Customs and traditions of Christianity: Trinity Day. Report on the topic of Orthodox traditions in the family

Traditions and holidays

Traditions are usually associated with holidays. Before the revolution, they were tied to the church year, and this was perfectly described by I. Shmelev in the book “The Summer of the Lord,” which became a textbook of Christian life for us - those who came to the Church after a long Soviet “pause” of unbelief.

We tried our best to imitate the family structure that had developed over centuries Tsarist Russia, but often unsuccessfully. Why? Because times have changed a lot. And if in Soviet time holidays were still tied to church holidays - the same New Year- for Christmas, March 8 - for Maslenitsa, May 1 - for Easter, - then post-Soviet times began to gravitate towards Western European values. Suddenly it turned out that young people are happily celebrating Halloween and Valentine's Day, which had never been heard of before. Please note that these holidays are in no way tied to Russians, traditional holidays However, there was obviously an internal need for their consolidation, since they took root on our land.

Traditions and internal needs of the family

And yet the creation within family traditions depends only on the family itself: on its capabilities, on its direction. Among believers, church traditions inevitably become entrenched. For example, we make sure to bake our own Easter cakes and paint our own eggs for Easter, despite the fact that many mothers my age remark in surprise: “Why? You can still buy it in the supermarket, and very inexpensively!”

To understand that these very actions and efforts to prepare your own special meal are a family tradition, you must try to accomplish this small feat yourself, at least once in your life! My loved ones do not have any questions regarding the appropriateness of such actions - and precisely because from year to year for more than ten years we have been preparing for the main Holiday of the year. And if Christmas traditionally still remains a universal holiday, according to its traditions - worldwide, then Easter and name days are already a purely our, Orthodox tradition. That is why it is interesting in the context of this article.

Church traditions as an established value

By the way, it is church holidays that bring a lot of joy into the life of a believing family. beautiful traditions, fixed for centuries: birch branches on Trinity and fluffy willow on Vaiy Week, Christmas tree and Easter cakes, birthday pies and apples on Spas. But what a beautiful women’s tradition is to wear blue scarves on the Mother of God holidays, green ones on Trinity, etc.

All this came or passed on from those very prosperous times when family traditions fit perfectly into national policy. It was good for our ancestors to fast when the markets all switched to selling lean products, the taverns did not serve meat, even the theaters stopped operating. By the way, my friend, who visited Greece during Lent, told me that she was unable to visit the open-air theater in Athens because the performances began only after Easter.

Family tradition strengthens the “unit of society”

I note that even such simple traditions did not appear as a result of the desire to consolidate them in our family, but arose naturally, based on the needs of our specific family, from its Everyday life, from the repetition of the annual cycle. It is all the more important for everyone to understand that only traditions, only repeating general actions are able to strengthen the family, connect everyone with common interests and common values.

The Russian family has never been distinguished by individualism, like the Western one. It was always strange for us to see people who lived in a family, each on his own, each with his own, separate and independent life. Our family has never been a free meeting of individuals contemplating each other at a distance; on the contrary, it is a joint common existence, albeit somewhat forced and not always easily tolerated, but living according to general laws.

Family is a reliable rear, it is something that will always support, endure, reassure and help in Hard time. That is why in a moment of joy there is a common and indescribably multiplied by the number of participants joint joy of communication. Family tradition not only strengthens the family, it gives it the necessary impulse to live on, to love each other in sorrow and joy. Children, of course, do not make such vows to their parents, but relationships of mutual assistance are consolidated in joint actions and also become a good tradition.

We are the creators of modern traditions

I’ll just repeat once again: instilling traditions from the outside is a completely useless exercise. Only those that are supported by internal necessity take root, and therefore each family now has to develop its own traditions – personally. Only over time can such traditions acquire a national scale, as was the case with pre-revolutionary church traditions or with the tradition of celebrating Women’s Day, which was beaten by so many copies by church people, but which still remained the only holiday of women of such a general scale.

