong and courageous, capable of sacrificial deeds, are washed away from the character of the nation.

Children and youth need protection not so much from terrorist attacks, but from aggressive preaching of immorality and a lifestyle destructive to the soul and body. A stereotype is imposed: to live means to enjoy, “Take everything from life.” The Orthodox Church strongly states its strong disagreement with the image of a young man living by the standards imposed by modern pop culture. There is no sadder spectacle for the Christian heart than the spiritual cloning of young people with the same expression in their eyes, drinking the same Coca-Cola, dancing to the same musical rhythms, speaking the same and feeling the same.

Unfortunately, we have already lost many children and teenagers! Today's task is not to lose a new generation for the country. This means that from childhood they need to instill high ideals, including family life. His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' ALEXI II spoke at the All-Church Congress of Orthodox Youth in May 2001: “The time has come to unite the efforts of those who feel acute concern for the younger generation. If we do not immediately take up the painstaking work of mentors and teachers of youth, we We'll lose the country."

http://www.pravmir.ru/article_1110.html

Trinity is one of the most significant and revered holidays by all Christians. It traditionally falls in the summer, in the month of June. Celebrated on Sunday, the fiftieth day from Easter. Therefore, another name for the holiday is Holy Pentecost. It is accompanied by various, very interesting rituals and traditions.

history of the holiday

Trinity has several other names. Firstly, this is the birthday of the Church of Christ. It is said that it was created not by the human mind, but by the grace of the Lord himself. And since the Divine essence is presented in three forms - Father, Son and Spirit - then this holiday is the Trinity. Pentecost is also famous for the fact that on this day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, disciples of Christ, and all the holiness and grandeur of divine plans were revealed to people. And finally, the third name: people have long considered the day as the Green Saint. By the way, there is also a fourth thing: maiden Christmastide.

Traditions and customs

Many in Rus' (meaning historical, ancient Slavic Rus') were and are celebrated today on those days on which ancient pagan days also fall. Thus, there was an overlap of two egregors: a young one, associated with a new religion, and an ancient one, already “prayed.” This was especially important in the first centuries of Christianity. And even now it has not lost its relevance. Echoes of pagan rituals are clearly visible in many traditions. For example, on the day of the Holy Trinity, it is customary to decorate houses and churches with herbs, birch and lilac branches. The girls wove wreaths for themselves and their betrotheds and organized games. Families gathered in meadows and forests for meals. One of the obligatory dishes was scrambled eggs.

Ancient rituals

Trinity Day has always been celebrated outdoors. The main holiday tree was considered to be the birch. The girls threw wreaths of birch branches into the river, hoping to learn from them their future fate. From early morning, the sweet spirit of fresh loaves of bread flowed through the villages, to which friends and neighbors were invited. Then the real fun began. Tablecloths were laid under the birch trees, treats and the same morning loaves, which were also decorated with wildflowers, were placed on them. The girls sang, danced around, showed off new outfits, flirted with the guys, and they were looking for someone to marry. It is worth noting that the bread, wreaths and tablecloths that were used on this holiday - the day of the Holy Trinity - had a special meaning and played a special role in a girl’s life. The loaf was dried, and when the girl got married, its crumbs were poured into the wedding bread, which was supposed to provide the young people with a friendly, happy life of prosperity and joy. According to the ritual, the Trinity tablecloth was spread on the table when the parents of the future groom came to the bride’s house for the bride’s viewing. The magical energy of Trinity Day was supposed to envelop the girl in an invisible flair and present her in the most favorable light. And they gave wreaths to their beloved as a sign of fidelity, confirming the sanctity of their vows. The herbs collected for the Green Holy Day were dried and fed to the sick. They were believed to have special great healing powers.

