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Orthodox monastery culture focused on harmonious interaction with the outside world. The way of this harmonization is through personal spiritual perfection of the monk. Due the presence of moral responsibility and moral relation among the man and nature, this spiritual perfection projected into the entire universe.
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This article describes experiences and beliefs of Estonian-speaking Orthodox people with miracles. The article is based on empirical data, collected between 2012–2014, gained from 57 semi-structured interviews with Estonianspeaking clergy and lay members of both Estonian official Orthodox churches – the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. The age of informants was between 22 and 89 years. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Miracle in this article is understood as a suprarational or extraordinary event that is experienced personally. Such events are connected with saints, their relics, angels, icons, Mother of God or God Himself, from whom an informant receives revelations or messages, and who answers to the prayers of the informant. Other forms of miracles that are known in Orthodox tradition have not been discussed in this article. The results show that the majority of Estonian-speaking Orthodox people do believe in some kind of miracles. Even though these results cannot be generalized to all Orthodox population in Estonia, I could say that there are only few Orthodox being sceptic, and most of the informants believe in angels, saints or (miraculous) icons. E.g., only one of my informants claimed that miracles were not possible, all the other sceptical informants were hesitant in the worst case, but they did not exclude the possibility that miracles could occur in certain cases. In general, the informants were able to connect their beliefs and experiences with Orthodox theology, but in certain cases I could also find some New-Age elements. Those elements were more abundant among informants whose knowledge about Orthodox theology and dogmas is exiguous. Even in those cases the Estonian Orthodox people tend to interpret the miracles in the Christian context and miraculous events are taken as facts that affirm their belief in God.
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This article outlines the development of professional training of the Estonian Orthodox clergy from the middle of the 19th century to the present day. In addition, the authors have compared the opinions on the importance of theological education among clergy members over time. The article is based on original data as well as information from the literature, public databases and archives. Original data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was based on conventional qualitative content analysis. The interviews were conducted between 2012 and 2014 with Estonian-speaking priests, mainly in the Estonian ApostolicOrthodox Church (EAOC). The information on education of clergy members is sketchy and, as the interviews revealed, the actual situation can be different from that disclosed in public records. Information on education has been made public for less than half of the active clergy members of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (EOCMP). Both churches – the EOCMP and EAOC – place a strong emphasis on liturgical and practical religious experience alongside theological education. However, the policy of the churches has been to require or encourage clergy members to undergo theological training, which can be seen from the rising level of education among clergy compared to the previous century. The opinions of clergy members about the importance of theological education for a priest have remained largely unchanged compared to the first half of the 20th century. They believe that different requirements should be applied to priests in urban and rural parishes: the rural clergy needs more diverse and practical training in order to cope with rural life while the urban clergy would benefit from a more extensive academic education. The clergy members who responded were also rather unanimous that vocation is an essential requirement for priesthood, and theological education is only a support tool. The majority of clergy members who have higher education believe that theological education is necessary for a priest. At the same time most clergy members find that the lack of theological education should not be an obstacle to holding a clerical office and an absolute requirement, while occasionally having a potential of even being detrimental. In their opinion a skilful use of theological education can bring forth good fruit, but it is not the only precondition for being a good priest – the personality of the priest and his ability to establish a good relationship with parishioners are as important or even more important qualities in some cases.
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The article analyses charity of Ukrainian brotherhoods of post-Renaissance time as a basis of their cultural creative activity on strengthening of national consciousness, solidarity, development of culture and education of Orthodox population of Ukraine.
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This article investigates the peculiarities of philosophical and theological reflection of social issues, the appropriate forms of it representation in the church, religious and social consciousness, and specifically the philosophical discourse of the social doctrine of the Orthodox Church too.
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The article displays an actual meaning of an investigated problem for a modern society which is in search of valuable reference points. It’s exposed, that process of religious communications is the harmonious phenomenon at unity of spaces of culture and a civilization. It’s shows in the orthodox tradition.
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The article is dedicated to the aspects of religion tradition: in past and modern time, their meaning for social and cultural space of Ukraine.