Nowadays there are practically no such national traditions left. What is celebrated is by inertia and without its former scope. This speaks of a crisis of the state, but also of a crisis of the family as a whole. We must not allow our family to become a random temporary residence for individuals. This situation will gradually but steadily destroy our society from within.

Take all the best from the past experience of the Russian family and rework it in relation to specific modern conditions- this is the task facing every family if it wants to remain friendly and strong.

So, it turns out that today we are the creators of new good family traditions. This is both pleasant and responsible. It turns out that it depends on us what our child’s family will celebrate later – Halloween or Easter.

Theme of the 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. Russian, who accepted by decision of Prince Vladimir new religion, it was necessary to master both the structure of the 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 under Tatar yoke the south-eastern part of Rus' was based on the ascetic contemplation of monks, then in the north-west, where there were no Tatars, but natural development based on the assimilation of book teaching continued, criticism arose of the Russian system religious life, and in such areas as denial church hierarchy, ritual belief, money-grubbing. 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 large quantity priestly ministers. 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 question of the theological discussion between the gospel and Orthodox Christianity our country continued to be in 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 problems 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 - about the fundamental defect of man in assimilation and fulfillment of God's will, which inevitably leads to distortions and even a turn towards “man-theism” as a result historical development Legends. 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 in 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, internal church reason 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 dissonant 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 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 study 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 methodological basis to approach the discoveries made by people 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 expound the Old Church, Evangelical and scientific definitions traditions, legends. 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 vicious circle reasoning only in the paradigm of Orthodoxy (or Old Church). 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 analysis 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. Actually we're talking about not about the search for the truth of God, but about establishing the 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 weaknesses human nature appear 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, Discovery only clarifies its perception (for example, the Law of Moses as a Discovery that conveyed Revelation, long time(i.e. before the coming of Jesus Christ) was only known and experienced with the help of Discovery); 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 there are sufficient grounds, but 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. 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 they arise problematic situations within 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, the correlation of arguments from different cultures with different dogmatic foundations and, moreover, 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” a 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. Unity of Dissimilars is the Principle for Solution modern problem Churches. 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 life Russian state, 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. Catholic tradition in Russia (especially after the destruction Soviet Union) is more 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, the active participation of Catholicism in Russian Federation No. But, naturally, Russian Catholics must develop the paradigm of 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. A Holy Bible The closest of all written sources that the Church uses is to God's revelation (especially 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 has included Church members in society, and His will is human society not cancelled. 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 must include as an object the entire Russian people(from atheist and postmodernist to 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 God's will in contact with God is always more productive than by doing it alone. human personality. 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. Promise God's blessing everyone who wants to do the will of God is His support (“And this is the boldness we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He listens to us. And when we know that He listens to us in everything we ask, - 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 Orthodox liturgy contains 98 quotations from 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

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 dissonant 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 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

State educational institution of additional professional education (advanced training) for specialists in the Moscow region Pedagogical Academy of Postgraduate Education

(GOU PEDAGOGICAL ACADEMY)

Independent work No. 3

« Traditions and culture of the Christian family"

(Parent meeting)

Simonova Olga Yurievna,

primary school teachers

MBOU Secondary School SUIOP No. 1, Shatura

Shatursky municipal district

Moscow region

Scientific director

Kutikova Natalya Anatolevna

Moscow, 2012

The family is the cradle of a person’s spiritual birth. The variety of relationships between its members, the nakedness and spontaneity of the feelings they have for each other, the abundance various forms manifestations of these feelings, a lively reaction to the slightest details of the child’s behavior - all this creates a favorable environment for the emotional and moral formation of the individual. The scarcity, monotony, and monotony of emotional experience in early childhood can determine a person’s character for the rest of his life.

Family, the kindred feelings that unite its members, do not lose their enormous importance throughout a person’s life. Children especially need love and support, as they give them a sense of confidence and security, which is necessary for their harmonious development. The family has a decisive influence on the development of personality in the preschool and first school years of a child’s life. It is fair to say that during this period the role of the family in the full development of children is irreplaceable.

