| Archive Secretary of Synodal Commission on Bioethics visits Iran 16 January 2024 year 12:12 On January 11-13, 2024, Archpriest Alexander Abramov, secretary of the Synodal Commission on Bioethics, made a working visit to Iran. On January 11, Archpriest Alexander was received by H.E. Alexei Dedov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran. During the conversation, issues of interreligious contacts were discussed, including those dealing with which is the Joint Russian-Iranian Commission for " Orthodoxy- Islam " Dialogue established in 1997. The website of the Synodal Commission on Bioethics reports that on January 13 Fr. Alexander met with Hojjat-ul-Islam Mohammad Mahdi Imanipour, Chairman of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization. Issues of possible cooperation between Russian experts in Orthodox bioethics and Iranian theologians dealing with the sanctity of life, biomedicine, transplantology and other current bioethical problems were touched upon. Special attention was paid to research in the field of high technology and artificial intelligence. The participants agreed to develop systematic cooperation in these areas. Concrete aspects of common work were discussed during a meeting of Archpriest Alexander Abramov with Professor Ali Akbar Ziaee, head of the Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization. A preliminary plan of cooperation was outlined, which includes visits to the centers of bioethical research in Russia and Iran, seminars and conferences on in-depth study of theological aspects of modern bioethics with emphasis on neuroethics and artificial intelligence. Attending the meetings was hegumen Varlaam (Dulsky), a cleric of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Tehran. DECR Communication Service /Patriarchia.ru Календарь ← 7 April 2024 year |
| Holy and Great Friday. The Lord walks to His suffering. Fresco in Stavronikita Monastery, Mt. Athos. Photo: Pravoslavie.ru The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 10:32-45 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise.” We are now entering our final week of Great and Holy Lent . The Church today reminds us that we are not far from the climax of the story of our salvation. Before long we will again be reminded of God’s goodness towards mankind. We will again be reminded of the way that God has worked and continues to work to bring the human race to life, true life, and to peace with one another and with Him. Just as we hear the gospel and we understand that the Church is preparing us for the whirlwind of events that will happen. We also understand that Our Lord Jesus is preparing His twelve disciples for what is to come. Yet we see that even after teaching them privately and attempting to prepare them for what was to come, what was to befall Him, they really never understand. Do we understand? Do we understand the magnitude of this story which is central to our Christian faith? Do we understand the ramifications of the Creator of life choosing to voluntarily lay down His life as a ransom for many? Do we understand that the Lord Jesus had every opportunity to escape such a fate? The Lord wasn’t captured against His own free will. He chose to become a prisoner, He chose the mocking and the scourging. He chose to be spit upon and to be treated like dirt. He chose by His own free will to be put to death by those whom He had given existence and life. This past week I read about one of the technology billionaires. He was interviewed and said that he was afraid of what artificial intelligence might do in the future. He envisioned that it was possible that one day the computers and robots that we have created would turn on the human race. He doesn’t know this to be true but he speculates that it is a possibility. I could not help but think about God’s mercy towards the human race. He fully understood that we would turn against Him. He knew this even before He formed the world. He knew that we would rebel and choose a life that was actually death because it was detached from Him and He is the source of life. He knew that we would choose false gods and that those gods would take many forms. He knew that we would so fully and completely turn against Him that we would not be satisfied by merely ignoring Him. He fully and completely understood that even those whom He called His own people would betray Him and sentence Him to death. |
| - I do not think so. - Patriarch Kirill expressed his readiness to visit the forum of heads of the world religious to take place in 2022 in Kazakhstan, and in May 2022, it is planned to hold an inter-confessional meeting under the UN aegis in Russia. Can the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church meet at one of these platforms? - This location was not considered. - What are the aims of the second meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis? And what topics would the sides like to discuss at it? - The principal question: how Christians are to survive in a world that is growing ever more aggressive with regard to them in a great many regions. It is not on only in the Middle East, where in recent times Christians in some countries have been evicted en mass fr om their habitation places, and not only in some countries in Africa, where Christians are subjected to persecutions, but also in Europe, wh ere the cases of attacks on churches and defilement of shrines have become more frequent. I mentioned some of these cases in my lecture at the Free University in Bari. - Will the