Girl's fortune telling

Trinity Day 2013 fell on June 23. Of course, now it’s the 21st century, the century of nanotechnology and general computerization. And two centuries ago, when they heard the cuckoo, the girls asked it how long they would have to trample on the threshold of their father’s house. And they counted with bated breath, because each “peek-a-boo” meant a year of unmarried life. And throwing wreaths into the river, they noticed: he was swimming steadily, calmly - life would be like that too, without shocks and problems. The waves throw him from side to side, whirlpools spin - the future does not promise anything good. And if the wreath drowns, expect trouble; the girl will not live to see the next Trinity Day.

A lot of mysterious, unusual, interesting things happened on this day. Based on the weather, they noted what summer and autumn would be like. They appeased and commemorated the spirits of deceased relatives. We went to churches and defended services. The special bright energy of the holiday is felt to this day.

The topic of legend and religious traditions in modern Russia contains a problem. This problem has a strong impact on the development of relations between various branches of the Church of Christ. But the problem lies not within tradition or tradition, but between Holy Tradition (tradition) and Holy Scripture. It sounds like this: what is the authority for a Christian - only Holy Scripture or the entire church tradition, i.e. Holy Tradition. The topic is relevant for the development of relations between Orthodox and Protestants in Russia, but it arose a very long time ago, practically it was incorporated into Russian Christianity when it appeared in Rus', since Christianity came, accompanied by a written source in the Russian language. The written source was the Cyril and Methodius translation of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Psalms, the book of Proverbs, and the experienced practice of spiritual life was the tradition of Byzantium. The Russians, who adopted a new religion by decision of Prince Vladimir, had to master both the system of spiritual culture of Byzantium and the way of thinking of Christianity. The image of thoughts is best recorded in texts. The Russian princes had no intention of being vassals of Byzantium; for this reason, they themselves read the original source and encouraged Russian theological thought. Noteworthy in this regard is the statement of Metropolitan Hilarion in his “Sermon on Law and Grace”: “Faith is from God, not from the Greeks!” He starts his thinking from the ideas of a written text, which is natural when mastering a new spiritual culture. But, of course, in general, Russian spirituality has followed the path of mastering the Byzantine model. The further complex development of Russian spirituality led to the establishment, first of all, of ritual belief, which was natural for Rus', which was “spiritual” in its inner essence. When Christianity, spiritual in its essence, came to the spiritual soil of Rus', Rus' accepted in Christianity what it was ready for - its spiritual side. The process of “growing up” into the spirit of Christ’s Gospel began, but continued in a way that was natural for the culture of Russian society - through the gradual experience of communication with God along the paths of one’s own spiritual choice, and unevenly. If the south-eastern part of Rus', which was under the Tatar yoke, was based on the ascetic contemplation of monks, then in the north-west, where there were no Tatars, and natural development based on the assimilation of book teaching continued, criticism arose of the structure of Russian religious life, and in such directions , as a denial of the church hierarchy, ritual belief, and acquisitiveness. These ideas could be obtained in a simple and natural way - through reading the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Thus, the movement of bookish Orthodox Christians of the 14th century (“Strigolniki”) was destroyed physically, but continued to influence the spirit of Orthodox Christians in Northwestern Rus', since ideas can only be overcome by higher spirituality, and not by prohibition. For this reason, in the 15th century they “resurrected” in the movement of “Judaizers” during the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow state of Ivan the Third. The basis was the same “bookishness” of the faith of the Novgorodians and Pskovians, passed down from century to century. Surprisingly, the main line of criticism from the official church against these “heretics” was that they were using the Old Testament. Indeed, they knew it, since translations in Old Church Slavonic form already existed. Archbishop Gennady decided the issue on the merits! He began collecting biblical translations from all over Russia, which were later published in the Gennady Bible1. And a deeper study of it began within the framework of the official church, although, of course, the forced nature of these actions, the tradition of a different way of church life caused a passive attitude towards the Bible among a large number of priests. However, for the Russian people it was important that texts from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were included in the circle of church reading2. A little