Christianity in Europe in the Middle Ages. Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages The centers of Christian culture in the Middle Ages were
Introduction
The Middle Ages lasted almost a thousand years - from the 5th to the 15th century. During this historical period, huge changes took place in world history: the colossus of the Roman Empire collapsed, then Byzantium. After the conquest of Rome, the barbarian tribes created their own states on the European continent with a determined national culture.
During this period, a lot of changes are taking place in the world in all areas of the development of states. These changes did not bypass both culture and religion. Each nation in the Middle Ages had its own history of the development of culture, the influence of religion on it.
At all times, people had to believe in something, to hope for someone, to worship someone, to be afraid of someone, to explain the inexplicable in some way, and all peoples had their own unknown. There were pagans, Muslims, Christians, etc.
At that time, Christianity was considered the main religion in the West and in Russia. But, if the Russian Middle Ages was considered the XIII-XV centuries, then in the West it is the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, i.e. the most prolific years in the formation of Western European culture. In our country, at least, the first two of these three centuries fall on defeat, cultural isolation from the West and stagnation, from which Russia is just beginning to get out at the very end of the 14th and 15th centuries.
That is why I would like to separately understand how Christianity influenced the culture of Western European peoples and Russia.
To understand how the influence of religion on culture took place, you need to understand how people lived at that time, what they thought about, what worried them, cared most of all then.
The assertion of Christianity as the state religion in some countries, starting from the 4th century, and its active spread led to a significant reorientation of all spheres of late antique spiritual culture into the mainstream of a new worldview system. In the most direct way, all kinds of artistic activity were captured by this process. In fact, the formation of a new theory of art began, the prerequisites for which were already formed in the early Christian period. The Fathers of the Church made their significant contribution to this process.
1. General characteristics of the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, natural economy was primitive, productive forces, technology were poorly developed. Wars and epidemics bled the peoples. Any thought that ran counter to church dogmas was suppressed by the Inquisition, cruelly cracking down on bearers of heretical teachings and those suspected of complicity with the devil.
At this time, machines began to be used, windmills, a water wheel, steering, printing and much more appeared.
The very concept of "Middle Ages" can in no way be a kind of integrity. Allocate Early, High Middle Ages and Sunset. Each period has its own characteristics of the spiritual sphere and culture.
The clash of cultural orientations gave rise to the multi-layered and inconsistent consciousness of medieval man. The commoner, living in the power of popular beliefs and primitive images, had the beginnings of a Christian worldview. An educated person was not completely free from pagan notions. However, for all the undoubted dominant was religion.
The essence of the medieval way of relating to the world was determined by the divine model of the world, which was supported by all the means at the disposal of the church (and the state subordinate to it). This model determined the features of the medieval era. The main features of this model are the following:
a specifically medieval understanding of the universe, where God is the main world creative force, human intervention in the divine work was unacceptable;
medieval monotheism, in which the universe was conceived as absolutely subordinate to God, to whom only the laws of nature and the divine cosmos are accessible. This is a force infinitely more powerful than man and dominated him;
man is an insignificant, weak, sinful being, a speck of dust in the divine world, and particles of the divine world are accessible to him only through the atonement of sins and the worship of God.
The central event of the medieval model of the world was God. The totality of the super-complex social hierarchy of events of the medieval world fit into this event. A special place in this hierarchy was occupied by the church, which was entrusted with a divine mission.
The main population of the Middle Ages were peasants.
2. The process of Christianization in the Middle Ages
The ideological position of the church was that it was actually on the side of the masters, being, moreover, the largest owner itself. And yet the church tried to smooth out conflicts in society, preaching equality before God, humility and the sanctity of poverty. The poor experience troubles and hardships on earth, but they are God's chosen ones, worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Poverty is a moral virtue.
The medieval church recognized labor as a consequence of original sin. Labor for enrichment was condemned. The work of an ascetic - work for the eradication of idleness, for the curbing of the flesh, for moral perfection was considered a charitable deed.
2.1 Process of Christianization in Europe
In Europe, society in the minds of people was divided into three main social strata: churchmen, peasants and knights. The social ideals were the life of the saints and the heroic deeds of the warrior. The process of Christianization proceeded with great difficulties. The state used its authority and power to eradicate paganism and plant Christianity. The peasant was excluded from the system of public law rules, he could not be a warrior. People who remembered their free ancestors experienced their bondage hard. The people associated their freedom and independence with the pagan faith, and Christianization with the power and oppression of the state.
The most versatile measures were taken to eradicate pagan superstitions. Particular attention is paid to rituals associated with the cult of the forces of nature. Divination, spells, divination were also considered forbidden and severely punished.
The Church in the fight against paganism used not only punishment, but also careful adaptation. Pope Gregory I was a supporter of the gradual replacement of pagan religious stereotypes with Christian rites. He advised not to destroy pagan temples, but to sprinkle them with holy water and replace idols with altars and relics of saints. Animal sacrifice should be replaced by feast days when animals are slaughtered for the glory of the Lord and for food. He recommended instead of the pagan detour of the fields, made for the harvest, to organize processions to the Trinity.
The life of peasants in the Middle Ages was determined by the change of seasons, each person goes through the same cycle of events. Constant employment and orientation to traditions and rituals made it impossible to go beyond the cyclicality.
Christianity, instead of the cyclic flow of time, natural for the peasant, imposed a linear historical flow of time with the Super-event of the Last Judgment at its end. Fear of retribution for sins becomes a powerful factor in initiation to Christianity.
The reverse process was also carried out - Christianity assimilated paganism and subjected it to changes. This was due to several reasons. One of them was that the priests themselves were often of peasant origin and in many ways remained pagans. Another reason was that the worship of saints was connected with the needs of the majority of the population, unable to understand the abstract God and needing to worship a visible, understandable image. The clergy exalted the saints for piety, virtue, Christian holiness, the flock valued in them, first of all, their ability to magic: the ability to work miracles, heal, protect. Medieval man existed on the verge of non-existence: famine, wars, epidemics claimed many lives, almost no one lived to old age, infant mortality was very high. Man felt an urgent need to protect himself from dangers approaching from all sides.
The Church could not help but assume the functions of the magical protection of man. Some magical rituals passed into Christian rituals almost unchanged. Moreover, the church even multiplied and complicated the ritual life. The veneration of God was carried out in the Christian church with the help of the sacraments, such as communion, baptism, and the priesthood. Also used - blessed water, bread, candles. Consecrated objects were used at home and in everyday life. Theologians saw in all this only symbolism and did not recognize their supernatural power. The common people used them, first of all, as amulets: not for cleansing from sins and communion with God, but for protection from diseases, slander, and damage. Peasants used church gifts even to heal livestock.
Excessive ritualization emasculated the spiritual essence of faith, mechanized communication with God. Rituals degenerated into mechanical, meaningless repetition. Believers, in order to be cleansed of sins, could do without a high mental attitude, with one formal performance of rituals. The Church could not abolish superstitions, rituals and rituals that distort the foundations of the Catholic faith, for they were an integral part of the mentality of a medieval person, and without them the Christian doctrine could not be accepted.
2.2 The process of Christianization in Russia
The first centuries of Russian medieval culture. Coming mainly to the period of Kievan Rus, they are permeated with the bright joy of recognizing the new, discovering the unknown. In the light of the new world outlook, the world of nature, and the person himself, and their relationships, appeared different before the Slav, not to mention the spiritual, which sanctified all long-time seemingly familiar things and phenomena with a new light. The traditional rather narrow horizons - geographical and historical, social and spiritual - have extended to infinity.
Realizing all this, and most importantly, being the goal and crown of creation, the image of the Creator himself, a person rejoiced at the discovery of the world with childish spontaneity. Joyful worldview filled his whole life and work, it spiritualized his esthetic consciousness; finally, it acted as an important stimulus for the rapid rise of culture in Kievan Rus.
Formally, the date of the baptism of Russia is considered to be 988, although this is a probable year only for the baptism of St. Vladimir, his squads, Kyiv and Novgorod with their environs. Christianity, on the other hand, appeared in Russia long before Vladimir, and the process of converting all of Russia dragged on for at least another two centuries; as for the remote eastern regions, especially the Trans-Volga and the Urals (not to mention Siberia), it ended only in the 18th, and even the 19th century.
By the middle of the 10th century, there were at least two Christian churches in Kyiv, which indicates some kind of Christian activity in the Dnieper Rus. And, of course, the personal baptism of Grand Duchess Olga around 955 probably stimulated a certain number of people, at least from her entourage, to accept baptism.
As for Vladimir himself and his domestic politics, the act of baptism itself cannot be considered exclusively from a political point of view. Vladimir, according to the annals, after baptism completely changes both his personal lifestyle and his domestic policy. Having allegedly had 800 concubines before baptism, Vladimir becomes a monogamist after baptism, having married the sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil, Anna. He introduces a system of social protection for the poorest segments of the population, ordering the periodic distribution of free food and clothing for the poor at the expense of the grand ducal treasury. He proceeds to the rapid construction of churches, opening schools with them, and forcing his boyars to send their sons to them. Finally, he issues his ecclesiastical charter, which provided the Church with very broad civil rights and powers.
The Christianization of Russia had a number of characteristic features and was a long painful process. In political and economic terms, it was beneficial only to the Kievan princes. The majority of the population did not want to part with the old faith, and Christianization was largely adapted to pagan customs. So, pagan holidays were timed to coincide with Christian ones, and pagan rituals were largely transferred to Christian rituals. Not only the common people, but often the clergy, stood on the positions of dual faith. Orthodoxy has much in common with Catholicism. Thus, it recognizes the magical power of the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the sanctified "gifts of God." Each cult action and objects of worship are considered not just symbols, but also material carriers of the “holy spirit”. The Orthodox faith calls, first of all, not to individual salvation, but to universal, supra-personal "catholicity" on the basis of the union of Christians who love each other. Like Catholicism, Orthodoxy divides mankind into laity and ministers of the church. The laity cannot be saved on their own, without the clergy who are able to repent of their sins from God.
For a Russian, society is a big family, clan. The reigning prince or king is the father of the nation as a family in which his subjects are perceived as his children. The vision of society as one big family, a single organism, was one of the reasons that the concept of individual freedom did not take deep roots in the culture of the Russian people, in which the place of Western values - pride and honor - was taken by such feminine values as loyalty, humility and a certain passive fatality. Confirmation of this can be seen in the special veneration of the first Russian saints - Boris and Gleb. They refused to oppose their older brother Svyatopolk on the grounds that after the death of his father, he legally occupies the throne and obedience to his will must be unquestioning. And they went to their death like sheep to the slaughter, rejecting the advice of their squads to engage in battle with the forces of Svyatopolk. Whether that was actually the case is irrelevant. It is important that just such a passive way of behavior corresponded to popular concepts of holiness.
Let us return to the era of the early centuries of Christianity in Russia. We must not forget about the colossal size of the country, the small population and the enormous difficulties of communications in such a continental block, where the surest way of transportation - rivers - is covered with ice for 3-5 months a year, where a long period of snowmelt and ice drift in spring and gradual freezing in autumn stops any communication between different regions of the country for many months.
Undoubtedly, the Orthodox Church, one might say, nurtured the Russian person, influenced the formation of his character, introduced Christian concepts into everyday life. Even with regard to language: in no Western language is there such a vocabulary of the Church as the Orthodox, especially Russian. The Western Church used a language understandable only to a small educated elite, leaving the average inhabitant of medieval Latin Europe almost in complete ignorance of Christian teaching, incomprehension of everything that was happening in the temple. Under these conditions, the Church in the West became elitist.