sides touch upon the subject of peace-making, mitigating the political tension between the West and Russia, advocating traditional Christian values in Europe and the world, world trends of departure from the traditional ideas of the two sexes and marriage, new biotechnologies, the application of artificial intelligence, QR-codes and fears of total control over citizens, migration flows and crises, eco-problems, the future of Christianity and humankind as a whole? What problems are the most acute? - All these problems or some of them will be dealt with. The content side of the meetings is still to be worked out and we have already begun discussing it with Cardinal Koch. - Is it possible to discuss theological topics for lifting up doctrinal contradictions between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church? - A discussion on theological and doctrinal topics is not planned. |
| Temperance is best described as self-control. Prudence (doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right measure) is the virtue that is the foundation of wisdom. Though both are natural to us, both require nurture and development. Temperance and prudence are least evident in the young – it takes time and experience for them to take shape. It is the context of a virtuous community that allows such experience to safely bear fruit. No human being stands alone. Just as we require others around us in order to acquire language, so the virtues are formed and shaped in the context of community. Language is a natural facility. However, if it is not acquired early, it can be difficult to acquire at all (as noted in the case of several “feral” children). We should assume that what is natural about the virtues is similar. Self-control and good judgement (other terms to describe temperance and prudence) involve the ability to say “no” – and not just to others – but to ourselves. We could say that the first sin in the Garden was a failure of both. It is interesting that the Fathers are often quite gentle in their treatment of Adam and Eve. They were “adolescents” some say. Temperance and prudence are also the hardest to measure and define. What is the proper amount of self-control? What should be avoided or encouraged? Those decisions point to prudence as perhaps the queen of virtues. Knowing what is the right amount, at the right time, and the right manner, is the most difficult thing of all. There are no books that can teach this. Prudence is a stern rebuke of our youth-oriented culture. Since the 1950’s, we have been an economic culture that directs its markets towards youth. What is described as “fashion” (“cool,” etc.) is almost entirely defined by what sells best among the young. The psychology of such marketing has long been a part of American consumer capitalism, refined today by algorithms of artificial intelligence. We have created an economy that thrives on inexperience, intemperance, and poor judgement. The results speak for themselves. |
| “A monastery is usually thought of as something quiet, closed, but our sisters go to America, Australia – offering our goods” Father Andrew tells. “The Churches had not been united yet, when we were making a shrine for the Relics of St. John in San-Francisco.” The sisters take part in exhibitions and organize Orthodox fairs in small towns themselves. They not only sell goods there, but also hold missionary talks, show Orthodox movies, and give concerts (there are two wonderful, professional choirs, such is the custom here – a white one and a black one). To See God Through Circumstances “We do not want to depend on sponsors,” Father Andrew says. “Because their intensions can change for some reason or other. What are we supposed to do then? But selling our goods we can develop further. Now there are five sisters in one cell. It is very difficult psychologically; that is why we have to build more. But we need money for it. Some condemn us, saying that a monastery should not be like that. But how do I know what it should be like? God made it like that. Shall we argue with God? One can not restrict God to our intelligence, our vision. “Once a monk from the St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on the Holy Mount Athos, Father Kirion, came to us,” Nun Tavifa, the rural dean of the convent tells. “He said that social service is very important for a monk, because modern people tend to be unsociable, hardhearted, but contacts with the help for the sick not to retreat into oneself. Generally, the Sisterhood does not have any clear plan; life itself dictates how we should develop. Our entity is complex, someone from the outside can not understand it at once. But this entity is not artificial – it just happened this way. It is important to see God through circumstances. He sends us such conditions that enable our convent and Sisterhood to develop.” “God enables us to do what we do,” Father Andrew says. “And we have to not waste this time, because we do not know what will happen tomorrow. I expect nothing will be easy. It is impossible to live always on a high level. Quantity has to be transformed into quality. And quality is possible if persecutions begin, in my opinion. When in 1987 I came to the church, the quality of people’s faith was quite another, because then one had to endure a great deal to be a believer.” |
