Orthodox Christians often hear this question. In fact, it touches on a much deeper problem, namely, the problem of Sacred Tradition, of which the works of the holy fathers are part. About what Tradition is, and why, according to the Church, it is impossible to understand the Bible without it, in the new material from “Thomas”. Is the Bible enough? Question about ratio Holy Scripture and Tradition is a stumbling block in centuries-old disputes between Orthodox Christians and Protestants. The latter, already in the 16th century, proclaimed the famous thesis: Sola scriptura (Latin for Scripture alone), arguing that for a full Christian life one text of the Bible is enough. It, they say, contains exactly as much as is needed to save a person, and Tradition is some kind of later, fictitious and completely unnecessary clutter that needs to be gotten rid of. Orthodox theologians categorically disagree with this approach. The Church teaches that Sacred Tradition is oldest form transmission of Divine Revelation. Tradition existed before Holy Scripture; it is primary in relation to the text of Revelation. Understanding this is not so difficult, because even in everyday life we first experience something, and only then, if necessary, record this experience in the text. In addition, the biblical text itself testifies to the primacy of Tradition in relation to Scripture. Thus, from the same book of Genesis we learn that God directly communicated with Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. We see that Abel knows how to offer a sacrifice to God from the firstlings of his flock and from their fat (Gen. 4:4). Noah knows which animals are “clean” and which are “unclean” (Genesis 7:8). Abraham knows what a tithe is when he gives it to Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Gen. 14:20). And, let us note, none of them read the Scripture, which, obviously, had not yet been written down. For many centuries, the Old Testament righteous lived without the sacred text of Scripture, just as, indeed, the early Christians for a long time did without the text of the New Testament, conforming their spiritual and everyday life with the oral Tradition of the Church. Thus, we can say that Scripture is the written part of Tradition, and that is why they do not exist without each other. The apostles themselves repeatedly called on believers to adhere to Tradition: I praise you, brothers, because you remember everything that is mine and keep the traditions as I handed them down to you (1 Cor 11:2); Therefore, brethren, stand steadfast, and hold fast the traditions which ye have been taught either by our word or by our epistle (2 Thessalonians 2:15); We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly, and not according to the tradition which was received from us (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Moreover, the very appearance of the Divine Revelation recorded in the text, according to St. John Chrysostom, was associated with the growing decline of human morals, with spiritual “deafness”, which was increasingly spreading among people: “Indeed, we should not have the need in the help of the Scriptures, but it would be necessary to lead a life so pure that instead of books the grace of the Spirit serves, and so that, just as they are covered with ink, so our hearts are written with the Spirit. But since we rejected such grace, we will use at least the second path.” “Blank Spots” in the Holy Scriptures It is interesting that if we “cross out” the Holy Tradition from the Divine Revelation, then “blank spots” immediately appear in the biblical text - peculiar meaningful gaps, which cannot be filled without outside sources. So, for example, in the book of Genesis it is said on behalf of the patriarch Jacob to his son Joseph: I give you, especially before your brothers, one plot, which I took from the hands of the Amorites with my sword and my bow (Genesis 48:22). However, Scripture itself (the book of Genesis) does not speak anywhere about the military actions that Jacob carried out against the Amorites with a “sword... and bow” in his hands. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to Timothy writes about well known fact that As Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men of depraved minds, ignorant of the faith (2 Tim. 3:8). The question arises again: where did Paul get this story, if in the entire Bible there is not a word about this conflict between certain Jannes and Jambres and Moses? In his sermon to the Jews, Archdeacon Stephen says: And Moses was taught in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was strong in words and deeds. When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers the children of Israel (Acts 7:22-23). Again: in everything Old Testament It is not reported at what age it came to Moses’ heart to visit his brothers. And there are a significant number of such examples in the Bible. But there is a much more fundamental problem. Readers of the New Testament have probably encountered the fact that after reading the entire complex of texts, they did not find in it at least any detailed teaching about some of the fundamental foundations of Christian life, for example, about the sacraments. The question arises: what is the reason for this silence? And this question cannot be resolved within the framework of the “Scripture only” principle. However, the substantive structure of the New Testament itself turns out to be somewhat blurred - logical inconsistencies arise in it, vague passages that cannot be completely deciphered. What, for example, do the words of Jesus Christ mean about the Bread of Heaven, about the vine, about water flowing into eternal life? Or what the Apostle Paul calls for when he says: Let a man examine himself, and in this way let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, not considering the Body of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:28-29)? About what vine, water, bread and cup we're talking about ? The New Testament text itself does not give us a definite answer. However, all these questions and problems are immediately removed as soon as we include Scripture in its native environment - that is, in Tradition. Archpriest John Meyendorff directly writes that the above sayings of Christ “cannot be fully understood without the knowledge that Christians in the first century performed Baptism and the Eucharist.” The sayings about the cup, the vine and the bread acquire completeness and clarity as soon as we include them in the sphere of Tradition. And this demonstrates once again: Scripture and Tradition are interdependent and indissoluble. Only their unity determines the conceptual completeness of Divine Revelation. Tradition is the condition for the true understanding of Scripture, the standard, the centuries-old experience of reading and understanding the Bible by the Church, based on which a Christian himself can read Revelation without the risk of distorting its meaning. One can recall a characteristic plot from the book of Acts, when the eunuch, reading the Old Testament, answered the question of the Apostle Philip: Do you understand what you are reading? - answered: How can I understand if someone does not instruct me? (Acts 8:30–31). Tradition “conveys” this instruction to a believer, which concerns, however, not only how to read Scripture, but also how to be saved. Outside the Church there is neither Tradition nor Scripture. Tradition, like Scripture, exists only for the Church and only within the framework of the