The range of issues related to the origins of Christianity, the formation of its doctrine, and its existence in the early, pre-Conciliar period has always been of concern not only to Christian scholars, not only to those scholars who were in one or another way involved in these researches, but also to society as a whole. However, in Ukraine, and especially in academic circles, these issues are still not sufficiently studied. The article examines the reasons that led the official Church (...) to change the key provisions of Christian doctrine, including ideological positions about "this world," narratives about war, and the commandments "thou shalt not kill" and "love your enemies." The author argues that the final rejection of the original evangelical pacifism occurred after the conquest of Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great, when the Church was transformed into an institution of secular power, changing its original status as the "Kingdom of God" to belonging to the "Kingdom of Caesar." Since the reign of Constantine, Christianity has essentially existed divided into two camps. – the first, to which belong all those who profess the church doctrine in its new, "conciliar" and different from the original form and who, in particular, has rejected Jesus' original idea of renunciation of earthly things and, accordingly, the pacifism and anti-militarism he proclaimed; the second camp are those who remained faithful to the apostolic tradition and who continued to practice Christianity according to the original New Testament standard. The latter camp today includes mostly Protestants, including in Ukraine. However, with the onset of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, their pacifist stance is changing. The solution of urgent socio-political issues and issues directly related to defense are increasingly leading Protestants in Ukraine to rethink their traditional pacifism, which may lead to a complete rejection of it in the future. The results obtained in the course of the study provide grounds to significantly adjust the current perceptions of Protestantism in Ukraine, in particular, its positive attitude to socio-political processes and active involvement in them. (shrink)

The range of issues related to the origins of Christianity, the birth and formation of its doctrine, the existence of Christianity at an early, pre-conciliar stage, the problem of the identity of its founder, always concerned not only Christian scholars, not only those scholars who in one way or another were involved in them in their research, but society as a whole. However, in all of this, in Ukraine these problems are not well developed. Those researchers who are now engaged (...) in them, as they say, can "count on your fingers." For the most part, this gap in Ukrainian religious studies is still traditionally filled with information from former Soviet and contemporary Russian scientific publications, some foreign reprints, and the findings of Russian Christian scholars. (shrink)

It is not without reason that a number of early Christian scholars remain convinced that true Christianity, which was primarily derived from the teachings of Jesus himself, was later "distorted" by the apostle Paul. Kant, Lessing, Fichte, and Schelling separated the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth from those of his "followers." On the differences between Paulinism and Petranism, many Soviet scholars were noted in their time. Some of the modern theologians hold this view, paradoxically. One of them, the famous German (...) theologian H. Kersen writes: “What we call the Christian faith is in fact an artificial doctrine that consists of the rules and regulations created by Paul. His teaching corresponds more to the term "Paulism" than to Christianity. "Christianity is a religion founded by Paul," writes W. Nestle. - The Gospel of Christ is replaced in it by the Gospel of Christ ». (shrink)

Arseniy Rychinsky, unfortunately, belongs to the cohort of Ukrainian geniuses whose names have long been erased on the tables of Ukrainian history. Not widely known and therefore not popular in Ukraine, they still are. And it is unlikely that any of them would ever mind if it was already in an independent Ukraine - the one for which such patriots, including Arsen Rychynsky, only dreamed in their prayerful aspirations, the names and affairs of the great Ukrainian patriots, who by their (...) martyrdom sacrificed themselves to the pantheon of apostles of Ukrainian custom, they will not be properly honored. The reason for this is too simple: such genius-patriots, like Captain Arsen and their creativity, are not particularly needed for this Ukraine, since they wrote about the greatness of the Ukrainian spirit, talked about Ukraine's special dreaming role in the world. In their faith in her divine destiny, they ignited the hearts of Ukrainians, turning them into prometheus of Ukrainian patriotism, plowmen of the field of Ukrainian national construction. (shrink)

Even in the superficial reading of the New Testament, the fact that all the texts attributed to the Apostle Paul are too different not only in their creed, but also in their orientation to representatives of the Hellenistic world is striking. In contrast, the Gospels, the Epistles of James, Peter, John, Judas, and the Epistle to the Jews, and the Book of Revelation, are focused solely on the Jewish reader, have a clear, Jewish attitude. In one way or another, they (...) constantly emphasize that Jesus of Nazareth is a Jewish Savior. (shrink)