| They are like the iron which is being fashioned according to the volition of the artificer, and receives whatever shape the idea which is in his mind prescribes, and becomes a sword or some agricultural implement. Supposing, then, that our reason, which is our nature " s choicest part, holds the dominion over these imported emotions (as Scripture allegorically declares in the command to men to rule over the brutes), none of them will be active in the ministry of evil; fear will only generate within us obedience , and anger fortitude, and cowardice caution; and the instinct of desire will procure for us the delight that is Divine and perfect. But if reason drops the reins and is dragged behind like a charioteer who has got entangled in his car, then these instincts are changed into fierceness, just as we see happens among the brutes. For since reason does not preside over the natural impulses that are implanted in them, the more irascible animals, under the generalship of their anger, mutually destroy each other; while the bulky and powerful animals get no good themselves from their strength, but become by their want of reason slaves of that which has reason. Neither are the activities of their desire for pleasure employed on any of the higher objects; nor does any other instinct to be observed in them result in any profit to themselves. Thus too, with ourselves, if these instincts are not turned by reasoning into the right direction, and if our feelings get the mastery of our mind, the man is changed from a reasoning into an unreasoning being, and from godlike intelligence sinks by the force of these passions to the level of the brute. Much moved by these words, I said: To any one who reflects indeed, your exposition, advancing as it does in this consecutive manner, though plain and unvarnished, bears sufficiently upon it the stamp of correctness and hits the truth. And to those who are expert only in the technical methods of proof a mere demonstration suffices to convince; but as for ourselves, we were agreed that there is something more trustworthy than any of these artificial conclusions, namely, that which the teachings of Holy Scripture point to: and so I deem that it is necessary to inquire, in addition to what has been said, whether this inspired teaching harmonizes with it all. |
| Heaven knows whether it is true; but this, at any rate, is how it appears to me. In the world of knowledge the last thing to be perceived and only with great difficulty is the essential Form of Goodness. Once it is perceived, the conclusion must follow that, for all things, this is the cause of whatever is right and good; in the visible world it gives birth to light and to the lord of light, while it is itself sovereign in the intelligible world and the parent of intelligence and truth. Without having had a vision of this Form no-one can act with wisdom, either in his own life or in matters of state. (517 A–C) The Cave is the world revealed to us by our senses. It is a world characterized by unreality. And yet, it is the world we are used to – it is what we think of as ‘reality’. The soul, which really belongs to the divine realm of the Forms or Ideas, has made itself at home in this world of unreality revealed to us through the senses. Plato’s concern, then, is with the soul’s search for true reality. The allegory of the Cave shows us some of the problems that this search involves; and the first of these is to see that there is a problem at all – to see that we need to search for reality, and are not in touch with it already. The first stage is an awakening – an awakening to the fact that we are far from home, far from the soul’s true abode, the realm of the Forms. Having been awakened, the soul must then unlearn its apprehensions of false reality and begin to accustom itself to true reality. Plato sees this as a gradual process: in terms of the allegory, the prisoners move from seeing shadows and hearing echoes to seeing the artificial objects which produced those shadows and echoes – a move from unconscious deception to seeing what it is that deceives us. Then, if the prisoner will go further in the pursuit of reality, it will be as if he were dragged forcibly up a steep and rugged ascent, a painful process, leading to his coming into the daylight – a daylight that dazzles his weakened eyes and blinds him. |
| Further note, that will ( qelhsis ) and wish ( boulhsis ) are two different things: also the object of will ( to qelhton ) and the capacity for will ( qelhtikon ), and the subject that exercises will ( o qelwn ), are all different. For will is just the simple faculty of willing, whereas wish is will directed to some definite object. Again, the object of will is the matter underlying the will, that is to say, the thing that we will: for instance, when appetite is roused for food. The appetite pure and simple, however, is a rational will. The capacity for will, moreover, means that which possesses the volitional faculty, for example, man. Further, the subject that exercises will is the actual person who makes use of will. The word to qelhma , it is well to note, sometimes denotes the will, that is, the volitional faculty, and in this sense we speak of natural will: and sometimes it denotes the object of will, and we speak of will ( qelhma gnwmikon ) depending on inclination. Chapter XXIII. Concerning Energy All the faculties we have already discussed, both those of knowledge and those of life, both the natural and the artificial, are, it is to be noted, called energies. For energy s is the natural force and activity of each essencë or again, natural energy is the activity innate in every essencë and so, clearly, things that have the same essence have also the same energy, and things that have different natures have also different energies. For no essence can be devoid of natural energy. Natural energy again is the force in each essence by which its nature is made manifest. And again: natural energy is the primal, eternally-moving force of the intelligent soul: that is, the eternally-moving word of the soul, which ever springs naturally from it. And yet again: natural energy is the force and activity of each essence which only that which is not lacks. But actions(9a) are also called energies: for instance, speaking, eating, drinking, and such like. The natural affections(9b) also are often called energies, for instance, hunger, thirst, and so forth. |