Church. Outside the Church there is neither Holy Scripture nor Holy Tradition. Hieromartyr Hilarion of the Trinity directly writes about this: “Holy Scripture is one of the aspects of the common grace-filled church life, and outside the Church there is no Holy Scripture, in the true sense of the word.” And Alexei Khomyakov noted that “neither Scripture, nor Tradition, nor deeds are incomprehensible to anyone living outside the Church.” At first, such statements will seem declarative and, in some sense, even too loud. However, if we set the correct context, then all possible misunderstandings will disappear by themselves. Let's say I really want you to discover the musical world of Stravinsky. Perhaps I even have a good understanding of his work and can give a whole lecture about it, and then send some more good academic articles. And you will obediently listen to all this, read it, assimilate it, but you will still not discover Stravinsky’s music for yourself. Because the most important thing did not happen - a meeting with this music, complete immersion in it, direct contact with how the orchestra performs it. It’s the same with Scripture and Tradition. You can talk about them as much as you like; you can study hundreds and thousands of studies. But without a personal meeting, without directly building their lives according to Scripture and Tradition, they will remain just curious artifacts of human history. And to meet them, to truly discover them, is only possible in the Church, which has been continuously living and breathing Tradition and Scripture for more than one millennium in the constant succession of the “doers” of Scripture and Tradition, that is, the saints. Holiness is evidence of life according to Tradition and Scripture, the true embodiment of the fullness of Divine Revelation in the destinies of specific people, but first of all - in the life of Jesus Christ. Just as Stravinsky’s music only becomes truly revealed to us when we listen to it performed live, so Tradition and Scripture are only revealed to us in their entirety when we are in the Church, when we participate in the experience of holiness. The most profound experience of Tradition is possible only in the sacrament of Communion. The Eucharist is the center of Tradition and Scripture. Divine Revelation in its entirety was given to the Church once - on the day of Pentecost. All subsequent centuries, this Tradition in all its diversity was only unfolded and consistently explained by Christians. And the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, and dogma, and the teaching of the holy fathers, and the iconographic canon, and church architecture, and the biblical canon - all this is Holy Tradition. Therefore, the teaching of the Church does not evolve and does not develop in its content. It only appears in the history of mankind, in the lives of holy people. Blessed Augustine, who himself truly discovered Tradition and Scripture for himself when he met the great Saint Ambrose of Milan, once wrote the paradoxical: “I would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not prompt me to do so.” And we, following the great saint, can add: “I would not have believed in Tradition if the authority of the Catholic Church had not urged me to do so.” And the authority of the Church itself is the Holy Spirit who always lives in it. Tikhon Sysoev
The Sacrament of the Eucharist was established by the Savior at His last Supper with His disciples when He uttered the words “take, eat... drink all of it... do this in remembrance of Me...” But long before this mysterious meal, the Savior revealed to the apostles the mystical meaning of communion His Body and Blood. In fact, immediately after the first miraculous feeding of 5,000 people with five loaves, that is, long before the Transfiguration and before His entry into Jerusalem, more precisely, during the period between the first and second Passover of His public ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in the Capernaum synagogue His sermon on the Bread of Life. Here, among these slender columns of the classical Greek style, decorated, however, with Jewish religious emblems: seven-branched candlesticks, pomegranate apples, six-pointed stars - in this, now completely excavated and cleaned, marvelous portico of this synagogue overlooking the Sea of Tiberias, the Savior offered His the doctrine of Heavenly Eternal Bread (John 6:24-66).
In essence, this sermon naturally falls into two parts: a preliminary one, in which He speaks more about the Old Testament prototype of the Eucharist (verses 27-47), and the teaching itself about the Heavenly Bread of Life (48-66).
The Savior was prompted to turn to the Old Testament symbol of the Eucharist by the disciples themselves, who recalled, in connection with the miraculous feeding of 5,000 people the day before (John 6:12), the Old Testament miracle of manna falling from heaven: “Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: bread from heaven.” gave them something to eat" (John 6:31; Exodus 16:15; Psalm 78:24). The Lord had to, as often in other cases, have before Him the narrow national psychology of the Jews and their well-known inertia, inability to rise above the level of historical and literal understanding of biblical facts. It was necessary to show them that manna was only a prototype of the true Heavenly Bread. But this still would not mean that it is, again, only an individual historical fact, a simple episode of Jewish history. Manna was a symbol of the Eternal Bread. This given historical event was and serves as a prototype, a “type” of the eternal reality of the Eucharistic meal established from time immemorial. But only a prototype, and therefore incomplete and imperfect. Manna was a wonderful food that fell from heaven, while the Eucharist is the true Body of Christ itself; manna fell only for a certain period of time, but the Eucharist was established for endless times, “always, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” Manna fed only the body, while Heavenly Bread feeds the whole person and passes “through the organs, through all the joints, into the womb, into the heart.” He gives a person immortality, which manna was not able to give.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria, in his interpretation of the Gospel of John (Book III, Chapter 6), explains this connection this way: “Manna fed only the Jewish people in the desert, while there are countless other peoples in the universe. The True Bread of Life that came down from heaven , has the power to nourish the entire universe and give it perfect life."
The psalmist perceived this Old Testament manna as “the bread of heaven and the bread of angels” (Ps. 77:24-25). On this occasion, the same Saint Cyril says that although angels cannot eat rough food, “nothing forbids us to think that since they are spirits, they may need the same food, obviously spiritual and mental.” And a little further: “Christ is the Bread and the angels themselves.” And Saint Ambrose of Milan teaches: “The angels in heaven feed abundantly on You (i.e., the Bread of Heaven”).
But let us turn to a more significant part of the same Capernaum conversation of the Lord. Manna is not true and eternal life, but Christ is the Bread that came down from heaven (6:41). In this teaching of Christ, two main thoughts are important, namely: a) the Eucharist resurrects those who partake of it (6:48-54), and b) the Eucharist is the catholic unity of all its participants, members mysterious Body Christ (6:56).
