П. Смирнов. Сущность зла по учению святого Василия Великого 417

In the terrible and ferocious sea of ​​life 418 of man - the “fighter of sorrow” 419 - in this sea of ​​sorrows, sorrows and tears, vanity and suffering of man - St. Basil the Great distinguishes evil “in its own sense” 420, “in itself” 421, as a fact of reality, having an objective existence, and “imaginary” evil 422, as a fact that has only subjective meaning, existing only in the sensation or consciousness of a person. Hence his concept of evil is different from the usual one. The real, or “in itself,” “in its own nature” 423, is the evil of St. Basil the Great sees only in the moral field. Such, for example, are the passions, “which, desecrating the soul, created in the image of the Creator, usually darken its beauty” 424. This is the “real evil” of St. Basil the Great directly identifies it with sin. “Real evil” is “precisely sin” 425 as a free opposition of a person’s personal will to the Divine will, as an unreasonable denial of the latter and the divinely established order of life, therefore, having the basis of its existence in human unreason alone. Everything else that is called evil is already only “imaginary” evil, evil “due to painful sensations” 426. This imaginary evil happens to us partly “by nature” (old age, infirmity) 427, partly for other reasons and has, according to the teaching of St. Basil the Great, providential significance 428. “Evil of this kind is sent from God to prevent the generation of true evils. For both bodily suffering and external disasters are invented to curb sin” 429, being necessary either “to show courage” 430 and for “temptation” 431, or as a “healing for sins” and as “punishment for lawless lust” in order to make people “chaste” 432. With them God “destroys evil” 433. Therefore, the usual representation of the evil of St. Basil the Great considers it wrong. According to his teaching, real evil, in itself, is sin that mortifies the soul; physical disasters and suffering only seem to be evil, being, on the contrary, good, since they lead to awareness of one’s sinfulness. Thus, St. Basil the Great does not consider physical evil, so to speak, to be true evil; the latter - only in the moral field. This is the main point of view of St. Basil the Great on the subject, outlining and providing him with a solution to the question of the essence of evil. As a purely subjective phenomenon in one case and as a moral (more precisely, immoral) in another case, evil, according to Basil the Great, obviously does not have substantiality 434 and originality and, therefore, does not exist forever as a special principle. Dualists, who teach about two original and equivalent forces - good and evil - do not see a contradiction in their teaching, for such (equivalent) forces “will certainly be destructive of one another” 435 . But the Caesarea flock also thinks incorrectly, which is struck by evil as a concrete phenomenon and which, while denying dualism, thinks of evil as a creation of God 436 . Brought up in the doctrine of the One God, the flock of Caesarea, not allowing the dualism of the Eastern worldview, which turned into Gnosticism, attributed the origin of evil to the same God, Who is the highest Truth, the highest Holiness and the highest Good. In his sermons St. Basil the Great directly states that “it is also ungodly to say that evil has its beginning from God, because the opposite does not come from the opposite. Life does not give birth to death, darkness is not the beginning of light" 437. Close to the madman “and not in the least inferior to him in senselessness is the one who says that God is the author of evil” 438. “God destroys evil, but it does not come from God” 439. If evil is not from God, if it does not exist as an objectively independent and original principle (in nature) 440, then what is its essence? Answering this question in his sermons, St. Basil the Great expresses the firm belief that evil has already appeared in creation, generated by the free will of rational creatures created good and for good. The first people who transgressed the commandment of God moved away from God. Hence all their misfortunes and evil. Based on the biblical narrative regarding the issue of evil, St. Basil the Great establishes two provisions: 1) man suffers as a result of his free falling away from God and 2) his falling away was accomplished under the influence of temptation from an outside being. Then his distinction between real, genuine evil and imaginary evil helps St. Basil the Great established an even more precise concept of evil. Like sin, “evil is not a living and animate entity” 441. “Do not look outside for the beginning of that over which you yourself are master; but know that evil, taken in its proper sense, began in arbitrary falls. Its origin depends “on our will” 442. Therefore, evil is “a state of the soul opposite to virtue and occurs in the careless through a falling away from good” 443, “evil is the deprivation of good” 444 and “does not exist by itself, but appears behind damage to the soul” 445, why “all evil is a mental illness” 446 and “forgetfulness of God” 447. This is a state of soul caused by a free fall through temptation from the devil, disobedience to God, apostasy inspired by the devil. And