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У сучасному вітчизняному історико-філософському та богословському середовищі жваво обговорюється питання про приналежність російських філософів Срібного віку до православної традиції. Одним із помітних представників цього періоду є Микола Бердяєв. Сам Бердяєв неодноразово зазначав про себе, що є ревним християнином, проте не погоджувався з віднесенням своєї позиції до суто православного світогляду, вважаючи себе приналежним до духовного християнства. Такі відомі західні дослідники творчості російського філософа, як Е. Порре [6, 7] і Ж. Вернхам [8], дотримуються цієї позиції, обґрунтовувавши приналежність російського філософа до особливоїверсії християнства. Проте К. Пфлегер [5] і М. Бергос [4] висловлюють більш радикальне припущення про приналежність М. Бердяєва до власне православного гнозису.
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The veneration of icons in the Orthodox church is an integral part of the Russian liturgical tradition. It is possible to study icons only as a sacred work of art intended for prayer. Therefore this article’s goal is to show the forms of veneration of icons in the temple as its major environment. In the tradition of Russian Orthodox piety icon worship is expressed in various forms. The major form of veneration of icons is expressed in believers standing in front of them in prayer. In the services of the Russian Orthodox Church it is customary to worship icons with prayer and Akathist services. One of the Holy Fathers said: “Do, do the external, for the external belongs to us, and the internal to God. And for the external the Lord shall give us also the internal” (PESTOV 2000: 542). Such external forms of the veneration of icons are expressed in bowing before them, kissing, censing, lighting candles and decorating holy images. All these signs of veneration precede the prayer and create a special mood.
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The author describes three copies of the incunabulum Oktoich Prvoglasnik (Cetinje 1494) published by Đ. Crnoević which can be found in the National Széchényi Library (Budapest), Serbian Orthodox Museum, Library and Archives—the Buda Serbian Ortodox Diocese (Szentendre) and the King Saint Stephan Museum (Székesfehérvár). The author describes the book according to bibliographical standards. He gives a literal transcription of the notes handwritten by the possessors and the marginalia found in the book.
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The main goal of our paper is to emphasize how the changes in the scientific views and the philosophy of nature influenced the modernist movements in arts at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the science of this period basic changes happen, which Pavel Florenskij includes in his theological and art-theoretical works about icon interpretation. This interpretation explains the special time and space understanding of the icons. The spatial problem of the icons Florenskij solves by introducing a new theory of reversed perspective. In our paper we intend to show how Florenskij with his icon interpretation could/should be regarded as a direct connector between the new scientific views and the artistic conceptions of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.
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In church folksongs of Orthodox Russians, Friday appears in two forms. In the songs entitled “Friday”, the day appears in a personified form as Friday Woman (Piatnica). In the Russian church folksongs and prose texts which are called “On the twelve Fridays”, the day appears in an entirely different role. The Russian cultic veneration of the twelve Fridays can be traced back to the apocryphal writing “Sage of the Twelve Fridays” attributed to St. Clemens, a Roman. The apocryphal “Sage of the Twelve Fridays” of St. Clemens, which was rooted in a Roman Catholic religious-cultural background, was well-known throughout Europe. Variants of the texts of the Clemens-group appear in French, Provencal, Latin, Greek, German, Svabian in Hungary, Italian, English and Hungarian languages. However, the legend of the twelve Fridays exists in another type as well. This is the Eleftherios-group. The group is named so because in these versions the list of the twelve Fridays is preceded by an introductory part, which is about the religious dispute between Eleftherios, a Christian and Terasios, a Jew.
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The article is dedicated to the study of the saints depicted in the representation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy in the icon probably made in Constantinople around 1400 which is now kept at the British Museum in London. New identifications of certain figures are proposed. Questions are posed as to how the scene was shaped and which writings were the basis for its creation.
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The motif of Alexander’s visit to Jerusalem in the Serbian Alexander Romance is dis tinctive in the context of Classical, Byzantine and Hebrew literature. The role of Jerusalem as a sacred space is analyzed in accordance with A. Lidov’s theory of hierotopy, and the symbols of the Heavenly and the Earthly Jerusalem in the Serbian Alexander Romance are considered in relation to the various theological and ideological points of view.