1. Indeed, if the prototype of the Eucharist, manna, could only nourish human physical strength Jews wandering in the desert and thus had only a temporary meaning, then the eternal meaning of the Eucharist is resurrection and eternal life. "I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died; and the bread that comes down from heaven is such that whoever eats it will not die" (6:48-50). This Bread, that is, the Flesh of the Lord, is given for the life of the world, and whoever eats it will live forever (6:51), and whoever does not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood will not have life in him (6 :53). “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day” (6:54).
St. Cyril of Alexandria, interpreting 6:51, dogmatizes this matter: “Since the Life-giving Word of God dwelt in the Flesh, It transformed it (i.e., the Body) into its own quality, that is, life, and, being completely united with it in an ineffable way of unity, made it life-giving, as It Itself is by nature.Therefore, the Body of Christ gives life to those who become partakers of it, since it drives out death when it appears among the dying, and removes corruption, carrying within itself the Word, which completely destroys corruption ". And a little further the holy father continues to speak about the boundaries of this resurrecting power of the Body of Christ: “All flesh will live, for the prophetic word foretells that the dead will rise” (cf. Isa. 26:19). We think that the consequences of the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ extend to all humanity. And Chrysostom teaches: “In the Old Testament there was a promise of longevity and many years, but now they promise not just longevity, but life without end.” Thus, the Eucharist is our only essential connection with the dead. By partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we enter into the closest communion with their departed communicants. In the Byzantine rite of proskomedia, as will be clear from the following presentation, this communication with the world of the dead becomes especially clear thanks to the prayerful remembrance of the names of the living and the dead when removing particles from the prosphora and then immersing them in the Chalice of Holy Blood with the words “Wash away, Lord.” , the sins of all those who were remembered by Your honest Blood and the prayers of Your saints." Orthodox Liturgy The Byzantine rite thus reveals a particularly clear liturgical confession of communion with saints and the conciliar unity of the Church.
2. Another thing follows from this: the Capernaum conversation also reveals the ecclesiastic meaning of the Eucharist. The Savior says: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (6:56). Everyone, partaking of the Mysteries of the Lord, becomes a member of His mystical Body, that is, the Church. The Eucharist is the Body of Christ, and the Church, according to the Apostle Paul, is also the same collective Body of Christ (Eph. 4:15-16; Colossians 1:24). In other words, the nature of the Church is eucharistic. There is no Eucharist outside the Church, for there is no body outside the Body; and the Church cannot exist without the Eucharist. Therefore, it is impossible to be a member of the Church and not partake of what is the Body of Christ, that is, the Church Itself. In the Eucharist it is a sign of churchliness.
This is what we read from Chrysostom: “So that not only through love, but also through deed itself, we may become members of the Flesh of Christ, let us unite with this Flesh. And this happens through the food that Christ gave to express His great love to us. For this, He mixed Himself with us and dissolved His Body in us, so that we would form something single, like a body connected to a head. And this is a sign of herself strong love... In order to bring us into greater fellowship with Himself and to show His love for us, He gave those who wanted not only to see Him, but also to touch, and eat, and touch His Flesh with their teeth, and unite with Him, and satisfy every desire with Him." .
This is what this mysterious Bread of Life is, the Bread of Heaven. Christ Himself, who descended from heaven and was born of the Most Pure Virgin in the city of Bethlehem, in the “House of Bread,” since ביח-להס [Bethlehem] means precisely the House of Bread; After 40 days, when the time had come to create the Lord, he was brought into the Temple and received there by the righteous Simeon as an offering of Bread for the Last Eucharistic Supper. Predestined from eternity for the communion of the faithful, for their sanctification and deification, just as from eternity, before the foundation of the world, the Lamb of God was destined for the slaughter (1 Pet. 1:20).
In the wondrous prayer of Saint Ambrose of Milan, set by the Church for reading by the priest before the celebration of the Liturgy, this is what is said about this Bread:
“The sweetest bread... The purest bread, filled with all kinds of sweetness and incense, the Bread that the angels in heaven feed on most abundantly... Holy Bread, Living Bread, Desired Bread, come down from heaven and give life to the world.”
Bread, therefore, of eternal immortality. Bread of conciliar unity in the Church.
Everything in this teaching of the Savior is full of mystery and cannot be analyzed by reason. The mystery of the Bread of eternal life is also revealed in its very biblical prototype, that is, in this extraordinary Old Testament manna. “The Jews,” says the interpreter of the sacred text, “seeing the falling manna, asked each other: “What is this?” - for they did not know what it was... These words, “what is this,” expressed in the form of a question, are called an object that in the Syrian language sounds like “manna”, i.e. “What is this?” אהוס ".
The bewilderment of the ancient Jew at the sight of the extraordinary heavenly manna was repeated (though much more sharply) during the Lord’s sermon in Capernaum. Here, once again in the history of human religious consciousness, the fact of a painful aporia, a hopeless dead end, was confirmed.
In fact, the Judeo-pagan consciousness sought to separate the world from God, deepen the gap between them, and emphasize the irresistible transcendence of God for the world. Therefore, the Christian dogma about the Incarnation of the Word, about the incarnation of God, that is, the confession of faith in the immanence of the Divine, with His visible transcendence, is so unacceptable and incredible for non-Christianity. That is why Docetism, Manichaeism, Ebionism and Arianism so stubbornly resisted Orthodoxy and found a large number of supporters among the educated and at the same time pious people of their time. The mind, unenlightened by the light of Christian teaching, searched in pagan philosophy and found in it arguments against such a seemingly daring belittlement of God, kenosis, since the impoverishment of God, His condescension seemed madness, and madness is unacceptable.