this, so to speak, blinding people makes it possible to determine the essence of evil both by the opposition of good and evil, and by the very essence of phenomena. Good and evil always and unconditionally deny one another, like reason and madness, 448 like norm and disorder, like holiness and sin, so that if one exists, the other necessarily does not exist. Only with the disappearance of one does the other appear - and only in this disappearance does it have its existence. The essential difference between good and evil, according to St. Basil the Great, that good exists as a normal and reasonable phenomenon, primordial 449, and evil, or unreason, senselessness, recklessness, appears only when good and reason disappear 450 and has its existence only in this violation, deviation from the primordial, normal order. In other words, evil does not exist as a special, independent phenomenon that exists simultaneously and next to good, as its opposite, that is, it is exclusively the negation of good or “deprivation of good” 451. All sorts of bewilderment about the fact that in reality, perhaps, only evil exists, and good is a simple negation of existing evil, St. Basil the Great eliminates with his definition the relationship of the phenomena of good and evil to the absolute basis of all being - God. According to St. Basil the Great, in the proper sense, there is only God; everything else exists in God and has a basis in the will of God, to which the origin of evil cannot be attributed as nonsense and a perversion of order, because then the will of God would deny itself. God, as the absolutely good Source of all good, had to give only a reasonable basis in His will for good alone. Consequently, good is the original, normal state of being, and evil happened after. From here it is quite clear that by the very essence, so to speak, of the question, the essence of evil, from the point of view of St. Basil the Great, consists precisely in the denial of Good as an eternal, reasonable, primordial order or law of life established by God for creatures, or, in other words, in moving away from God. This is undoubtedly true by the very essence of the phenomena taken, especially in relation to man. According to St. Basil the Great, as well as all the Fathers of the Church in general, the meaning of human life is in communion with God. “God is life” 452. He is also “the True Good, which in its own and original sense should be called blessed. For truly blessed is this Self-Sourcing Good, to Which everything is turned, to Which everything desires, this unchangeable Nature, this sovereign Dignity, this serene Life, this carefree State, in which there is no change, which is not touched by vicissitudes, this ever-flowing Source, this inexhaustible Grace, this inexhaustible Treasure.” 453. In God is true life and its true meaning. “All this [earthly] is temporary, all is deceptive; one refuge is God" 454. “God, who created man, is true life; therefore, whoever has lost the likeness of God has also lost communication with life, and whoever is outside of God, it is impossible for him to be in a blessed life” 455. And a person’s direct task is “to draw closer to God throughout the entire course of life, so that your life [man!] will be continuous and unceasing prayer” 456. The primary benefit for the soul is “being with God and union with Him through love” 457. In this, and only this, state of the soul is God’s law for human life. This is the essence of goodness. It is clear that the opposite life, when a person violates the law of God and lives his own life, is already evil, because then the soul deviates from what is characteristic and natural for it, 458 as a result of which “it is damaged and suffers from various and multiform ailments.” This is indeed true. Man knows well that the source of his bliss is not in himself, but in God. Therefore, he can draw from this source of life only under the condition of living communication with God, that is, under the condition of constant striving for God and constant implementation of the will of God within himself. A person must know and understand that outside of God there is no true good and that therefore he should not try to increase the degree of his bliss on his own. However, despite all his correct knowledge, when deceived by the devil, a person imagines (“he preferred to intelligent beauty what seemed pleasant to carnal eyes” 459, hoping) that he does not need the blessings given to him (“he was fed up with everything” 460), as if he could create all the happiness of his life with his own strength (“fed up with blissful pleasure and, as if aggravated by some kind of drowsiness having fallen from the heights above, he enters into communion with the flesh for the vile pleasures of voluptuousness” 461). As a result, he does not listen to God’s warnings, rejects God’s will in favor of his own will and the “lures” 462 of the devil, and at the same time refuses everything that is given to him by God. This is the essence of evil, its recklessness and unreason. A false, unreasonable thought about other imaginary goods seduces a person; he makes an incorrect and reckless assessment of existing and imaginary goods and, under the influence of the devil’s deception, recognizes evil for good. The result