History of mankind has more than one thousand years. The entire life path of the average individual is filled with the search for the meaning of being. Everyone, from a cook to a professor, once thinks about whether God really exists, what will happen to the body at the end of life, where is the soul, does it exist.
Starting from puberty, a growing person is looking for his place in the world, rethinking the laws of morality and ethics, carefully instilled by parents, questioning the generally accepted norms of behavior. In the process of these searches, young men and women try to understand themselves and their destiny, acquire their individuality and temper their character. That is why teenagers are associated with the spirit of protest, rebellion and defiance.
Human civilization has also gone through its adolescence, wars and revolutions, dark ancient cults with bloody sacrifices, religious ups and downs, disputes and splits. And in that period, people were looking for God, his traces in the destinies of entire nations. So was bornphilosophy, followed by Christian theology.
It cannot be said that today people do not fight or the search for truth has ceased. The inquisitive minds of our contemporaries are still looking for an answer to the question of whether God really exists. But during its development, human civilization has accumulated experience, memory. In the history of Christianity there were many ascetics, interpreters, saints and reverends. Many of them left written works, now called church tradition.
In addition to the treatises of the ascetics and the Gospel, there are a huge number of stories about personal experience, miracles and phenomena. It is safe to say that in the twenty-first century people have reached a new level of knowledge of God. We are still far from absolute understanding, but the first steps have already been taken. Anyone who yearns for the truth will find it.
What is theology
This is the study of God and his attributes. What is theology? This is another name for theology. On the one hand, the Lord is unknowable by human reason. We can judge this from the statement of Jesus Christ that only the Son can know the Father. Theologians conclude from this quote that the capabilities of the human brain are too limited to understand the existence of God. But the Messiah immediately gives the key to those who seek the truth. The full quote reads as follows:
All is given to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son, and to whom the Son wants to reveal.
That is, it is possible to know God the Father through God the Son. That is what the science of theology does, trying to understandand interpret the essence of the Lord through the study of Holy Scripture and church tradition.
Knowledge Methods
From the school course, everyone knows the ways of finding the truth. It is agreement and resistance, proof and refutation. Theology (as a science) was also divided into two directions: negation and affirmation. Philosophers and thinkers tried to find out the truth about the existence of God by any means, sometimes falling into outright heresy and delirium. On this occasion, councils of representatives of Christianity from different parts of the world were convened. In disputes and discussions, the truth was born, which was strictly fixed.
Thus the Creed was adopted, which still serves Orthodox Christians as the main dogma. The negative method of knowing the Lord is called "apophatic theology." This method of proof proceeds, as in mathematics, from the contrary. The basis is the assertion that God is uncreated, that is, He has always been, He does not have the qualities that are inherent in man (created being). This way of proving the truth is built not on analogies with a known object, but on the denial of qualities that are not related to God. That is, He is so-and-so, since He does not have this or that feature.
The Lord is good, because he is not a man, does not have a damaged, sinful nature. So, apophatic theology is a method of discursive knowledge of the properties of God. On this path, any analogies with created (human) qualities are denied.
The second method of knowledge is cataphatic theology. This wayThe evidence describes God as the highest perfect being, possessing every conceivable quality: absolute love, goodness, truth, and so on. Both methods of Christian theology eventually come to a common denominator - a meeting with the Creator. The Old Testament describes several such phenomena. An apophatic theology rests on each of them.
Meeting Moses with God
The Pharaoh of Egypt, noticing that the Jewish diaspora in his possessions had grown significantly, ordered to kill all newborn boys of the fugitive people. He did not want to expel them from Egypt, because then he would have lost his slaves, but at the same time he was afraid of an uprising, since the Jews, according to the covenant of God, were fruitful and multiplied. Then Moses was born - the future head of the Jews, who walked with them in the desert for forty years.
His mother, knowing the route of the pharaoh's daughter's walks, put the boy in a basket and let him drift along the river. The baby was found and adopted by the princess. Moses was brought up at the court, but no one hid his origin from him. Yes, and external signs did not give reason to doubt his nationality.
Once Moses, already a man, noticed how an Egyptian was beating a Jewish slave. Standing up for the offended, he did not calculate his strength and killed the warden. This act determined his future fate. Fearing punishment, Moses fled to Sinai and was going to live there for the rest of his days, but then the Lord appeared to him. It was an unusual shining bush.
Moses noticed the miracle and moved closer. The Lord spoke to him from the bush,which burned but did not burn. It was about the Israelite people, about slavery, about the executions of the Egyptians. The Lord chose Moses to save the Jews from the yoke of Egypt. Since the first meeting with God, his life has changed dramatically.
The second appearance of the Lord to Moses happened on the mountain. God gave stone tablets on which the commandments are written. These two encounters between Moses and the Lord symbolize two possible approaches to the study of truth. The writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa testify to this for the first time.
