Religious values

The Jesuit Francis, installed as papacy as a result of this coup, not only does not support Christian morality; he became one of the world's most powerful fighters against it.

In streamlined but unambiguous terms, the Pope is actively promoting the mixing of all races into one “Babylon” and the settlement of the European Union with Asians and Africans; he is actively fighting to reduce the birth rate among white peoples, insulting large European families; O He even carefully promotes homosexuality and drugs, and liberalizes the attitude of Catholics towards euthanasia.

In general, Francis defends the same notorious “fads” as the Soros Foundation (the financial officer of the Rothschilds), only, of course, he does it more carefully and carefully, taking into account his flock, where there is also a relatively conservative contingent.

The “glorious” deeds of the Jesuit pope now cause disgust even among considerable masses of Ukrainian Uniates, where the “pontiffs” were usually treated almost like living saints. More and more Uniates are now beginning to publicly criticize the “infallible” Jesuit Francis for his immoral globalist course. Yes, they, of course, are both heretics and ardent Russophobes, but they have always clung to family values, which are now effectively and scrupulously eradicated by the Pope all over the world, including in Ukraine, where he actively uses the “Ukrainian Catholic University” for this purpose. "

These days, the Ukrainian portal “Catholic Observer” published an article that became another example of the growing rejection by the Uniates of the anti-Christian words and deeds of the most liberal pope in the history of Catholicism.

Let us present this material translated from Ukrainian with some comments:

THE CHOCKING OF UKRAINIAN ULTRAMONTANISM

To the west of Ukraine - from Poland to the United States - most of Francis's major pro-immigrant actions and statements are criticized by Catholics themselves. Just like most of his decisions and ideas, which seem contradictory on a purely religious level. Criticism takes on various forms: from cautious doubt about the correctness of Francis’ position, to even the voicing of harsh, emotional theses. It sounds at different levels: from authors of independent Catholic media to high church hierarchs.

Catholic discourse on migration is not just about the statements of Pope Francis and those who share his views. Not only the unconvincing cover of the Gospel for political strategies that are being implemented by anti-Christian political forces. Not only shocking calls to put the interests of migrants above national interests - calls that neutralize the categories of the common good and the hierarchy of love traditional for Catholic thinking.

These are also diametrically opposed considerations. This is an attempt to comprehend the problem through the prism of the mentioned categories and for a sober assessment of the catastrophic anthropological consequences of multiculturalist social engineering. Catholic discourse on migration is not just about Francis.

This is, for example, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who in October 2017, during a visit to Poland, was not afraid to object to the position of “some people who use the Word of God to justify the promotion of multiculturalism.” (The author of this article is trying to “whitewash” the Catholic “ church", proving that there are morally healthy forces in it. No one, of course, doubts that there are such forces in Catholicism. But is it possible to compare the influence of the "infallible" Suit pope, this absolute monarch of the Vatican state, this financial and media a tycoon with the influence of Cardinal Sarah?

This cardinal has difficulty maintaining his post; he is constantly under fire from criticism. No, the Catholic “Church” has been completely captured by anti-Christian globalists, and the presence of individual pockets of resistance in it means little, unfortunately - approx. I.D.)

Against the backdrop of the fact that in the West, Francis’ pontificate is accompanied by significant polemical tension, the silence of Ukrainian Catholics is unpleasantly striking. Reading Ukrainian Catholic publications, it is difficult to find any criticism of the Pope’s dubious actions or simply the positions he defends.

We feel some kind of ideological suffocation (And here, of course, it is difficult to agree with the author. The very appearance of his article on the official Catholic resource refutes his statement that in Ukraine no one criticizes the Jesuit pope. Moreover, in Ukraine, in connection with With the anti-Christian policy of the Vatican, which began long before Francis, a Uniate schism arose long ago in the form of the “Byzantine Patriarchate”.

He has many supporters in Galicia, and in other regions of Ukraine. The “Byzantine Patriarchate” not only criticized this ultra-liberal pope, but even anathematized him. At the same time, naturally, the majority of Ukrainian Uniates obey and will obey the Pope, because he has many levers of influence on the situation. But the majority of Catholics and Uniates around the world have submitted to the liberal course of the Vatican, because people in general are prone to sin and conformism, looking for benefits - approx. I.D.)

Under ordinary conditions, such unanimity would not only be justified, but also useful. But at critical moments papal authority must not turn the Christian community into a mindless herd. The people of the Middle Ages knew what authority was many times better than we do. However, medieval Popes received criticism. But in modern Ukraine there is a strange ultramontanism.

In this absence of even elementary opposition to the actions of Francis, one can trace the intellectual immaturity of Ukrainian Catholicism, the lack of ground on which to rely one could raise “truths” that are affirmed only by the force of officialdom. In our times, such immaturity is too great a luxury, because “signs times” require proper tools to recognize them.

In recent years, one has often heard the chant “Ukraine is Europe.” However, the concept of Europe has either been given false meanings or sounded meaningless. Ukraine remains something peripheral.

Ukrainian Catholicism, unfortunately, is no exception and remains indifferent to the problems of Europe and even more fundamental problems of the Church (and here the author is wrong. On the contrary, among Ukrainian Catholics and Uniates, who were under the yoke of liberal fascism for less time than Europeans, there is a greater rejection of the Vatican's liberal course.

Surely, both in Ukraine and in the West, new splits in Catholicism will arise, caused by the anti-Christian policies of the popes. However, of course, there is no chance that the anti-Christian restructuring of the Catholic heresy into a globalist anti-Christian religion carried out by the Jesuit Francis will receive a truly serious rebuff among his flock, be it in Europe or in Ukraine. - approx. I. D.).

Of course, this article by I. Zagrebelny criticizing the “infallible” Jesuit pope is written in rather mild terms. But by Catholic standards it is very harsh, especially since it is posted on the official resource of the UGCC. It is obvious that even many Ukrainian Uniates understood the harmfulness of the actions of the Pope.

And in Moscow the propaganda of an alliance with him “for the sake of all that is good” and “against all that is bad” does not stop.

Although it is already quite obvious even to all more or less moral heretics that Francis is an enemy of Christ, an enemy of the institution of the family, an active fighter for the destruction of Caucasian peoples in the flow of foreign cultural migrants.

In this article we publish a message from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', which explains in a very accessible and understandable way the position of the Orthodox Church on issues of “traditional values” in modern society.

Human landmarks

People always feel the need to prioritize values ​​in their lives. Such priorities give a person guidelines, determine the vectors of personal development, encourage him to strive for something and achieve certain goals. Therefore, both personal and social well-being and the cultural and spiritual potential of entire nations and civilizations depended on what ideological principles were placed at the forefront of a particular society.

The phrase “traditional values” has become a technical term. Today, the phrase “traditional values” means different things, in which modern society and the church occupy completely different positions.

Traditional values ​​from the church's point of view

First of all, it seems to me that traditional values ​​are those that are created by tradition, and those that are preserved by tradition. And it's not the same thing.

The values ​​that are created by tradition undoubtedly include national culture, folklore, rituals, customs that arise in the depths of folk life under the influence of many factors, starting with ideological factors, including human experience, and ending with environmental influences, such as landscape, climate etc. These are the values ​​that acquire the status of values ​​precisely because they are included in tradition. Tradition gives them meaning and significance, especially for future generations. She authorizes them and addresses them to future generations, she preserves them, but she also creates them - in the sense that I just talked about.