| 108 . Несколько выше (цит. соч., ll. 30–33) мы встречаем в том же значении пример дома — domus in mente artificis [дом в уме архитектора], — восходящий к Аристотелю («Метафизика», 1070, а, б) и постоянно используемый св. Фомой: Ia, q. 15, a. 1; q. 18, ad 2m; 3m, и т. д. Мейстер Экхарт предпочитает пример archa in mente [арки в уме]. Так, он говорит, например, в Exp. in Io., LW III, p. 8, n. 6: Arca enim in mente artificis non est arca, sed est vita et intelligere artificis, ipsius conceptio actualis [Ведь арка в уме строителя есть не арка, но жизнь и разумение архитектора, его собственное действительное понятие]. Этот пример заимствован Мейстером Экхартом, без сомнения, у св. Августина (см. текст Exp. in Ioh. evang., tr. I, n. 17: PL 35, col. 1387, — цитируемый в примечании издателями Экхарта, цит. соч.). Отметим все же пример area [арки] в латинском переводе «Толкования» Аверроэса на XII кн. «Метафизики (Ven. a. 1552, vol. VIII. f° 149vb, ll. 51–53): Si igitur forma arcae quae est in anima artiflcis esset esse arcae, non moveretur ad agendam arcam. [Итак, если бы форма арки, которая имеется в душе строителя, являлась бытием арки, он не подвигся бы к созиданию арки.] Следует сразу же отметить странную аберрацию критиков, превративших archa in mente [арку в уме] Мейстера Экхарта (не имеющую большого значения, кроме примера «бытия в намерении») в некую реальность духовного и «мистического» порядка, отождествив ее с aliquid in anima, abditum mentis [нечто в душе], [глубинами ума], нетварной основой, искрой и проч. Мы были удивлены, обнаружив источник этой ошибки, ставшей почти всеобщим убеждением, у Монс. Грабмана (M. Grabmann, Neuaufgefundene Pariser Quaestionen… [«Вновь найденные Парижские «Вопросы»…»], Munchen, 1927, p. 85–87). Авторитет почтенного историка средневековой мысли привел к распространению мифа о «нетварной духовной арке», который прочие критики приняли, не задав себе вопроса, каково же подлинное значение выражения archa in mente [арку в уме] в латинских трудах Экхарта. Так, г–н Гальвано делла Вольпе говорит о «нетварности этой духовной арки, глубинной основы души», о «гетеродоксальном Экхартовом понятии мистической арки» (M. Galvano della Volpe, Il misticismo speculativo di Maestro Eckhart nei suoi rapporti storici [«Умозрительный мистицизм Мейстера Экхарта в его исторических связях»], Bologna, 1930, p. 137 и сл.). Мы еще вернемся к этому вопросу в дальнейшем, при рассмотрении учения Мейстера Экхарта о человеческом разуме. 113 |
| Tweet Нравится Pro-life campaigns in Russia and Serbia to be held on Annunciation Moscow, April 5, 2017 Photo: Pravoslavie.ru The international “Beginning of Life” campaign in defense of unborn life will be held on April 7, the feast of the Annunciation, in many regions of Russia, neighboring countries, and in Serbia, reports Foma . With the blessing of Patriarch Irinej, the fourth annual cross procession will be held in Belgrade around the National Assembly building for the legislative protection of the unborn. “Everyone has in view artificial surgical and medical abortions, but few pay attention to the fate of children at the age of Christ (a few days from conception), millions of which are annually disposed of quietly by the abortive action of intrauterine and hormonal means of contraception, and also in the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), when excess children conceived ‘in vitro’ are discarded, whether disposed of immediately, or once their cryopreservation has expired,” emphasizes the “ For Life ” movement. Festive events and flash mobs with the participation of Orthodox youth will be held in many churches and on the streets in April 7 throughout these countries. The aim is to show that “premarital chastity, strong families, and care for relatives, foster children and orphans are integral parts of the preservation of a nation, but the sins of contraception and artificial conception not only kill children, but are also contrary to human nature, destroying health and the familial way of life, leading to the degradation of society.” Participants will distribute thematic brochures and leaflets to passers-by, and also white flowers—a symbol of life and purity. There will also be festive concerts, charity events and round table discussions on the defense of unborn children. 5 апреля 2017 г. Квитанция Реквизиты для юридических лиц Оплата с банковской карты Visa, MasterCard и Maestro Оплата наличными через кассы и терминалы Пожертвование через Сбербанк Онл@йн Яндекс.Деньги Альфа-клик MasterPass Интернет-банк Промсвязьбанка Квитанция Реквизиты для юридических лиц Оплата с банковской карты Visa, MasterCard и Maestro Оплата наличными через кассы и терминалы Пожертвование через Сбербанк Онл@йн Яндекс.Деньги Альфа-клик MasterPass Интернет-банк Промсвязьбанка скрыть способы оплаты |
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