Церковь и Боговоплощение

The Cornerstone of the Church, also published in 1914, is directed largely against the rationalistic consciousness permeating school theology, which falls under the “reproach of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, reproached for lack of faith, because it does not place the truth of the incarnation of the Son of God at the forefront, and does not connect this truth with the truth of the Church, as it should be according to the word of the Lord Himself” 199. Considering the meaning that the holy fathers saw in the confession of the Apostle Peter and in the Savior’s response (see Matt. 16:15–19), Archimandrite Hilarion shows the direct connection between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the founding of the Church. The Incarnation of Christ itself, God Himself incarnate, is the foundation, the “cornerstone of the Church,” and, first of all, it is on this fact that the hope and possibility of our salvation and deification are based. Indirectly, the author points out that the main principle of the unity of the Church is not in the primacy of the pope, but in the unity of the body of Christ with its Head. Thus, “the beginning of the salvation of human nature and the foundation of the Church,” which is directly connected with it, was laid not by the teaching, not by the moral example of Jesus Christ, but by “the very fact of the incarnation and incarnation of the second Hypostasis of the Most Holy Trinity” 200. The theme of the Incarnation in the ecclesiology of Archbishop Hilarion is one of the main ones. The works “The Incarnation and the Church”, “Bethlehem and Golgotha” and others are also dedicated to her. As we can see, Archimandrite Hilarion pays special attention to refuting the errors of Catholicism, Protestantism and humanism, these three rationalistic directions of extra-church religious life, as having the greatest influence on the views of his contemporaries. Hilarion (Troitsky), schmch. Cornerstone of the Church // Aka. Without the Church there is no salvation. P. 451.