is deviation from the true Good and falling away from God. This very essence of evil can be seen in the first evil, in the earthly (and not in the whole) world, precisely in the Fall of man. “Woe was once Adam... of will,” but he “soon became satiated with everything and, as if puffed up from his satiety, preferred what seemed pleasant to carnal eyes to intelligent beauty and placed the filling of the belly above spiritual pleasures” 463 and thus became evil “not out of necessity, but out of recklessness” 464, having sinned “due to bad will” 465 and thereby removing yourself from God - the Source of good. “This alienation from God is evil” 466; and in this separation and break with God the essence of evil. From the point of view of St. Basil the Great, all phenomena of life and every reality receive their value from their direction and character, that is, whether they deviate from Divine life and the God-established order, God-pleasing existence. The essence of evil, according to St. Basil the Great, therefore, not in them in themselves, but in that false and unreasonable, sinful self-determination of every person, completely free in that selfishness, which is the basis for his removal from God. Due to this new self-determination, a person wants to live at his own discretion, according to his own order and take his “I” as a guide for himself, foolishly rejecting the Divine life to which he is called by the Creator in favor of his egoism. Just as the first man “put aside the desire for Divine glory and, hoping for more, hastened to what he did not receive, losing even what he could have,” 467 so now everyone repeats it. This false and unreasonable self-determination can be expressed differently, but its essence and, therefore, the essence of evil is the same: it is removal from God, retreat from Him, deprivation of Good and, therefore, from the psychological side, a break in communion with God in favor of “peace.” All this certainly entails “the vanity of man” 468, “serving the flesh” 469, “carnal wisdom.” St. Basil the Great says this: “Consequently, it is not the Lord who is your teacher, nor the Gospel that serves as the rule for your life. But you give yourself laws” 470. "Necessary. you reject it as impossible. and you approve. that you are more intelligent than the Lawgiver 471. This is real, in itself, and not imaginary, subjective evil, because a person deprives himself of communication with God and, along with this gap, is deprived of truly human life. It is wonderful that St. Basil the Great, it seems, sees the essence of evil not so much in the insolence, self-indulgence, self-adoration of a person (for which a sinner is usually reproached), but rather in madness, in “recklessness” 472. The essence of evil seems to him to be that just as the first man seemed to judge poorly, 473 so now we sin, carried away by ghosts, because we are not guided by God-enlightened reason, we are not guided by the will of God. Obviously the man is reasoning like a madman; he is somehow spiritually blinded and does not notice his mistake and evil at the moment of the Fall. Therefore St. Basil the Great directly almost expresses bewilderment at how a person, growing cold in his love for the Creator and falling away from Him, at the same time puts in His place such fragile and stupid things as an apple, flesh, silver, etc. This is all the more strange, from his point of view, since man - himself the ruler of earth and paradise, in all the creatures under his control cannot find a being not only higher, but also equal - does not want to recognize the power of the Creator over himself, but submits to the corruptible, earthly, temporary, destroying his spirit. This is simple recklessness, incomprehensible and similar to the act of dumb people: a person deprives himself of true benefits, genuine and eternal, in the name of some temporary, fragile, and, in fact, not even giving bliss due to their transience, destroying the body, and most importantly, the soul. But the essence here is the same - a break with God. As a result of this new, false self-determination - exclusively personal - a person does not want to “be content with what is said by the saints and the Lord Himself, to have thoughts worthy of the heavenly calling, to live worthy of Christ’s Gospel in the hope of eternal life and the Heavenly Kingdom, prepared for all those who keep the commandments of God and the Father” 474. He “has made himself a dwelling place of an opposing spirit, becomes a church of idols, instead of becoming a church of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit” 475, and “making himself a servant of a destructive demon, a person allows evil into himself” 476, is a “vessel of wrath”, because in himself, “as in a vessel, he has contained all the power of the devil and, due to the stench that has occurred in him from corruption, cannot be taken for some use, but is worthy only of destruction and destruction” 477. It is quite clear that in this case evil already has an objective existence. And this is why it is clear that St. Basil the Great does not consider so-called physical evil to be real evil. According to St. Basil the Great, as well as according to the teachings of the Holy Apostle Paul (Rom. 8:35-39), no suffering and physical disasters