Академический участок фронта

The war made a significant revolution in the thoughts of the entire Russian people, although, as it turned out later, it was not enough. She made me look at many things in a new way, rethink my attitude towards Western ideas and towards my native Orthodoxy, forgotten by many. But the war did not change anything in the views of Archimandrite Hilarion. He began his war at least from his student days, and this war was waged not for material wealth, not for external freedom, but for heavenly blessings, for the opportunity to follow the right path of salvation, for the purity of the Mother Church, against the alien theories that captivate her. The only difference is that with the beginning of the war, the topics traditional for Archimandrite Hilarion began to arouse greater interest in society, and therefore he now had the occasion and opportunity to dwell on his old ideas in more detail, especially since, of course, the war as a national disaster brought Father Hilarion a deeper understanding of issues, the vital importance of which became clear to many. The theme of war, as a battle of light and darkness, as Armageddon already taking place in the hearts, minds and lives of people, becomes especially acute in the works of Father Hilarion during the war period. The subtitle of his inaugural lecture of 1915, “Theology and Freedom of the Church,” sounds quite in the spirit of the times: “On the tasks of the liberation war in the field of Russian theology.” War against sin, against passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), against the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12) is the natural state of the Church Militant. In this lecture, “the warrior of Christ Hilarion” 221 calls for a fight against Western scholasticism, which has occupied Russian Orthodox theology: “The scholastic fortress is our academic section of the common front,” he addresses the students of the academy. – If we are living people and living members of the Church of Christ, we must feel that this fortress is interfering with us, our life. “Razing the enemy fortress of scholasticism to the ground is our academic task if we really want to participate in the great war of liberation” 222. Western theology distorts the very essence, the main meaning of Christian life - the doctrine of salvation, looking at God as an external, alien object, a punishing Judge, understanding salvation as a legal act that requires from a person only a few, largely technical actions, forgetting about God's mercy and the patristic understanding of salvation as a path of union with God, deification, transformation. “The soul of faith is in salvation and the soul of theology in the doctrine of salvation” 223. Roman jurisprudence, which penetrated into Orthodox theology, made the latter alien to church life and church worship. But the situation is not hopeless: “In the scholastic doctrine of salvation, first of all, two forts, two concepts must be demolished to the ground: satisfaction and merit... Destroy these two forts, the ghostly stronghold of scholasticism will soon fall and crumble. And her sad memory will die without noise..." 224 Archimandrite Hilarion also points out some means that will help achieve victory: the restoration of the patriarchate and the freedom of the Church from the dictates of the state 225. Troparion sschmch. Hilarion: Hieromartyr Hilarion: Service and Life. – [B.M.]: Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 2001. P. 6. Hilarion, (Archbishop of Vereisky), schmch. Theology and freedom of the Church // Same. Without the Church there is no salvation. P. 350.