“According to pagan thinkers,” let’s say in the words of V. Nesmelov, “all misfortune human life lies in the connection between the immortal spirit and the mortal body, because this connection necessarily creates a fatal contradiction in human nature and life... They recognized the connection between spirit and body in human nature as an unnatural connection, and this recognition determined the entire further construction of their soteriological views." And since the human mind cannot be satisfied either with the system of materialistic monism, or with the system of spiritualistic or idealistic monism , then naturally the dualistic worldview remains uniformly acceptable.But if from the dualistic worldview (i.e., from the recognition of the presence of two principles in man, spirit and body), the temptation of occasionalism easily follows, which is in no way able to substantiate and comprehend the very existence of the spirit in a body alien to it , then, therefore, we must look for something different, an approach to the body and spirit other than occasionalism. We must justify the body in the face of the spiritual principle, we must believe in the possibility of its spirituality (σώμα πνευματικόν [spiritual body]). That is why Orthodox theology thought, through long and painful searches, disputes, theological daring questioning and, of course, with the participation of centuries of mystical and ascetic experience, came to the faith and doctrine of deified flesh, which among the mystics of the East was expressed in the doctrine of “godlike flesh” (especially by Saint Gregory Palamas ).
The Jews asked: “How can He give us His flesh to eat?” (6:52). On this occasion, Chrysostom notes well: “What the prophets resurrected, the apostles knew, although Scripture speaks about this not so clearly; but for anyone to eat flesh, none of the prophets ever spoke about this.”
It is this σώμα πνευματικόν or όμοθεον σώμα [body one with the Divine] that was the stumbling block for the rationalizing Capernaum listeners of Christ and remains the same stone for modern rationalists. The Jews asked: “How can He give us His flesh to eat?” (6:52). The Savior’s words tempted even the disciples close to Him who constantly listened to Him (6:61). “From that time on, many of His disciples departed from Him and walked no more with Him” (6:66).
How typical this is for all times, up to and including ours! The Jews saw the miracles of Christ and were amazed at them; They listened to His moral teaching and accepted it with reverence, as the most sublime sermon, and with this they were ready to limit the range of their religious needs. The dogmatic teaching about the eternal existence of the Son (John 8:58) and about His consubstantiality with the Father seemed blasphemous to the pious Jew (John 5:18; 10: 30-31). And this teaching in the “Capernaum host” about the possibility of sanctification of the body, about communion with the deified flesh, about deification, thus, of oneself and about the resurrection in this body - all this seemed like madness and plunged the Jewish rationalist into grief and pushed even disciples close to Him. Isn't that what we see now? Isn't it the same spirit of rationalism and skepticism that torments our minds? Don’t we want to see in the Last Supper only the “touching” scene of the farewell meal with the disciples and, after that, in the Liturgy - only a symbolic memory of this Supper? Aren’t many believers these days leaving Christ and the Church like the Lord’s disciples who were tempted?
Oh, how many in our time are ready to accept in the Gospel only “exceptionally high moral preaching” and, following Renan and Tolstoy, to see in Christ only “a perfect moral teacher!” Oh, how many do not understand that the Eucharist is the central point of Christian religious life that without her there is no Church, and there is no Eternal God-Man Himself!
There are people who yearn for spiritual blessings, says Lagrange, who seek them near the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Eucharist turns them away; they accept it only as a memory of the past. But then Jesus is not really present among them; He is, as it were, deprived of the divine property of being everywhere and always with His own. He is given to a certain moment in history... And they say: “How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?”
That is why the Savior offered this sermon of His about the Heavenly Bread long before the Last Supper, in order to prepare His apostles to accept this thought, in order to accustom them to it. The rationalistic consciousness of the average religious man in the street cannot accept this too daring, dizzying thought. It will apparently remain “foolishness” for many for many centuries to come. Accepting the Eucharist, accepting the doctrine of the deified flesh, the incarnation of God, may be much more difficult than agreeing with the idea of the existence of God.
Conversation about patrolology with Artem Perlik.
The significance of the patristic view for modern man reveals itself to those who feel that theology does not exist for debate and bickering, and certainly not for the academic merits of the theologian, but for our joy.
Therefore, the view of the holy fathers on the world is not something imposed on us from the outside, but the very life of the heart, which the patristic view liberates from many years of captivity false thoughts and ideas, and a person finally learns that he has always been loved and extremely needed, even when it seemed to him that nothing and no one was waiting for him. The Holy Fathers did not want to argue about faith, but to give others the happiness of seeing this earth with a heavenly gaze, and such a gaze is the reason for eternal human bliss, because it reveals the truth that in this world and in our lives there has never been and never was anything that the Lord would not bring to us for the sake of our true happiness.
– What kind of science is patrolology?
– To answer this question, I will resort to comparison. Here are two great philosophers: Plato and Aristotle. Their contribution to the world treasury of wisdom is invaluable. But they write differently. And if we, for example, want to deeply analyze some topic related to the work of Plato: “Plato and his attitude to creativity”, “Plato’s ideal”, “Plato’s image of Socrates” - then we will not find in him some kind of dialogue on the desired topic. We will have to read all of Plato, familiarize ourselves with the scientific literature on this issue, and only then will we master the desired topic.
Aristotle writes differently. He takes the topic: “Poetics”, “Ethics” and step by step analyzes the views of all his predecessors on this issue, and then brings everything together into a system, which he formed not without the influence of Plato.
The patrolologist also performs similar work - only in relation to the holy fathers. The fact is that the fathers, while maintaining the internal unity of their worldview, as a rule, did not reduce their views into a coherent system (like John of Damascus). The experience of saints is the experience of comprehending God, and for each person it is both common and unique. And if we want the views of the fathers (or one father) to be represented in the system, if it is important for us to understand how the fathers (from the 1st to the 21st centuries) understood important Christian truths, we will need a patrolologist who brings the views of the fathers into the system, creates a certain a synthesis that spans all centuries and takes into account everything that can be taken into account.
– What is the meaning of patrolology?
– The Holy Fathers, before writing, listened to the Holy Spirit living in them. But due to various reasons Any person can, in a particular case, hear incorrectly and convey it incorrectly. Therefore, in patrolology there is a principle of consent of fathers. He insures the Church against error. Saint Photius of Constantinople says that if 10 fathers said one way and 500 said another, then we must listen to the 500.