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Shaped in complex social circumstances and in accordance with the postulates of baroque historicism, Serbian ecclesial art has expressed clear tendency toward nationalization of Serbian religious identity during the 18th century. Due to general musical illiteracy of the clerics, the real conditions for the development of chanting art in Serbian Church were nonexistent. However, by the end of 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century the myth of authentic Serbian national Church singing, being the result of special “Serbian folk piety”, was established. The construction of Serbian Church chanting tradition was primarily initialized by the growing distance from Greek psalmody in Serbian worship. In other words, because there was no historically relevant form of singing, the ancient singing of Fruška Gora and Krušedol, i.e. the singing of Karlovci, had to be constructed as an antithesis to Byzantine-Greek musical tradition. By comparing historical facts and critically reading the narrative of the origins of national Church music in the time of Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović of Karlovci, a new interpretation of common stereotype about Serbian musical reform and its main protagonists was produced. This paper offers an original analysis of the origin of: 1) the singing of Fruška Gora, in the context of the belief that Fruška Gora, with its monasteries which preserved the memory of the golden age of Serbian history, are sacred spaces – Serbian Mount Athos; as well as 2) the singing of Karlovci, where was the centre of Metropolitanate of Karlovci and first Ecclesiastical Seminary which was connected the ungrounded belief that it was nursery of a magnificent form of church chanting by the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. This paper, also for the first time, pointed the relationship between the monasteries of Fruška Gora, as Serbian sacred spaces of great importance for national identity, and their abbots Dimitrije Krestić, Dionisije Čupić and Jerotej Mutibarić, who were, according to oral tradition, the creators of singing of Karlovci. The adequate music and historical sources that would offer us an insight into the process of musical reform that was conducted by them do not exist, but their contributions in constituting national self-awareness and “Serbian piety” are well known and documented. In conclusion, by the end of the 18th and the beginning of 19th century, but also during the entire century of “nationalism(s)”, the prayers in Serbian Church were chanted for the glory of God, although with a clear tendency to emancipate a new religious identity of Serbian people. However, the catholic ecclesial spirit of Tradition was repressed in order to fulfill the goals of ideology of religious nationalism.
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W taki oto sposób rozprawiono się z pamięcią po „Murawjewach, Apuchtinach, Skatonach i Ewłogljuszach”. Zlikwidowano świątynię, traktowaną jako składową starego, bolesnego dla polskiej dumy, okresu, dla której nie było miejsca w nowej, niepodległej rzeczywistości. Pozbawiona walorów estetyczno-artystycznych dawna cerkiew wieluńska, jako jeden z wielu obiektów o podobnej historii, do dzisiejszego dnia współ- tworzy krajobraz urbanistyczny miasta. Zamiast jednak stanowić signum wielokulturowej historii regionu, przypomina o międzywojennej polityce wymazywania pamięci i kreowania nowego wizerunku odrodzonego państwa. Uciekając się od upraszczają- cych generalizacji i ocen warto jedynie zadać sobie pytanie o współczesną gotowość do poznania dziejów, również tych niewygodnych dla naszgo etosu narodowego.
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In 1799, Vićentije Rakić published in Buda and Cataro the religious drama in verse Žertva Abramova (The Sacrifice of Abraham), his most popular work. The author stresses out that the work has been translated from the Greek language, but there are some opinions that it was made after a biblical play Lo Isach (1556) by Luigi Grotto (1541–1585). Rakić’s The Sacrifice of Abraham had many editions: four were in 1799 only – three in Buda and one in Kotor; till 1884 there were a dozen of editions, and in 1869 the edition in the Latin script was published. Rakić has suc cessfully composed a number of elements close to the Serbian people; they were familiar with the selected biblical theme; the national language was close to them, and his verse was deseterac – decasyllable. The Greek piece The Sacrifice of Abraham contains 1144 (1154; 1160) verses, iambic verse – fifteen syllable, there is no prologue, epilogue or the division into acts and scenes; it does not contain the choral sections. On the other hand, Grotto’s Lo Isach contains a prologue, the play is divided into five acts, and the latter are further divided into scenes, with the presence of Choir. Wim Bakker is the author of several studies on the Greek play for which it is assumed that it was written by Вιτσεντσοσ Κορναροσ (Vicencos Kornaros) and modelled on the Italian sacred drama Lo Isach by Luigi Grotto. Grotto wrote Lo Isach in non-rhyming verses, 1632 of them; the prologue contains 75 verses. The Greek play The Sacrifice of Abraham was very popular, it was published in many editions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and Rakić was the closest to those from the years 1777 and 1789. If you compare the texts of Rakić and Grotto, there is apparent similarity, because the topic is the same, there is similarity in the sequence of actions, yet the apparent difference is seen in treating the subject; Rakić has simplified the story, its image is simpler, and it cannot be said that Rakić translated Grotto’s piece. Neither in The Sacrifice of Abraham by Rakić nor in the Greek play there is any division into scenes and acts; there is not any prologue and epilogue either; there are 1018 verses, one hundred and twenty six less than in the Greek piece, and six hundred nine verses less than the Italian Lo Isach; the verse is decasyllable, its rhyme is always in the first and second verse as in the Greek text, and was printed in the church Cyrillic script. Rakić notes that his work was „naravoučiteljna knjiga – the moral book“; in compliance with his life credo he wanted to present religious themes in a different way, bearing also in mind possible putting the text on the stage. Rakić’s sacred drama The Sacrifice of Abraham has been staged in theatres several times. Nikola Andrić notes that The Sacrifice of Abraham was also included in the repertoire of the Belgrade Theatre in 1857.