for a person living in God and according to God, Who is both the Highest Goal and the Highest Good, giving meaning to life - these sufferings cannot yet be evil in reality, because they cannot forever separate a person from God, without Whom man and his soul cannot live. Real evil is that which forever, forever separates a person from God and destroys a person, that is, sin that deprives a person of light and life forever, dragging him into the dark kingdom of the devil, therefore, the essence of evil is in false selfhood, in false self-determination, while “our praise and hope is to mortify everything that is ours and to seek the future life in Christ, of which we have the beginnings in ourselves, and now we live entirely by the grace and gift of God" 478 . No physical evil necessarily leads to a break with God, to distance from Him, but sin - as free opposition to the Divine will and “the creation of one’s own will,” as false personal self-determination - is the real essence of evil, because only in this case does the human sinner make himself incapable of receiving Divine blessings and entail eternal evil. From the point of view of St. Basil the Great, this is undoubtedly so, and to his listeners in Discourse 17 on the day of the holy martyr Barlaam (November 19), he presents an excellent illustration that purely physical suffering is only subjective and it depends on the human spirit whether to call it evil or not, and that it depends on the human spirit that “the sorrowful nature changes after the cross” 479. Glorified warrior [St. Varlaam] “changed the torment... into joy, being scourged, he thought that they were throwing roses at him... he laughed at the ferocious orders of the spearmen; walked among dangers, as among wreaths; enjoyed beatings as if they were honors; he rejoiced in the most severe torments, as if in the most brilliant rewards... he kissed the tree of execution as if it were saving, he rejoiced in newly invented torments, as in the variety of flowers,” etc. 480 “The desire for the most blessed [eternal] life kills in the martyrs the feeling of illness at the slaughter” 481. Here is “a great and ascetic spectacle, marvelous for the Angels and for all creation, painful for the devil, terrible for demons” 482. Physical suffering is not evil; evil is sin, removal from God and His will. The first are subjective (as can be seen in the examples of the martyr and the torturers); the second is objective. Here the true attitude of a true Christian towards evil is given and this is also determined. Therefore, St. Basil the Great establishes an assessment of evil not from an earthly, carnal and temporary point of view, but from an eternal, Christ-like one. “I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 22:4), the Proud martyr repeated the words of the Psalmist. “The more you increase the torment, the greater the reward you prepare for me” 483. So the forty martyrs 484, when they were condemned to spend the night in the open air in a severe frost that immediately shackled the lake, with “the sharp breath of the north wind, which brought death to everything living,” they said: “We do not throw off our clothes, but we put off the “old man, who is decaying in the lusts of deceitful desires” (Eph. 4:22). “We thank You, Lord, that with this clothing we cast off sin from ourselves; Through the serpent we have put on our clothes (Gen. 3:21); through Christ we will be put off” 485. At the same time, St. Basil the Great the strongest faith in God's Providence. “Shall we begin to teach the Lord how to arrange our life? He is sovereign in His determinations" 486. All this is especially important in the sense that it fully confirms the indicated basic point of view on the essence of evil as only a distance from God, as a person’s complex self-determination, his selfishness. St. Basil the Great, at the same time, teaches that this very essence of evil - in deviation from the Divine norm - lies not only at the basis of real evil, but, in fact, the essence of “imaginary evil” is exactly the same, the same false self-determination of man, creating “many ailments” 487. Pointing to the providential significance of evil, he seems to represent the psychology of “imaginary evil” 488. From the point of view of St. Basil the Great, a sinner man rejects his true position in the world, indicated by the Creator, and by this rejection he determines for himself all those consequences that naturally flow from his sinful and unreasonable error. When a person breaks the union with God, he obviously wants another good than what is given to him, but in his earthly wisdom he accepts this best, highest (from his point of view) good as only a “bait” 489, a ghost of it. As a result, a person falls into a fatal contradiction with the idea of ​​his existence. Appointed only to display the fullness of Divine glory, he wanted to live according to his own will. This is where the rearrangement of life criteria took place and is constantly happening, the substitution of new ones that naturally change the very assessment of things. And what from the point of view of the true position of a person in the world is indifferent, at least not evil, then from a new point of view, namely from the point of view of the worldly, actually human, it