All Christians who live a correct spiritual life have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, they all feel the same truth as the fathers. This determines the unity of understanding. The measure of fathers’ grace is the highest. And they had the gift of finding verbal forms of expression in order to reveal a heavenly, Divine view in relation to one or another contemporary problem for a given generation. This is both the work of a patrolologist and a great poet, and the fathers were both.
Some people perceive Orthodoxy as a fortress in the midst of absolute darkness. Accordingly, the whole world in such a perception appears as the scene of action of the enemy of the human race. For the fathers, Orthodoxy is different, it is a gift for everyone, a leaven that is called upon to transform being in the Spirit. Therefore, the fathers gladly went out to people and inspired them to live kindly.
It's as if a man came out
And he went out and opened the ark,
And he gave it all away.
The fathers took any pagan thought into their circulation, as long as it was in tune with Christianity. Therefore, they did not shy away from finding divinely inspired lines from the pagans. It is enough to look at how often Gregory the Theologian quotes pagan authors to be convinced that this is so.
The view of the holy fathers on existence is in most cases a heavenly view. That’s why patrolology helps people look at the world with a heavenly, God’s view, which is absolutely adequate to existence and most fully expresses every essence.
– Do pathological studies have clear limits? Are they limited to a specific period in history?
- IN Orthodox understanding The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Church has no chronological framework. Therefore, our era is as patristic as any other: both in antiquity and in the future. The chain of saints, according to the fathers themselves, will never be interrupted, and the Church will always be filled with the people of God. Justin of Serbia says that “the Church is a continuous Pentecost,” where the Spirit is constantly poured out on all the faithful. Therefore, there has never been a “golden patristic age” in the Church, or rather, such an age always exists in it and will remain so until the very end of earthly history. Seraphim of Sarov and Simeon New Theologian They said that grace is still the same as under the apostles. Therefore, the holy fathers are the same, and God is the same. And the person does not change. And if he goes to Heaven, Heaven transforms him.
– How would you advise someone who has not previously encountered it to start studying patrolology? Is it difficult?
– I would recommend starting with reading as such. Not individual quotes, but fatherly works. For example, St. Nicholas of Serbia. "Confessions" of St. Augustine. Teachings of the Optina elders. I would also recommend reading the actual patrolological studies of the works of the holy fathers. Such reading usually becomes living water for a person, which is impossible to part with. Wherever the fatherly thought comes, light appears.
Let me give you an example. When my confessor gave me the obedience to teach Christian ethics to children in general education and Sunday schools, the question arose of how to do this correctly. These subjects can be the most interesting in school, but they can also become the most boring if they are taught scholastically and in isolation from the spiritual life and spiritual experience of the teacher and students. The pre-revolutionary experience was not suitable for new children, and there was no new one. And what kind of new experience is this, what should it be based on? Then I began to study how the holy fathers and the best teachers of our time teach what they say to children and teenagers about Orthodoxy. Their remarkable experience was formalized into a single system, which he called the “Patristic Teaching Methodology.” For many years I used this method in several secondary schools and many Sunday schools in the Donetsk diocese. As a result, each lesson became an event and holiday for the children. Lesson - light, a lesson-joy. The children even asked that this lesson be taught not only during classes, but also during the holidays, they were so pleased and inspired by what was happening. As always, the patristic approach turned out to be the best to lead the children where the teacher calls them - to true life and the True God.
This technique includes working with children of any school age, as well as with young people, and may be useful to those who hold diocesan youth meetings. The technique is equally applicable in secondary schools when teaching the subject “Christian Ethics” and in Sunday schools.
The fruits of this technique are the emergence in children of a living and personal good feeling for God, which often develops into prayer, strengthening faith, understanding oneself and the movements of one’s soul, a feeling of the futility of one’s life, the luminosity and paschality of the world permeated by God.
In such lessons, I did not teach children a certain amount of knowledge, but I sought two things: so that they would understand that God does not just live somewhere in heaven, but is constantly involved in their lives, and so that they would want to communicate with this God. Oh, as I said Athonite elder to one wise priest: “If God brings disciples into your hands, teach them the most important things, teach them to pray. And prayer will teach them everything else.”
– How did you get acquainted with this science? Where did this interest come from?
– When Bishop Mitrofan Nikitin was still a priest, he entered one church icon shop to see what books were sold there. Seeing the assortment, he sadly grabbed his beard and said with a groan: “Why are there only brochures about holy water and the end of the world? Why don't people read Basil the Great? Gregory the Theologian? Father Mitrofan almost cried then, and this made an impression on one bright Christian woman - my friend. She went to the library and took the book “Six Days” by Basil the Great. I began to read and, having reached half of it, suddenly felt an extraordinary warmth in my heart. Saint Basil was invisibly nearby, and her whole soul responded to his love and care for her. Reading further, she was surprised to notice that the saint’s thoughts were surprisingly modern and had not lost their relevance even one and a half thousand years after the book was written. But she expected the text to be some kind of pious “Museum”, boring and outdated. Both of these discoveries didn't just shock her—they changed her. This change that happened to her affected me too, because it was impossible to see the radiance of her heart and not change. This was my first acquaintance with the holy fathers.
Later I noticed that many people who have not read the works of their fathers think that they will be bored. So, one day I spoke with a student of mine, who was also studying to become a psychologist. I suggested that she turn to the patristic understanding of the soul, and she said that she had read the fathers and they did not make an impression on her. When I asked what exactly she was reading, it turned out that she was looking through some kind of book where separate, unrelated quotes were collected, and all this was presented in a completely scholastic spirit. I answered her that she did not read the fathers, but the fantasies of unknown authors on the topic of the soul. Then the girl turned to the works of the fathers, the ascetics, whom I recommended on the topic. And she was inspired throughout her life by Anthony of Sourozh.
– To become a patrolologist, do you need to study somewhere? Or is this a calling, a call from the soul?