Essayism or essayism is one of the largest and most authoritative currents of pre-Christian Judaism. According to the texts of Flavius, the essays, after the Pharisees and Sadducees, were the third "philosophical school" or "sect" within Judaism at that time.73 to say something like a secret order. And what characterized the essays in general was their remoteness from the people, their conscious secrecy, the system of rigid admission to membership, and strict religious discipline. And while in the religious literature the (...) search for the origins of Christianity in the environment of the Pharisees, not to mention the Sadducees, is unpopular, then the Essenic version of the origin of the religion of Christ is quite common. The first who tended to such a point of view were the English deists and French encyclopedists. Later, this version was supported by German rationalists, especially Wachter and Steidlin. (shrink)

If Phariseeism in most of its followers had somehow assumed the coexistence of Jews within the pagan world, implied some compromise on relations with colonial Rome, then zealotism in this matter was categorical. His main motto can be summarized in the following thesis: Israel under Yahweh's rule or death. The Zealots considered any reconciliation with the Gentiles the gravest sin, recognizing the true ruler and ruler of Israel as only one Most High. Thus, Zelotism, coming out of Phariseeism, differed from (...) the latter not so much by political views as by the means of realizing these views. The idea of ​​political freedom and independence of Judea, the ethnocultural purity of the Zealots was the cornerstone of their religious and political doctrine. (shrink)

The global social, political, and cultural disasters of the twentieth century have proven themselves primarily to devalue or deny the deep foundations of Western or European civilization. And since Christianity is considered to be its basic basis, it gave an opportunity to emphasize its crisis, because Christianity, they say, has ceased to meet the demands and problems of modern man with his cult of utilitarian rationality under new conditions.

Many religious and secular studies have already been devoted to questions concerning the Christian religion. However, even today, the problem of the origins of Christianity, the birth and formation of its doctrine, studies of the early stage of its existence remain such that they can not be considered definitively. Thus, Soviet religious studies, being held captive by Marxist "canonical" ideas about religion in general, and ideological postulates about early Christianity in particular, could operate only on a number of hypotheses, according (...) to which, as a matter of fact, the origins of Christianity were first deduced from the social and economic phenomena. found among the slaves of the Roman Empire. Not being able to accurately reveal the theoretical sources of Christianity, Marxist science thus removed itself from the study of a whole set of factors that not only determined the emergence of Christianity itself, but also ideologically determined its entire fate. (shrink)

The theme of the emergence of Christianity has always been and remains the problem, around which there continually undergo scientific discussions, due to the desire to recreate the origins of the historical birth of Christianity, to understand what served him as a kind of informational basis. Religious literature never existed in a certain conceptual unity in the understanding of the sources of Christian religiosity. Somewhere they fluctuate in one direction or another, depending on the ideological position of the researcher and (...) his own attitude towards this religion. However, according to some distinguishing features, certain hypothetical points of view on the origin of Christianity are reduced to the characteristic two. The first one is the beginning of its emergence with Judaism, and considers Christianity to be a logical continuation and, so to speak, a successor, albeit largely different from him. The second - deduces the origin of Christianity from the sphere of Greek idealist thought as such, which served the generative cause of its foundation. (shrink)

Expert opinion on the curriculum of the course "Christian Ethics in Ukrainian Culture" for courses of professional development of pedagogues for the authorship of K. Levkivsky, V. Danilenko and V. Melezhik.

If Western Protestants and Neoprotestants preaching about “universal Christian brotherhood”, thus are carriers of postmodern global culture, come forward as propagandists of Westernization of the world, missionaries from countries, socalled “near abroad” uniting at different sorts Eurasian institutes, seminaries, unions, missions, services, conferences, associations orientated ion supporting links at the former Soviet Union and consequently on development of Russian empire — Russia as Eurasia, “Russia-Eurasia”.

