Christianity
7.
The creed of Jesus
Christ
50
8. The
spread of Christianity in the first millennium AD 60
9.
Early Christianity 63
10.
Christianity after the Church split 65
Orthodox Church.
Catholic Church.
11. Reformation and Protestantism
68
Beginning of the reformation
The peasant war in Germany (1524-1525)
Significance of the Reformation
Protestant denominations
12. Religion in the USA
80
Constitution of the United States of America.
Religion in the USA today
13. Orthodox church in the second millennium
CE 85
14. Orthodox
Church in Russia
88
Baptism of Russia.
Anointing of Ivan IV, the Terrible to the kingdom
The split of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Moscovy of XVI-XVII centuries through the eyes of Europeans
Rapprochement of Russia with Europe.
Peter I the Great
Russia after Peter I.
Peter Chaadaev on East and West
Church and Peasant Reform 1861
Protestant denominations in Russia
in the second half of XIX century.
Religion in the USSR and the Russian Federation
15. East and West
126
Horizontal and vertical relationships in society
Acknowledgements
131
References
132
INTRODUCTION
At
some level of development, people began to ask how the world works and how to
live. They tried to explain why there is day and night, winter and summer, why
there are storms, droughts, fires, floods, or what happens to a person after
his death. Religions tried to answer these questions. Answers have changed with
the development and transformation of society.
At
first, people believed that the world was inhabited by invisible spirits,
elements of nature deities and souls of deceased ancestors, supernatural
beings, good and evil. It was believed that they are actively involved in
people's lives. These first beliefs were called pagan or folk.
With
the evolution of mankind, religions appeared that were based on a common belief
in one God or a group of gods. As a rule, religions provided for participation
in prayer and rituals, and often contained a moral code regulating human
behavior.
In the beginning, when people lived
in tribes, there was no need for laws, since all relationships, like in the
family were determined by feelings of love, hatred, or jealousy.
The
word civilization is derived from the Latin word civitas — city, and civis — a
resident of the city. When people began to live in cities and united into
states, there was a need to order their
relations between themselves and the state, i.e. create a code of laws. To be a
civilized person is to abide the laws.
Historically,
codes of law were formulated on the basis of moral teachings of religions. The
laws of society — civil laws — usually apply for a period of time. They change
with the development and transformation of society.
At
first, some religions had two tasks: they explained the material structure of
the world and answered the question of how to live. But already in the middle
of the first millennium BCE, Eastern religions appeared: Taoism, Confucianism,
Buddhism, which answered the question of how to live and gave no explanation
for the appearance and structure of the world. It was believed that the world
always existed. In these religions, believers worship their teachers — Lao Tzu,
Confucius, and Buddha.
Over
time, the theme of the material organization of the world turned to science. But the
answer to the question of how to live has remained for religions. In the
sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the Earth is not the center
of the universe. Scientists have found that the creation of the world given in
the Old Testament is wrong. Many atheists appeared among educated people.
Together with the scientific mistakes of the Christian religion, atheists
automatically rejected the achievements of religion in the moral field. They
threw out the baby with the bathwater.
Religions define culture as a lifestyle built by a group of people and passed
on from one generation to another. Culture tells people how to behave in one or
another occasion, and usually this
behavior is determined by the prevailing religion of a given society.
I
will give a few examples.
In
Buddhism, it is believed that life is suffering, so you should rejoice at the
death of any individual, even the closest one, because he was freed of
suffering. Of course, a person can be hurt if someone close to him died, but he
should not show his grief.
I will tell
one case from Thailand, a Buddhist country. The man died. He was 82 years old.
He was laid in the monastery hall, in an open coffin for 3 days, during which
people came to show respect to him. When we entered, his joyful, smiling sister
greeted us and behaved as if we were at a birthday party, not at a funeral.
Everyone smiled and rejoiced.
The opposite attitude to death is in the
Christian culture, where a person's life is considered the highest good. If a
loved one dies, you don’t have to hide your pain.
Another case. In some Arab countries,
Islam prohibits women from driving a car, going outside without being
accompanied by their husbands, obliges them to wear the burqa. Girls are
brought up in the belief that such a life is the right and only possible one.
Once
I talked with a female student from an Arab country. I told her that she was
trying to get a diploma that she would not need in her country since she would
not be able to work or even drive a car. She replied that she was studying not
for her diploma, but for her development. In her country, she will marry and
take care of her husband and children, live happy, she hopes, family
life. The student said that she is very sorry for American women whose
lives are spent in work and stress: 8 hours of work, where a woman should
strive to be the best or at least a good worker, otherwise they will take
someone else; the road with its peak hours, where people often lose time and
nerves, and then they hurry to kindergartens or schools to pick up children.
The life of American women is constant stress. The student said she would not
want such a life. I must note that Arab students studying in America come from
rich or at least well-off families. I do not know how a woman from a less
prosperous social class would answer my question.
Another
student told me that her husband can take a second wife when they return home because men are now allowed to have four wives. That was the greatest fear of
her life.
Anyone who has been abroad can cite many
such examples.
Even atheists have to admit that they live
according to Christian culture if they live in countries where the Christian
church is predominant.
This
book examines the relationship and interdependence of religion and laws, their
history and their influence on the fate of humanity, the influence of religions
on the culture and history of the East and the West.
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