– Orthodoxy has a colossal culture of thought and depth of insight into any issue raised. God allows us to see the world holistically, and then the answer to the question takes place in the general harmony of the whole. The English poet Thomas Eliot spoke of modern people that one of them is driving a car, and the other is reading Aristotle, and these events are in no way connected with each other. This is because an ordinary person perceives the world privately, fractionally. Communicating with grace helps us see being as a whole, in the interconnectedness of its parts.
And this existence appears before a person as good. The world is good for those who see it in the rays of the Lord's grace. Therefore, Saint Justin of Serbia said that “in its Divine, logos essence, life is paradise.” And the pure in heart sees that this is so.
It is precisely this worldview that the view of the holy fathers gives people. And in this sense, any person can and should be a patrolologist, a successor of the work and thoughts of the fathers. But if we talk purely about the scientific gift that a patrol scientist should have, then it is better to answer in the words of Joseph Brodsky. Once he was asked who ranked him among the poets. He said then: “I think it’s from God.”
– Which of the holy fathers of the Church do you like best? Why?
– In heaven we do not choose favorites, but we love everyone with equal love. The same applies to the fathers: each of them is dear, each occupies a special place in the Church, without each, when you get to know him, you would not want to live on. It's like deciding who is dearer to us: Seraphim of Sarov or his wife? And how to decide if they are all me?
– What is the significance of the holy fathers for modern man?
“Whoever does not see what grace the hills, meadows, poems of great poets, the music of Mozart, the scientific research of Alexei Losev, the philosophy of Kierkegaard and Plato are filled with, will not feel the grace in the temple. Such a denial of world culture is characteristic of the new level of Christian life, and even then not of everyone. Any experienced mentor will always be able to talk about how the holy fathers (Basily the Great, Justin the Philosopher, Gregory the Theologian) treated culture, with what trepidation they chose in it what was consonant with Christianity. After all, it is impossible to read Plato or Aristotle and not exclaim, following the ancient fathers, that these philosophers were Christians before Christ. And everyone knows how educated many fathers were. Spiritual life is expressed not only in reading akathists, but also in every deed for the sake of God and for the sake of loved ones. Writing and reading poetry, philosophy, music, painting - all these are treasures. Therefore, among the saints there are saints: poets, philosophers, doctors, scientists, musicians. And here boring people Those who see only darkness and sin everywhere are not among the saints!
The believer is able to see Christ in everything. And in literature, and in music, and in people. Among the holy fathers this skill is deeply developed. They were attuned to Christ, and therefore saw His traces in everything that surrounded them, except sin. And they could see sin in a unique way. So, an amazing priest I know once said that Mary of Egypt sought the Lord even in her vice. Her soul wanted heights, but she mistakenly mistook fornication for heights, so she didn’t even take money for her actions. But everyone around saw her only as a libertine.
There was a case in my life when I saw photographs of a model girl on stage and after, when she thought that no one could see her. And then this girl, tired and lonely, was sad and had a heartache, but on stage she was forced to smile. Where is she real? How will God accept her? Of course, the one who suffers so much...
When an ordinary person looks at another, he looks for reasons for condemnation, sins and misdeeds. But when a grace-filled ascetic looks at another, he sees him deeper than sin, with all love, with all pity, and therefore notices how inexplicably beautiful this person he meets is. Those who are close to the saint, who read his works, can also learn this. They will be taught by the grace itself, which lives in the heart and deeds of the saint they honor.
– Who are the holy fathers?
– It is very difficult to explain to a person something that he has never seen in his everyday experience. After all, people's lives, as a rule, are divided between two sayings.
The first is American, and it speaks of a person’s alienated attitude towards the world: “My wife is with me, my son Joe and his wife - the four of us live together, we don’t need anyone else.”
And the second - Polish - about people’s attitude to the priceless time of life: “From Monday to Friday, from eight to five - and so on until death.”
This is how humanity as a whole lives. The Holy Fathers are those few people for whom such a life was not enough, and they wanted to become what God intended everyone to be. Suns for others. Those who live every second of their lives in vain. What is this futility? American classical poet Emily Dickinson writes about this:
If the heart - at least one -
I won't let you break -
I didn't live in vain!
If I carry it on my shoulders, I will accept it -
So that someone can straighten up -
Pain - at least one - a lot -
To one dying bird
I’ll return a particle of warmth -
I didn't live in vain!
The Holy Fathers trusted God and went to Him along the path that Christ left in His Orthodox Church. And they became those whom God transformed so much that during their lifetime they looked like vessels from which the Creator shone with His mercy and love throughout the entire earth.
Therefore, around them, life itself became beautiful - a miracle and a fairy tale, in fact. And God, even during their lifetime, through their prayers, preserved people, cities and even countries.
For example, after World War II German pilots, who flew to bomb the Greek island of Aegina, where the world famous saint Nektarios of Aegina once lived, said that when they flew over the island, they did not see any island. According to the maps, there was an island under them, but in fact there was an ocean. That is, the saint hid the entire island from bombing with his prayer.
And when earthly life the saints ended and the Lord took them to heaven, then there they wanted to please and help everyone who only asks them for help on earth...
– What does patrolology study?
– Patrology is a science that systematizes the spiritual experience of the holy fathers.
The saints had an amazing trait: to look at every problem and difficulty of their time not from the point of view of immediate benefit, but through the prism of eternity, Heaven. Therefore, their view of every situation was an angelic view, when the knowable is fully revealed to the knower. It is the ability to see events and the world down to its essence. That is why their answers were so deep and paradoxical.
The saints were interested in how to make God the content of their lives and hearts. We study the works of the fathers in order to become partakers of their way of life and thought.
– What is the wisdom of the elders’ advice?
– The wisdom of the elders is such that they see the situation as a whole, in all its diversity, and God tells them the most correct solution for a person, so that his soul grows into a new measure of beauty.