Moral values

But there are values ​​that tradition cannot create because they do not flow directly from human experience. Moreover, they often oppose this experience, but on the other hand, containing requirements for a person, these values ​​are perceived as something in agreement with human conscience. We are talking about moral values, the source of which is God, not man.

The difference between traditional values ​​and moral values

We must distinguish between values ​​invented by man and values ​​revealed by God. The first are relative, transitory and often change with the course of history and the development of the laws of human society. The latter are eternal and unchanging, just as God is eternal and unchanging. The first ones are often based on a person’s personal interests and set the goal of achieving earthly well-being and obtaining immediate benefits. The latter call for despising the blessings of earthly life for the sake of higher goals and values.

In other words, the gospel teaching contains such values, by assimilating which a person becomes able to understand, feel God’s presence in history, in his own life and accept God into his heart. The Church has always testified to the importance of following traditional, God-ordained moral ideals, for it is they that ensure spiritual immunity, resilience and vitality of the entire society.

Education and values

We, Christians, have a special responsibility for preserving and transmitting spiritual and moral values ​​to future generations, so that human society does not collapse, so that the harmonious beauty of human existence and the entire cosmos does not disappear.

Education, which is closely related to upbringing, plays a huge role in this process. The school cannot be separated from the spiritual culture of the people. This is a well-known pedagogical axiom. This is exactly what the classic of Russian pedagogy Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky said about it. Dividing school knowledge into pleasant, useful and necessary, he wrote: “Such necessary knowledge for every person is recognized as: the ability to read, write and count, knowledge of the foundations of one’s religion and knowledge of one’s homeland” (“On the need to make Russian schools Russian”).

In 2014, an important step was taken in the development of Orthodox education in the Russian Federation: in all schools, so far, however, only in the fourth grade, parents had the opportunity to choose the subject “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” for their children to study.

Kindergartens and Sunday schools

Unfortunately, in our country the number of Orthodox kindergartens is not growing very dynamically. In a number of dioceses there is still no such institution, although the corresponding decision was made at the Council of Bishops back in 1994. At the same time, Orthodox kindergartens have been opened in many dioceses in recent years - I would especially like to mention the Moscow, Kemerovo, Belgorod, Smolensk, Stavropol, Yoshkar-Ola dioceses, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod and Tver metropolises.

Sunday schools occupy an important place in the Orthodox education system. And if in classes on defense education in a state comprehensive school a child can receive only basic cultural information about Orthodoxy, then in Sunday schools both children and adults have the opportunity to fully learn about faith and church life.

It is gratifying to see that the thesis about the need for joint actions aimed at preserving traditional values ​​in the modern world resonates with the leadership of our state. The words of the President of Russia in his message to the Federal Assembly that the state must fully support institutions that are bearers of traditional values ​​and have historically proven their ability to transmit them from generation to generation fully apply to the Church.

The Church is ready to continue to participate in updating the educational component of general education and in creating a corresponding program. I think such a program will be effective if it becomes the result of public discussion with the participation of representatives of traditional religions of our country.

Concluding my review, I would like to say the following. Spiritual enlightenment and upbringing is the most important component of the church mission, which is the work of each of us. Each of us, in the place of our ministry, in accordance with the word of Holy Scripture, is called “preach the kingdom of God and teach about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” (Acts 28:31).

From the bottom of my heart I wish you all strength of mind and body and God’s help in the upcoming labors.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill

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The manual introduces students to the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - three monotheistic religions that are an integral part of world culture. The purpose of this manual is an attempt to create a holistic image that reflects the essence, the basis of doctrine and religious practice, the culture-forming significance and axiological orientation of these religions. The textbook is intended for MSGU students studying the religious disciplines “History of Religion”, “History and Theory of Religion”, “Religious Studies”, “World Religions”.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Religious traditions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Textbook (L. B. Mikhailova, 2013) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Introduction

Religion is an integral part of world culture, the study of which is impossible to do in the modern world. A religious tradition is a special code of culture, a special language - living, developing and changing. It is therefore not surprising that learning about religions is so often compared to learning other languages. Learning other languages, including “cultural languages,” does not at all imply the loss or abandonment of one’s own. On the contrary, it leads to a deeper understanding of oneself and a desire to understand others. The philosophical proposition that has long become banal is that it is the presence of the “other,” the gaze of the “other,” that makes awareness and perception of oneself possible—the cornerstone of modern religious studies discourse. The methods of comparative analysis applied by religious studies to the study of religious traditions are not just a way to better assimilate the matrix features of various religions, it is also an attempt to take the position of the “other”, to see the world within the framework of a “different vision”. Therefore, the language of religious studies is the language of continuous dialogue, the main features of which are correctness and tolerance, which are appropriate in any communication, and are especially significant where the hidden layers of human culture are affected.

Only a dialogue between interlocutors who are ready to listen and hear each other makes it possible to understand that behind the dissimilar and diverse forms of existence of world religious traditions lies the single and only world of human existence. Any claim to exclusivism that inextricably links self-righteousness to the conviction that all other views are wrong inevitably leads down a dangerous and destructive path. An unbiased approach to the study of different religions, on the contrary, allows you to “see” and “hear” that many-faced and many-voiced ocean of religious traditions, in the distant depths of which there is much more harmony, agreement and continuity than the hostility and confrontation so noticeable on the surface.

The proposed textbook is designed to introduce students to the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The purpose of this manual is not so much a consistent presentation of the rich history of the formation of the main monotheistic religious traditions of the world (although this is, of course, one of the necessary components), but rather the creation of a holistic image that reflects the essence, the basis of doctrine and religious practice, the culture-forming significance and axiological orientation of these religions.

Some preliminary remarks of a general religious and historical-cultural nature, explaining the basic terms, concepts, typological principles of analysis and the logic of presentation of the material, will help readers immerse themselves in the context of the religious studies research space.

The Latin word religio, with all its etymological diversity, is most often associated with two semantic meanings: “shrine” and “connection”. Both words indicate the essential features of this sociocultural phenomenon. Religion is, first of all, a special type of worldview, the basis of which is religious faith. The concepts of “religion” and “faith” are close, but not identical. Just as the concepts of “faith” and “religious faith” are not identical. Faith in general is an integral part of the cognitive process, which presupposes the recognition as true of judgments that do not have sufficient grounds and evidence. Faith is an act of choice, an arbitrary decision, and not a consequence of inference. Religious faith is only one of the possible types of faith, along with philosophical faith, scientific faith and others.

What is the specificity of religious faith? Let's try to highlight its main features.

1. Conviction in the real existence of higher alien (supernatural) forces that determine the nature of the existence of the world and man. The supernatural is something that goes beyond the scope of the sensory world, does not obey its laws and falls out of the chain of causal relationships and dependencies. That which, in the context of religious understanding, is often called divine, absolute, numinous, transcendental, etc. That infinite with which (or with whom) a “vertical” connection is established, leading a person beyond the limits of finite existence.

2. Confidence in the actual or potential dialogical relationship between man and higher alien forces. Whatever religiously positioned term we take - “prayer”, “revelation”, “sacrifice”, “service”, etc. – in each of them this dialogicity is indicated.

3. The existential significance of these beliefs. Religious faith provides answers to the most important questions about life and death, about freedom and unfreedom, about the meaning and purpose of human existence.

4. Emotional and sensory experience of the supernatural. Love, admiration, fear, horror - perhaps there is no feeling or emotion that would not be involved in the sphere of religious experience.

5. Axiological attitudes, expressed in a priority system of values, ideals and norms. In religious types of culture, religious values ​​dominate and determine all other normative attitudes, turning them into religious-ethical, religious-aesthetic, religious-legal, etc.