The main meaning and purpose of family life is raising children. The main school of raising children is the relationship between husband and wife, father and mother.

Sometimes parents believe that when a child comes to school, the role of the family in his upbringing decreases, because children now spend most of their time within the walls of the school. Let us note that the influence of the family not only does not decrease, but also increases.

The spiritual world cannot be reduced little man to learning. If we strive to ensure that all the child’s energies are absorbed in his lessons, his life will become unbearable. He must be not only a schoolchild, but above all a person with multifaceted interests.

Everyone knows that in Rus' all families had their own traditions, which united them, making them strong and strong. But, after November 7, 1917, the day of the October Revolution, many traditions were abolished, both folk and family. Some, of course, remained, transformed. Some have sunk into oblivion. And, of course, new ones appeared.

Changes have also affected the original roles of men and women. Women wanted equality: receiving the same education as men, the opportunity to decide who she would like to vote for, even earnings became approximately equal. All this contributed to the fact that the main, natural roles faded into the background. The woman has ceased to be the keeper, and the man has ceased to be the main breadwinner and protector. The ancient purpose of a woman, the keeper of family traditions, has been relegated to secondary roles.

Views on the concept of “family,” on loyalty in the family, and on raising children have also changed. Many of the traditions that made a family a family were lost. Many families to this day are more reminiscent of people who live under the same roof, while having nothing in common, and sometimes even not knowing each other.

But it is the family that gives a sense of stability and protection from early childhood, which we carry throughout our adult lives and pass on to our children, and so on from generation to generation, gaining wisdom and experience.

Therefore, traditions are the basis of the way of life of a family, a family that is friendly, strong, and has a future. That is why it is necessary to revive traditions, family traditions. It’s good if all family members like them, because they are capable of bringing closer together, strengthening love, instilling mutual respect and understanding in the souls, something that is sorely lacking in most modern families.

Tradition translated as historically established and passed down from generation to generation forms of activity and behavior, and the corresponding customs, rules, and values.

Exactly traditions act as a factor in regulating people’s life activities, this is the basis of raising children.

Raising a child begins with the relationship that reigns in the family between parents. In the minds of children, habits similar to adults, tastes, preferences, preferences are deposited long before the process of realizing what is happening begins. After all, the construction of children’s behavior is going on following the example of copying.

Children are raised not only by their parents as such, but also by the family life that develops. Attach to family traditions You can use the personal example of the parents themselves.

It is with the family that the introduction to culture begins; the child masters the basics of material and spiritual culture. In a family environment, human forms of behavior are also formed: thinking and speech, orientation in the world of objects and relationships, moral qualities, aspirations, ideals.

It is the family that gives rise to a sense of continuity between generations, and through this, involvement in the history of one’s family, and the development of the ideals of patriotism. The family, providing stability, reveals the abilities and strengths in the family member. And when raising children, no other institution can replace the family; it belongs to it leading role in the development of the child’s personality.

It's a good tradition discussion of family life issues. For example, when having evening tea, all family members talk about what interesting things happened to them today; in addition, they discuss plans for the next weekend, the main thing is that the children also express their opinions. A useful custom is to analyze your own mistakes out loud; this makes it possible to conduct an impartial analysis of actions and draw the right conclusions for the future.

Family traditions- this is the spiritual atmosphere of the house, which is made up of: the daily routine, way of life, customs, and also the habits of the inhabitants.

The formation of traditions must begin at the very beginning of creating a family, when children have not yet appeared or are still small. Traditions should be simple, but not far-fetched.

The happier the traditions were and the more interesting the knowledge of the world in the parental family, the more joy the baby will have in later life.

The role of family traditions in the lives of children:

They give you the opportunity to look at life optimistically, because “every day is a holiday.”

Children are proud of their family.

The child feels stability, because traditions will be fulfilled not because it is necessary, but because all family members want it so, it is accepted.

Childhood memories that are passed on to the next generation.