3. Culture in medieval Europe
Knowledge of Latin was a criterion for education. The vernacular developed according to different laws than Latin. Concrete, visual images were transmitted and fixed on it. The Latin language expressed abstract judgments, theological and political concepts. The difference in the structure of the vernacular and Latin increased the difference between uneducated people and the educated elite.
In the 5th-10th centuries, church books appeared on parchment with miniatures depicting animals and people in two-dimensional space (flat and without shadows).
Compared to antiquity, this period was a cultural decline. The works were devoid of grace and sophistication. They were dominated by the cult of brute physical force. Many achievements of antiquity were forgotten. Thus, the ancient sculpture was lost. Human images become primitive. The decline continued from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 11th century.
4. Culture in medieval Russia
In the X-XI centuries in the history of ancient Russia, the "great time" begins. Although Kievan Rus was free to perceive the cultural influences of the West and East, Byzantium had a special influence on the development of ancient Rus. Byzantine culture was “grafted” onto the tree of Slavic-pagan culture and was the source of Christian cultural traditions, which included legal norms and ideas about the state structure, education, upbringing, sciences, art, morality and religion. The centers of cultural exchange were Constantinople, Athos, the monasteries of Sinai, Thessaloniki.
In 988, Christianity was officially recognized and declared the state religion. It radically rebuilt the worldview of the Russians, in many respects changed the cultural development of ancient Russia.
Christianity contributed to the emergence and development of a typological community of temple architecture, monumental mosaics and frescoes, iconography and music. Russian cities began to be decorated with temples and other monumental buildings - fortresses, princely chambers, etc., the dwellings of townspeople and peasants - with objects of applied folk art. One of the characteristic features of ancient Russian architecture was the combination of wooden and stone forms. Of particular importance in medieval Russian culture (as well as in Western culture) was the construction of temples, which became centers of cultural and intellectual life. One of the most famous architectural structures was the majestic Kyiv Cathedral of St. Sophia.
Jewelry craftsmanship was developed - casting, the production of unique enamel, including the famous Byzantine cloisonne. Jewelers not only borrowed artistic technology, but also invented their own. They used granulation, filigree, casting, chasing, silver engraving, forging.
Temple culture also contributed to the development of monumental painting and icon painting. Regional art schools were created in Kyiv, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Chernigov, Rostov the Great. Churches are signed with the help of samples of canons, they were called "tablets", and later "copy". The name of the monk who painted the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra has survived to this day: his name was Alimpiy.
The Christianization of Russia in many ways contributed to the emergence of Russian philosophy. The first attempt to comprehend human existence as an integrity, in the unity of personal, family and state life, belongs to the great Russian prince Vladimir Monomakh.
The period of the mature Middle Ages became tragic for the Russian people and its young culture. In the XIII century, Russia was under the Mongol yoke and lost its state independence. The surviving monasteries often remained the only cultural centers.
Let's take a closer look at the ancient Russian literature and the Russian library of that era.
One of the first Slavic-Russian translations after the liturgical books was the "Source of Knowledge" by John of Damascus, from which the Kyiv literate drew basic concepts about the philosophical systems of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Parmenides. So the reading resident of Kiev had an idea about ancient philosophy. Damascene then gave information about the basic sciences, dividing them into two categories: 1) theoretical and 2) practical philosophy. To theoretical philosophy, as was then accepted, he attributed: theology, physiology and mathematics, the divisions of which were arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Practical philosophy included ethics, economics (home science) and politics.
The less developed north was not silent either. The most prominent spiritual author of this region, whose writings have survived to our time, was the Bishop of Novgorod Luka Zhidyata, obviously from baptized Jews, judging by his name. His style cannot be compared with the elegance and decoration of the southerners. Zhidyata is stingy with words, the language is extremely close to colloquial speech, and its ethics are instructive, substantive, concrete.
The main theological expression of the north and northeast, however, was temple building and icon painting, which reached there both national identity and artistic and spiritual perfection, while in the south and southwest we see the work of Byzantine masters directly or direct imitation of them, for followed by the ruin and decline of the XIII-XV centuries. In the same place, an independent and artistically significant icon-painting tradition did not appear.
As for the north and northeast, the Tatar-Mongol invasion destroyed and interrupted traditional Russian crafts there for a long time: masons, carvers, masters of artistic enamel were captured and forcibly taken to Central Asia. But neither the pagan Tatars nor the Muslim Tatars needed icon painters. In addition, the Tatars treated Orthodoxy with great respect, exempting the clergy and monasteries from taxes. All this contributed not only to the preservation, but also to the development and improvement of the skill of icon painting and frescoes.
The most remarkable literary work of that era was, of course, The Tale of Igor's Campaign, unsurpassed in the richness of language and poetic imagery in pre-Pushkin Russian literature. There are strong moments of foreboding the failure of the campaign on the basis of natural phenomena, but along with this, there are frequent appeals to God, and everything in the work is imbued with a Christian worldview. And the very fact of chanting not a proud victory, but to some extent even a well-deserved defeat of Igor's campaign against the Polovtsy in 1185, with the implication that defeat is necessary for humility, is a punishment for arrogance, arrogance - all this is alien to paganism and reflects Christian understanding of life.
Some historians believe that such a masterpiece could not have arisen on bare ground and that other literary works of the same era and of the same significance simply have not come down to us. Indeed, it is surprising that the “Word” reached the 18th century in only one copy, while many other literary works, however, mostly of a later era, were preserved in many copies. The explanation for this, however, perhaps lies in the fact that the scribes were monks, for whom the fiction of the Lay was alien. They were more interested in the lives of the saints, chronicles, sermons, teachings.
5. The influence of religion on the culture of people
Religion "bodily" and spiritually enters the world of culture. Moreover, it constitutes one of its constructive foundations, fixed by historians almost from the appearance of “reasonable man”. On this basis, many theologians, following the outstanding ethnographer J. Fraser, assert: "All culture comes from the temple, from the cult."
The power of religion in the early stages of the development of culture went beyond the boundaries of the measurement of the latter. Until the late Middle Ages, the church covered almost all cultural spheres. It was both a school and a university, a club and a library, a lecture hall and a philharmonic society. These institutions of culture have been brought to life by the practical needs of society, but their origins are in the bosom of the Church and in many respects have been nurtured by it.
Spiritually ruling over the flock, the Church at the same time exercised guardianship and censorship over culture, forcing it to serve the cult. In particular, this spiritual dictatorship was felt in the medieval states of the Catholic world, where the Church dominated politically and legally. And almost everywhere it dominated morality and art, education and upbringing. Church guardianship and censorship, like any dictate, did not stimulate cultural progress at all: freedom is the air of culture, without which it suffocates. Noting the positive aspects of the religious impact on the realities of culture, we should not forget about this.
Perhaps most of all, religion influenced the formation and development of national identity, the culture of the ethnic group.
The church rite often continues in the establishments of folk life and the calendar. At times it is difficult to separate the secular principle in national traditions, customs and rituals from the religious one. What, for example, are Semik and Maslenitsa for the Russian people, Navruz for the Azerbaijanis and Tajiks? Secular-folk and ecclesiastical-canonical are inextricably intertwined in these holidays. God save (thank you) - is this a religious or secular commemoration formula - is it a purely church ritual? What about caroling?
The awakening of national consciousness is usually associated with a revival of interest in the national religion. This is exactly what is happening in Russia.
In Europe, schools for monks at monasteries became cultural islands. In the Middle Ages, the leading place was occupied by architecture. This was caused primarily by the urgent need for the construction of temples.
A further cultural impetus was the growth of cities, centers of trade and crafts. A new phenomenon was urban culture, which gave rise to the Romanesque style. The Romanesque style arose as a strengthening of the authority of the Roman Empire, which was necessary for the royal power and the church. Best of all, the Romanesque style was personified by the large cathedrals located on the hills, as if towering above everything earthly.
The Gothic style denies the heavy, fortress-like Romanesque cathedrals. The attributes of the Gothic style were lancet arches and slender towers rising to the sky. The vertical composition of the building, the impetuous upward rush of lancet arches and other architectural structures expressed the desire for God and the dream of a higher life. Geometry and arithmetic were understood abstractly, through the prism of the knowledge of God, who created the world and arranged everything by "measure, number and weight." Every detail in the cathedral had a special meaning. The side walls symbolized the Old and New Testaments. Pillars and columns personified the apostles and prophets carrying the vault, portals - the threshold of paradise. The dazzlingly shining interior of the Gothic cathedral personified heavenly paradise.
Early Christianity inherited from antiquity admiration for the products of creativity and contempt for the people who created them. But gradually, under the influence of Christian ideas about the beneficial, uplifting significance of labor, this attitude changed. In the monasteries of that time, it was attributed to combine activities leading to communion with God, to penetration into his essence, such as divine reading, prayers, manual labor. It was in the monasteries that many crafts and arts developed. Art was considered a charitable and noble occupation, not only ordinary monks, but also the highest church elite were engaged in it. Medieval arts: painting, architecture, jewelry - were laid within the walls of monasteries, under the shadow of a Christian church.
In the 12th century, interest in art increased significantly. This is due to the general technical, economic and scientific progress of society. The practical activity of a person, his intellect, the ability to invent something new begins to be valued much higher than before. The accumulated knowledge begins to be systematized into a hierarchy, at the top of which God continues to remain. Art, which combines high practical skills and the reflection of images of sacred tradition, receives a special status in medieval culture.
The attitude to art in the Middle Ages has undergone great changes. So, during the early Middle Ages (V-VIII centuries), ancient ideas about art dominate. Art is classified into theoretical, practical and creative. Since the 8th century, Christian ideas have been actively intertwined and interacted with non-religious ones. The main goal of art is the pursuit of divine beauty, which is embodied in the harmony and unity of nature.
Christianity, spreading to all spheres of life of a medieval person, naturally determined the direction and content of artistic creativity, limited art by its dogmas. Artistic creativity could not spread beyond their borders. It was significantly limited by the iconographic tradition. The main goal of creativity was the preservation and exaltation of Christian teaching. All medieval culture was subject to the only reality - God. God has true subjectivity; a person striving for the ideal, depicted in works of art, must submit his will to God. Everything is in God: destiny is determined by God, the world is explained by God. Christianity determined preferred themes and art forms. In literature, the favorite genre is the lives of the saints; in sculpture - images of Christ, the Mother of God, saints; in painting - an icon; in architecture - the cathedral. The themes of heaven, purgatory and hell are also common. The artist had to capture the beauty of the divine world order in his works, coordinating his vision with the ideas of the Christian clergy. Human creativity is relatively, limited, and therefore must be subordinated to the will of God. There can be no creativity outside of God. The main theme in art is Christ and his teachings.
Works of art should not only bring sensual pleasure from the contemplation of beautiful and harmonious beauty, they should educate a person in the spirit of striving for God. Piety is the most important spiritual quality awakened by art.
Art schools appeared in Russia in the 15th century, architecture and icon painting flourished. The famous representative of the golden age of the Novgorod monumental school was the Greek master Theophanes the Greek. He did not use iconographic "copybooks", his works were deeply original and uniquely individual. He painted over 40 churches. Monumental and decorative works, which have become on a par with other greatest creations of world art, were created in the 15th century by Andrei Rublev. In memory of Sergius of Radonezh, he painted his most perfect work - the icon "Trinity". So, under Ivan III, the Assumption Cathedral, the Annunciation Cathedral, the Faceted Chamber were erected, the walls of the Kremlin were built. The original national spirit was embodied in St. Basil's Cathedral.
