Тезисы, извлечённые из сочинения «Нравственное учение св. Амвросия, епископа Медиоланского»

1. St. Ambrose (340 - 397) was the most zealous intercessor of the church against attacks from both external and internal enemies, as well as a man of extraordinary moral height. 2. Quite numerous creations of St. Ambrose appeared in the period from 375 to 397. 3. Conversion of St. Ambrose to Eastern theology, caused by historical circumstances, led St. Ambrose to a certain ideological dependence on the East, both in the field of theology in general and in the field of ethics in particular. 4. St. Ambrose indicates four periods of ethical development and, in general, the moral life of man. 5. The biblical story about paradise and the creation of man by St. Ambrose is not always taken literally. 6. Without differing in his teaching about the spiritual principle in man either in certainty or consistency, St. Ambrose in his anthropology leans toward a two-part division of the human being into soul and body, and he infinitely elevates the first, the spiritual and divine principle in man, above the material and mortal second. 7. The image of God, according to which the first man was created, manifests itself in the spiritual principle of man (his invisible substance), most closely in his rationality, free will and dominion over irrational creatures. 8. Presentation of St. Ambrose about the relationship between the image and likeness of God, as well as his teaching about conscience, is not distinguished by clarity and definiteness. 9 . The first man was created for the purpose that through personal improvement and development of the virtues he already had, with the help of the grace-given means given to him by God, he would approach his Creator in his Godlikeness. 10. Despite the desire of St. Ambrose to be faithful to the biblical story and consider ancestral sin as an act of free will that succumbed to temptation from the devil, St. Father in his doctrine of the origin of sin, however, is very close to Philo’s concept, which posited the beginning of sin already in the very fact of taking on a sensory body. 11. Evil has no substance and is only a lack of good, allowed by God for providential purposes. 12. The sin of the first people entailed grave consequences for their ancestors, affecting not only their souls, but also their bodies. 13. Hesitating in his doctrine of original sin between the teachings of the Eastern and Western Fathers, St. Ambrose, however, leans more towards the latter and considers original sin as an actual sinfulness (iniquitas), imputed to each person as his own guilt. 14. The conditions of their moral life that changed with the Fall of people did not change the goals of human creation. To successfully achieve the latter, God gave people the Law of Moses. The supernatural law did not abolish, however, the natural moral law and did not deny the help of human reason. 15. Only Christ could redeem fallen man, who, as the second Adam, took upon himself the sins and curse of humanity, carried them to the cross and through this justified man before God, that is, made him innocent or sinless again. 16. Christ makes a redeemed and justified person a member of that gracious kingdom, the Founder, Head and Guide of which is He Himself. 17. A person becomes a participant in the kingdom of Christ only through the grace of God and then through his living faith, evidenced by good deeds. 18. A person’s faith finds its immediate and closest manifestation in the grace-filled sacrament of baptism, performed in the name of the Holy Trinity. 19. Baptism, which justifies a person, puts the latter on the path of innocence. The further task of a Christian comes down to the fact that through constant good deeds, through gradual improvement, not only preserve the purity he acquired in baptism, but also develop it to the degree of real moral perfection, to “the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ.” 20. The improvement or virtue of a person is either negative or positive. 21. Negative perfection is closely related to man’s struggle with everything sensual, most closely with the flesh, as the source of sin, and the world, as the kingdom of the devil. 22. For a person to successfully walk the paths of virtue, God sends His gracious help to the redeemed person (the Word of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the church and its sacraments). 23. Virtue, which has its source from God and, namely, Christ, in its essence is God-likeness, postulating a state of a certain mystical closeness to Christ. 24. Virtue, one in essence, is divided into several separate types, and all the particular virtues are interconnected by such a close connection that he who has one virtue also has all the others. 25. The formal conditions of virtue are human rationality and free will. 26. Virtues are divided into two classes: theoretical (with the most important of all virtues - wisdom or knowledge) and practical. The first kind of virtues, in turn, are divided into logical and contemplative, and the second - into virtues in relation to God, neighbors and oneself. 