Rules to follow if you decide to create new traditions:

Tradition always repeats itself, because it is tradition.

The event should be bright, interesting for family, positive

She can use smells, sounds, visual images, something that affects feelings and perceptions

It is a good tradition birthday celebrations, and the celebration should come down not only to eating something tasty, but to doing something special and fun. For children, all holidays are unusual and fabulous, so the task of adults is to make sure that the child remembers his childhood as often as possible later, when he grows up and raises his baby.

You can start with your child make a genealogy tree, which will be attended by all the ancestors of the family. The main thing is that your traditions bring happiness and interest to the whole family, and are not a burden to them.

When raising a child, do not allow excessive severity, as well as freedom, because both lead to overstrain of the child’s psyche. The instability of the home structure leads to the fact that in the child’s soul a feeling of insecurity at home and the precariousness of the entire surrounding world is formed.

Moms and dads:

1.Build relationships with children based on cooperation and interaction.

2. Do not skimp on affection, attention, sympathy.

3. Do not use physical force on children.

IN ancient Rus' there was a close connection and interaction between the church and home life our ancestors. Orthodox people paid great attention not only to What cooked for lunch, but also How preparing. They did this with constant prayer, in a peaceful state of mind and with good thoughts. And they also paid special attention church calendar- looked at what day it was - fasting or fasting.

The rules were observed especially strictly in monasteries.

The ancient Russian monasteries owned vast estates and lands, had the most comfortable farms, which gave them the means to make extensive food supplies, which in turn gave them abundant means for the wide hospitality bequeathed to the inhabitants by their holy founders.

But the matter of receiving strangers in monasteries was subordinated to both the general church and private statutes of each monastery, that is, one food was offered to the brethren, servants, wanderers and beggars on holidays and feeding days (commemorated for depositors and benefactors) days, another on weekdays; one - on fast days, the other - on fast days and on fasts: Great, Nativity, Assumption and Petrovka - all this was strictly determined by the statutes, which were also distinguished by place and means.

Nowadays, not all of the provisions of the church charter, which were aimed primarily at monasteries and clergy, can be applied in everyday life. However, an Orthodox person needs to learn some rules, which we have already mentioned above.

First of all, before you start preparing food, you must pray to God.

What does it mean to pray to God?
To pray to God means to glorify, thank and ask Him for the forgiveness of your sins and your needs. Prayer is the reverent striving of the human soul towards God.

Why do you need to pray to God?
God is our Creator and Father. He cares about us all more than any child-loving father and gives us all the blessings in life. By him we live, move and have our being; that is why we must pray to Him.

How do we pray?
We sometimes pray internally - with our mind and heart; but since each of us consists of soul and body, then for the most part we say the prayer out loud, and also accompany it with some visible signs and bodily actions: the sign of the cross, a bow to the waist, and for the strongest expression of our reverent feelings for God and deep humility before Him, we kneel and bow to the ground.

When should you pray?
You should pray at all times, without ceasing.

When is it especially appropriate to pray?
In the morning, upon awakening from sleep, to thank God for keeping us through the night and asking for His blessings on the coming day.
When starting a business - to ask for God's help.
At the end of the case - to thank God for help and success in the case.
Before lunch - so that God will bless us with food for health.
After lunch - to thank God who feeds us.
In the evening, before going to bed, to thank God for the day and ask Him for forgiveness of our sins, for a peaceful and serene sleep.
For all cases, special prayers are prescribed by the Orthodox Church.

Prayer before lunch and dinner

Our Father... or:
The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them food in good season, You open Your generous hand and fulfill all animal blessings.

Na Cha- at you. They hope- addressed with hope. In good time- in my time. You open- you open it. Animal - Living being, everything living. Favor- good disposition towards someone, mercy.

What do we ask of God in this prayer?
In this prayer we ask that God bless us with food and drink for health.

What is meant by by the hand of the Lord?
The hand of the Lord is of course here giving us good things.