When a religious belief transcends the individual, it becomes a religion, that is, the organized and organizing faith of a particular community. In this sense, religion is a socialized faith that contributes to the establishment of not only “vertical” but also “horizontal” connections between people who accept these common religious beliefs.

Religious faith is a necessary, but not an exhaustive component of religion. Religion is impossible without cult practice - a special type of religious activity that actualizes the experience of religious ideas and dialogical relationships. The implementation of cult practice is realized, first of all, in collective or individual ritual and ceremonial actions. Thus, in the structure of any religious tradition, three components can be distinguished: the area of ​​doctrine, the area of ​​cult practice and the forms of organization of the religious community.

Historically, religion has its origins in the indivisible integrity of primitive culture. The basis of this type of culture is mythological thinking. Primitive man had not yet distinguished himself from the surrounding world (both natural and social) and, as a result, likened himself to the world, and the world to himself (for example, personification and anthropomorphization of nature). Mythological thinking is characterized by syncretism - initial indivisibility, inseparability. The binary oppositions traditional for subsequent types of worldview are subject and object, origin and content, name and essence, etc. – in the myth has not yet taken shape. In fact, the main specificity of mythological consciousness lies in this non-distinction between a thing and an image, a body and a property, a “beginning” and a principle.

The lack of separation of man from the natural world and the syncretism of thinking predetermined the specifics of the early forms of religious beliefs that emerged in this historical period: fetishism, totemism, magic and animism. And at the same time, it is in these forms that the first obvious opposition is already outlined: “sacred” (sacred) – “profane” (ordinary, everyday). It is this opposition that will become fundamental in the subsequent process of formation of a religious worldview.

Primitive fetishism (from Portuguese feitiço - magical thing) implies endowing material objects - fetishes with supernatural properties. The veneration of fetishes (pillars, stones and other objects) indicates a transition from a direct-lusting to an indirect-labor, magical attitude towards the world.

Totemism (comes from the word “totem”, which translated from the language of the Ojibwe Indian tribe means his family) - the idea that each tribe (or group of tribes) is consanguineously related to one or another natural object-totem: an animal, a plant, or, less often, a natural phenomenon. The totem animal is recognized as the ancestor of the tribe, capable of influencing the destinies of people. The union with him is periodically reinforced by magical rituals that fix mutual obligations: killing a totem animal, using its meat for food and even pronouncing its name are, as a rule, taboo.

Magic is of decisive importance (from the Greek mageia - magic) - rites and ritual practices, which are based on the mythological idea of ​​the possibility of interaction with the supersensible world through certain symbolic actions and verbal formulas in order to achieve specific empirical results.

Another form of primitive beliefs is animism (from Latin anima - soul) – the idea of ​​universal natural animation. To the system of ideas widespread in primitive culture, according to which the soul is associated with its specific individual carrier (person, animal, object, plant), over time the idea of ​​​​the autonomy of the soul is added (cult of ancestors, ideas of the afterlife, transmigration of souls, etc.) and spirits - independent beings capable of influencing various objects. The further transformation of animism gave rise to polydemonism. At the stage of the late tribal system, one spirit (as a rule, the patron of initiations) could be specially singled out from the polydemonic complex, which gradually turned into the main tribal god. The power and might of the tribal gods did not extend beyond the boundaries of the community they protected.

Fetishism, totemism, magic and animism are typical forms of early religious beliefs. They almost never existed in their pure form, but by combining and intertwining in the most bizarre ways, they gave rise to a variety of tribal cults.

Over time, the early forms of religious beliefs were not only adopted by the later religions that replaced them, but were also preserved in the near-religious cultural space in the form of prejudices and superstitions.

In the era of the formation of class society and the formation of the first states, tribal religions were replaced by ethno-national religions. The earliest of them are the religions of ancient civilizations. During this historical period, as a result of the merger of various archaic cults and contamination (lat. contaminatio - mixing) of different, initially unrelated myths, new religious systems of a polytheistic type appeared. In the ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, polytheistic pantheons were formed - complex systems of large and small gods, between which connections (mostly natural, that is, family, marital) and relationships (usually hierarchical) were established. Religious mythology explains not only social reality (the system of power, the structure of society, the basic principles of legal and ethical relations), but also the entire order of the universe. The era of the great civilizations of antiquity ends at a turning point in history - in the “Axial Age” (K. Jaspers), a time of radical transformation, when existing religious and cultural systems will have to either leave the historical arena or radically change. The “Axial Age” is the time of the spiritual birth of humanity, when philosophical and religious-ethical teachings arose almost simultaneously in different parts of the world cultural space, preaching new values ​​so deep and universal that they remained relevant to this day.

In these axial cultures, which formed in the middle of the first millennium BC, the culture-forming function was performed by new forms that emerged from the archaic cultural unity. For Greece, this role was played by philosophy and art, for Rome - by politics and law. In other cultures of the Axial Age, the role of religion turned out to be dominant. It was religious ideas and practices that became the engine of spiritual changes of the “Axial Age”: Chinese culture was changed by Confucianism and Taoism, Indian culture by Buddhism and Jainism, the development of ancient Iranian culture was determined by Zoroastrianism, and ancient Hebrew culture by Judaism. Appearance in the 1st century. AD Christianity, and in the 7th century. – Islam completed the formation of basic religious and cultural paradigms that determined the appearance of the modern world.

Without trying to “embrace the immensity,” we will pay attention to only a few of them: one ethno-national religion – Judaism and two world religions – Christianity and Islam. This choice is not random. Judaism, Christianity and Islam represent a certain historical and cultural integrity. What unites these religious traditions?

First, typological unity. Judaism, Christianity, Islam are monotheistic religions based on the principle of theocentrism.

Secondly, genetic relatedness. By calling themselves “Abrahamic” religions, each of these religious traditions not only traces its history back to a common ancestor, but also proclaims a common ideal of authentic faith—the “Abrahamic Faith.”

Thirdly, ontological similarity. Judaism, Christianity and Islam consider themselves religions of “Revelation”, that is, religions based on the “self-revelation of God”.

Fourthly, logocentrism. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are religions of the “Word”. In these religious traditions, Holy Scripture is not only an unshakable meaning-giving beginning, but also a formative beginning. It is difficult to overestimate the role assigned to the Jewish Tanakh, the Christian Bible and the Muslim Koran in world culture and history.

Getting to know the world of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is not an easy task, requiring effort and patience. The proposed textbook is designed to help students in the process of mastering educational material.

Let us not forget that the task of religious studies disciplines cannot be to impose any ideological principles or evaluative guidelines. The choice in favor of one or another way of understanding the world belongs to the area of ​​deeply personal and intimate decisions. But the material, topics for reflection, a wide range of knowledge that makes this choice possible and meaningful must be offered in the process of studying the richest world of religious traditions.

The term “culture” is of Latin origin. Initially it meant “cultivation, cultivation of the soil,” but later acquired a more general meaning. Culture is studied by many sciences (archaeology, ethnography, history, aesthetics, etc.), and each gives it its own definition. Distinguish material And spiritual culture. Material culture is created in the process of material production (its products are machines, equipment, buildings, etc.). Spiritual culture includes the process of spiritual creativity and the spiritual values ​​created in the form of music, paintings, scientific discoveries, religious teachings, etc. All elements of material and spiritual culture are inextricably linked. Man's material production activity underlies his activity in other areas of life; at the same time, the results of his mental (spiritual) activity materialize and turn into material objects - things, technical means, works of art.