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The village of Kostomłoty lies in Podlasie region, near Terespol. Its beginnings are likely to go back to the 11th century, but its history was first written after 1412 by the Augustinian hermit monks, who settled here at the time following a land donation to the monastery at Brześć Litewski by the Lithuanian Prince Witold, and by the members of the Sapieha family (the Kodeń line) who acquired part of the Kostomłoty estate from the local gentry and ruled it until the beginning of the 19th century. The monks themselves resided in Kostomłoty until the beginning of the 19th century, when the monastery was confiscated by the Austrians. The paper will concern the main monument of ecclesiastical architecture in Kostomłoty – the wooden neo-Unitarian orthodox church, built in 1631, containing 19th-century iconostas. Some important icons will also be considered, namely the images of St. Nikita (the patron-saint of the church) of 1631, the Virgin with Child, Deesis, and Christ Pantocrator (mid 17thcentury). The monuments will be discussed in the context of the theological principles defining the architecture of the church and the icons it contains. It will be therefore an attempt to grasp the essential meanings of the Kostomłoty church as they appear in visual form.
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The paper bellow aims at presenting and discussing Father Pavel Florensky’s Sophiology on the basis of his theodicy concentrated in his doctoral dissertation published in 1914 which contains scrupulously detailed argumentation. Summarising his views concerning a positive approach to the utmost essential function and mission of philosophy, i.e. revealing the Higher Truth, Florensky points out his belief that it unquestionably belongs to the sphere of the Transcendent. Truth, which thus is knowledgeable exclusively via scrutinising the nature of the Holy Spirit (here Florensky intensely disputes Kantian agnosticism), is consequently to be observed as the indivisible single whole. The author attempts to systematise the ancient tradition of Sophia, which has been existent in a latent fashion in Russian mentality, by throwing some light upon both its roots to be traced back in the Old Testament and in patristics, and in Russian iconography. Florensky’s work, whose unique impact on turn-of the- century Russian Symbolist circles (Belyj and Blok) is not to be ignored, offers an insight into the theoretical background of Russian Sophiology. Following in the footsteps of Vl.
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In the middle of the 17th century some important changes to Russian culture occurred, which are connected with reforms, in the Orthodox Church, carried by Patriarch Nikon. Other processes, related to the opening of Russian culture to the influences from the West, also contributed to this shift, yet they are not so widely known. From historical point of view, in the last stage of Russian medieval culture, the humanistic – intellectual and artistic – ideas played the invaluable role. They were pouring to Moscow from the West, especially via Kiev. Activities of thinkers and culture activists, who settled down in Moscow, made the first, so close and fruitful, meeting between Russia and the West. The reason for this was the Russian Elite’s fascination of the Western culture, which, therefore, triggered the deep cultural diffusion. Russian culture, being released from xenophobia and isolation, made her first attempts to creative relation between acquiring theoretical knowledge and the modern artistic practice. The reforms of the Orthodox Church and western influences’ penetration in the Russian culture, though stirring up much resistance in conservative Orthodox Church’s circles, eventually drove to significant cultural development of Russian printing, education and art.
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