Conclusion
And even in our time, if you carefully analyze the life of the peasants, in their life you can find some traces of the Middle Ages.
The famous Gothic cathedrals still amaze people today, among them the Notre Dame Cathedral, the cathedrals in Reims, Chartres, Amiens, Saint-Denis are especially famous. N.V. Gogol (1809–1852) wrote: “Gothic architecture is a phenomenon such as has never been produced by human taste and imagination. … Entering the sacred darkness of this temple, it is quite natural to feel the involuntary horror of the presence of the shrine, which the bold mind of a person does not even dare to touch.”
Thus, the Middle Ages, on the basis of the Christian tradition, created a mass man who was interested in solving the problems of equality, freedom, was concerned about the system of legal and other guarantees of individual existence.
The artist was an intermediary between people and God. It was in this way that the medieval model of the world developed through the idea of exaltation, through an appeal to the human creator.
This is an integral principle of the European model of the world, opposite to the eastern one - the principle of stability, harmony, naturalness.
Old Russian traditionalism was strengthened by Orthodox traditionalism. The community, society meant more than the fate of an individual.
The process of formation of ancient Russian culture was not just a process of simple forward movement. It included ups and downs, periods of prolonged stagnation, decline and cultural breakthroughs. But in general, this era is a cultural layer that determined the subsequent development of the entire Russian culture.
The Church leaves milestones in the material culture of the people with monastic production, temple construction. The production of religious decorations and vestments, the printing of books, the heritage of icon painting, frescoes.
From the very beginning of its existence, the Church had to determine its position in relation to society. At first she represented a minority, often persecuted and persecuted. Small but rapidly growing Christian communities strove to develop a distinctive way of life based on love for God and one's neighbor. There is no doubt that Christianity has had a huge impact on society. Thanks to the Church, the first hospitals and universities appeared in medieval Europe. The church built great cathedrals, patronized artists and musicians. Obviously, religion and culture are not identical. Religion takes shape earlier and reshapes public consciousness accordingly. New cult-cultural archetypes begin to form, which form the foundation of a new culture. Christian culture acquired its adequate image (more precisely, the Face) only in mature Byzantium and Ancient Russia and in medieval Western Europe (Latin-Cathalic branch). It was then that all the main spheres of human life and spiritual and material creativity, all the main social institutions were completely covered by the Christian spirit; religion, church cult, Christian worldview have become the main cultural-creating factors
Literature
1. Victor Bychkov 2000 years of Christian culture sub specie aesthetica. In 2 vols. Volume 1 Early Christianity. Byzantium. M. - St. Petersburg: Universitetskaya kniga, 1999. 575 p.
2. Victor Bychkov 2000 years of Christian culture sub specie aesthetica. In 2 vols. Volume 2 Slavic world. Ancient Russia. Russia. M. - St. Petersburg: Universitetskaya kniga, 1999. 527 p.
3. Religion in history and culture: Textbook for universities / M.G. Pismanik, A.V. Vertinsky, S.P. Demyanenko and others; ed. prof. M.G. Pismanika. – M.: Culture and sport, UNITI, 1998. -430 p.
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Novgorod is one of the oldest centers of culture. Here, at the St. Sophia Cathedral in the 11th century, Russian chronicles first appeared. More than half of the written monuments of ancient Russia of the XI-XVII centuries are located in Novgorod.
Formation of the first Byzantine concepts in the field of aesthetics as a fusion of the ideas of Hellenistic Neoplatonism and early patristics. Ledge of medieval science as a comprehension of the authority of the Bible. Learning Russian and Ukrainian culture era of the Middle Ages.
The main features of medieval spiritual culture and worldview. Formation and development of the Christian church. Life values of medieval man and the role of cities. History of the Cathedrals of San Marco Notre Dame of Paris, Chartres, Reims and Aachen.
Russian culture has its roots in the ancient pagan era. Paganism - a complex of primitive views, beliefs and rituals - had its own history ..
Conditions for the emergence and stages of development of the culture of the Middle Ages, its characteristic features and features. Religion and the Church in Medieval Society. Art culture medieval Europe, Gothic art and architecture, medieval music and theater.
The importance of Byzantium for Ancient Russia is difficult to overestimate. It can be said that the Byzantine form of Orthodoxy, adopted by the Eastern Slavs in the 10th century, created the historical face of the future Russia.
The history of the formation and further development of the art of Ancient Russia. Icons as the main genre of ancient Russian painting. General characteristics and features of the formation of the national style in Russian art of the 9th-12th centuries, the influence of Byzantine culture on it.
Periodization and origins of medieval culture, the role of Christianity as the foundation of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages. Knightly culture, folklore, urban culture and carnivals, the establishment of a school system, universities, Romanesque and Gothic, temple culture.
The Baptism of Russia became a turning point in the history and culture of Russia. Together with the new religion, they adopted from Byzantium writing, book culture, stone building skills, canons of icon painting, some genres and images of applied art.
Legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire. New outlook in culture and art. The process of formation of Christian art and the formation of the Christian aesthetic system. The combination of pagan elements with Christian as overcoming paganism.
Cultural archetype is the basic element of culture. Traditional installations of Russian culture. Formation, development, features of the formation of Russian culture. The development of the culture of Ancient Russia. Icon paintings by Russian masters and Christianity, stone structures.
Christianity as the basis of the worldview, its emergence, the main idea. Acceptance and dissemination of the doctrine in Russia. Orthodoxy is the cultural and historical choice of Russian society, the motives for making a decision. His influence on the formation of Russian culture.
The Inquisition and the Crusades. Monasticism and the Crusades. Folk culture of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance gave the Middle Ages a very critical and harsh assessment. However, subsequent epochs introduced significant amendments to this estimate.
The beginning of ancient Russian statehood dates back to the time before the Baptism of Russia. The Tale of Bygone Years connects its beginning with the arrival of three Varangian brothers in Russia: Rurik, Sineus and Truvor.
Ancient Russian painting is one of the recognized pinnacles of world art, the greatest spiritual heritage of our people. The interest in it is enormous, as are the difficulties of its perception for us.
Common features and differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The influence of Catholicism on the culture of Western Europe. Monasteries are the centers of European civilization. Reflection of the ideals of Orthodoxy in Byzantine art. Iconocentrism of medieval Russian culture.
Origins of Christianity in Russia. Influence of Christianity on the culture of Ancient Russia. Philosophy of Russian religious art. History of Russian art. For a long time, until the 19th century, Christianity would remain the dominant culture.
It was Byzantine culture and literature in line with the early Cyrillic and Methodian tradition that contributed to the emergence of original Old Russian literature and the temple-building activity of the Russian princes.
Fundamentals of Orthodoxy, its significance for the development of spirituality and morality in a Russian person, contribution to the emergence of Russian historiography and art. The ideals of Orthodoxy in Russian culture. The history of the complex relationship between the state and Orthodoxy.
Culture of the Western European Middle Ages. The process of formation of Christianity. Romanesque art and Gothic. Culture of Byzantium and Ancient Russia. Development of agriculture and crafts. Renaissance culture. Anthropocentrism. Proto-Renaissance period.
Christianity was the core of European culture and provided transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. For a long time in the historical and cultural literature, the view of the Middle Ages as the "dark ages" dominated. The foundations of this position were laid by the enlighteners. However, the history of the culture of Western European society was not so unambiguous, one thing is certain - all cultural life Medieval Europe of this period was largely determined by Christianity, which already in the IV century. from being persecuted it becomes the state religion in the Roman Empire.
From a movement in opposition to official Rome, Christianity turns into a spiritual, ideological pillar of the Roman state. At this time, a number of leading provisions of the Christian dogma were adopted at the Ecumenical Church Councils - symbol of faith. These provisions are declared binding on all Christians. The basis of Christian teaching was the belief in the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the Divine Trinity.
The concept of the Divine Trinity was interpreted as follows. God is one in all three persons: God the Father - the creator of the world, God the Son, Jesus Christ - the redeemer of sins and God the Holy Spirit - were absolutely equal and co-eternal with each other. Ilyina E.A. Culturology / E.A. Ilyina, M.E. Burov. - M.: MIEMP, 2009. - S. 49.
Despite the strong discrepancy between the ideal and the real, the very social and everyday life of people in the Middle Ages was an attempt, an aspiration to embody Christian ideals in practical activities. Therefore, let us consider the ideals towards which many efforts of people of that time were directed, and note the features of the reflection of these ideals in real life.
In the Middle Ages formed theological concept of culture(Greek theos - god), according to which God is the center of the universe, its active, creative principle, the source and cause of everything that exists. This is due to the fact that the absolute value is God. The medieval picture of the world, the religiosity of this culture is fundamentally fundamentally different from all previous ones, i.e. pagan cultures. God in Christianity is One, Personal and Spiritual, that is, absolutely non-material. Also, God is endowed with many virtuous qualities: God is All-good, God is Love, God is Absolute Good.
Thanks to such a spiritual and absolutely positive understanding of God, a person acquires special significance in the religious picture of the world. Man - the image of God, the greatest value after God, occupies a dominant place on Earth. The main thing in a person is the soul. One of the outstanding achievements of the Christian religion is the gift of free will to man, i.e. the right to choose between good and evil, God and the devil. Due to the presence of dark forces, evil, Medieval culture is often called dualistic (dual): on one of its poles - God, angels, saints, on the other - the Devil and his dark army (demons, sorcerers, heretics).
The tragedy of man is that he can abuse his free will. This is what happened to the first man, Adam. He shied away from the prohibitions of God towards the temptations of the devil. This process is called the fall. Sin is the result of man's deviation from God. It is because of sin that suffering, war, sickness, and death entered the world.
According to Christian teaching, a person cannot return to God on his own. To do this, a person needs a mediator - a Savior. The saviors in the medieval Christian picture of the world are Christ and His Church (in Western Europe - Catholic). Therefore, along with the category of sin, the problem of saving the soul of every person plays an important role in the picture of the world of the Middle Ages.
Thus, in the Christian ideology, the place of man is occupied by god - the creator, the place of the concept of "culture", so valued in antiquity, is occupied by the concept of "cult". From an etymological point of view, this concept also has the meaning of cultivation and improvement. However, the main emphasis in this concept is transferred to care, worship and reverence. This refers to the veneration of the highest, supernatural power, which controls the fate of the world and man. According to the Christian concept, the meaning of human life is to prepare for a true life, after death, the other world. Therefore, everyday, earthly, real life loses its intrinsic value. It is considered only as a preparation for eternal life, after death. The main emphasis is on the afterlife, afterlife retribution. Salvation is not given to everyone, but only to those who live according to the gospel commandments.
The whole life of a person in the Middle Ages stands between two reference points - sin and salvation. To escape from the first and achieve last person the following conditions are given: following the Christian commandments, doing good deeds, avoiding temptations, confessing one's sins, active prayer and church life not only for monks, but also for the laity.
Thus, in Christianity, the requirements for moral life person. Basic Christian values - Faith Hope Love.
In the medieval era, an irrational (non-rational, super-rational) beginning-faith was laid at the foundation of culture. Faith is placed above reason. Reason serves faith, deepens and clarifies it. Therefore, all types of spiritual culture - philosophy, science, law, morality, art - serve religion, obey it.
Art was also subordinated to the theocentric idea. It sought to strengthen the religious worldview. There are many scenes of the Last Judgment: the fear of the inevitable punishment for sins is brought up. A special tense psychological atmosphere. But there is also a powerful folk culture of laughter, where all these values were subjected to comic rethinking. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences (jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic) - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The clergy were the only educated class, and it was the church that for a long time determined the policy in the field of education.