Spiritual culture is a unique integrity of art, science, morality, and religion. The history of the formation of culture has a number of features. The accumulation of cultural values ​​proceeds in two directions - vertically and horizontally. The first direction of accumulation of cultural values ​​(vertically) is associated with their transfer from one generation to another, i.e. with continuity in culture.

The most stable aspect of culture is cultural traditions, elements of social and cultural heritage that are not just passed on from generation to generation, but are also preserved for a long time, over the lives of many generations. Traditions imply what to inherit and how to inherit. Values, ideas, customs, and rituals can be traditional.

The second line of accumulation of cultural values ​​(horizontally) is most clearly manifested in artistic culture. It is expressed in the fact that, unlike science, it is not individual components, actual ideas, parts of theory that are inherited as values, but an integral work of art.

Different approaches to the interpretation of culture:

• Philosophical-anthropological: culture is an expression of human nature, a body of knowledge, art, morality, law, customs and other characteristics inherent in man as a member of society.
• Philosophical-historical: culture as the emergence and development of human history, the movement of man from nature, the herd into historical space, the transition from a “barbarian” state to a “civilized” one.
• Sociological: culture as a factor in the formation of the life of a society, cultural values ​​are created by society and determine its development.

• cognitive – a holistic idea of ​​a people, country, era;
• evaluative – selection of values, enrichment of traditions;
• regulatory or normative - a system of norms and requirements of society for all its members in all areas of life and activity (standards of morality, law, behavior);
• informative – transfer and exchange of knowledge, values ​​and experience of previous generations;
• communicative – the ability to preserve, transmit and replicate cultural values, development and improvement of personality through communication;
• socialization – the individual’s assimilation of a system of knowledge, norms, values, accustoming to social strata, normative behavior, and the desire for self-improvement.

In creativity, culture is organically fused with uniqueness. Each cultural value is unique, be it a work of art, an invention, a scientific discovery, etc. Replicating something already known in one form or another is the dissemination, not the creation, of culture.

"Mass culture" formed simultaneously with the society of mass production and consumption. Radio, television, modern means of communication, and then video and computer technology contributed to its spread. In Western sociology, “mass culture” is considered commercial, since works of art, science, religion, etc. act in it as consumer goods that can generate profit when sold if they take into account the tastes and demands of the mass viewer, reader, music lover .

“Mass culture” is called differently: entertainment art, “anti-fatigue” art, kitsch (from the German jargon “hack”), semi-culture. In the 80s The term "mass culture" began to be used less frequently, since it was compromised by the fact that it was used exclusively in a negative sense. Nowadays it has been replaced by the concept "popular culture", or "pop culture". Characterizing it, American philologist M. Bell emphasizes: “This culture is democratic. It is addressed to you, people without distinction of classes, nations, levels of poverty and wealth.” In addition, thanks to modern means of mass communication, many works of art of high artistic value have become available to people. "Mass" or "pop culture" is often contrasted "elite" a culture that is complex in content and difficult for the unprepared to perceive. It usually includes films by Fellini, Tarkovsky, books by Kafka, Böll, Bazin, Vonnegut, paintings by Picasso, music by Duvall, Schnittke. The works created within the framework of this culture are intended for a narrow circle of people with a keen understanding of art and are the subject of lively debate among art historians and critics. But the mass viewer or listener may not pay any attention to them or may not understand them.

Recently, scientists have started talking about the emergence "screen culture" which is associated with the computer revolution. “Screen culture” is formed on the basis of the synthesis of computers and video technology. Personal contacts and reading books fade into the background. A new type of communication is emerging, based on the possibilities for the individual to freely enter the world of information. These are, for example, video phones or electronic banks and computer networks that allow you to receive information from archives, book depositories, and libraries on a computer screen. Thanks to the use of computer graphics, it is possible to increase the speed and improve the quality of the information received. The computer “page” brings with it a new type of thinking and education with its characteristic speed, flexibility, and reactivity. Many today believe that the future belongs to “screen culture”.

In the context of internationalization, the problems of preserving the culture of small peoples are becoming more acute. Thus, some peoples of the North do not have their own written language, and the spoken language is quickly forgotten in the process of constant communication with other peoples. Such problems can only be resolved through a dialogue of cultures, but on the condition that this must be dialogue “equal and different”. A positive example is the existence of several official languages ​​in Switzerland. Equal opportunities have been created here for the development of the cultures of all peoples. Dialogue also presupposes interpenetration and mutual enrichment of cultures. It is no coincidence that cultural exchange (exhibitions, concerts, festivals, etc.) has become a good tradition in the life of modern civilization. As a result of dialogue, universal cultural values ​​are created, the most important of which are moral norms, and primarily such as humanism, mercy, and mutual assistance.

Level of development of spiritual culture is measured by the volume of spiritual values ​​created in society, the scale of their dissemination and the depth of assimilation by people, by each person. When assessing the level of spiritual progress in a particular country, it is important to know how many research institutes, universities, theaters, libraries, museums, nature reserves, conservatories, schools, etc. it has. But alone quantitative indicators Not enough for a general assessment. It is important to take into account quality of spiritual products - scientific discoveries, books, education, films, performances, paintings, musical works. The purpose of culture is to form every person’s ability to be creative, his sensitivity to the highest achievements of culture. This means that it is necessary to take into account not only what has been created in culture, but also how people use these achievements. That is why an important criterion for the cultural progress of a society is the degree to which social equality of people is achieved in introducing them to the values ​​of culture.

CLASSIFICATION OF VALUES:

• Vital – life, health, physical and spiritual well-being, quality of life.
• Social – social status and well-being, social equality, personal independence, professionalism, comfortable work.
• Political – freedom of speech, civil liberties, law and order, legality, security.
• Moral - goodness, honesty, duty, selflessness, decency, loyalty, love, friendship, justice.
• Religious - God, divine law, faith, salvation, grace, ritual, Holy Scripture and Tradition.
• Aesthetic – beauty, style, harmony, adherence to traditions, cultural identity.

The crisis situation that has developed in Russia is manifested with particular force in the spiritual life of society. The situation in the culture of our fatherland is assessed as extremely difficult and even catastrophic. With the inexhaustible cultural potential accumulated by previous generations and our contemporaries, the spiritual impoverishment of the people began. Mass lack of culture is the cause of many troubles in the economy and environmental management. The decline of morality, bitterness, the growth of crime and violence are evil growths based on lack of spirituality. An uncultured doctor is indifferent to the suffering of the patient, an uncultured person is indifferent to the creative quest of an artist, an uncultured builder builds a beer stall on the site of a temple, an uncultured farmer disfigures the land... Instead of native speech, rich in proverbs and sayings, there is a language clogged with foreign words, thieves' words, and even obscene language. Today, what the intellect, spirit, and talent of the nation has been creating for centuries is under threat of destruction - ancient cities are being destroyed, books, archives, works of art are perishing, folk traditions of craftsmanship are being lost. The danger to the present and future of the country is the plight of science and education.

The problem of protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of the past, which has absorbed universal human values, is a planetary problem. Historical cultural monuments are also dying from the inexorable destructive influence of natural factors: natural - sun, wind, frost, moisture and “unnatural” - harmful impurities in the atmosphere, acid rain, etc. They are also dying from the pilgrimage of tourists and excursionists, when it is difficult to preserve a cultural treasure in its original form. After all, let’s say, when the Hermitage in St. Petersburg was founded, it was not designed to be visited by millions of people a year, and in the New Athos Cave, due to the abundance of tourists, the internal microclimate has changed, which also threatens its further existence.

