"Протоиерей Иоанн Мейендорф. Byzantine Theology " - читать интересную книгу автора

circles of the Church. When John Italos in the eleventh century attempted a
new synthesis between Platonism and Christianity, he immediately incurred
canonical sanction. Thus, Byzantine humanism always lacked the coherence and
dynamism of both Western Scholasticism and the Western Renaissance and was
unable to break the widespread conviction of many Byzantines that Athens and
Jerusalem were incompatible. The watchdogs in this respect were the leading
representatives of a monasticism, which persisted in a staunch opposition to
"secular wisdom."
This polarity between the humanists and the monks not only appeared on
the intellectual level; it manifested itself in ecclesiastical politics. The
monks consistently opposed the ecclesiastical "realists" who were ready to
practice toleration toward former iconoclasts and imperial sinners and
toward unavoidable political compromises and, at a later period,
state-sponsored doctrinal compromises with the Latin West. Conflicts of this
sort occurred when Patriarchs Tarasius (784-806) and Methodius I (843-847)
accepted into the episcopate former supporters of official iconoclasm, when
the same Tarasius and Nicephorus I (806-815) condoned the remarriage of
Emperor Constantine VI, who had divorced his first wife, and when in 857
Patriarch Ignatius was forced to resign and replaced by Photius. These
conflicts, though not formally theological, involved the issue of the
Christian witness in the world and, as such, greatly influenced Byzantine
ecclesiology and social ethics.

Theodore the Studite.

Theodore was in the ninth century both the model and the ideologist of
the rigorist monastic party which played a decisive role in the entire life
of Byzantine Christendom.
In the preceding chapter, Theodore's contribution to the theology of
images as an aspect of Chalcedonian Christological orthodoxy was discussed.
His impact on the history of monasticism is equally important. Severely
challenged by iconoclastic persecutions, Byzantine monasticism had acquired
the prestige of martyrdom, and its authority in Orthodox circles was often
greater than that of the compromise-minded hierarchy. Under Theodore's
leadership it became an organized and articulate bulwark of canonical and
moral rigorism.
For Theodore, monastic life was, in fact, synonymous with authentic
Christianity:

Certain people ask, whence did the tradition of renouncing the world
and of becoming monks arise? But their question is the same as asking,
whence was the tradition of becoming Christians? For the One who first laid
down the apostolic tradition, six mysteries also were ordained: first Ї
illumination, second Ї the assembly or communion, third Ї the perfection of
the chrism, fourth Ї the perfection of priesthood, fifth Ї the monastic
perfection, and sixth Ї the service for those who fall asleep in holiness.1

This passage is important not only because monasticism is counted among
the sacraments of the Church - in a list strikingly different from the
post-Tridentine "seven sacraments" - but also, and chiefly, because the