All V-IX centuries. in schools in Western Europe were in the hands of the church. The church drew up a training program, selected students. the main task monastic schools was defined as the education of the ministers of the church. The Christian Church preserved and used elements of secular culture left over from the ancient education system. Church schools taught disciplines inherited from antiquity - the "seven liberal arts": grammar, rhetoric, dialectics with elements of logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.
There were also secular schools, where young men who were not intended for a church career studied, children from noble families studied in them (many such schools were opened in England in the second half of the 9th century). In the XI century. in Italy on the basis of the Bologna Law School was opened first university ( 1088), who became largest center study of Roman and canon law. Students and professors united in universities in order to achieve independence from the city and have the right to self-government. The university was divided into fraternity - an association of students from a particular country, and faculties where they mastered this or that knowledge. In England in 1167 the first university was opened in Oxford, then - the university in Cambridge. The most prominent university scholar in England in the 13th century. was Roger Bacon (circa 1214-1292), who, as the main method of knowledge, put forward not church authorities, but reason and experience. The largest and first of the French universities was the Paris Sorbonne (1160). It united four faculties: general education, medical, legal and theological. Just like other major universities, students from all European countries flocked here. There.
Medieval university science was called scholasticism ( from gr. schoolboy, scientist). Her most characteristic features there was a desire to rely on authorities, primarily church ones, an underestimation of the role of experience as a method of cognition, a combination of theological and dogmatic premises with rationalistic principles, and an interest in formal logical problems.
A new and extremely important phenomenon, testifying to the development of urban culture, was the creation in cities non-church schools: these were private schools, financially independent of the church. The teachers of these schools lived off the fees collected from the students. Since that time, there has been a rapid spread of literacy among the urban population. An outstanding master of France in the 12th century. was Peter Abelard (1079-1142), philosopher, theologian and poet, who founded a number of non-church schools. He owns the famous essay "Yes and No", in which questions of dialectical logic were developed. In his lectures, which were extremely popular with the townspeople, he asserted the primacy of knowledge over faith. There.
In Christianity, a different understanding of man is being formed in comparison with the ancient one. The ancient ideal is the harmony of spirit and body, physical and spiritual. The Christian ideal is the victory of the spirit over the body, asceticism. In Christianity, priority is given to the soul, the spiritual principle. And a derogatory attitude is formed towards the body. It was believed that the body is sinful, mortal, is a source of temptations, a temporary refuge for the soul. And the soul is eternal, immortal, perfect, it is a particle of the divine principle in man. A person should take care of the soul first of all.
Speaking about the differences between the ancient and medieval ideals, one should pay attention to such a moment. The ancient ideal - a harmonious personality - was quite feasible, achievable, real. The medieval ideal, like the horizon, was unattainable. Because the medieval ideal is God, absolute perfection (good, good, love, justice). Man is always sinful, and he only approaches this ideal to one degree or another. Therefore, the cultural development of man is understood as a constant elevation, ascent to the ideal, god, absolute, as a process of overcoming the sinful and affirming the divine in man.
played an important role in the life of the society of that time. monasticism: the monks took upon themselves the obligations of "leaving the world", celibacy, renunciation of property. However, already in the 6th century monasteries turned into strong, often very wealthy centers, owning movable and immovable property. Many monasteries were centers of education and culture. So, in England at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century. in one of the monasteries lived Beda the Venerable, Ibid. one of the most educated people of his time, the author of the first major work on English history. From the middle of the XII century. in rapidly developing cities the most mobile and educated part of the population is concentrated, receptive to spiritual food. The mendicant orders were part of urban spiritual currents and at the same time a reaction to their heretical excesses. One of the most important aspects of the activities of the orders was pastoral service, primarily preaching and confession. From their midst came the largest theologians of the Middle Ages - Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
Although medieval culture had an ideological, spiritual and artistic integrity, the dominance of Christianity did not make it completely homogeneous. One of its essential features was the appearance in it secular culture, reflecting the cultural self-consciousness and spiritual ideals of the military-aristocratic class of medieval society - chivalry and a new social stratum that arose in the mature Middle Ages - townspeople. Koryakina, E.P. The culture of medieval Western Europe: features, values, ideals[Electronic resource] / E.P. Koryakin. - Access mode: http: //avt. miem.edu.ru/Kafedra/Kt/Publik/posob_4_kt.html#Christianity as the main factor in the formation of medieval culture
Secular culture, being one of the components of Western European medieval culture, remained Christian in nature. At the same time, the very image and lifestyle of chivalry and townspeople predetermined their focus on the earthly, developed special views, ethical standards, traditions, and cultural values. They recorded the human abilities and values necessary for military service, communication among the feudal lords. In contrast to the asceticism advocated by the church, earthly joys and values \u200b\u200blike love, beauty, and service to a beautiful lady were sung in chivalric culture.
A special cultural layer of the Middle Ages was represented by folk culture . Throughout the Middle Ages, remnants of paganism and elements of folk religion have been preserved in folk culture. She opposed the official culture and developed her own view of the world, reflecting the close relationship between man and nature. Centuries after the adoption of Christianity, Western European peasants continued to secretly pray and make sacrifices to the old pagan shrines. Under the influence of Christianity, many pagan deities were transformed into evil demons. Special magical rites were performed in case of crop failure, drought, etc. Ancient beliefs in sorcerers and werewolves persisted among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages. To combat evil spirits, various amulets were widely used, both verbal (all kinds of conspiracies) and subject (amulets, talismans). In almost every medieval village one could meet a sorceress who could not only inflict damage, but also heal.
Laughter folk culture, folk festivals and carnivals nourished heretical movements and, along with chivalrous culture, represented the secular, worldly beginning in the culture of the Middle Ages. However, just as in society, in culture there was a hierarchy of values. Different cultures were valued differently. In the first place was the religious, church culture. The courtly, knightly culture was recognized as necessary, but less valuable. The pagan folk culture was seen as sinful, vile. Thus, in the Middle Ages religious culture subjugated all kinds of secular culture.
The most vividly and deeply Christian worldview was conveyed in the art of the Middle Ages. The main attention of the artists of the Middle Ages was paid to the other world, the Divine, their art was considered as a Bible for the illiterate, as a means of familiarizing a person with God, comprehending His essence. The Catholic Cathedral served as an artistic and religious embodiment of the image of the entire universe.
The early Middle Ages is the period of dominance of the Romanesque style. Romanesque architecture is perceived as a heavy, oppressive, great silence, embodying the stability of a person's worldview, his "horizontal", "groundedness". From the end of the XIII century. the gothic style becomes the leading one. For its lightness and openwork, it was called frozen, silent music, "a symphony in stone." Unlike harsh monolithic, impressive Romanesque temples and castles, Gothic cathedrals are adorned with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed to the sky, their towers towered up to 150 meters. The masterpieces of this style are the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Reims, Cologne.
Thus, the culture of the Middle Ages in Western Europe laid the foundation for a new direction in the history of civilization - the establishment of Christianity not only as a religious doctrine, but also as a new worldview and attitude, which significantly influenced all subsequent cultural epochs. Although, as we know, the Christian ideal of man was not realized in medieval society. Now we understand that the ideal may not correspond to the logic of life itself, the historical reality underlying culture. There.
Another thing is important - we judge culture by the ideals that it put forward and which formed the mentality of its person, which holds together the unity of cultural tradition. Despite the inconsistency of the sociocultural process, medieval culture was characterized by deep psychologism, heightened attention to human soul, the inner world of man.
The era of the Middle Ages should not be regarded as a period of failure in the development of Western European culture from antiquity to modern times. Despite the inconsistency of the culturological process, it is more legitimate to assert that it was at this time that the most important features of the Western European Christian type of culture were formed on the basis of the widespread spread of Christianity Radugin A.A. Culturology / A.A. Radugin. - M.: Center, 2001. - S. 170. . The spiritual and moral crisis of European civilization allows us to see the merits of medieval culture, makes us rethink the most important achievements of its spiritual culture, its values and ideals - the ideas of mercy, selfless virtue, condemnation of money-grubbing, the idea of human universality and many others.
christianity culture middle ages
The history of the Middle Ages begins with the fall of the Roman Empire. The transition from ancient civilization to the Middle Ages was due, firstly, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire as a result of the general crisis of the slave-owning mode of production and the associated collapse of the entire ancient culture. Secondly, the Great Migration of Peoples (from the 4th to the 7th centuries), during which dozens of tribes rushed to conquer new lands. The Western Roman Empire was unable to withstand the waves of barbarian invasions and in 476 ceased to exist. As a result of barbarian conquests, dozens of different kingdoms arose on its territory. The third and most important factor that determined the process of formation of European culture was Christianity. Christianity has become not only its spiritual basis, but also the integrating principle that allows us to speak of Western European culture as a single integral culture.
The role of the church in the life of Western European medieval society was very great. Religion and the church filled the whole life of a man of the feudal era from birth to death. The church claimed to rule society and performed many functions that later became the property of the state. The medieval church was organized on a strictly hierarchical basis. It was headed by the Roman high priest - the pope, who had his own state in Central Italy. Archbishops and bishops in all countries of Europe were subordinate to him. These were the largest feudal lords, who possessed entire principalities and belonged to the top of feudal society. Having monopolized culture, science, and literacy in a society consisting mainly of warriors and peasants, the church possessed enormous resources that subordinated to it the man of the feudal era. Skillfully using these means, the church has concentrated enormous power in its hands: kings and lords, in need of her help, shower her with gifts and privileges, try to buy her favor and assistance. church christianity european culture
The Church pacified society: she sought to smooth out social conflicts, calling for mercy in relation to the oppressed and destitute, for an end to lawlessness. The Church did not approve of open hostility towards the rural population. Its goal was to reduce social conflicts as much as possible. The Church strove to show mercy towards the oppressed and destitute people. She cared for the sick, the elderly, the orphans and the poor.
In addition, poverty was even given moral priority. During the 3rd - 5th centuries, the church even condemned the love of wealth. But over time, when the church was the largest owner, in the literature of a later time, all this is displayed somewhat muted (the glorification of poverty prevails in all literary works of the Early Middle Ages).
The Church attracts under its protection many peasants in need of patronage, provides them with land for settlement, and encourages the liberation of foreign slaves, who at the same time fell into dependence on it.
By the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century, all the main features of the feudal system took shape. The Christian religion became his dominant ideology. The Church held in its hands all spheres of human life. She filled the life of people - and organized their time, subordinating it to the rhythm of daily worship, determined judgments - and directed and controlled feelings, the church gave constant food for thought - and suggested the nature of entertainment.
In the restless feudal times, people sought the protection of the monastery. The monastery was also the most exacting owner, preserving the most severe forms of feudal exploitation. The Church was the largest landowner in the feudal world and tirelessly increased its material wealth. The monasteries were among the first to switch to a commodity economy, to production for the market, take treasures and money for safekeeping, and provide loans. Under the auspices of the church, joining with church holidays, fairs and markets arise, pilgrimages to holy places merge with trade trips. Continuing to use economic power for its own purposes, the church in the XI-XIII centuries. in fact, he leads the trade and colonization movement of Europeans to the East, organizing huge collections of money to finance them. After the "campaigns" ceased, these funds began to be used to strengthen the papal treasury.
The church organization reaches its highest power in the XII-XIII centuries, turning into a powerful financial organization with unlimited power over its structures and exceptional political influence. The Church taught that every member of society should live in accordance with his legal and property status and not seek to change it. The ideology of the three "estates", which spread in Europe in the 10th century, put forward monks, people devoted to prayer and standing above society, in the first place. There was a gradual aristocratization of the clergy and monasticism.
