Церковь и наука

The modern world's largely thoughtless admiration for science, the oblivion of the religious foundations of life, and disdain for faith and the Church aroused in him a feeling of extreme concern, which was expressed in words in the inaugural academic lecture of Archimandrite Hilarion in September 1913, “Science and Life.” Science is powerless in the main questions of human existence and is meaningless if it is divorced from its religious roots. Theological science is the same science “like all others, only it is more vital than other sciences, because its subject is not the little things of life, but the very essence of life” 184 . But this vitality, this meaning to science can be given not just by religious consciousness, not just by some abstract faith in God, but by true faith observed in the Church. Father Hilarion changed his rank from human, worldly to spiritual, angelic, but in the main idea of ​​his life he remained faithful, identical to himself: “I believe that for a conscious Christian there can be only one view not only on theological science, but also on every science and on all branches of life and earthly activity: everything makes sense only insofar as it serves the Church, that is, the improvement of humanity.” The progress of science is not progress in the proper sense, but only a certain semblance of it, because it changes not the nature, but the forms of objects, and “only in the Church is that new life for which the Son of God came to the sinful earth possible, and only in the Church is true progress possible.” Therefore, “an advanced person is only one who fully lives the life of the Church.” 185 Hilarion (Troitsky), schmch. Without the Church there is no salvation. P. 291.