Dionysius the Areopagite
The origins of apophatic theology originate from the writings of this man. In church tradition, he is mentioned as a disciple of the Apostle Paul and the first Greek bishop. Dionysius wrote a number of texts that were most widely circulated four hundred years after his death. In the fifth century, the claims were called into question and caused a lot of controversy. However, it was these works that influenced today's concepts of apophatic and cataphatic theology.
Dionysius lived in Athens, where he received a classical education for Greece in those years. According to ancient writings, he witnessed a solar eclipse during the execution of Jesus Christ, and he also attended the funeral of the Virgin Mary. Because he continued the work of the Apostle Paul, he was thrown into prison. Dionysius accepted martyrdom. At the time of his death, a miracle was revealed: the decapitated body of the saint stood up, took his head in his hands and walked away. After six kilometers, the procession ended, the holy head was handed over to the hands of a pious woman. Bodywas buried where it fell. Today, the church of Saint-Denis stands on this site.
Areopagitics
Serious battles are still unfolding around the authorship of Dionysius. Some theologians give weighty arguments, considering the Areopagitics a fake. Others do not doubt that the works were written by Dionysius and also provide evidence. Be that as it may, all theologians unequivocally agree with the benefits of the Areopagitics, their influence on the development of philosophy and theology.
Fifteen treatises were published in the fifth century. Subsequently, it turned out that three of them were erroneously attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. Five treatises have been recognized. The fate of seven more works is unclear, since no more references to them have been found. Today, theology is based on treatises:
- About divine names.
- On mystical theology.
- About the heavenly hierarchy.
- About the church hierarchy.
- Ten letters to different people.
The description of the angelic ranks was amended by the famous Christian philosophers Thomas Aquinas and Gregory Palamas. The ecclesiastical hierarchy is also built according to the model of the heavenly one. The work "On Mystical Theology" underlies apophatic theology. God is related to his creation as a kind of absolute. Man is represented as a relative and variable unit in relation to the Creator.
Since God is "in darkness" as He speaks of Himself in the Bible ("and covered Himself with darkness" (2 Sam. 22:12, Ps. 17:12), "Moses entered into darkness, where God" (Ex. 20:18), His creation cannot know.apophatic theology comes to the rescue. To make the philosopher's thought understandable to the townsfolk, Dionysius gives the example of a sculptor who, cutting off everything superfluous from a piece of rock, shows the world a statue.
This method of knowing God is sometimes called negative theology. This does not mean that reasoning is bad. The word "negative" here is understood as negation. Whoever wants to know the truth can exclude everything that is not inherent in God.
About divine names
This treatise reconciles two methods of knowing the truth. First, the author lists the names of God described in the writings of Hierotheos of Athens, Ephraim the Syrian and other theologians. It is this method that underlies cataphatic theology. However, the author (unlike the Neoplatonists) does not doubt the absolute transcendence of the Creator. The main message of the treatise is that God is revealed only through grace, only to those to whom He Himself decides. Neoplatonism, on the other hand, preaches knowledge through catharsis, that is, cleansing from sins and striving for holiness.
Dionysius in his writings refutes neoplatonic truths, speaking about the impossibility of knowing God in this way. In other words, cleansing from sins is needed not by God, but by man, and therefore cannot serve as the only true way.
Later, a conclusion was drawn reconciling the two philosophers. It says that God is revealed through grace, but with the counter efforts of man. The seeker of truth must be an ascetic. You need to cut off everything superfluous from your life, from yourself. This will help to accommodate the fullness of understandingthe existence of God. Man must become an empty vessel. When we are surrounded by the world with its temptations, values and opportunities, is there time to seek the truth?
When everything superfluous is cut off, the work of thought begins. For this, people go to monasteries, where the whole dispensation is aimed at saving the soul and thinking about the eternal. Saints of former ages went to the deserts for purification and repentance. In solitude and prayer they acquired the Holy Spirit and under His influence wrote their works. This theme is fully revealed in the apophatic purification of philosophical concepts in theology.
Proof of the existence of God
Basic Christian truths are systematized and accepted by the entirety of the Church. Dogmas do not appear out of nowhere, each of them has been repeatedly tested and compared with biblical texts and sacred tradition. Dogmatic theology is built on axioms.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity stirred the inexperienced minds of the first Christians. In the fourth century, in long disputes, it was established that God is one, but has three hypostases: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Some argued that Jesus Christ is the creation of God the Father. Others have refuted this by citing examples and quotations from Scripture. Spyridon of Trimifuntsky put an end to the disputes. The saint took a tile in his hand and said: here it is one, but made of clay, water and burned in fire, that is, it has three hypostases. As soon as he said these words, the tile in his hands disintegrated into the listed components. This miracle struck the audience so much that no one tried to refute the trinity, but the unity of God.