It was a relationship of domination and submission. Subordinating the life of an individual person to the same standards for all, the corporation inevitably dictated to people a certain type of behavior, moreover, a system of thoughts and feelings. In the era of the early Middle Ages, this suppression of human individuality was not yet felt by people as something contrary to their nature. But the time will come when corporate ties will become a serious brake on the development of society.
Mass mediaeval culture is a bookless culture; sermons became the "translation" of the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite into a language accessible to all people. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instil the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking.
Also, it should be noted the feature of literature and culture of the Middle Ages. It lies in the fact that in a society, the main part of which was illiterate, writing was not the main means of popular communication. The medieval population was mostly unliterate and the culture of the Middle Ages was underdeveloped. For a long time, the dialects of the people and languages in Western Europe were the means of communication between people, they could not learn writing, and it remained completely under the rule of Latin. During the 5th-9th centuries, all the initial educational establishments in the countries of Western Europe were under the authority of the church. She formed the curriculum, chose students. The main goal was to educate the ministers of the church.
The methods and level of teaching in different schools were different, therefore, the education of people also changed. During the 8th-9th centuries, the development of mental life at the beginning of the 10th century noticeably stopped. As a rule, the clergy were illiterate, and ignorance spread. The medieval inhabitants of Europe, including the highest strata of the population, were mostly illiterate. Even the priests in the parishes had a very low level of education.
However, one cannot fail to note the positive role of the church and Christian doctrine in the development of medieval civilization. She controlled the education and production of books. Thanks to the influence of Christianity, by the 9th century, a fundamentally new understanding of family and marriage was established in medieval society, the familiar concept of “marriage” was absent in the late antique and ancient German traditions, and then there was no concept of “family” familiar to us. In the era of the early Middle Ages, marriages between close relatives were practiced, numerous marriage ties were common, which were inferior to the same consanguineous ties. That was the position the church was struggling with: the problems of marriage. Since the 6th century, this problem has become almost the main theme of many works. The fundamental achievement of the church of this period of history should be considered the creation of marriage as a normal form family life which still exists.
Thus, medieval culture is the result of a complex, contradictory synthesis of ancient traditions, the culture of barbarian peoples and Christianity. However, the influence of these three principles of medieval culture on its character was not equivalent. Christianity became the dominant feature of medieval culture, which acted as a new ideological support for the worldview and worldview of a person of that era, which led to the formation of medieval culture as an integrity.
Introduction
Conclusion
Introduction
The history of the Middle Ages begins with the fall of the Roman Empire. The transition from ancient civilization to the Middle Ages was due, firstly, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire as a result of the general crisis of the slave-owning mode of production and the associated collapse of the entire ancient culture. Secondly, the Great Migration of Peoples (from the 4th to the 7th centuries), during which dozens of tribes rushed to conquer new lands. From 375 to 455 (the capture of Rome by the Vandals), the painful process of the extinction of the greatest civilization continued. The Western Roman Empire was unable to withstand the waves of barbarian invasions and in 476 ceased to exist. As a result of the barbarian conquests, dozens of barbarian kingdoms arose on its territory. The third and most important factor that determined the process of formation of European culture was Christianity. Christianity has become not only its spiritual basis, but also the integrating principle that allows us to speak of Western European culture as a single integral culture.
Thus, medieval culture is the result of a complex, contradictory synthesis of ancient traditions, the culture of barbarian peoples and Christianity. However, the influence of these three principles of medieval culture on its character was not equivalent. The dominant feature of medieval culture was Christianity,which acted as a new ideological support for the worldview and worldview of a person of that era, which led to the formation of medieval culture as an integrity.
The purpose of this work: to study and identify the role of Christianity in the culture of the Middle Ages.
reveal the general originality of medieval culture;
characterize Christianity as the core of medieval culture.
The work consists of an introduction, chapters of the main part, a conclusion and a list of references.
1. Culture of the Middle Ages: characteristics of the era
The medieval culture of Western Europe is the era of great spiritual and socio-cultural conquests in the history of all mankind.
Cultural experts call the Middle Ages a long period in the history of Western Europe, which covers more than a millennium from the 5th to the 15th centuries, i.e. from the moment of the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the moment of the active formation of the Renaissance culture. Within the millennium, it is customary to distinguish at least three periods:
Early Middle Ages, from the beginning of the era to 900-1000 years (up to the X-XI centuries);
High (Classical) Middle Ages - from X-XI centuries to » XIV century;
Late Middle Ages, XIV-XV centuries.
1.1 Early Middle Ages (V-IX centuries)
It was a period of tragic, dramatic transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages proper. Christianity slowly entered the world of barbarian existence. The barbarians of the early Middle Ages carried a peculiar vision and sense of the world, based on the ancestral ties of a person and the community to which he belonged, the spirit of militant energy, a sense of inseparability from nature. In the process of formation of medieval culture, the most important task was the destruction of the "power thinking" of the mythological barbarian consciousness, the destruction of the ancient roots of the pagan cult of power. Thus, the formation of early medieval culture is a complex, painful process of synthesis of Christian and barbarian traditions. The drama of this process was due to the opposite, multidirectionality of Christian value and thought orientations and the barbarian consciousness based on "power thinking".
Gradually the main role in the emerging culture begins to belong to the Christian religion and the church. In the conditions of the general decline of culture immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire, in the conditions of a difficult and meager life, against the backdrop of extremely limited and unreliable knowledge about the surrounding world, the church offered people a coherent system of knowledge about the world, its structure, and the forces acting in it. This picture of the world completely determined the mentality of the believing villagers and townspeople and was based on the images and interpretations of the Bible. The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.
However, one should not think that the formation of the Christian religion in the countries of Western Europe proceeded smoothly, without difficulties and confrontation in the minds of people with old pagan beliefs. The population was traditionally attached to pagan cults and sermons, and descriptions of the lives of the saints were not enough to convert them to the true faith. AT new religion handled with the help of the government. However, even a long time after the official recognition of a single religion, the clergy had to deal with the persistent remnants of paganism among the peasantry.
The church destroyed temples and idols, forbade worshiping gods and making sacrifices, arranging pagan holidays and rituals. Severe punishments threatened those who practiced divination, divination, spells, or simply believed in them. Many of the pagan practices against which the church fought were clearly of agricultural origin. So, in the "List of superstitions and pagan customs" compiled in France in the 8th century, "furrows around the villages" and "an idol carried across the fields" are mentioned. It was not easy to overcome the adherence to such rituals, so the church decided to preserve some pagan rites, giving these actions the coloring of official church rituals. So, every year on the Trinity, processions of a “religious procession” were arranged through the fields with a prayer for a harvest instead of the pagan “wearing an idol”.
The formation of the process of Christianization was one of the sources of sharp clashes, since. the concept of people's freedom was often associated with the old faith among the people, while the connection of the Christian church with state power and oppression stood out quite clearly. In the minds of the masses of the rural population, regardless of belief in certain gods, attitudes of behavior were preserved in which people felt themselves directly included in the cycle of natural phenomena. This constant influence of nature on man and the belief in man's influence on the course of natural phenomena with the help of a whole system of supernatural means was a manifestation of the magical consciousness of the medieval community, an important feature of its worldview.
The Church zealously fought against all the remnants of paganism, at the same time accepting them. So, calling all sorts of rituals, conspiracies and spells paganism, the church, nevertheless, led a real hunt for people who allegedly have the ability to perform these conspiracies and spells. The church considered especially dangerous women engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of potions and amulets. In manuals for confessors, much attention was paid to "the ability of some women to fly at night to the sabbaths."
So, the early Middle Ages, on the one hand, is an era of decline, barbarism, constant conquests, endless wars, a dramatic clash between pagan and Christian cultures, on the other hand, it is a time of gradual strengthening of Christianity, assimilation of the ancient heritage. Signs of early medieval culture can be considered adherence to tradition, conservatism of the whole public life, the dominance of the stereotype in artistic creativity, the stability of magical thinking, which was imposed on the church.
1.2 High (classical) Middle Ages (X-XIII centuries)
The era of the mature Middle Ages begins with the time of "cultural silence", which lasted almost until the end of the 10th century. Endless wars, civil strife, the political decline of the state led to the division of the empire of Charlemagne (843) and laid the foundation for three states: France, Italy and Germany.
During the period of the classical or high Middle Ages, Europe began to overcome difficulties and revive. In the XI century. the improvement of the economic situation, the growth of the population, the decrease in hostilities led to the acceleration of the process of separation of craft from agriculture, which resulted in the growth of both new cities and their sizes. In the XII-XIII centuries. many cities are freed from the power of spiritual or secular feudal lords.
Since the 10th century, state structures have been enlarged, which made it possible to raise larger armies and, to some extent, to stop raids and robberies. Missionaries brought Christianity to the countries of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, so that these states also entered the orbit of Western culture. The relative stability that followed made it possible for cities and the economy to rapidly expand. Life began to change for the better, the cities flourished their own culture and spiritual life. A big role in this was played by the same church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.
European medieval society was very religious and the power of the clergy over the minds was extremely great. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences - jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The clergy were the only educated class, and it was the church that for a long time determined the policy in the field of education. The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.
An important layer of the formation of folk culture during the classical Middle Ages is sermons. The bulk of society remained illiterate. In order for the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite to become the dominant thoughts of all parishioners, they had to be "translated" into a language accessible to all people. This is what the preachers did. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instil the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking. The sermon assumed as its listener any person - literate and illiterate, noble and commoner, city dweller and peasant, rich and poor.
The most famous preachers structured their sermons in such a way as to hold the attention of the public for a long time and convey to it the ideas of church teaching in the form of simple examples. Some used for this the so-called "examples" - short stories written in the form of parables on everyday topics. These "examples" are one of the early literary genres and are of particular interest for a more complete understanding of the worldview of ordinary believers. "Example" was one of the most effective means of didactic influence on parishioners. In these "cases from life" one can see the original world of medieval man, with his ideas about saints and evil spirits as real participants in a person's daily life. However, the most famous preachers, such as Berthold of Regenburg (XIII century), did not use the "Examples" in their sermons, building them mainly on biblical texts. This preacher built his sermons in the form of dialogues, addressed appeals and statements to a certain part of the audience or professional categories. He widely used the method of enumeration, riddles and other techniques that made his sermons small performances. The ministers of the church, as a rule, did not add anything to their sermons. original ideas and sayings, this was not expected of them and the parishioners would be unable to appreciate it. The audience received satisfaction just from listening to familiar and well-known things.
In the XII-XIII centuries. the church, having reached the peak of its power in the fight against the state, gradually began to lose its positions in the fight against the royal power. By the XIII century. natural economy begins to collapse as a result of the development of commodity-money relations, the personal dependence of the peasants is weakened.
1.3 Late Middle Ages (XIV-XV centuries)
The late Middle Ages continued the processes of formation of European culture, which began in the period of the classics. However, their course was far from smooth. In the XIV-XV centuries, Western Europe repeatedly experienced a great famine. Numerous epidemics, especially plagues, brought innumerable human casualties. The development of culture was greatly slowed down by the Hundred Years War. During these periods, uncertainty and fear dominated the masses. The economic upswing is replaced by long periods of recession and stagnation. In the masses, complexes of fear of death and the afterlife were intensified, fears of evil spirits were intensifying. At the end of the Middle Ages, in the minds of the common people, Satan is transformed from, in general, not a terrible and sometimes funny devil into an omnipotent ruler of the dark forces, who at the end of earthly history will act as the Antichrist. Another reason for fears is hunger, as a result of low yields and several years of droughts.