Science as a whole can be viewed from three perspectives:

• as a special system of knowledge;
• as a system of specific organizations and institutions with people working in them (for example, industrial research institutes, the Academy of Sciences, universities), developing, storing and disseminating this knowledge;
• as a special type of activity - a system of scientific research, experimental design research.

The peculiarity of scientific knowledge lies in its deep insight into the essence of phenomena and their theoretical nature. Scientific knowledge begins when a pattern is realized behind a set of facts - a general and necessary connection between them, which makes it possible to explain why a given phenomenon occurs this way and not otherwise, and to predict its further development. Over time, some scientific knowledge moves into the field of practice. The immediate goals of science are the description, explanation and prediction of processes and phenomena of reality, that is, in a broad sense, its theoretical reflection. The language of science differs significantly from the language of other forms of culture and art in its greater clarity and rigor. Science is thinking in concepts, and art is thinking in artistic images. At different stages of the development of society, scientific knowledge performed various functions: cognitive-explanatory, ideological, prognostic.

Over time, industrialists and scientists saw in science a powerful catalyst for the process of continuous improvement of production. Awareness of this fact dramatically changed the attitude towards science and was an essential prerequisite for its decisive turn towards practice. You have already become familiar with the revolutionary influence of science on the sphere of material production. Today, science is increasingly revealing another function - it is beginning to act as social power, directly involved in the processes of social development and management. This function is most clearly manifested in situations where the methods of science and its data are used to develop large-scale plans and programs for social and economic development, for example, such as the program for the economic and political integration of member countries of the EEC.

In science, as in any area of ​​human activity, the relationships between those who are involved in it, and the actions of each of them are subject to a certain system ethical (moral) standards, defining what is permissible, what is encouraged, and what is considered impermissible and unacceptable for a scientist in various situations. These norms can be divided into three groups. TO first relate universal human requirements and prohibitions, such as “don’t steal”, “don’t lie”, adapted, of course, to the peculiarities of scientific activity.

Co. second This group includes ethical norms that serve to affirm and protect specific values ​​characteristic of science. An example of such norms is the selfless search and defense of truth. Aristotle’s saying “Plato is my friend, but truth is dearer” is widely known, the meaning of which is that in the pursuit of truth, a scientist should not take into account either his likes and dislikes, or any other non-scientific considerations.

TO third This group includes moral rules that relate to the relationship of science and the scientist with society. This range of ethical standards is often identified as a problem freedom of scientific research and social responsibility of a scientist.

The problem of the social responsibility of a scientist has deep historical roots. Among the areas of scientific knowledge, genetic engineering, biotechnology, biomedical and human genetic research occupy a specific place. The undeniable achievements of these sciences are combined with the growing danger for humanity of ill-considered or malicious use of their methods and discoveries, which can lead to the emergence of so-called mutant organisms with completely new hereditary characteristics that have not previously been found on Earth and are not due to human evolution.

The development of genetic engineering and related fields of knowledge required a different understanding of the connection between freedom and responsibility in the activities of scientists. Over the centuries, many of them, not only in word but also in deed, had to affirm and defend the principles of free scientific research in the face of ignorance, fanaticism, and superstition. Today, the idea of ​​unlimited freedom of research, which was certainly progressive before, can no longer be accepted unconditionally, without taking into account social responsibility. After all, there is responsible freedom and there is a fundamentally different free irresponsibility, fraught, given the current and future capabilities of science, with very serious consequences for humans and humanity.

Main components of worldview:

• cognitive – includes knowledge, scientific knowledge, styles of thinking of a community, people;
• value-normative – ideals, convictions, beliefs, norms;
• emotional-volitional – socio-psychological attitudes of the individual and society, transformation into personal views, beliefs, values, knowledge, norms of the community, people;
• practical – updating of generalized knowledge, values, ideals and norms, a person’s readiness for a certain type of behavior.

“Any reorganization of society is always connected with the reorganization of the school. New people and strength are needed - the school must prepare them. Where social life has taken a definite form, there the school has been established accordingly and fully corresponds to the mood of society.” Written in the second half of the 19th century, these words are still relevant today.

Throughout a person’s life, there is a process of his socialization - his assimilation of the social experience of past and contemporary generations. This process is carried out in two ways: during the spontaneous influence of life circumstances on a person and as a result of targeted influence on him by society, in the process of education and, above all, through the educational system that has developed in society and meets its needs. But society is heterogeneous: each class, social group, nation has its own idea of ​​the content of education.

Main directions of education reform:

• democratization: expansion of rights and freedoms of educational institutions, openness of discussion and decision-making;
• humanitarization: increasing the role of humanitarian knowledge in the training of specialists, increasing the number of specialists in the field of humanities;
• humanization: society’s attention to the individual, his psychology, interests and needs;
• computerization: use of new modern teaching technologies;
• internationalization: creation of a unified education system at the national and global levels.

In the modern world, there are a huge number of different types of schools and other educational institutions: Quaker schools in England, providing religious and pacifist education, secondary schools and vocational schools in the CIS countries, theological seminaries in all Christian countries, madrassas in the Muslim states of the East, universities, colleges, technical schools. But in this extremely variegated variety of systems and types of education, one can trace the general directions of its development in the modern world.

Religion is certain views and ideas of people, corresponding rituals and cults. Faith, according to the Gospel, is the realization of what is hoped for and the assurance of what is not seen. It is alien to any logic, and therefore it is not afraid of atheists’ justifications that there is no God, and does not need logical confirmation that He exists. The Apostle Paul said: “Let your faith rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Features of religious faith. Its first element is faith in the very existence of God as the creator of everything that exists, the manager of all affairs, actions, and thoughts of people. According to modern religious teachings, man is endowed by God with free will, has freedom of choice and, because of this, is responsible for his actions and for the future of his soul.

Stages of development of religion:

• natural religion: finds its gods in natural conditions;
• religion of law: the idea of ​​an omnipotent God-lord, obedience to divine commandments;
• religion of redemption: belief in the merciful love and mercy of God, liberation from sins.

• religious consciousness;
• religious faith;
• religious ideas;
• religious activities;
• religious communities, denominations, churches.

• religious psychology, which includes: feelings and moods, habits and traditions, religious ideas;
• religious ideas, which include: theology (theory of God), cosmology (theory of the world), anthropology (theory of man).

• ontological (ontology is the philosophical doctrine of being) - this is the attitude of a mortal person to eternity, belief in personal immortality, the assumption of the posthumous existence of the soul;
• epistemological (epistemology theory of knowledge) is a person’s cognitive attitude to Infinity, the contradiction between the abstract possibility of knowing the world as a whole and the real impossibility of such knowledge, only religion explains the world as a whole from its beginning to the “end of time”; a religious worldview is a holistic worldview;
• sociological - this is an attitude to the real conditions of human life in the past, present and future, a person’s desire for a fairly organized world;
• psychological - a feeling of fear, loneliness, uncertainty, the desire to be sovereign, self-sufficient, to be understood, to be involved in the world of other people, to assert oneself, to find a second “I”, to resolve the problem of understanding in the sphere of religious consciousness, hope in God.

• worldview is a religious worldview, an explanation of the world, nature, man, the meaning of his existence, worldview;
• compensatory - this social inequality is compensated by equality in sinfulness, suffering, human disunity is replaced by brotherhood in the community, the powerlessness of man is compensated by the omnipotence of God;
• regulatory is a regulator of people’s behavior, it organizes the thoughts, aspirations and actions of a person, groups, communities with the help of certain values, ideas, attitudes, traditions;
• cultural transmission is the introduction of a person to cultural values ​​and traditions of religious culture, the development of writing, printing, art, and the transfer of accumulated heritage from generation to generation.

