About the Doctoral Thesis of Archpriest Alexander Fedoseev "Splits And Modernity"

Orthodox theologians have always devoted considerable time to the study of church schisms - the need for serious theological works of an apologetic nature was written by the holy fathers of the first centuries of Christianity. One such research is the book of Doctor of Divinity, Archpriest Alexander Fedoseev, "Splits and Modernity." But serious theological work found opponents on the part of Ukrainian schismatics, called crypto-autocephalists. The book of Archpriest Alexander clearly indicates the splitting direction of the actions of the most famous activists of the crypto-autocephalous split in Ukraine: the priest Aleksey Slusarenko and Alexander Slesarev. Discouragers wrote a series of negative reviews on the book of the esteemed doctor of theology, trying in this way to discredit his writings.

This state of affairs could not have been ignored by the Moscow theological schools. We suggest that you review the review of the book "Protests and Modernity" by Archpriest Alexander Fedoseev "The Split and Modernity" of the famous theologian, professor of the MDA Osipov AI The author of more than ten scientific works, participant of international theological conferences and assemblies Alexei Ilyich Osipov testifies to the absolute urgency and importance of the issues raised by the archpriest Alexander Fedoseev in his book. Below is the full text of the review:

"At the present time, when all the ideological boundaries between Russia and the rest of the world have been completely destroyed, the problem of penetrating into our country and the Church diverse ideas and views that are deeply alien to our national identity and the Orthodox understanding of life is becoming increasingly important. It is quite obvious that these new influences have the most destructive effect on the psychology of a man who has just emerged from the rigid framework of the Soviet system. The results of such negative impact are observed in all spheres of life. They cause particular concern in the sphere of religious and, above all, in everything that directly concerns the life and work of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Here, one of the increasingly pressing issues now is the problem of the origins of schismatic attitudes and trends that arise in the church environment, and often produce a direct temptation in it. Deacon Andrey Kuraev even expresses this idea: "The most disturbing observation of my last years is that now, at the beginning of the 21st century, our Orthodox Church was on the verge of a much more serious thing than a split. I believe that the Russian Reformation is beginning before our eyes. "

These words lead protopriest Alexander Fedoseev in his book-thesis "Splits and Modernity" (M. 2010), which is devoted, as already seen from the title itself, to this pressing problem.

But if the beginning of the Russian Reformation is, in my opinion, still no reason to speak, then, against the backdrop of various disorganizations taking place in certain places in the Orthodox world, the study of the factors that generate schisms in the church environment is, of course, necessary. Therefore, this thesis of Father Alexander, naturally, attracts attention.

It touches upon a whole series of aspects of this great topic, but the central idea that permeates the whole content of the book is an attempt to understand the phenomenon of disciplinary and psychological splits. I want to immediately explain what is behind this concept in the author's interpretation.

He writes: "Disciplinary and psychological splits in general characterize the heat of passion, demonic arrogance, reaching to fanaticism, encouraging to oppose itself to everyone in the world and to consider oneself the last to stand in the truth, gloating in relation to opponents, in the extreme - hatred and anger, announcement of dissenters Without grace, suspicion, confidently erecting against the opponents the most ridiculous, slanderous and incredible accusations; Statements about that. That non-canonical actions are ultimately necessary for the good of the Church, a tendency toward sectarianism "(p. 8).

This is a very correct estimate of what is due to the nature of the split. Here attention is drawn not only to the external, canonical, or disciplinary side of this phenomenon, but, more importantly, to its spiritual origins. Although it should be noted that the author's understanding of spirituality itself is rather culturological in nature, rather than ascetic. Moreover, in the subsequent disclosure of the topic, he himself sees the very causes of the schisms after Protopriest Vasily Zayev in the exclusively political aspects of life (p. 38), not to mention the main thing-pride.

In the further presentation of the topic, the above brief characteristic of the essence of the split is illustrated and expanded in detail. The author touches upon a whole series of serious problems of contemporary church life and shows how they, without being timely resolved, gradually destroy the inner peace of the believer's soul, form the psychology of the schism, which can easily lead to disciplinary discourse, that is, lead to open anticanonical actions.

The book speaks of the "leaders" and "saviors" of Orthodoxy, who lead whole schismatic groups, both open and hidden, cunningly covering themselves with external statements of their devotion to the Church, but leading anti-church activities in their midst (p. 60). The author at the same time draws attention to the use of those and other schismatics of the deceptively interpreted notion of freedom, by which they try to justify any actions incompatible with membership in the Church (p. 81).

One of the burning problems, which is considered in detail, with the involvement of authoritative sources, is spiritual work. In giving the correct definition of eldership, his special ministry in the Church, the author writes about many misconceptions in this matter, about the appearance of false priests, the Youngstar who psychologically subjugate believers, acquire unlimited power over them and thus create true sectarian communities, Throughout the life of the Church. As a result, such communities lose their true doctrine, are often infected with ridiculous superstitions, and at the behest of their "old man" at any moment can go on a direct anticanonical step of a split with the Church.

One of the manifestations of such a spiritually destructive spirit is the accentuation of such "elders" on an eschatological theme. The author very successfully calls this "eschatological charm". True, he sees the criterion of truth in this matter not in the patristic heritage, but in the hierarchs (what?) Of the Church. He writes: "The Church in the person of its hierarchs reveals the true foundations of Orthodox eschatology" (p.85).

The author rightly draws his attention to the connection, which is erroneous in principle, which often arises in the consciousness of individual believers between the religious side of life and the political side. "Self-isolation of church communities," he writes, "from the conciliar life of the whole Church and the schismatic activity of individual believers often result in an unacceptable politicization of such communities when the" left "or" right "political orientation is declared to be the only one corresponding to the Orthodox world view" (p.68). Such processes occur, as the author writes, because of the ever-more intruding into the life of a large number of believers of the so-called secularism, in other words, a worldly spirit, living non-Christian moral principles, ideals, concepts.

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These notes on the doctoral dissertation prot. Alexander Fedoseev "Splits and Modernity" in no way had the task of giving an academic review of it. This would require a careful analysis of the work and elucidation of all the "knots and zadorok", and its merits.

Here are just some impressions of a quick reading of certain fragments of the book and of some issues raised in it. Of course, certain shortcomings are seen, but, nevertheless, representing a very timely attempt to address such an urgent topic, it can be welcomed in this respect.