The sources of fear are best highlighted in the prayer of a peasant of that time: "Deliver us, Lord, from plague, famine and war." The dominance of oral culture has powerfully contributed to the multiplication of superstitions, fears and collective panics. However, in the end, the cities were reborn, people who survived pestilence and war got the opportunity to arrange their lives better than in previous eras. Conditions arose for a new upsurge in spiritual life, science, philosophy, and art. Gradually, the social structure of medieval society began to loosen. A new class is emerging - the bourgeoisie. The beginning process of the decomposition of feudalism (the socio-economic basis of medieval culture), the weakening of the influence of Christianity caused a crisis of medieval culture, expressed primarily in the destruction of its integrity, accelerated the transition to a new, qualitatively different era - the Renaissance, associated with the formation of a new, bourgeois type of society. Thus, changes in real life and worldview of people in the Middle Ages lead to the formation of new ideas about culture.
2. Christianity as the core of medieval culture
Christianity was the core of European culture and provided transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. For a long time in the historical and cultural literature, the view of the Middle Ages as the "dark ages" dominated. The foundations of this position were laid by the enlighteners. However, the history of the culture of Western European society was not so unambiguous, one thing is certain - all cultural lifeMedieval Europe of this period was largely determined by Christianity, which already in the IV century. from being persecuted it becomes the state religion in the Roman Empire.
From a movement in opposition to official Rome, Christianity turns into a spiritual, ideological pillar of the Roman state. At this time, a number of leading provisions of the Christian dogma were adopted at the Ecumenical Church Councils - symbol of faith. These provisions are declared binding on all Christians. The basis of Christian teaching was the belief in the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the Divine Trinity.
The concept of the Divine Trinity was interpreted as follows. God is one in all three persons: God the Father - the creator of the world, God the Son, Jesus Christ - the redeemer of sins and God the Holy Spirit - were absolutely equal and co-eternal with each other.
Despite the strong discrepancy between the ideal and the real, the very social and everyday life of people in the Middle Ages was an attempt, an aspiration to embody Christian ideals in practical activities. Therefore, let us consider the ideals towards which many efforts of people of that time were directed, and note the features of the reflection of these ideals in real life.
In the Middle Ages formed theological concept of culture(Greek theos - god), according to which God is the center of the universe, its active, creative principle, the source and cause of everything that exists. This is due to the fact that the absolute value is God. The medieval picture of the world, the religiosity of this culture is fundamentally fundamentally different from all previous ones, i.e. pagan cultures. God in Christianity is One, Personal and Spiritual, that is, absolutely non-material. Also, God is endowed with many virtuous qualities: God is All-good, God is Love, God is Absolute Good.
Thanks to such a spiritual and absolutely positive understanding of God, a person acquires special significance in the religious picture of the world. Man - the image of God, the greatest value after God, occupies a dominant place on Earth. The main thing in a person is the soul. One of the outstanding achievements of the Christian religion is the gift of free will to man, i.e. the right to choose between good and evil, God and the devil. Due to the presence of dark forces, evil, Medieval culture is often called dualistic (dual): on one of its poles - God, angels, saints, on the other - the Devil and his dark army (demons, sorcerers, heretics).
The tragedy of man is that he can abuse his free will. This is what happened to the first man, Adam. He shied away from the prohibitions of God towards the temptations of the devil. This process is called the fall. Sin is the result of man's deviation from God. It is because of sin that suffering, war, sickness, and death entered the world.
According to Christian teaching, a person cannot return to God on his own. To do this, a person needs a mediator - a Savior. The saviors in the medieval Christian picture of the world are Christ and His Church (in Western Europe - Catholic). Therefore, along with the category of sin, the problem of saving the soul of every person plays an important role in the picture of the world of the Middle Ages.
Thus, in the Christian ideology, the place of man is occupied by god - the creator, the place of the concept of "culture", so valued in antiquity, is occupied by the concept of "cult". From an etymological point of view, this concept also has the meaning of cultivation and improvement. However, the main emphasis in this concept is transferred to care, worship and reverence. This refers to the veneration of the highest, supernatural power, which controls the fate of the world and man. According to the Christian concept, the meaning of human life is to prepare for a true life, after death, the other world. Therefore, everyday, earthly, real life loses its intrinsic value. It is considered only as a preparation for eternal life, after death. The main emphasis is on the afterlife, afterlife retribution. Salvation is not given to everyone, but only to those who live according to the gospel commandments.
The whole life of a person in the Middle Ages stands between two reference points - sin and salvation. To escape from the first and achieve the latter, a person is given the following conditions: following the Christian commandments, doing good deeds, avoiding temptations, confessing one's sins, an active prayer and church life not only for monks, but also for the laity.
Thus, in Christianity, the requirements for the moral life of a person are tightened. Basic Christian values - Faith Hope Love.
In the medieval era, an irrational (non-rational, super-rational) beginning-faith was laid at the foundation of culture. Faith is placed above reason. Reason serves faith, deepens and clarifies it. Therefore, all types of spiritual culture - philosophy, science, law, morality, art - serve religion, obey it.
Art was also subordinated to the theocentric idea. It sought to strengthen the religious worldview. There are many scenes of the Last Judgment: the fear of the inevitable punishment for sins is brought up. A special tense psychological atmosphere. But there is also a powerful folk culture of laughter, where all these values were subjected to comic rethinking. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences (jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic) - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The clergy were the only educated class, and it was the church that for a long time determined the policy in the field of education.
All V-IX centuries. in schools in Western Europe were in the hands of the church. The church drew up a training program, selected students. the main task monastic schoolswas defined as the education of the ministers of the church. The Christian Church preserved and used elements of secular culture left over from the ancient education system. Church schools taught disciplines inherited from antiquity - the "seven liberal arts": grammar, rhetoric, dialectics with elements of logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.
There were also secular schools, where young men who were not intended for a church career studied, children from noble families studied in them (many such schools were opened in England in the second half of the 9th century). In the XI century. in Italy on the basis of the Bologna Law School was opened first university (1088), which became the largest center for the study of Roman and canon law. Students and professors united in universities in order to achieve independence from the city and have the right to self-government. The university was divided into fraternity - an association of students from a particular country, and faculties where they mastered this or that knowledge. In England in 1167 the first university was opened in Oxford, then - the university in Cambridge. The most prominent university scholar in England in the 13th century. was Roger Bacon (circa 1214-1292), who, as the main method of knowledge, put forward not church authorities, but reason and experience. The largest and first of the French universities was the Paris Sorbonne (1160). It united four faculties: general education, medical, legal and theological. Just like other major universities, students from all European countries flocked here.
Medieval university science was called scholasticism (from gr. schoolboy, scientist). Her most characteristic featuresthere was a desire to rely on authorities, primarily church ones, an underestimation of the role of experience as a method of cognition, a combination of theological and dogmatic premises with rationalistic principles, and an interest in formal logical problems.
A new and extremely important phenomenon, testifying to the development of urban culture, was the creation in cities non-church schools: these were private schools, financially independent of the church. The teachers of these schools lived off the fees collected from the students. Since that time, there has been a rapid spread of literacy among the urban population. An outstanding master of France in the 12th century. was Peter Abelard (1079-1142), philosopher, theologian and poet, who founded a number of non-church schools. He owns the famous essay "Yes and No", in which questions of dialectical logic were developed. In his lectures, which were extremely popular with the townspeople, he asserted the primacy of knowledge over faith.
In Christianity, a different understanding of man is being formed in comparison with the ancient one. The ancient ideal is the harmony of spirit and body, physical and spiritual. The Christian ideal is the victory of the spirit over the body, asceticism. In Christianity, priority is given to the soul, the spiritual principle. And a derogatory attitude is formed towards the body. It was believed that the body is sinful, mortal, is a source of temptations, a temporary refuge for the soul. And the soul is eternal, immortal, perfect, it is a particle of the divine principle in man. A person should take care of the soul first of all.
Speaking about the differences between the ancient and medieval ideals, one should pay attention to such a moment. The ancient ideal - a harmonious personality - was quite feasible, achievable, real. The medieval ideal, like the horizon, was unattainable. Because the medieval ideal is God, absolute perfection (good, good, love, justice). Man is always sinful, and he only approaches this ideal to one degree or another. Therefore, the cultural development of man is understood as a constant elevation, ascent to the ideal, god, absolute, as a process of overcoming the sinful and affirming the divine in man.
played an important role in the life of the society of that time. monasticism: the monks took upon themselves the obligations of "leaving the world", celibacy, renunciation of property. However, already in the 6th century monasteries turned into strong, often very wealthy centers, owning movable and immovable property. Many monasteries were centers of education and culture. So, in England at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century. in one of the monasteries lived Beda the Venerable, one of the most educated people of his time, the author of the first major work on English history. From the middle of the XII century. in rapidly developing cities the most mobile and educated part of the population is concentrated, receptive to spiritual food. The mendicant orders were part of urban spiritual currents and at the same time a reaction to their heretical excesses. One of the most important aspects of the activities of the orders was pastoral service, primarily preaching and confession. From their midst came the largest theologians of the Middle Ages - Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
Although medieval culture had an ideological, spiritual and artistic integrity, the dominance of Christianity did not make it completely homogeneous. One of its essential features was the appearance in it secular culture, reflecting the cultural self-consciousness and spiritual ideals of the military-aristocratic class of medieval society - chivalry and a new social stratum that arose in the mature Middle Ages - townspeople.
Secular culture, being one of the components of Western European medieval culture, remained Christian in nature. At the same time, the very image and lifestyle of chivalry and townspeople predetermined their focus on the earthly, developed special views, ethical standards, traditions, and cultural values. They recorded the human abilities and values necessary for military service, communication among the feudal lords. In contrast to the asceticism advocated by the church, earthly joys and values \u200b\u200blike love, beauty, and service to a beautiful lady were sung in chivalric culture.
A special cultural layer of the Middle Ages was represented by folk culture. Throughout the Middle Ages, remnants of paganism and elements of folk religion have been preserved in folk culture. She opposed the official culture and developed her own view of the world, reflecting the close relationship between man and nature. Centuries after the adoption of Christianity, Western European peasants continued to secretly pray and make sacrifices to the old pagan shrines. Under the influence of Christianity, many pagan deities were transformed into evil demons. Special magical rites were performed in case of crop failure, drought, etc. Ancient beliefs in sorcerers and werewolves persisted among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages. To combat evil spirits, various amulets were widely used, both verbal (all kinds of conspiracies) and subject (amulets, talismans). In almost every medieval village one could meet a sorceress who could not only inflict damage, but also heal.
Laughter folk culture, folk festivals and carnivals nourished heretical movements and, along with chivalrous culture, represented the secular, worldly beginning in the culture of the Middle Ages. However, just as in society, in culture there was a hierarchy of values. Different cultures were valued differently. In the first place was the religious, church culture. The courtly, knightly culture was recognized as necessary, but less valuable. The pagan folk culture was seen as sinful, vile. Thus, in the Middle Ages, religious culture subjugated all types of secular culture.
The most vividly and deeply Christian worldview was conveyed in the art of the Middle Ages. The main attention of the artists of the Middle Ages was paid to the other world, the Divine, their art was considered as a Bible for the illiterate, as a means of familiarizing a person with God, comprehending His essence. The Catholic Cathedral served as an artistic and religious embodiment of the image of the entire universe.
