Prot. Dionysius Dunaevsky. “Christianity is not for cowards”? About a false slogan and true couragetranslated

As part of the series “Conversation on Christian Courage,” we revealed in detail the patristic compendium: “God loves those who are determined.” We talked a lot about the fact that true Orthodoxy is the lot of internally strong people and that the Church of Christ, in its essence, has nothing to do with lack of will or cowardly passivity.

However, in the modern missionary environment, these correct theses often give rise to a dangerous substitution - a biting, but theologically incorrect slogan: “Christianity is not for cowards.”

This is a lie. Such a formulation carries a huge risk of dogmatic distortion and neophyte elitism, cutting off the weak. Christ stretched out His most pure hands on the Cross for every person. The Savior clearly testifies through the apostle that He “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

Cowardice, timidity and cowardice are serious, painful spiritual illnesses that paralyze the will. But the Church is not a closed club for natural-born superheroes. She is a doctor’s clinic where people come specifically to be healed of their illnesses. To fight passions and acquire virtues is the duty of a warrior of Christ, but this warrior is born in the process of battle, and is not drafted into the army already...