later, a clash between the positions of official Orthodoxy and “book” Christianity took place in Moscow, now right at the court of Ivan the Third. The leader of this pseudo-heresy was the clerk-diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn (a record of whose clan was included in the Velvet Book of the Higher Clan of Russia). From the mouth of Fyodor came criticism of Tradition, but based on Scripture. Joseph Volotsky at the council of 1504 achieved the rejection of the position of heretics. It is important to note that the evangelical movement in Russia followed its own path, but a path parallel to the conciliar movement in Western Europe. Both in the West and in Russia, initiatives to reform the Church from within were unsuccessful. But at the moment it is important to show that the approach of the evangelical movement, oriented towards the authority of Holy Scripture as opposed to Holy Tradition, for Russia emerged naturally and originally. The evangelical tradition is called evangelical because it found a very important idea for revitalizing Christian life, an idea that several centuries later formed the basis of the Reformation, namely, a return to the model of the 1st century, to the word of Christ and the apostles through the text of the Holy Scriptures. The history of the evangelical movement in Russia later (two centuries after the Strigolniks) included the influence of Protestantism itself (Lutheranism, Reformation and even Anglicanism). But the main issue in the theological discussion between Evangelical and Orthodox Christianity in our country continued to be the opposition to adherence either to the total church practice (Tradition, Tradition), or exclusively to the Holy Scriptures. As can be seen from the examples given, the opposition between Tradition and Scripture is of a general Christian nature. It was born as an attempt to solve the problem of the adequacy of the practice of the Church of Christ with the teachings of its Founder, Jesus Christ. The issue remains relevant in the 21st century, as it has not been resolved. The opposition between the Orthodox and Evangelical approaches continues, causing serious damage to the fulfillment of the will of God in our country. 2. Current state of the problem The root of the problem lies in the fact that the paradigms that have developed historically have their basis in the movements of human hearts (in the language of science - passions), that is, in the historical aspirations of feelings. This idea was first expressed by Eugen Rosenstock-Hüssy3. Passions are sometimes caused by unique combinations of factors that influenced the worldview of people in a particular era. One of the discussed paradigms, the Orthodox (in essence, “Old Christian”, having its beginning in apostolic times, but revealed in full, starting from the end of the 1st century), was based on the idea of ​​​​life with God, with Christ, in the Holy Spirit, emanating from assimilation of the Gospel as an idea, and not a letter (“And now I commend you, brethren, to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to edify you more and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified” - Acts 20:32). For her, the New Testament Scriptures of the apostles and disciples of Christ were only brief, partial and often ad hoc records of the basic values ​​of the new life in Christ. The essence of the movement of hearts in this direction can be framed as follows: “Life, not a letter.” But for Christians of the first centuries, recordings were also important (they re-read them), which became part of the tradition of treating them - the recordings recorded the common opinion of listeners about their spiritual experience; they could be the arbiter of the controversy. This was the feeling of life in those distant times, and, of course, it corresponded to it. Another, the evangelical (often “Protestant”, as many perceive it), paradigm emerged during times of criticism of historical church practice. Practice, as a result of people’s creativity, has gone so far from written sources, which, of course, limitedly recorded reality, but preserved relatively unchanged the ideas and values ​​of the New Testament and the apostolic time, that the question involuntarily arose: what is practiced by modern Christians of the XIV-XVI centuries (or later), is it Christianity at all? And the written Word said: there was a departure from the original spirit and letter of the Gospel. The bearers of these beliefs were people who knew how to read and think based on what they read. The movement of their hearts was fidelity to the original gospel. Of course, this is also a passion, although it adequately corresponded to the time, but, in turn, has boundaries of life scope. So, two paradigms collided: the paradigm of the fullness of life in God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, which embraced all Christian existence, and the paradigm of fidelity to God’s Word as opposed to human customs. Opponents saw each other's weak points and pointed them out publicly. Old Church theologians spoke of the limitations of relying only on Scripture as the main weakness of the evangelical position; Evangelical theologians talk about the fundamental defect of man in the assimilation and fulfillment of God's will, which