27. Logical virtue or wisdom, stemming from Divine Wisdom or Christ, is knowledge of truth in general, but closest of all is knowledge of the religious and moral duties of man. 28. Of the practical virtues, virtue in relation to God comes first. A person’s duties to God should not be based on fear of God (this is the lowest level of reverence for God), but on love for Him, combined with unconditional obedience to Him and readiness to suffer for Him. A person’s love for God finds its direct expression in constant prayer. 29. The duties of a Christian to his neighbors should rest on a feeling of love for them (not excluding enemies). Christian love for neighbors (also called justice) has its source in love for God and is based both on the natural kinship of people (reasonable beings) among themselves, and, mainly, on that mystical connection that unites all Christians into one mystical body or church, headed by Christ. 30. Love for neighbors is manifested in prayer for them, in helping them with advice and, finally, in acts of mercy. 31. A person’s responsibilities towards himself must be manifested in his negative attitude towards the flesh with its temptations and towards the world - the kingdom of the devil and in general towards everything sensual (committing to Christ the world and the flesh). The virtues of abstinence and humility are of particular importance in this case. 32. A Christian has a negative attitude towards the goods of this world and, in particular, towards wealth, which, if it can have any meaning for him, then only as a means for demonstrating the virtue of mercy. 33. All the suffering and disasters of this world and, in particular, death are nothing for a Christian, since the lot of true followers of Christ is to be sorrowful in this world and blissful in the future. With the hope of grace-filled help here and future bliss in that century, the Christian joyfully endures all the disasters and temptations that befall him, being also confident that through these sufferings and temptations his faith is purified and strengthened. 34. Christian moral duties are divided into lower and higher. The highest Christian virtues are love for enemies, poverty, virginity and martyrdom. 35. The one who has achieved the highest moral perfection is called by St. Ambrose the righteous (justified) or sage. The wise person has all the virtues and lacks or needs nothing. In particular, only the wise are truly free and enjoy the bliss that mystical divine knowledge and contemplation gives him. 36. Justification of a person is accomplished by the grace of God through the faith of a Christian, evidenced by good deeds. 37. Between the sins of St. Ambrose distinguishes between “sins of thought, action and assertion.” Growing quantitatively and changing qualitatively, sins not only strip a person of those gifts of grace that Christ’s redemption brought him, but also destroy the image of God in him, and subsequently lead him to spiritual death. 38. A person covers up minor sins with his good deeds; serious ones can be healed only in the sacrament of repentance. 39. A Christian does not achieve complete moral perfection on earth, and depending on this, complete bliss. 40. Complete bliss (the highest good) is possible only in the future life. It consists, first of all, in the contemplation of the Divine, in receiving “the communion of the divine nature,” heavenly freedom, the joy of a clear conscience, eternal peace, etc. 41. Blessed or eternal life differs only quantitatively from the bliss that the righteous experience here on earth. 42. Heavenly bliss has different degrees. The degree of bliss of each righteous person depends on the glory of his earthly deed. 43. The complete bliss of the righteous, as well as the suffering of the sinners and the wicked, will come after the resurrection of the dead, on the day of general judgment, although even before this judgment neither the righteous remain without reward, nor sinners without punishment. 44. The torment of sinners is characterized by St. Ambrose with features opposite to those with which the bliss of the righteous is depicted. Just like bliss, the torment of sinners has different degrees. The terrible torment of sinners in hellish fire (understood by St. Ambrose, for the most part, literally) will continue forever. 45. In his work De officiis ministrorum, St. Ambrose borrows from Cicero's De officiis various Stoic thoughts and positions. 46. The closest comparison of the moral teachings of St. Ambrose with the same Cicero proves that between De officiis ministrorum and De officiis there is a deep gulf both in the basic principles of ethics and in the understanding of individual virtues. 47. Borrowings from St. Ambrose from Cicero's De officiis does not prevent De officiis ministrorum from being a Christian work. 48. Conversion of St. Ambrose in De officiis ministrorum to the help of Cicero is explained by the special conditions in which St. the father was installed. Given the respect that Cicero enjoyed among Christian writers of the first centuries, the borrowings of St. Ambrose from Cicero's work did not seem reprehensible.