E. Poselyanin: “One of my friends, fulfilling the wishes of his parents, served without having any inclination to do so. He was tormented by a position that was considered by others to be prominent, pleasant and good. An offer was made to him of a service that, while representing an advancement in all respects, was at the same time to his heart. At first there was just talk about it, then a decisive answer was required. I asked him for permission to sign up for him with the Optina Elder Ambrose. The Elder’s advice was to refuse, and I persuaded my friend to write a refusal...
“Now,” he (the friend) said gloomily, I did a thing, well, humanly speaking, stupid, unreasonable. I can't stand this service. She makes me unhappy, she poisons my life. I had a wonderful way out and I had to turn away. I did it. But for me to have fun with it, no.
A few days later, with complete surprise, another proposal was made to him, which, being superior to the first in everything, was completely in accordance with his inclinations, as if created for him. And then the Elder hastily advised to immediately accept this offer.”
Exupery said that a person is slowly born into the world. Because our souls are slowly maturing towards goodness. The elder, with his advice and prayer, contributes to this growth. He teaches to be sincere before God, to be like God.
One day, a woman who was very lonely in life turned to Saint Nicholas of Serbia. She didn't know where to find friends. And Elder Nikolai advised her to help the poor and in general those who need help.
When a man came to a certain priest complaining of loneliness, the priest replied: “There are thousands of people around you who need love. Give them a hand and you won’t be alone.”
When Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh was asked by young men how to become a priest, he said two things.
1. Become if you can say about God in a way that no one has said before you. But everything said will be the truth you have experienced, and not fantasy.
2. The priesthood is about making people feel like you are living for them.
Such definitions cannot be read. You can only experience them on your path to God, and only because you have experienced them can you reveal them to others.
If we have a duty and responsibility in this life, it is to bring joy to those who walk this earth with us. The elders teach us to understand this truth deeply.
Many people are interested in the question: what is the meaning of life in Christianity? Trying to find an answer to a question is depriving you of peace. Religion helps every believer find a path to life full of meaning. Undoubtedly, this is a philosophical question, however, faith and sincere prayer to God will help you find a clear answer to it. A religious response to the tossing of the soul will become a bright ray of light and show the path to peace and harmony. Let's turn to three world religions and try to figure out what the meaning of human life is.
Christian understanding of the meaning of life
Many holy fathers in their sermons and teachings pay special attention to the issue of finding the true life path and himself. Man began to think about the eternal and the most important in the distant past. Remember the legend about King Sisyphus, as punishment he was doomed to forever roll a stone to the top of the high mountain. Having reached the top, the king again found himself at the foot and began a meaningless ascent. This myth is the clearest example of the meaninglessness of human existence.
Thinkers about the true meaning of existence
The philosopher Albert Camus, reflecting on the meaning of life in Christianity, applied the image of Sisyphus to the image of a man - his contemporary. The philosopher’s main idea was the following: the life of every creature, limited by the boundaries of existence, resembles Sisyphean labor, full of absurdity and meaningless actions.
It is important! Often a person who has reached a respectable age remembers life and understands that there were many incoherent events in it that turned into an endless chain of meaningless deeds and actions. So that earthly existence does not resemble Sisyphean labor, it is important to find the meaning of life, to clearly see the road - your own, the only path to harmony and happiness.
Unfortunately, many people live in an illusory world and follow pseudo-goals. However, in the world of specifics and realities, it is impossible to find the true meaning of a Christian’s life. This idea is best confirmed by exact science - mathematics. A number divided by infinity is zero. It is not surprising that all attempts by people far from faith to explain the meaning of existence look naive.
Great creators and philosophers understand the incompleteness of earthly existence. Blaise Pascal realized only two years before his death that science is just work, a craft, and the true meaning of Christian life is rooted in religion. In his letters, the scientist often thought a lot about the meaning of existence. He wrote that a person can become truly happy only by realizing that there is a God. The true good is to love Him and abide in Him, and the great misfortune is to be separated from Him and to be filled with darkness. True religion clearly and clearly explains to man the reason why he resists God, and therefore the greatest good. True faith shows how to gain the necessary strength to overcome one’s own delusions, how to accept God, and find oneself.
Great scientist and Orthodoxy
In the modern world the situation has not changed radically. Deep moral person Having achieved certain heights and results, he clearly understands that this is not the true goal. Great people are constantly understanding what its true meaning is. A striking example is the life of Academician Korolev. Managing the greatest space program, he understood that the meaning of existence is in the salvation of the soul, that is, it rushes far beyond the boundaries of earthly existence. In those days, Orthodoxy and faith were subject to serious persecution, but even then Korolev had a mentor, he attended pilgrimages and donated large sums to charity.
About it amazing person wrote the nun Silouana, who worked in the hotel at the monastery. In her stories, she describes Korolev as a respectable man in a leather jacket. She was amazed by the fact that the academician, having lived for several days in a hotel at the temple, was sincerely surprised by poverty and misery. His heart was breaking from what he saw, and Korolev wanted to help the monastery. The academician lamented that he had little money with him, but left his address and telephone number and asked the nun to definitely stop by when he arrived in Moscow. The nun gave Korolev the address of the priest who found himself in difficult situation, asked for all possible help. Some time later, Silvana arrived in Moscow and was visited by the Queen. To her surprise, the man lived in a luxurious mansion, was very happy to see the nun, and invited her to visit. In Korolev’s office there were icons, and on the table lay an open book of the Philokalia. The academician donated 5 thousand rubles to the monastery. By the way, the priest became Korolev’s mentor and good friend, whose address the nun gave and asked for help.
It is important! For Korolev, turning to religion was not a short episode; in it, the academician learned the meaning of a Christian’s life. The scientist lived Orthodoxy, risked his own high position, found time to read the works of the holy fathers.