inevitably leads to distortions and even a turn towards “humanity” as a result of the historical development of Tradition. The modernity of the 21st century testifies to the intensified conflict of global ideological systems (atheism, theism, pantheism) and various faiths that grew up within these systems, but have become very strong and are trying to win in order to dominate even on a global scale. Christianity, attracted by the ruling elite of the world to justify its activities, was largely reduced to the interests of the ruling elite, revealing in this form of its existence significant flaws in its worldview, which led to direct contradiction to the will of God. But according to the conditions of God's Revelation, Christians are strong only when they are faithful to the truth that comes from the Lord Himself. Thus, the internal church reason for the need to explore the nature of the crisis in the practice of the Church of Christ is complemented by an external one. Critics of Christianity succeed when they “hit” the real weaknesses of the Church, which has consolidated in its practice, custom, and tradition that which was close to the hearts of people in ancient times, but is now blatantly discordant with the Gospel. The Scripture-Tradition problem is very important, its solution either destroys or strengthens the foundation of the modern Christian worldview. It must be examined so that the solution found, like the decision of the Council of Jerusalem of the 1st century (Acts 15), satisfies the aspirations of Christians, calms their conscience in the Lord, corresponds to the will of God and thereby ensures the victory of the Kingdom of God (naturally, not in the physical, but in spiritual sense of the victory of truth over lies). 3. Scientific and theological approaches The concepts of Tradition and Tradition are deeply developed in Orthodox theology (due to the need to protect the theological position of the Orthodox Church) and in sociological science/sciences that explore all areas of the transmission of human experience to new generations. The basis for the theological attraction of scientific data is the position that everything discovered by people is intended for them on behalf of God Himself. This is His General Revelation. Christian theology takes God's Special Revelation as the methodological basis for approaching the discoveries made by humans regarding God's General Revelation. The data of General Revelation is absorbed by Christians into the holistic picture they create of the world intended by God for human knowledge. Knowledge is followed by the process of ruling the earth (Gen. 1:26: “And God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule... over all the earth..."), which is natural as a transition of the theory into practice. Involving scientific data with Christian theology allows us to have some kind of mediator so that a way out can be found in the acute opposition of the traditions of theological thought of the Old Church and Evangelical movements. Let us note that the term “Old Church” seems more useful for discussion than the term “Orthodox,” since the term “Orthodox” contains a large amount of evaluativeness, which in theological research is not only not useful, but also harmful. In this article there is no need to present the old church, evangelical and scientific definitions of tradition and tradition. Many articles and books have been written on this issue. But there is a need to propose some other approach that would allow us to respect the achievements of Orthodox thought regarding Tradition and, at the same time, would open a way out of the vicious circle of reasoning only in the paradigm of Orthodoxy (or Old Churchism). It seems that the evangelical discovery and the independent approach of science can be fruitfully combined with the achievements of Orthodox theologians. 4. Proposals for a new approach to the analysis of Christian legends and traditions 4.1. About Revelation and Discovery So, all the evidence of the opposing sides comes from the practice of applying two paradigmatic attitudes: 1. life, not the letter; 2. fidelity to Scripture. Their rapprochement turned out to be impossible in practice. The reason is the incorrect methodological approach. The parties use artifacts of established theological cultures that fundamentally “do not hear” each other. In fact, this is not about searching for the truth of God, but about establishing dominance of one of the already formed positions. But the Lord said through the mouth of the Apostle Paul that we must “know what the good, acceptable and perfect will of God is” (Rom. 12:2). It is this, the will of God, that should become the “common denominator” in the dialogue. How does this or that culture of church practice relate to the will of God? It seems necessary to clarify the concept of “the will of God.” The Will of God is the Revelation of God (General and Special), but passed through the perception of man - the Discovery. Revelation to people cannot be expressed in any other way than through their perception. This perception gives rise to a Discovery regarding Revelation by imposing a “frame” of human hypothesis on the perceived phenomenon (in this case Revelation). All the weaknesses of human nature are revealed in this