When the dogma was accepted,ecumenical sentiments arose. The heresy that arises in hearts and minds to this day is the assertion that God is one, but religions are different. The purpose of this idea is simple - to reconcile all earthly creeds among themselves, to bring them to a common denominator. This dangerous delusion is refuted by the Creator himself.
Holy Fire
In the middle of the sixteenth century, the priests of the Armenian Church managed to bribe Sultan Murat. For this, the mayor promised not to let the Orthodox into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Patriarch Sophrony IV, who came to celebrate Easter with his parishioners, saw a lock on the door. This event so upset the Orthodox that they remained standing at the door, weeping and grieving for excommunication from the shrine.
The Armenian Patriarch prayed day and night to no avail for the descent of the Holy Fire in Cuvuklia. Exactly one day the Lord waited for repentance from the Armenians, but did not wait. Then a ray of light struck from the sky, as usually happens during a descent, but did not hit Kuvuklia, but into the column where the Orthodox stood. Flashes of fire erupted from the column. The worshipers rejoiced and lit their candles.
Loud jubilation attracted the attention of Turkish soldiers standing in enfilades. One of them named Anvar, seeing a miracle, instantly believed and shouted: "The true Orthodox faith, I am a Christian!" Colleagues, having drawn their axes, rushed to Anvar in an effort to kill the former Muslim, but he managed to jump down from a ten-meter height.
Then the Lord performed another miracle. Anwar didn't crash when he fell on the rocksarea. The slabs at the place of his fall became wax, which greatly softened the fall of the young man. In the place where the desperate soldier jumped, his footprints were left.
The Muslim brothers executed Anwar and tried to destroy the traces of his fall, but the plates froze. Pilgrims can see the column and footprints with their own eyes even in our time. Since then, only the Orthodox Patriarch has been praying for the descent of fire. If the proponents of the ecumenical idea of the unity of God are right, then the miracles of the sixteenth century lose their meaning.
Dogmatic theology rejects these fallacies. We can say that this science exists to refute such near-Christian deviations. Dogmas are divided into two parts: God Himself and His attitude to creation: the world and man. Apophatic theology in Orthodoxy does not refute dogmas. This is a method based on the practice of Orthodox ascetics.
Orthodox miracles
"I'll see - I'll believe," said the man. "Believe me, you'll see," God replied.
Unexplained phenomena happened in everyone's life. Many miracles are described in the lives of the saints, some are referred to by theology. What is a miracle? What is the meaning of these phenomena? The answer to these questions is of interest not only to scientists, but also to ordinary people. Christianity is the religion in which miracles happen the most. Orthodoxy is a denomination where there are a huge number of saints and martyrs.
Miracles are divided into several types. There are major events such as the appearance of icons, the flow of myrrh, the Holy Fire or a cloud on Mount Tabor. The second type is private miracles performed by God.through the prayers of believers through Orthodox saints. The first - well studied by science, but to this day questioned. Miracles in the destinies of people are aimed at admonishing a particular person as an impetus for correction.
Cloud on Mount Tabor
Every year on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, a cloud appears over the Orthodox monastery. The believers are enveloped in a veil of mist, leaving moisture on the skin. Those who experienced the miracle on themselves, unanimously repeat that the cloud is alive. In 2010, meteorologists took up the study of this phenomenon. Having made the necessary preparations, air samples were taken. I must say that in the climate of those places there are no clouds, as it is too hot. The air is hot and dry. Meteorological analyzes confirmed this fact.
As soon as the Liturgy began, the air thickened, clouds appeared. The monastery was covered in fog. He covered both buildings and parishioners. The clouds resembled clots of steam, touched people and moved in the complete absence of wind. The miracle was captured on video camera. When viewing the material, chaotic movements of steam were noticeable against the background of immovable cypresses. Air samples left no doubt. Scientists said that with such parameters, the formation of fog is impossible. Orthodox theologians associate this event with the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. It was on Mount Tabor that He appeared to His disciples after the Resurrection.
The Miracle of Lanciano
In the eighth century, the Liturgy was performed in the Italian city. The priest preparing the Holy Gifts suddenly began to doubt the sacrament. Thinking, hecame to the conclusion that the Eucharist is just a tribute to the memory of the Last Supper. Suddenly, the bread in the hands of the priest turned into a thin slice of flesh, and real blood splashed in the bowl. Little faith was surrounded by monks, to whom he told about his doubts.
The shrine has been in this temple for twelve centuries. The cut does not change, and the blood has collected in five identical lumps. Surprisingly, each ball of blood weighs as much as all five taken together. Obvious violations of the laws of physics interested scientists. Studies have shown that the blood and flesh belong to the same group as on the Shroud of Turin.