Pushkin on the Gospel
Great poets in their work raised the eternal question of the meaning of birth and existence. At the beginning of the 19th century, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote the poem “Three Keys,” where he expressed the endless feeling of thirst for the soul. At that time, the poet was only 28 years old, but even then he wanted to understand the meaning of the presence of living beings on earth and their birth. And 3 months before tragic death Pushkin will write about the Gospel - the only book where every word is interpreted. The poet said that only this great book is applicable to any circumstance and event in life, its eloquence captivates and has eternal charm.
The answer to the question - where to look for the meaning of birth and what can change your life? The most accurate teaching will reveal holy gospel. It says here - life is more important than food, it is more important than the Sabbath. In accordance with the Gospel, Jesus died for everyone, and after being resurrected, he became the Author of life. The real meaning of life lies in union with Jesus, this is the true source of happiness and light. The Gospel says that a true believer will certainly be resurrected after death.
It is important! Entering eternal life begins on earth, through the church. If a person could not step on the feet of holiness, but lives his path with spiritual honesty, he gains knowledge of the meaning of his existence. Prayer helps with this, which is an appeal to God, a conversation with him. One of the most powerful is the prayer of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which changes a person and opens the path to eternal life.
The meaning of life in Buddhism
Buddhist practice says that an integral part of every person’s life is suffering, and the highest goal is to end this suffering. Buddhism puts a specific meaning into the word “suffering” - the desire to receive material goods, desires that a person who has not achieved nirvana indulges. You can get rid of suffering the only way– having achieved a special state – enlightenment or nirvana. In this state, a person gives up all his desires, and accordingly, he gets rid of suffering.
The purpose of existence in Buddhism of the southern tradition is the awareness of personal consciousness, the achievement of such a state when a person is deprived of any earthly desires and ceases to be in the generally accepted sense of the word.
If we talk about Buddhism in the northern tradition, the highest goals are pursued here. Man cannot achieve nirvana until sentient beings reach the state of enlightenment.
It is important! Nirvana can be achieved not only through practice, but also as a result of a sinless, righteous life.
The meaning of life in Islam
The meaning of life in Islam suggests special relationship between God and man. the main objective followers of Islam - submission to God, surrendering oneself to Him. This is why the followers of this religion are called devotees. There are words in the Koran that God created man not for the specific benefit of God, but to worship Him. It is in worship that there is the highest benefit.
According to the main Islamic tenets, Allah is supreme over everything, He is merciful and merciful. All believers must surrender themselves to Allah, submit and humble themselves. At the same time, all people are responsible for their own actions, for which the Lord will reward at the Supreme Court. After the Judgment, the righteous will find themselves in Paradise, and sinners will face eternal punishment in Hell.
Lecture by professor of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary A.I. Osipov.
To the question What is the meaning of life for Orthodox Christians? given by the author Ophelia's Death the best answer is The meaning of a Christian's life is to come as close as possible to the spirituality of the “standard”, Jesus Christ. Like him.
(Previously, this was called the “deification” of a person, but I don’t like this word. In modern Russian, this word sounds archaic and clumsy.)
Answer from Neurosis[guru]
in faith.
Answer from Ask for time off[guru]
left Orthodoxy and the meaning immediately appeared
Answer from Lieght[guru]
Their meaning, if you remove all the verbal dross, boils down to being Orthodox Christians, so that they, one might say, are always in it.
Answer from squint[active]
For example, I noticed with what zeal the Orthodox, not all of them of course, wait for Lent before Easter. It feels like this is an event like you can do whatever you want all year, then fast for 40 days and everything is fine, and then you can start sinning again.
Answer from Amber drop[guru]
Seraphim of Sarov: The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God.
Answer from ---
[guru]
live to death knowing that you will go to heaven.
Answer from Alexander Medvedev[guru]
Why does a person devote himself to any one religion? A lack of knowledge about the world and man himself, about God, about the meaning of reincarnation and the meaning of life in general, pushes a person to accept some kind of religion, although in essence, any religion requires a creative and thoughtful approach. But those who are fixated on one particular religion limit themselves in knowledge and therefore they are mistaken in many matters, rank does not matter. The Lord God scattered knowledge (religions) throughout the world and gave them different names. Anyone who manages to unite all this will know the world and God, and not only religions, but also scientific data. Therefore, any person who is an adherent of any religion is limited in his knowledge and has no desire to learn anything more than what is in his religion. This stops him in his development. Spiritualism has helped me a lot in answering many questions in life, but not a single religion recognizes this spiritualism. And all religious movements are fixated on understanding the scriptures literally, although all scriptures should not be understood literally. Religious scriptures are not fiction, this is a complex textbook with puzzles and puzzles, after solving which you can move on to the next religious teachings. And I could write a lot more, but it seems like I wrote a lot...
Answer from Lisa[guru]
“There must also be differences of opinion among you, so that those who are skillful may be revealed among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19).
Believing and talking about your faith are different concepts. What I believe is what I do.
Faith is bestowed by God Himself. She, as John Chrysostom says, cannot be kidnapped by thieves, is inaccessible to robbers, she is protected by God. And Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk said that faith, like a spark kindled by the Holy Spirit in the human heart, flares up with the warmth of love. He calls faith the lamp of the heart. When this lamp burns, a person sees spiritual things, can correctly judge spiritual things, and even sees the invisible God; when it doesn’t burn, there is darkness in the heart, there is darkness of ignorance, there errors and vices are elevated to the dignity of virtues.
Answer from Lu Mai[guru]
The meaning of human life is immediately revealed to us from the very first pages of Holy Scripture,
where it is said that God created man in His image and likeness. He did not want man to be just a creature endowed with certain qualities.
He willed that man should be a god by Grace. Having received the image, a person is called to acquire the likeness, to achieve deification.
Therefore, the meaning of life for an Orthodox person is the striving for perfection, for the ideal that Jesus Christ is for us.
Those who wish to achieve unity with Christ and with God the Father in Christ know that this is accomplished in the Body of Christ, which is our holy Orthodox Church.
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