act. God's Revelation is always distorted in human Revelation. But the historical process of human development takes place in such a way that the Discovery, being applied in practice, receives approbation, in which the Discovery relative to the Revelation is clarified. Human discovery is always dynamic, exponential. God also expands Revelation, but in a special way, when He Himself wants it. There are two logics of human knowledge of God's will: 1. Revelation for a long, albeit limited period, constant. Under these conditions, the Discovery only clarifies its perception (for example, the Law of Moses as the Discovery that conveyed the Revelation was only learned and experienced with the help of the Discovery for a long time (i.e., before the coming of Jesus Christ); 2. Revelation is expanding, and Revelation must take into account both this circumstance and the imperfection of human nature, which cognizes Revelation (a person needs to overcome two difficulties at the same time; an example is the time of the New Testament for Israel, when there is a sharp leap in God's Revelation, and it had to be mastered through cognition and experience in the form of Discovery). The Church of Christ in the post-apostolic period again found itself in a situation of constant Revelation of God. She can clarify its understanding and practice its application, but there has been no new Revelation since the time of the last apostle. Thus, we can speak, comparing the ideas of Israel and the Church as a whole, as differences having the basis of a revolutionary expansion of Revelation (produced by Jesus Christ), and differences within the ideas of the Church - as having the nature of clarifying the Revelation regarding the constant Revelation given by the Messiah. 4.2. About Discovery and culture Discovery is always a step of faith, but faith in the general psychological sense of the word. The nature of human thinking requires the establishment of axioms, foundations, which are simply observations that are preferred after some mental work and which are not subsequently changed. The discovery regarding Revelation forms Dogma (ancient Greek dogma - opinion, teaching, decision)4. This action is similar to the action of a judge choosing the most appropriate decision for the situation. It is a decision of faith in a general psychological sense. Faith accepts something as truth (i.e., an adequate reflection of reality), but the difference between faith and superstition is that true faith has sufficient grounds, while superstition does not. The concept of Dogma is narrower than the concept of Discovery, since it fixes the decision of specific people in a specific situation. The discovery appears in the form of Dogma. For human practice, thinkers develop many Dogmas. Dogmas appear in various ways, for example, through the reflections of the most gifted people, which are accepted by the community as being fully consistent with the practice of the community. Dogmas are often more movements of the heart (passions) than arguments of the mind, but they begin to work as unchangeable foundations. A practice repeated many times - a custom - can become a dogma. In turn, Dogmas become decisions of a judge or public leader, etc. In large centralized systems, Dogmas are coordinated. Dogmas are the pillars of culture, its framework. The actions of people in a community are cultural creativity (individuals or subcommunities). Many factors of historical reality influence people, and they, guided by customs, decisions of judges, rulers, tenets of faith and other factors of this series, live, making many decisions secondary to the framework of culture. Naturally, when problematic situations arise within a culture, there is an appeal to authorities at the dogmatic level (in the broad sense of the word, relating not only to religious life, but to the entire practice of the community). However, correlating arguments from different cultures with different dogmatic foundations and, especially, different experiences cannot be productive. This is precisely the process that occurs in the discussion between Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants. The matter is further complicated by the fact that all of these religious cultures are guided by God's will, Revelation, but at the same time are unable to recognize the right of Christians from other cultures to hear God in their original way, as well as to act in accordance with the Discoveries made. 4.3. The dynamics of the life of church cultures and their changes Church cultures in most cases are tied to broader human cultures and are part of them. It cannot be otherwise, since relationships with God are a property of man as a being. For this reason, it is necessary to take into account the influence on a person of all factors of life reality, which are then reflected in religious practice itself. Naturally, the cultures of countries (or groups of countries) in which Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism developed predominantly were each significantly influenced by these forms of Christianity. But the sad fact is that the emerging churches value their cultural identity more than the general spiritual basis of the Gospel. What matters is how the cultural forms of Christianity are formed. They, as connected