The early Middle Ages is the period of dominance of the Romanesque style. Romanesque architecture is perceived as a heavy, oppressive, great silence, embodying the stability of a person's worldview, his "horizontal", "groundedness". From the end of the XIII century. the gothic style becomes the leading one. For its lightness and openwork, it was called frozen, silent music, "a symphony in stone." Unlike harsh monolithic, impressive Romanesque temples and castles, Gothic cathedrals are adorned with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed to the sky, their towers towered up to 150 meters. The masterpieces of this style are the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Reims, Cologne.
Thus, the culture of the Middle Ages in Western Europe laid the foundation for a new direction in the history of civilization - the establishment of Christianity not only as a religious doctrine, but also as a new worldview and attitude, which significantly influenced all subsequent cultural epochs. Although, as we know, the Christian ideal of man was not realized in medieval society. Now we understand that the ideal may not correspond to the logic of life itself, the historical reality underlying culture.
Another thing is important - we judge culture by the ideals that it put forward and which formed the mentality of its person, which holds together the unity of cultural tradition. Despite the inconsistency of the socio-cultural process, medieval culture was characterized by deep psychologism, heightened attention to the human soul, the inner world of man.
The era of the Middle Ages should not be regarded as a period of failure in the development of Western European culture from antiquity to modern times. For all the inconsistency of the culturological process, it is more legitimate to assert that it was at this time that the most important features of the Western European Christian type of culture were formed on the basis of the widespread spread of Christianity. The spiritual and moral crisis of European civilization allows us to see the merits of medieval culture, makes us rethink the most important achievements of its spiritual culture, its values and ideals - the ideas of mercy, selfless virtue, condemnation of money-grubbing, the idea of human universality and many others.
christianity culture middle ages
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us briefly note the following.
Medieval culture is a qualitatively new stage in the development of European culture, following after antiquity and covering more than a thousand-year period (V-XV centuries). It differs from many previous and subsequent eras in the special tension of spiritual life. The most important feature of medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian church. In the context of the general decline of culture immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire, only the church for many centuries remained the only social institution common to all countries, tribes and states of Western Europe. Christianity became a kind of unifying shell, which led to the formation of medieval culture as a whole. First, Christianity created a unified ideological and ideological field of medieval culture. Being an intellectually developed religion, Christianity offered medieval man a coherent system of knowledge about the world and man, about the principles of the structure of the universe, its laws and the forces acting in it. Christianity declares the salvation of man as the highest goal. People sin before God. Salvation requires faith in God, spiritual efforts, a pious life, sincere repentance of sins. However, it is impossible to be saved on your own, salvation is possible only in the bosom of the Church, which, according to Christian dogma, unites Christians into one mystical body with the sinless human nature of Christ. In Christianity, the model is a humble person, suffering, thirsting for the atonement of sins, salvation with God's grace. Proclaiming the dominance of the spiritual over the carnal, giving priority to the inner world of man, Christianity played a huge role in shaping the moral character of medieval man. The ideas of mercy, selfless virtue, the condemnation of acquisitiveness and wealth - these and other Christian values - although they were not practically implemented in any of the classes of medieval society (including monasticism), nevertheless had a significant impact on the formation of the spiritual and moral sphere of medieval culture. Secondly, Christianity has created a single religious space, a new spiritual community of people of the same faith. This was facilitated primarily by the ideological aspect of Christianity, which interprets a person, regardless of his social status, as an earthly incarnation of the Creator, called to strive for spiritual perfection. The Christian God stands above the external differences of people - ethnic, class, etc. Spiritual universalism allowed Christianity to appeal to all people, regardless of their class, ethnicity, etc. accessories. In the conditions of feudal fragmentation, political weakness of state formations, and incessant wars, Christianity acted as a kind of bond that integrated, united the disparate European peoples into a single spiritual space, creating a religious connection of people. Thirdly, Christianity acted as the organizational, regulating principle of medieval society. Under the conditions of the destruction of old tribal relations and the collapse of "barbarian" states, the church's own hierarchical organization became a model for creating the social structure of feudal society. The idea of a single origin of the human race responded to the trend towards the formation of large early feudal states, most clearly embodied in the empire of Charlemagne, Christianity became the cultural and ideological basis for the consolidation of a diverse empire.
The church was not only the dominant political institution, but also had a dominant influence directly on the consciousness of the population. The medieval higher clergy were the only educated class.
Medieval mass culture is a bookless culture; the “translation” of the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite into a language accessible to all people was sermons, which represent a significant layer of medieval culture. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instil the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking.
Bibliography
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2.Gribunin, V.V. Culturology / V.V. Gribunin I.V. Krivtsova, N.G. Kulinich, and others - Khabarovsk: Togu Publishing House, 2008. - 164 p.
.Ilyina E.A. Culturology / E.A. Ilyina, M.E. Burov. - M.: MIEMP, 2009. - 104 p.
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Christianity acts as the ideological basis of the Middle Ages, leaving an imprint on all spheres of spiritual and material life. The system of values in the Middle Ages has God as its absolute center. Man is given as a gift and given as a task to become familiar with the Divine Essence. With every thought and deed, a person serves God. Drawing closer to God is salvation, eternal life. Therefore, all actions are correlated with the idea of absolute salvation or absolute death. The main mode of attitude to God is hope and faith. This is the hope of what is not and what cannot be verified. Christian Divine Providence, unlike the ancient Rock, does not deny dialogue and the possibility of changing one's destiny. You can call on God and hope.
Christianity brings in medieval culture new image of man. On the one hand, man is the image and likeness of God and therefore can approach the divine. On the other hand, a vile beginning lives in him, he is subjected to demonic suggestions that split his will. Medieval man cannot explain his inner life without the concepts of grace and demonic possession. He experiences a painful split within the personality. Now his life is located between the dazzling abyss of grace and the black abyss of death, and everyone must decide in which direction to rush.
Even extremely private norms of behavior were regulated by Christian ideas. So, the believer should drink any drink in five sips, “according to the number of wounds on the body of our Lord, at the end he takes a double sip, for both blood and water flowed from the wound in the side of Jesus” J. Huizinga. Autumn of the Middle Ages. S. 154.
Christianity also gave rise to such a peculiar form of social organization as monasteries. Monasteries in the early Middle Ages become practically the only centers of spiritual culture and education. The monasteries also performed the function of book depositories; scriptoria appeared in them - centers for the correspondence of books. The monks accepted into their ranks people regardless of origin, in practice implementing the early Christian idea of the equality of all before God. At the center of monastic life was prayer and asceticism (Greek askesis exercise, practice), a set of forms and methods of self-restraint and self-control. Some kind of asceticism exists in most religions of the world. But European monasteries also provided for themselves. Because of this, work began to be perceived as a preparatory stage on the path to salvation.
The outlook and life principles of the early Christian communities were initially formed in opposition to the pagan world. However, as Christianity gained more and more widespread influence and spread, and therefore began to need a rational justification for its dogmas, there are attempts to use the teachings of ancient philosophers for this purpose. Of course, at the same time they were given a new interpretation.
Thus, medieval thinking and worldview determined two different traditions: Christian revelation, on the one hand, and ancient philosophy, on the other. These two traditions, of course, were not so easy to reconcile with each other. Among the Greeks, as we remember, the concept of being was associated with the idea of limit (Pythagoreans), unity (Eleates), that is, with certainty and indivisibility. Boundless, boundless was realized as imperfection, chaos, non-existence. This was consistent with the adherence of the Greeks to everything completed, visible, plastically designed, their love for form, measure, proportionality.
In the biblical tradition, the highest being - God - is characterized as unlimited omnipotence. It is no coincidence that with his will he can stop rivers and drain the seas and, violating the laws of nature, work miracles. With such a view of God, any certainty, everything that has a limit, is perceived as finite and imperfect: such are created things, in contrast to their creator.
If representatives of one tradition were inclined to see in God, first of all, the highest mind (and therefore approached the ancient Platonists), then representatives of the other emphasized precisely the will of God, which is akin to His power, and saw in the will main characteristic divine personality.
Specificity of medieval scholasticism. Thomas Aquinas. Proof of the Existence of God
In the spiritual life of Europe during the Middle Ages, the church occupied a dominant position and began to assert in its “image and likeness” the necessary social worldview. The Bible became the main socio-political and ideological document.
The prominent theologian and prolific writer John of Damascus dedicated his work to streamlining the new worldview around 675-753. He thoroughly mastered all patristics, was aware of the philosophical searches of the Neoplatonists, and respected the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils. His role for medieval thinking is similar to the role of Aristotle in relation to ancient thought. The motto of all the theoretical searches of Damascus was: "I will not say anything from myself." And, it must be admitted, he basically followed this motto, making commentary the main form of creativity. Of the works of the "author's" nature, he wrote only one - "The Source of Knowledge".
Damascene urged his contemporaries-philosophers to stop "theorizing". There is the Bible, there is the legacy of the Founding Fathers, there are decisions of the Ecumenical Councils. This material is quite sufficient for understanding God, the world, the human soul. The further task of philosophy is to deepen the material received, to deepen the truths of religion developed by theology, in which answers to any questions can be found.
The authority of John of Damascus was recognized not only by Eastern, but also by Western Christianity, although a gap was already brewing between them. The desire of Damascene to belittle the significance of philosophy, to “clip the wings” of free theoretical thinking three centuries later, the monk Peter Damiani clearly formulates: “Philosophy should serve the Holy Scriptures, as a servant serves her mistress.” During the period of domination of medieval scholasticism, this statement acquired an even shorter form: "Philosophy is the servant of theology."
Why is medieval philosophy defined as scholasticism in historical science? The term has entered the modern language culture as a synonym for inert, dogmatic thinking, when there is a proof or refutation of a position with a mandatory reference to unconditional authority, regardless of time and circumstances, due to which the cited may already lose its credibility. Today, such a thoughtless defender of false truths can safely be called a scholastic.
In the Middle Ages, educational, school philosophy was called scholasticism (compare: the Latin "schola" - teaching, and the Russian "school"). The Church needed hundreds and thousands of clergy, erudite and literate, able to teach their flock the faith, able to convey to them the "word of God", able to eradicate the remnants of "paganism". Theological universities were opened in the largest cities of medieval Europe, and monasteries were turned into centers for theological training of young people. A kind of philosophical training occupied almost the main place in the curricula. But in this scholastic philosophy there was no longer creativity, since all the ontological, epistemological and life-giving truths were already present in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. The task of philosophy now consisted only in their correct comprehension and dissemination. This task was called upon to solve scholasticism.
However, even within these rigid boundaries, the philosophical thought of the scholastics sometimes gave rise to living sprouts, posed questions that were not so easily resolved before the canonized theology. An example is the question of the relationship between the truths of faith and the truths of reason. Why do they sometimes contradict each other, although everything comes from God? Why, since our soul is a gift from God, is it so powerless in its cognitive abilities? Why did the original sin of Adam and Eve fall on all generations of people, even on those whose genealogy comes from the righteous Noah? Why does God allow the devil to tempt people? Is the devil the antipode of God or his instrument?