The idea of ​​the existence of God is the central point of religious faith, but does not exhaust it. Thus, religious faith includes: moral standards, moral standards that are declared to originate from divine revelation; violation of these norms is a sin and, accordingly, is condemned and punished; certain legal laws and regulations, which are also declared to have either occurred directly as a result of divine revelation, or as the result of the divinely inspired activity of legislators, usually kings and other rulers; faith in the divine inspiration of the activities of certain clergy, persons declared saints, saints, blessed, etc.; Thus, in Catholicism it is generally accepted that the head of the Catholic Church - the Pope - is the vicar (representative) of God on earth; faith in the saving power for the human soul of those ritual actions that believers perform in accordance with the instructions of the Holy Books, clergy and church leaders (baptism, circumcision of the flesh, prayer, fasting, worship, etc.); faith in the divine direction of the activities of churches as associations of people who consider themselves adherents of a particular faith.

There is a variety of beliefs, sects, and church organizations in the world. These are various forms polytheism(polytheism), the traditions of which come from primitive religions (belief in spirits, worship of plants, animals, souls of the dead). Various forms are adjacent to them monotheism(monotheism). Here are national religions - Confucianism (China), Judaism (Israel), etc., and world religions, formed during the era of empires and found adherents among peoples speaking different languages ​​- Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. It is world religions that have the greatest influence on the development of modern civilizations.

Buddhism - the earliest world religion in terms of its appearance. It is most widespread in Asia. The central area of ​​Buddhist teaching is morality, the norms of human behavior. Through reflection and contemplation, a person can achieve the truth, find the right path to salvation and, observing the commandments of holy teaching, come to perfection. The elementary commandments, obligatory for everyone, come down to five: do not kill a single living creature, do not take someone else's property, do not touch someone else's wife, do not tell lies, do not drink wine. But for those who strive to achieve perfection, these five commandments-prohibitions develop into a whole system of much more strict regulations. The prohibition of killing goes so far as to prohibit the killing of even insects that are barely visible to the eye. The prohibition to take someone else's property is replaced by the requirement to renounce all property at all. One of the most important precepts of Buddhism is love and mercy for all living beings. Moreover, Buddhism prescribes not to make any distinction between them and to treat good and evil, people and animals equally favorably and compassionately. A follower of the Buddha should not pay evil for evil, because otherwise not only are they not destroyed, but, on the contrary, enmity and suffering increase. You can't even protect others from violence and punish murder. A follower of the Buddha must have a calm, patient attitude towards evil, avoiding only participation in it.

Christianity - the second oldest world religion. Nowadays it is the most widespread religion on Earth, numbering over 1024 million adherents in Europe and America. The moral rules of Christianity are set out in the commandments of Moses: “thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt not steal”, “thou shalt not commit adultery”, “honor thy mother and father”, “thou shalt not make thyself an idol”, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord God in vain”...Central in Christianity are the idea of ​​human sinfulness as the cause of all his misfortunes and the teaching of deliverance from sins through prayer and repentance. The preaching of patience, humility, and forgiveness of offenses is limitless. “Love your enemies,” Jesus teaches. “Bless those who curse you, give thanks to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”

Islam (Muslim) - the latest world religion to emerge. There are about a billion of its adherents on Earth. Islam became most widespread in North Africa, South-West and South Asia. “Islam” translated into Russian means “submission”. Man, according to the Koran, is a weak creature, prone to sin, he is not able to achieve anything in life on his own. He can only rely on the mercy and help of Allah. If a person believes in God and follows the instructions of the Muslim religion, he will deserve eternal life in paradise. Demanding obedience to Allah from believers, Islam prescribes the same obedience to earthly authorities. A characteristic feature of the Muslim religion is that it vigorously intervenes in all spheres of people's lives. Personal, family, social life of Muslim believers, politics, legal relations, court - everything must obey religious laws.

In this regard, today people are increasingly talking about the processes of “Islamization,” which means, firstly, the content of political programs put forward and implemented in a number of countries in the Muslim world (Pakistan, Iran, Libya). Although their implementation may be different, nevertheless, they all declare their goal to be the construction of an “Islamic society” in which economic, social and political life will be determined by the norms of Islam.

Secondly, “Islamization” refers to the continuing spread of this relatively young religion in several areas of Asia, Africa, India, and the Far East. The process of “Islamization” is very controversial. On the one hand, it reflects the desire of the peoples of developing countries to free themselves from the remnants of colonialism and Western influence, on the other hand, the implementation of Islamic slogans by the hands of extremists can bring untold troubles to humanity.

The influence of religion on a person is contradictory: on the one hand, it calls a person to adhere to high moral standards, introduces him to culture, and on the other hand, it preaches (at least many religious communities do this) submission and humility, refusal of active actions even when they aim at the good of people. In some cases (as in the situation with the Sikhs), it contributes to the aggressiveness of believers, their separation and even confrontation. If we cannot give a general formula that allows us to assess whether this or that position in relation to religious faith is progressive or reactionary, then there are still some general provisions regarding the relationship between believers, between believers and atheists.

They exist as moral, legal (legal) relations. First, in respect for another person, for other people, even if they believe in a different God (or gods), they believe in the same God differently, if they do not believe in God, they do not perform religious rites at all. To believe or not to believe in God, to perform religious rites or not is a private matter for each person. And not a single state body, not a single state institution, not a single public organization has the right to hold anyone accountable - criminal or civil - for his faith or disbelief. This does not mean that the state and society are indifferent to any religious activity.

There are religions that require human sacrifices, the rites of which physically and spiritually disfigure people, excite crowds and direct them to pogroms, murders, and outrages. Of course, the state, the law, public opinion are against this. But this is not religion itself, not faith itself, but activity harmful and illegal. And the state’s fight against this activity does not at all mean that it violates the principle of freedom of conscience.

A person whose spiritual life is highly developed, as a rule, possesses an important personal quality: he acquires spirituality as a desire for the height of one’s ideals and thoughts, which determine the direction of all activities. Spirituality includes warmth and friendliness in relationships between people. Some researchers characterize spirituality as the morally oriented will and mind of a person.

It is noted that the spiritual is a characteristic of practice, not just consciousness. A person whose spiritual life is poorly developed unspiritual. At the heart of spiritual life - consciousness. You already have some idea about it. Let us recall: consciousness is a form of mental activity and spiritual life, thanks to which a person comprehends, understands the world around him and his own place in this world, forms his attitude towards the world, determines his activities in it. The history of human culture is the history of the human mind.

The historical experience of generations is embodied in created cultural values. When a person communicates with the values ​​of the past, the culture of the human race seems to flow into the spiritual world of the individual, contributing to his intellectual and moral development. Spiritual life, the life of human thought, usually includes knowledge, faith, feelings, needs, abilities, aspirations, and goals of people. The spiritual life of an individual is also impossible without experiences: joy, optimism or despondency, faith or disappointment. It is human nature to strive for self-knowledge and self-improvement. The more developed a person is, the higher his culture, the richer his spiritual life.

The condition for the normal functioning of a person and society is the mastery of the knowledge, skills, and values ​​accumulated over the course of history, since each person is a necessary link in the relay of generations, a living connection between the past and the future of humanity. Anyone who, from an early age, learns to navigate it, to choose for himself values ​​that correspond to personal abilities and inclinations and that do not contradict the rules of human society, feels free and at ease in modern culture. Each person has enormous potential for the perception of cultural values ​​and the development of their own abilities. The ability for self-development and self-improvement is the fundamental difference between humans and all other living beings.