The progressive process of multiculturalism, cultural and ideological pluralism, the depreciation of traditional values ​​and semantic paradigms, in one way or another, put not only the European states, but all of humanity before the problem of returning their lost ideological and ethnocultural paradigms, and thus led to a reorientation of reorientation. cultural and semantic landmarks. This has inevitably led to the search for ways of solving these problems in the ethno-national and religious spheres as the main components of the spiritual (...) field of culture. (shrink)

The upsurge in non-traditional, including non-Christian, confessions in Ukrainian society is due to a number of factors. To a certain extent, the conversion of a part of Ukrainians to non-traditional religiosity is due to the crisis of social and political life, the transformation of ideological landmarks and the impairment of the ideological guidance of the previous system of values. Crisis phenomena did not bypass the traditional and religious sphere of society, which erupted in the crisis of traditional churches. As a (...) result, the latter were in a state of internecine confrontation and ideological hostility, the struggle for the sphere of influence on the public. This is noticeably reflected in the mind of the believer. Insufficient attention of the clergy of traditional churches to religious requests of a person, often quite formal conduct of ritual ceremonies, inappropriate behavior of the clergyman constitute prerequisites for the transition of the ordinary believer into the womb of non-traditional religiosity, in the hope of finding the necessary personal religious comfort there. (shrink)

The Roman Catholic Church is not experiencing the best of times: here the problem of Islamization of the Christian world, and the degradation of moral values, the destruction of the institution of marriage and family. Pope Francis proclaims turn the Church back to its New Testament pattern, back to the purity and simplicity of the gospel. Here we need not rebuild the Church and even its reformation, but in the literal sense of its «pivot» back to all 180 degrees to (...) the Evangelical foundations of Apostolic Christianity. Theology women and the theology of the poor is the effective mechanism that starts the process of conversion of Catholicism to the Christianity of Jesus. (shrink)

We live in a time when the religious outlook is rapidly losing its popularity. According to the Gallup International Association, which studied religiosity levels in 57 countries around the world, covering about 70% of the world's population, more than half the earthlings, 59%, regard themselves as religious people, while 23% said they were not religious and 13 % generally refer to themselves as convinced atheists. As a result, 36% of people do not have religious beliefs. These data prove the fact (...) that in recent years, 9% of humanity has broken with religion. (shrink)

Cardinal Lubomir Husar stipulates the hiding of the project on the provision of the patriarchate of the UGCC by the fact that even its sounding, not to mention the implementation, provokes a "wave of protests" in the Vatican circles, because it says "the patriarchate of the UGCC will weaken the communion with the Successor of St. Apostle Peter, and hence - weaken the connection with the whole Catholic Church, "" will mean the creation of a nationalist colored Church that will (...) sow hatred against all others, "will become a" major obstacle to the unification of Christians in Ukraine ", will lead to" neglect of the rights of the Moscow the patriarchate, which considers Ukraine to be its canonical territory, "to the preservation of" uniticism ", which in our time was condemned as an inappropriate way to achieve unity among all Christians". (shrink)

The Vatican probably hoped that the visit of the apostolic nuncio Claudio Gugerotti on December 16-18, 2016 to the occupied territories of the Donbas Ukrainian society "swallowing" was just as easy as it easily "swallowed" the same and his Easter visit, as the "swallowed up" meeting on June 10, 2015 by Pope Roman Francis with the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin, in which many saw the obvious anti-Ukrainian context, not to mention here the anti-Ukrainian gesture that the Pope (...) had made by signing on February 12, 2016 The shameful "Havana Declaration", p Vatican which essentially gives Ukraine at the mercy of Moscow, since it recognizes domain of the Moscow Patriarchate. However, one should pay tribute to those who, seeing the pro-Moscow line of conduct of the Vatican, in particular its current head, Pope Francis, aspire to persuade Ukrainian society, first and foremost, of Ukrainian Roman and Greek Catholics, which, they say, only in this way the Holy See and can prove that he "loves Ukraine", but simply needs to have the ability to "read," "listen," to "look at the world through the eyes of God the Creator," as the Pope teaches. (shrink)