There are many examples of theoretical problems faced by medieval scholastics. Scholasticism, serving the provisions of dogmatic theology, zealously following all sorts of manifestations of "heresies", itself often approached heresies, behind which deism, pantheism were hidden, and sometimes even the contours of a materialistic worldview appeared, although the "last step" scholastics did not take. In cases of deviation from the traditional worldview and fluctuations in the truth of the "truths" of the revelation of the scholastics, a monastic conclusion awaited, and with the introduction of the Inquisition, the possibility of a more impressive punishment. An example of a scholastic of unconventional thinking is the Irish philosopher John Scotus Eriugena (Johannes Scotus Eriugena), or Erigena (p. ca. 810 - d. ca. 877), - Middle-Century. philosopher, creator of the first in the Middle Ages an integral objective-idealistic. and pantheistic. philosophy systems. Eriugena translated into Latin the works of Pseudo-Dionysius and Maximus the Confessor, adding to these works extensive commentaries written in the spirit of Christianized Neoplatonism. He interprets the Christian concept of "existing" as the unity of God and nature, where God becomes its creative part. It is true that Eriugena is far from the later pantheism: his “creative nature” through a series of steps, when it first turns into created nature, then into the world of material things. At the end of this cycle of evolution, “creative nature” absorbs everything again, the world, as it were, disappears in its “higher nature” - God, who had the political patronage of the French emperor Charles the Bald. This allowed him, during the period of scholastic interpretation of the Bible and complete subordination to the provisions of theology, to creatively use patristics, neoplatonists, paying tribute to the philosophical achievements of the thinkers of antiquity.
The original thinker of the Middle Ages was Pierre Abelard - count, theologian, professor, who created his theological and philosophical school near Paris. Two of his books: "Yes and No", "On Faith and Knowledge" did not fit into the theological interpretation of the Bible, contained an attempt on the existence of unconditional truths of revelation. In his philosophical constructions, he moved from the idea of creationism towards deism, proclaiming the admissibility of the coexistence of the truths of revelation with the truths of reason. Both of these books, as undermining the foundations of the theocentric worldview and carrying an attempt on the absolute truth of the Bible, were burnt as heretical by the decision of the Archbishop of Paris, and his personal fate turned out to be tragic. the sin of the flesh." Marriage was out of the question. The lovers fled, hoping to find refuge in African Mauritania, but were intercepted on the way to the port of Lyon. The church came up with a cruel punishment for Abelard: he voluntarily had to go to a monastery, where he remained a recluse for 22 years, until his death in 1142; Eloise also voluntarily accepted obedience, not repenting of her "sin" to death. In the monastery, Abelard wrote a penitential book, The History of My Disasters, which the clergy actively distributed, trying to extinguish the influence of the burnt works, the contents of which Paris still remembered ..
Abelard's Yes and No can be defined as the first attempt at a rationalistic reading of the Bible. Abelard did not question the fundamental truths of the Holy Scriptures. The only thing he sincerely wanted was to separate the "divine" from the "human" in this book. Knowing well the theological picture of the origin of the Bible, when analyzing its text, Abelard tried to separate what the “divinely inspired” men were supposed to write down from what they actually wrote down, striving to make the “God-given” understandable to the people of Moses. Such stratification led to the fact that both divine truths and human additions to them turned out to be canonized, and therefore some provisions of the Bible, of course, speak of God as the creator and provider of the world, while other places introduced by man are capable of giving rise to doubt in his being. In the same work, Abelard, with references to the Bible, expressed the deistic position that the eternal God cannot exist without the same eternal world John, 1: 1-3.
The work “On Faith and Knowledge” is an indicator of the intuition of an intelligent theologian for the impossibility of constantly keeping consciousness in line with religious ideas about all types of being, a kind of signal for the church to seek harmony between faith and knowledge. Abelard was looking for ways to justify the right of reason to the truth, as well as ways to overcome contradictions in cases where the truths of reason come into conflict with the truths of faith. Abelard found the method he used to justify the right of reason to knowledge and truth in the justification of the specificity of the knowledge given by faith, which are in the soul given to us by God. The soul is given to us by God for eternal life, while the mind, the same gift of God, is given to us for the possibility of our existence in the world below, on earth, where, by the will of God, there is a “test” of the strength of our faith. The truths of faith are eternal truths. The truths of knowledge are temporary, transient truths. Therefore, there is and cannot be any conflict between faith and knowledge, religion and science, because through knowledge we are approaching the comprehension of the divine world and all the wisdom of the Creator, while through faith we are approaching eternity, the comprehension of the fundamental principles.
An interesting thinker of the Middle Ages was the Arab philosopher and physician Ibn Rushd (Latinized Averroes) (1126--1198), an Arab philosopher and physician, a representative of Arab Aristotelianism .. He had to defend the right of philosophy to an independent existence from the attacks of both Muslim and Christian theologians, which he defended in his treatise "The Refutation of the Refutation". Without speaking openly against religion or against the idea of God, he, however, made an attempt to attack one of the central provisions of the religious worldview: he denied the absolute value of the "truths of revelation", while defending the right of reason to achieve it. Formally, Averroes was defeated in this struggle with the theologically established positions, but as a result of this “defeat”, Averroism penetrated into European philosophical culture as a special direction in line with theological thinking, whose influence in the 12th-13th centuries. was felt even in Catholic universities, since the idea of the legitimacy of the neighborhood of the truths of reason and the truths of revelation followed from the idea of the divine nature of reason, they cannot contradict each other.
The thinking of the names of the philosopher-theologians, which was mentioned above, with all the subjective devotion of the authors of the church, was broken out of the theocentric worldview. This was facilitated even by the church itself with its strict control over the state of thinking in its ranks, depriving the scholastics of the main human sign: forbidding them to think independently. The threat of accusation of "heresy", and sometimes even excommunication from the church, often faltered. The leaders of the church understood that against a theory dangerous for the religious worldview, it was necessary to counter it with another theory, and therefore the need for new arguments literally hung over the theology that had been outdated for centuries. Repeated from century to century, references to church "authorities" very often no longer worked. The task of searching for philosophical arguments in defense of the truths of religion is objectively ripe. And such a "new word" in the XIII century was said by the most prominent scholastic of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas in 1225-1274.
An aristocrat of the blood, the future owner of the ducal title, Thomas is already in youth, contrary to the will of his parents, made a choice in favor of the church, devoting his whole life to the theoretical substantiation of the inviolability of religious truths. Already during his lifetime, he gained great authority and fame in theological circles, and after his death in 1314, his philosophy was declared the official theoretical doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas Aquinas himself, for his services to the church, was canonized in 1381. Today, the philosophy of Thomas, somewhat updated by Catholic theologians, under the name of "neo-Thomism" continues to be the philosophical basis of Catholicism. Neo-Thomism is the object of careful study at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. St. Thomas, and the theoretical journal of Catholicism "Tomist", published under the patronage of the Vatican, is a reference book for the entire Catholic clergy of the world.
An erudite theologian, an attentive analyst of the state of intra-church life, Thomas Aquinas caught the epoch of growing mental ferment not only in secular, but also in church circles. It became clear to him the weakness of the arguments invoked by theology to defend the truths of religion: authorities, even great ones, are not always able to convince the doubter. New arguments are needed to protect the inviolability of the religious worldview, and not in the form of references, but visible, essential, understandable to everyone, even to skeptics who doubt the truths of religion.
Thomas, although this may seem strange for a theologian, drew attention to the nature and natural science of his time, finding in nature, in the case of its thoughtful analysis, irrefutable evidence in favor of the existence of God. The arguments he found at that time seemed irrefutable. Of the thinkers of the past, he made full use of the heritage of Aristotle, especially his doctrine of the Prime Mover and the main provisions of the work of the Stagirite. Thus Aristotle was called, after his birthplace, Stagira, in Macedonia. "About the soul." At the same time, without naming Averroes, he drew some of the arguments from the teachings of the Averroists about dual truth, but he considered the truths of revelation and the truths of reason as subordinate: divine truth is universal truth, the truths of reason are truths of a particular order.
When considering nature, Aquinas focused on the multi-tiered nature of material existence, which, at a first approximation, he divided into inanimate, living and "human". Within this division, he noted the multi-stage nature in each of these large blocks of being, considering all material existence as a constant complication, constant enrichment of the spiritual component of being manifested at each stage. The presence of each level of being is ensured by the fact that under it, below it, there is a simpler form, which serves as a kind of sole for the overlying step. But the existence of the underlying form is ensured by the fact that under it there is its own underlying form, and this is how all material existence is built. But since the simplest form of material existence exists, there must be something that ensures its existence. This “something” is the Spirit of God, which lies at the foundation of all being. Consequently, the multi-tiered structure itself tells us that the basis of material existence is the Spirit, which acts not only as the basis, but also as the Creator of all material existence.
Further, the consideration of the world goes in the reverse order - from simple to complex, from inanimate to living, while the provisions of the "pagan" Aristotle are actively used. Since the Spirit lies at the foundation of all being, it pervades all being. But the degree of its expression is different: at the level of inanimate nature, the Spirit is dead. The emergence of the plant kingdom at the base dead nature- evidence that the Spirit manifested itself, gave plant forms the property of life, reproduction. The world of animals that has developed on the basis of the vegetable kingdom is already a new stage in the manifestation of the Spirit, since animals not only grow and multiply, but also have other signs that are inaccessible to plants: movement, feeling, desires and will.
The highest tier of nature is man, in which spirituality is already manifested as a divine soul. He carries all the signs of the inanimate, plant and animal kingdoms of nature, and his soul is not only alive and strong-willed, but also intelligent, knowing the past and future, having an idea of \u200b\u200bthe highest. Such a manifestation of the originally dead soul of inanimate nature in the rational and moral human soul indicates that the entire material world strives for higher spirituality, for God.
As a result of such consideration of material existence from complex to simple, and vice versa - from simple to complex, we equally rest against the Divine. All nature, its multilayered nature, proves to us both the former creation of the world by God, and its impending disappearance on the day of the Last Judgment. Nature is not only a weighty argument in favor of the existence of God, but also a visible confirmation of the picture of the divine creation of being revealed in the Bible. This argument in favor of the truth of religion, the religious picture of the world in the eyes of the theologians of the Middle Ages seemed irrefutable. This explains the honor with which the Catholic Church surrounded Thomas Aquinas, not only during his lifetime, but also after his death, up to the present time.
Aquinas, unlike the narrow-minded theologians of his time, respectfully treated philosophy, considering it not a servant, but the most faithful assistant to theology. His main work is the unfinished "Summary of Theology", which, according to the author's intention, was to become a kind of encyclopedia of theology and proof of the truth of the theocentric worldview. It must be assumed that such an "encyclopedia" could have turned out, since the author died in the prime of his creative talent. Here are some thoughts from this work.
“For the salvation of mankind, it was necessary that, beyond the philosophical disciplines, which are based on human reason, there should be some science based on divine revelation; this was necessary, first of all, because a person is correlated with God as with some of his goal ... Meanwhile, it is necessary that the goal be known to people in advance, so that they correlate their efforts and actions with it. It follows from this that a person, for his salvation, needs to know something that eludes his mind, through divine revelation ... ".
“Theology can take something from the philosophical disciplines, but not because it feels the need for it, but only for the greater intelligibility of the positions it teaches. After all, it borrows its foundations not from other sciences, but directly from God through revelation. Theology, Thomas argues, is easier to rely on the data of the natural sciences because they are talking about subjects accessible to our mind. And from here it is already easier for us to rise in thought to objects inaccessible - to God.
As you can see, with all his respect for philosophy, Aquinas gives it only minor role- comprehend "accessible" objects in order to make the transition from them to the "inaccessible". Of the former thinkers, Thomas actively used the legacy of Aristotle, but the philosophy of his teacher Plato passed over in silence, since Platonism can be interpreted both as a “pagan” version of revelation, and as a “vague” pantheism, when the idea of God is lost in the One, and the One itself as an “idea Good” turns out to be involved both in the world of ideas and in the world of things. However, the proof of the existence of God put forward by Aquinas differed in its novelty from traditional scholastic reasoning, when the lack of arguments was made up for by an abundance of references to indisputable authorities, against which it was simply dangerous to object.