with the culture of the country, are necessarily influenced by all factors influencing the development of peoples - economic, geographical, political, social. Each time, historical situations provide not only different sets of factors and their contributions to the culture of the historical moment, but also a spiritual reaction to them (new passions). Established national cultures “feel” the new situation in accordance with the spiritual paradigm underlying the spiritual genotype of the people and only correct the idea of ​​life on its basis (correct the Discovery). However, it is also possible for new cultures to emerge, which most often are sprouts, shoots from old ones, but adopting a new paradigm of the time. A gap arises, new grounds for Discovery, new Dogmas, new cultural creativity. In humanity, there are cultures that go back thousands of years (for example, Chinese, Indian, Jewish), and there are cultures that are not simply derived from them, but are revolutionary in opposition to them. Revolutions were carried out under the influence of changes in geography, type of economic activity, and ideological updates. In Christianity, all these events affected national church cultures. If in imperial-type cultures, old and modern, the state itself was interested in the unity of worldview and social culture, then Christian cultures also sought to unify doctrine and church practice. When, within the framework of political alliances, the interaction of already established Christian cultures took place (for example, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, expressed in the resulting form of Uniatism; or Catholicism and Protestantism in the USA), then the Discoveries and Dogmas regarding God's will and Revelation began to include new influences from other Discoveries and Dogmatov. Let us recall that the subject of this article is not so much the study of unique historical practices-cultures, but the question “What are the possibilities for fruitful coexistence and interaction of various church practices, traditions, and legends? "A historical fact of our time is the rapidly increasing diversity of ideological reactions to life. All together, to one degree or another, strive to give the correct response to the global situation. Under these conditions, Christians cannot feel more at ease within the framework of personal, family, community, denominational, confessional , church (mega-confessional) worldview. Challenges to Christianity are challenges to alternative worldview systems, which in other cases generally reject the existence of God, in others remove the task of responsibility before Him. The struggle of ideological paradigms accompanies the struggle of cultures of communities for dominance. And for opponents it is no longer so important victory of truth as much as political self-affirmation. But Christianity recognizes itself as faithful to God's purpose for humanity in its history, rushing into the future, into the Kingdom of God. This is not only faithfulness to God, it is faithfulness to the project of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18-20) , this is the faithful preparation of the Bride Church for the heavenly marriage of the Lamb of Christ. In other words, the Church cannot simply follow the struggle of national or global elites; it must, recognizing God’s will, salt human society, directing it to the implementation of God’s command to Adam, the owner of the earth. Humanity must give an account to God for the stewardship of the earth in the time God has provided, and the Church is the leader in this process, for it is composed of people reconciled to God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and committed to fulfilling God's purpose. The unity of difference is the principle for solving the modern problem of the Church. 5. Modern Russian spiritual Christian culture within itself and in the culture of society (what are the challenges, how to seek God's revelation for modern Christian culture) Modern Christian culture includes three main Christian churches - Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. The dominant national branch, formed from the Byzantine impulse, is the Russian Orthodox Church. Its tradition is most directly connected with the life of the Russian state, the Russian people. The tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church has absorbed not only the Byzantine approach to God's Revelation, but also the Old Church approach. At the same time, the Slavic origin itself, associated with the Cyril and Methodius Bible, and then the activities of the Moscow State and the Russian Empire had a great influence. This example of Christian culture experienced its crises. Perhaps the most severe crisis was the communist period, as there was a massive departure of Russians from Christianity and religion in general. Adequacy of the new reality of the post-Soviet era, adequacy in accordance with God's will is a great challenge of the time. It can be assumed that traditional recipes from previous centuries can only provide partial help. But the search must, first of all, be initiated by the Russian Orthodox Church itself, since otherwise even good help from other Christian churches will be perceived by it as an attempt to dominate. The Catholic