Of the main models or projects of globalization, the Vatican Group's project is of particular interest in research, whereby the stake in the world-wide rule is on the "network" the empire "of Catholicism, the" Opus Dei "Order and the Special Service, and the oldest Roman-Germanic aristocratic families. "In the sphere of business," observes A. Yeliseyev, "the Vatican group" puts the main focus on the post-industrial "knowledge economy", unlike the Rockefeller group, which sits on oil and the military-industrial complex, and the (...) "Rothschild group", which deals with noble metals and precious stones and "financial pyramids". It is noteworthy that the Vatican Group has a very winning image of the traditionalist force that affirms the "eternal values ​​of Christianity" in a changing, modern world. In reality, this "pool" offers its own project of globalization, only painted in colors of traditionalism. And this was best confirmed by the Pope of Rome: in his latest encyclical, which contains a direct and unambiguous appeal to the establishment of "world political power.". (shrink)

What is happening now in Ukraine is, in essence, the further implementation of the Stalinist plan to deprive Ukrainians of their historical memory, the continuation of the "Stalinist-Bolshevik" ethnocide. Not surprisingly, monuments began to appear in us as "the leader of the peoples", and the holiday of the Victory Day became a public holiday "the triumph of Stalin's ideas" and the Communist Party ideology "united and indivisible". Instead, dates such as the Day of Unity of Ukraine, the Day of Remembrance (...) of the Victims of Holodomor and political repressions are, to put it mildly, unpopular to the authorities. (shrink)

The global social, political and cultural cataclysms of the twentieth century have shown themselves primarily to devalue or deny the deep foundations of Western or European civilization. And since Christianity is considered to be its basic basis, it gave an opportunity to emphasize its crisis, because Christianity, they say, has ceased to answer the questions and problems of modern man with its cult of utilitarian rationality under new conditions.

The last centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, the first centuries after that, were enveloped in the history of mankind as a period of the total crisis and the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, a crisis that covered virtually all spheres of the social life of the Roman world and which, as ever before, experienced almost every one, whether he is a slave or a free citizen, a small merchant or a big slave or an aristocrat. As a (...) reaction to the crisis, in various parts of the empire the civil wars and the slavery uprising erupt in different parts of the empire. Under such conditions of life, the world around itself no longer seemed to man to be self-sufficient, harmonious, stable, "good" and warded by a cohort of traditional deities. Yes, and the gods themselves were now turned out to be incapable, unable to change the unceasing flow of fatal doom. (shrink)

In our time, for some reason, it is commonly believed that the Ukrainian language does not use the word "ad" for the reason that it, firstly, is probably Russian and in the Ukrainian vocabulary it has never been, and secondly, on the basis that exists his match is -please. In other words, the position advocated, according to which in the Ukrainian language the Greek word-guade stands out exclusively the word -plex. However, observing the etymology of the Ukrainian word - hell, (...) we note that it is not always possible to speak in its content. (shrink)

The question of the emergence of individual religions has always been a painful place for Soviet religious studies, since the latter tried to solve it in the Marxist canonical context: religion is the product of a certain historical epoch and has only socioeconomic and class roots of its origin. First of all, based on individual statements of the classics of Marxism, advocated the idea that religions are the fruit of the collective creative work of the masses.

Today, at the turn of the millennium, a unique situation has arisen for all mankind, which puts it, for the first time in its history, before the problem of choice and the drawing of its further destiny, that is, it induces to solve a number of fateful questions which, in one way or another, are reduced to one: "Is it possible for the further existence of mankind?", because failure to the existing global problems of modernity will mean its death.

The cornerstone of any religion is its anthropological concept, which seeks to determine the essential orientations of man, to outline the ideological framework of its existence, to represent the idea of ​​its essence, purpose in earthly life. The main task of the religious system is the act of involving and subordinating man to the spiritual divine realm as the realm of the transcendental existence of God. Belief in the real presence of the latter implies a new understanding of oneself, which (...) ultimately leads the religious individual to the desire to be involved in this transcendental existence, to have intimate relations with him, to have a consciousness inherent in God. Note that in this context, all human being is interpreted as a certain arena for this realization. Therefore, the religious life of the individual acquires the status of religious activity. (shrink)

PhD in Religious Studies Pavlo Pavlenko draws attention of the readership to the next collective work of scientists of the Department of Religious Studies of the H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine named “Religious Security/Danger of Ukraine”. Below we published his review of this book.

PhD in Religious Studies Pavlo Pavlenko draws attention of the readership to the next individual monograph of prof. Anatoliy Kolodnyi named “The Phenomenon of Religious Studies”. Below we published his review of this book.