Ethical(custom, moral character) - means to always act in accordance with the moral law, which should be the basis of the behavior of all.

Religious(piety, piety) - faith dominates in life, not reason, selfless service to God, fulfillment of divine commandments. Accept the will of the Heavenly Father and build your life in accordance with it.

Humanistic(humanity) is the desire for improvement, self-expression, self-affirmation of the individual, the harmonious development of human value abilities, feelings and reason, the development of human culture and morality.

Criteria for the spiritual culture of a person.

• Active creative attitude to life.
• Willingness for dedication and self-development.
• Constant enrichment of your spiritual world.
• Selective attitude to sources of information.
• System of value orientations.

A person can preserve his uniqueness, remain himself even in extremely contradictory conditions only if he has formed as a personality. To be an individual means to have the ability to navigate a variety of knowledge and situations and to bear responsibility for one’s choices, and to be able to withstand many negative influences. The more complex the world and the richer the palette of options for life aspirations, the more pressing the problem of freedom to choose one’s own position in life. The relationship between man and the culture around him constantly changed in the process of civilization development, but the main thing remained the same - the interdependence of universal, national culture and the culture of the individual. After all, a person acts as a bearer of the general culture of humanity, both as its creator and as its critic, and universal human culture is an indispensable condition for the formation and development of a person’s spiritual culture.

In the process of cognition, such a quality of a person’s inner world as intelligence is formed. The word is of Latin origin and means knowledge, understanding, reason. But this is a human ability that differs from his feelings (emotions), will, imagination and a number of others. Intelligence, first of all, is closest to the concept of “mind” - a person’s ability to understand something, to find the meaning of any things, phenomena, processes, their causes, essence, place in the world around them. A person’s intellectual potential is associated with the culture on which he bases his activities, which he has mastered and which has penetrated into his inner world. Intelligence is a person’s ability to obtain new information based on what he had at one or another stage of the cognition process, through reasoning, conclusions, and evidence.

The spiritual world of man is not limited to knowledge. An important place in it is occupied by emotions - subjective experiences about situations and phenomena of reality. A person, having received this or that information, experiences emotional feelings of grief and joy, love and hatred, fear or fearlessness. Emotions, as it were, paint acquired knowledge or information in one or another “color” and express a person’s attitude towards them. The spiritual world of a person cannot exist without emotions, a person is not an impassive robot processing information, but a personality capable of not only having “calm” feelings, but in which passions can rage - feelings of exceptional strength, persistence, duration, expressed in the direction of thoughts and forces to achieve a specific goal. Passions sometimes lead a person to great feats in the name of people’s happiness, and sometimes to crimes. A person must be able to manage his feelings. To control both these aspects of spiritual life and all human activities in the course of his development, will is developed. Will is a person’s conscious determination to perform certain actions to achieve a set goal.

The worldview idea of ​​the value of an ordinary person, his life, forces today in culture, traditionally understood as the repository of universal human values, to highlight moral values ​​as the most important, determining in the modern situation the very possibility of his existence on Earth. And in this direction, the planetary mind is taking the first, but quite tangible steps from the idea of ​​the moral responsibility of science to the idea of ​​​​combining politics and morality.

It is necessary to explain the differences and relationships between spiritual and material culture.

Justify your point of view on the emergence of subculture, mass and elite culture, counterculture.

Refer to history materials that address cultural issues, as well as the MHC curriculum.

Try to determine the state of the spiritual culture of your country.

Pay attention to the achievements of science and technology that exist in the world and in your country.

Try to determine the features of education in the world, in Russia, in your country.

When determining the role of religion, consider the problem as a dialogue and cooperation between believers and non-believers, because the basis of this process is freedom of religion.

To complete tasks on Topic 8 you need:

1. KNOW THE TERMS:
Spiritual culture, folk culture, mass culture, elite culture.

2. DESCRIBE:
Religion as a cultural phenomenon, education in modern society.

3. CHARACTERIZE:
The diversity of cultural life, science as a system of knowledge and a type of spiritual production, the scientific picture of the world, the essence of art, its origin and forms.

On January 24, 2013, the chairman made a report on the opening day of the XXI International Christmas Educational Readings in Moscow.

Your Holiness, Your Eminences, Eminences, dear fathers, brothers and sisters!

Human life in society is impossible without a system of values ​​- stable ideas about the goals that a person should strive for for his own and the common good. Values ​​are inextricably linked with high moral ideals and beliefs: after all, according to God’s plan, it is unnatural for a person to consciously strive for evil. At the same time, values ​​also relate to a person’s everyday life. From a Christian point of view, due to the damage of human nature by sin, a person is called upon to focus his life and activities, first of all, on religious and moral ideals, trying to ensure that his lower, purely carnal, pragmatic needs and interests do not obscure his moral consciousness. Only a society that has a system of sustainable values ​​is viable and can develop.

In ancient, traditional societies, the basis of the value system was created by religion, which was an authoritative source of ideas about the world, about good and evil, about the meaning of human existence in the face of God. The life of each person and society as a whole was determined by a single hierarchy of values, in which spiritual ideals and moral standards were of paramount importance. They were not perceived as the fruit of human reason or as the result of a pragmatic worldly agreement. They stemmed from Divine Revelation and reflected the will of God about man and the world, which are His creation and about which He shows His saving care.

Ancient man perceived existence as a whole, without separating one sphere from another. Religion, ethics, scientific knowledge, upbringing and education were part of a single, undivided worldview, lost by modern “enlightened” humanity. Its characteristic fragmented worldview, which separates, in particular, religion from science, also tends to separate morality from life, declaring the human will not subject to ethical judgment.

Recently, one has heard that value is a concept borrowed by ethics from economics, representing the reification of the ethical component of religious teaching. Liberal Protestant theologians, for example, saw the concept of value as a threat to the living spontaneity of human religious perception. After all, the system of values, being supposedly dead and indirect, schematizes Christian virtues, depriving them of a living and childlike, spontaneous, spontaneous character characteristic of a pure believing soul.

In reality, values ​​are not even a system, not a set of rules, but some kind of internal understanding of life and its moral foundations. These are unwritten laws, or axioms, that are instilled in a child in the family not as theoretical postulates: in the process of gaining living life experience, he will assimilate them as precious truths that open the way to happiness and harmony. For example, the words of the book of Tobit: “What you hate, don’t do to anyone.”(Tob. 4:15), are a characteristic statement of the “golden rule of morality”, which grew out of the Old Testament religious consciousness. This is expressed even more clearly in the Sermon on the Mount: “In everything therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.”(Matt. 7:12).

Commenting on this Gospel verse, St. Augustine notes: “The law of love is that a person should wish for his neighbor the same good that he wishes for himself, and not wish for him the evil that he does not wish for himself” (“On True Religion” , 46). It is quite obvious that the value of love here is conceived not as a static scheme, a set of rules or a set of postulates divorced from real life, but precisely as a living existential experience, suffered through many generations, thanks to which it acquired absolute value. Love for one's neighbor is an absolute value, since it cannot be replaced by anything; the entire existence of society is built on it, without which it will cease to be one and destroy itself. This is also true of all the ten commandments, from which secular consciousness tries to exclude the first: "I am the Lord your God"(Deut. 5:6). But in this case, all subsequent commandments that define the ethics of relationships between man and God and man and man in the light of Divine Law also lose their meaning.