tradition in Russia (especially after the destruction of the Soviet Union) is more about the presence of individual representatives of Catholicism on the territory of another religion than the functioning of real Russian Catholicism. After the departure of the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus, there is no active participation of Catholicism in the Russian Federation. But, naturally, Russian Catholics must develop the paradigm of the national Russian Catholic Church, since otherwise it is difficult to expect not even growth, but simply the existence of the Catholic model of Christianity in Russia. The Protestant tradition in our country could be in the position of the Catholic one, but its nature is more complex than the Catholic one. As mentioned above, Catholicism is a development of the same old Christian paradigm as Orthodoxy, and evangelicalism is an alternative to this paradigm. Protestantism entered the evangelical tradition two centuries after its emergence in Rus'. In the evangelical tradition there is an answer to the burning challenge that is addressed to the Old Christian churches - a protest against the Church’s departure from the Gospel. The point is not the authority of tradition (Evangelical Christians have their own established and already outdated traditions), the point is that the human practice of Discovery, the process of dogmatization and culture must be constantly verified by Revelation. And the Holy Scriptures are closer than all the written sources used by the Church to God's revelation (especially the revelation of the New Testament type). In the Old Testament, the voice of the prophets was constantly heard so that there could be an assessment of the conformity of Israel's life with the Law of Moses. There is a principle of some deficiency in the authority of human practice, and this deficiency is overcome by the intervention of God's word, once fixed in an unchangeable form as a standard. Thus, Protestantism continues to be used to answer the essential question of the Church as an integral organism, “Is it faithful to the Revelation of Jesus Christ? » appeal to the Holy Scriptures. But, as noted above, the Russian Christian Church cannot be satisfied only with the peaceful coexistence of its various mega-confessional forms. God included the members of the Church into society, and His will for human society was not canceled. Adam was called to be in charge of the whole earth; Russian Christians must be responsible for fulfilling God’s command to Adam on Russian territory. The challenges of our time are that there cannot be a more mono-church country. There cannot be mono-religion. The Church of Christ is in a competitive relationship with other religions and worldviews. For this reason, the basic settings of its church paradigm should include as an object the entire Russian people (from an atheist and postmodernist to a shamanist, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew). The Church must show how man, created in the image of God, fulfills the will of the Lord on earth, that will that is unconsciously or consciously fulfilled by the entire population of Russia. Fulfilling the will of God in contact with God is always more productive than through the efforts of the human person alone. The Church must, in getting to know God, set an example of God's attitude towards man (free to do good and evil). In the person of Christians, it must show that it is not the predatory attitude of the man-god towards the reality given to him by God, but the masterful, zealous, caring attitude of a being to whom God has entrusted responsibility for part of the world He created. Methods of domination (state, ideological) have outlived their usefulness. People of the postmodern era want recognition of their right to choose their own path, and any other - only because of free conviction, and not violence. For this reason, it is necessary to preserve and develop everything that works in already established traditions, and to create a new answer based primarily on Revelation. God’s promise of blessing to all who want to do God’s will is His support (“And this is the boldness we have towards Him, that when we ask anything according to His will, He listens to us. And when we know that He listens to us in everything, whatever we no matter what we asked, we also know that we receive what we ask from Him” - 1 John 5:15). The call of the Lausanne Conference of 1974 is fair - “The whole Church brings the whole Gospel to the whole world”5 - which can become a solution for the modern Russian Church. 1 The Gennadian Bible includes Cyril and Methodius translations of the Pentateuch, the book of Kings, Job, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, the Apostle, Judges, Joshua, Ruth and the Psalter. Some of the books could not be found (Chronicles, the books of Ezra, Maccabees, Tobit, Judith), and they were translated from the Latin Vulgate by the Croatian monk Benjamin. 2 The Orthodox liturgy contains 98 quotations from the Old Testament and 114 from the New Testament. 3 Rosenstock-Hussy O. Great Revolutions. Autobiography of a Westerner. BBI St. Apostle Andrew. M., 2002. P. 3.2 4 Dogma in Orthodox theology has a specific meaning. 5 Lausanne Manifesto. Lausanne. 1974. Alexander Fedichkin