What do the words mean? having performed every kind of good pleasure on animals?
These words mean that the Lord cares not only about people, but also about animals, birds, fish, and in general about all living things.

Prayer after lunch and dinner

We thank Thee, Christ our God, for Thou hast filled us with Thy earthly blessings; Do not deprive us of Your Heavenly Kingdom, but as You came among Your disciples, Savior, give them peace, come to us and save us. Amen.

Creature comforts- everything necessary for earthly life, for example, food and drink.

What are we praying for in this prayer?
In this prayer, we thank God for satisfying us with food and drink, and we ask that He not deprive us of His Heavenly Kingdom.

If several people are sitting at the table, the oldest person reads the prayer out loud.

What can be said about someone who crosses himself incorrectly and carelessly during prayer or is ashamed to cross himself?

Such a person does not want to confess his faith in God; Jesus Christ Himself will be ashamed of him Last Judgment His own (Mark 8:38).

How should one be baptized?
To commit sign of the cross first three fingers right hand- thumb, index and middle - put together; We bend the last two fingers - the ring and little fingers - to the palm.
We place the fingers folded in this way on the forehead, on the stomach, on the right and left shoulder.

What do we express by folding our fingers like this?
By putting the first three fingers together we express the belief that God is One in Essence, but threefold in Persons.
The two bent fingers show our faith that in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, there are two natures: Divine and human.
By depicting a cross on ourselves with folded fingers, we show that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ crucified on the Cross.

Why do we sign the cross on our forehead, stomach and shoulders?
To enlighten the mind, heart and strengthen strength.

Perhaps a modern person will find it strange or even fantastic to say that the taste of dinner can depend on prayer or mood. However, in the lives of the saints there is a very convincing story on this topic.

One day, Prince Izyaslav of Kiev came to the monastery to visit Saint Theodisius of Pechersk (who reposed in 1074) and stayed to dine. On the table there was only black bread, water and vegetables, but these simple dishes seemed sweeter to the prince than overseas dishes.

Izyaslav asked Theodosius why the monastery meal seemed so tasty. To which the monk replied:

“Prince, our brethren, when they cook food or bake bread, first they take a blessing from the abbot, then they make three bows in front of the altar, light a candle from a lamp in front of the icon of the Savior, and with this candle they light a fire in the kitchen and bakery.
When it is necessary to pour water into the cauldron, the minister also asks the elder for a blessing for this.
Thus, everything is done with blessing.
Your servants begin every task with grumbling and annoyance at each other. And where there is sin, there can be no pleasure. In addition, your courtyard managers often beat the servants for the slightest offense, and the tears of the offended add bitterness to the food, no matter how expensive they are.”

The Church does not give any special recommendations regarding food intake, but you cannot eat before the morning service, and even more so before communion. This prohibition exists so that the body, burdened with food, does not distract the soul from prayer and communion.

What is the sacrament of communion?
The fact is that a Christian accepts the true Body of Christ under the guise of bread, and the true Blood of Christ under the guise of wine for union with the Lord Jesus Christ and for eternal blissful life with Him (John 6:54-56).

How should one prepare for Holy Communion?
Anyone who wishes to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ must first fast, i.e. fast, pray more in church and at home, make peace with everyone and then confess.

Should you take communion often?
One should receive communion as often as possible, at least once a month and necessarily during all fasts (Great, Nativity, Assumption and Petrov); it's unfair to be called otherwise Orthodox Christian.

For what church service Is the sacrament of communion performed?
Behind Divine Liturgy, or mass, which is why this service is considered more important than other church services, for example, Vespers, Matins and others.

In liturgical practice Russian Orthodox Church uses the Typikon. Typicon, or Charter- a liturgical book containing detailed instructions: on what days and hours, at what divine services and in what order the prayers contained in the Service Book, Book of Hours, Octoechos and other liturgical books should be read or sung.

The Typikon also pays great attention to the food eaten by believers. However to a socialite You should not literally follow all the instructions contained in the Charter, for it is aimed primarily at the monastic brethren.