Today we live in a society whose life is determined by a system of values ​​generated not by a religious, but by a secular worldview. And here there is no longer a place for the God of the Christian tradition - He was replaced by man with all his natural, and sometimes unnatural, aspirations and desires, with his passions and vices. Having abandoned the lofty image of man, created in the image of God, man to whom, despite the ancient Fall of Adam, the path to salvation and spiritual ascent to God was open, the secular worldview put at the forefront a different image of man - wholly turned to the world and in captivity of his own people. passions, any manifestation of which is now considered normal and legal.

At first, secular views also assumed a high calling for man, which consisted in the maximum realization of his creative ability to master and transform the godless world. However, today the highest value, in essence, has become a completely different person - a producer and consumer of momentary goods, devoid of high goals and ideals.

The value system of a secular society is a system of ideas that reflect not spiritual ideals, but mutual agreements between people striving to acquire worldly goods and therefore being in constant competition for limited earthly resources. The common good, social solidarity and mutual assistance fade into the background, because the main thing is to “gather up treasures on earth” and satisfy everyday needs and desires, often sinful, which are at the top of the hierarchy of values.

In modern society there is a kind of cult of freedom - the freedom of each individual person. This freedom, understood primarily as freedom of choice, is proclaimed the highest value. Almost everything a person can and should choose: not only goods and services, profession or friends, but also a way of life, worldview, moral ideal and even religious tradition.

Thus, Truth also becomes a matter of choice. And human freedom turns into pure arbitrariness. Because it is impossible to make a choice that is significant for human life without having an idea of ​​​​true and false, good and evil, beautiful and ugly. Truth cannot be chosen, like consumer goods are chosen; it can only be freely accepted in order to live in accordance with it. This is the highest meaning of freedom: “And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free”(John 8:32).

The secular worldview has long been imposed on our society by the force of the atheistic state. Today we are faced with a different situation: they are persistently trying to impose on us the idea that our society as a whole is and should be secular, that religion should in no case go beyond the boundaries of the church. That is, that the secular worldview should be dominant and even universal, and the religious worldview, including corresponding values ​​and moral norms, should be an exclusively private matter of each individual person.

The question arises: how much does this correspond to the state of society itself, the real ideas and beliefs of people? After all, the vast majority connect their lives with a certain religious tradition. A return to tradition - after decades of its violent suppression, a return to the values ​​that it contains and defends, has occurred throughout the entire post-Soviet period. And today, the religious tradition is becoming increasingly important for many of our compatriots who strive not only for material well-being, but also for acquiring a stable system and hierarchy of values ​​- both in personal and public life.

Sociologists often say that modern Russia is one of the most secular countries, even in Europe. This is true in the sense that in the 20th century, Russian culture experienced the most destructive impact of atheistic ideology, which led to the alienation of millions of people from the religious tradition and the Church. However, it was precisely this dramatic experience of our society that gave rise to the religious thirst that the Orthodox Church, as well as other traditional confessions that took part in the formation of the cultural image of Russia, is called upon to quench.

Convinced supporters of a secular worldview, including aggressive ones, constitute a minority in our society. They have the right to hold their beliefs and express them publicly. At the same time, their desire to determine the life of the entire society cannot be considered justified, ignoring the views of millions of people who hold different beliefs and profess religious faith.

The traditional values ​​defended by the Orthodox Church are a challenge to the secular worldview, and even more so to the ideology of aggressive secularism. This applies not only to Russia, but also to Western countries, as well as the rest of the world, which experienced the impact of irreligious standards in the 20th century.

The ideology of freedom, identified with limitless arbitrariness, the imposition of a consumerist attitude to life, the rejection of historically rooted, generally accepted moral norms - all this causes rejection and resistance among those people who remain committed to traditional religious values ​​and norms. (If we talk about the Christian world, just remember the lawsuits against the ban on public wearing of religious symbols or the recent mass demonstrations against the legalization of same-sex marriage in France).

Unfortunately, some Western Christian communities today often take the path of following the latest secular-liberal trends and misinterpret the moral teaching that goes back to the original apostolic tradition. As a result, the value conflict between the Christian tradition and the secular worldview is transferred into modern Christianity. First of all, Christian morality suffers from this: its norms are declared relative, made dependent on time, and as a result turn out to be conventions, products of a social contract. Further, the teaching of the Christian Church about man is called into question. If man in Christianity is understood as the image and likeness of God, to communication and unity with Whom he must strive, then the “modernized” ethics of such communities, which still call themselves Christian, conceives of man as absolutely autonomous from God. Man, according to this view, is free to determine what is moral and what is immoral. This process of distinguishing between good and evil is, in principle, devoid of any clear guidelines; it is based not on the commandments of the eternal God, but on social relations conditioned by a specific historical era, projected into the field of morality.

Moreover, modern liberal Protestantism is skeptical about the very concept of “traditional values”, rejecting values ​​as such. The very language and conceptual system of modern Western Protestant denominations have become secular, quotations from the Holy Scriptures are misinterpreted to suit the dominant liberal concepts. The ecumenical movement, dominated by Western European and North American Protestants, speaks the same language as secular, irreligious civil society; in its documents and proclamations it is sometimes difficult to find traces of traditional Christian theological reflection. Rather, it’s the other way around: under a ready-made secular substrate—products of “social order”—quotations from the Bible are fitted, accompanied by extremely ideologized reasoning, only vaguely reminiscent of theological discourse.

We are witnessing a very dangerous trend, which on a European and global scale is leading to the erosion of the system of traditional Christian moral values. In this situation, the Orthodox Church is called upon to actively defend its position - both within the framework of inter-Christian dialogue and in the context of its social activities, that is, in the process of interaction with international organizations, cultural institutions, and other participants in public discussion. The external service of our Church is determined by the desire to continue to participate in inter-Christian dialogue until our voice is heard by millions of people, including Protestants.

It should be emphasized that the current conflict of value systems - religious and secular - is not only a theoretical contradiction, a clash of religious and secular reason. It is associated with the history, culture and civilizational characteristics of various societies called for peaceful coexistence in modern conditions.

Our task today is to affirm man and his value as the image of God. The philosopher José Ortega y Gasset said that to love means to affirm with all our might the existence of the object of love. The absolutization of human freedom threatens his existence, for it deprives him of the status of the image of God, the power to be a child of God (John 1:12). “The more I love humanity in general, the less I love people in particular, that is, separately, as individuals,” says Ivan Karamazov, a typical intellectual humanist of the late 19th century, in Dostoevsky. This is where the divide between secular humanism and Christian love for one's neighbor lies. To love your neighbor—a concrete person, and not an abstract abstraction, be it a person in general or “humanity” as a whole—means to affirm his existence, his value, which consists in the image and likeness of God.

Disputes over individual and social values ​​should not turn into a war of annihilation. Our Church stands for the fruitful interaction of all healthy social forces focused on creating a cohesive, viable society. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly pointed out that the most important task of collaboration between the Church and representatives of the liberal worldview is to find a new balance between religious and secular views of the world and people in the world, that is, an approach that would take into account both the standards of modern society and the norms of religious tradition . The challenge from traditional Christian values, addressed to a secular worldview, is at the same time a call to work together for the benefit of modern society and its citizens.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk: It is impossible to lead religious life at a distance [Interview]

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk: Physical disabilities are not an obstacle to communication with God [Interview]

DECR Secretary for Far Abroad Affairs attended a reception at the Estonian Embassy and greeted the President of Estonia

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk received the delegation of the Kirche in Not Foundation