becomes evil, suffering, because the criteria for evaluation are different and in the second case are incorrect (cf. words in memory of the martyrs). And this is quite understandable. “We believe,” says St. Basil the Great - that real human life means nothing at all; We do not at all honor and do not call good that which brings us perfection in this life alone... but we extend our hopes further and do everything to prepare for ourselves another life. Therefore, what helps us towards it, we say that we should love it and strive for it with all our might, and what does not go into it, we should despise as worthless” 490. And again: “...none of the pleasures of this life, for which most people go crazy, is not ours” 491, meanwhile “ignorant people and lovers of peace, not knowing the nature of good itself, often call blessed that which has no value: wealth, health, a brilliant life - that everything by its nature is not good, because not only does it conveniently change into the opposite, but it cannot make its owners good. Therefore, blessed is he who has become a partaker of inalienable blessings” 492. Consequently, the general harmony of the world depends on the relationship in which man stands to God and to visible nature. If his spirit can comprehend and reflect in itself the beauty of God, then physical nature also submits to the spirit of man. When a person denies - in his false self-determination - the true Divine blessings in the human soul, the display of primitive beauty ceases and the correct assessment (of phenomena and things) in the field of life and the “world” disappears; its place is replaced by a display of the sinful movements of his own flesh and carnal wisdom. Hence, the higher is enslaved to the lower, the spirit is enslaved to the flesh, and human nature is perverted, and a person with an earthly character, and not a heavenly one, judges everything from an earthly, transient point of view. Having withdrawn from God and communion with God, he considers and sees his blessings only in the world and in the absence of the latter, at the slightest hindrance to his whims he considers himself unhappy, suffering, and life as evil. While a person tries to free himself from evil with his own strength, he does not achieve this, because he does not see the essence of his evil, since, rejecting true benefits for the sake of illusory, imaginary ones, he is carried away by the devil to apostasy. The consequence of this removal from God, the true Source of goods, according to St. Basil the Great, in man there is dissatisfaction with life, a continuous pursuit of the ghosts of good and a continuous consciousness of its unattainability. In pursuit of earthly blessings, a person realizes that he does not have it, and began to consider life, due to the lack of the blessings he had intended, to be evil, unhappy, and painful. Obviously, a person is free not to consider his life as evil, painful 493 if he remembers God as the Supreme Good and God's Providence and understands that everything is directed towards his salvation. It is clear that physical evil exists only if and as long as people themselves consider it evil. Consequently, it reigns when and while the will of the person himself is carried out. As soon as his will disappears and, rather, is imbued with the Divine will, evil also disappears. Thus, the concept of evil, according to the teachings of St. Basil the Great, its origin and psychology - everything indicates the essence of evil precisely in the false, sinful and unreasonable self-determination of a person who opposes his free will to the Divine will, and through this - in distance from God, the true Good of Christians. This point of view on the essence of evil is equally held by the Holy Father in the understanding of real evil and “imaginary”, subjective, and it clearly and accurately not only indicates and explains real evil, but explains why people usually confuse real evil and “imaginary”. The question of evil is the most real and the most living among other great problems of thought. Modern conditions especially often resemble it. In this regard, it is very interesting and instructive to compare the worldview of contemporaries and the patristic teaching about the essence of evil to clarify the issue. We take the teaching of one of the great holy fathers - Basil the Great. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 1088. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 949. Right there. T. 2. pp. 145–146. Right there. T. 1. pp. 947–948. Right there. pp. 342–343, 949–950. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 341. Wed: Ibid. pp. 945, 949. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 948. Basil the Great very often compares and calls evil unreasonableness, recklessness (St. Basil the Great. Creations. Vol. 1. P. 951). St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 951. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 950. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. pp. 950–951. Right there. T. 2. P. 119; T. 1. pp. 584–585. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. pp. 1018–1019. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1 P. 950. St. Basil the Great. Creations. T. 1. P. 464. Compare: Job. - Right there. pp. 1051–1054.