Probably, everyone has come across the point of view according to which one must believe “in the soul”, and all dogmas are nothing more than “human invention”, absolutely not obligatory for acceptance. They say, there is God - and what He is, it is not given to understand and define. Therefore, one does not have to go to church, or even make a choice between different religions. You just have to believe in "something." Let's try to figure out whether this point of view is suitable for the Christian consciousness.
"The main thing is to believe somehow, but dogmas are too human." But is it possible that the word is not important in Christianity, where God Himself speaks of Himself as the Logos-Word? Is it possible that the letter was not important for the religion where God Himself speaks of Himself … as a letter? “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” says the Apocalypse. What is, after all, the Word and the letter, what do they serve? Is it really true that dogmatized faith "kills" living love between God and man?
Christianity is a religion of the utmost concretization and the utmost approximation of God to people. If we look at other monotheistic religions, then we will not see the actual meeting of God and man there. Old Testament Judaism has not yet matured to the Revelation of the Meeting, and Islam deliberately rejects it. In Christianity, God is extremely close to people. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt with us,” says the Gospel of John. It is Christ, the Logos, the Word, that reveals the Father. Not the Spirit, but the Word becomes flesh and image. Why?
The word is concrete. The word is figurative. The word describes and closes the boundaries. The creative Word is absolutely certain: at the beginning of time, God does not create "anything" - He creates something very definite. And such certainty is impossible without clear concepts. And the Lord creates precisely by the Word: He commands - and it happens. No wonder at the beginning of the Book of Genesis it is written: "and God said …". And the Evangelist John adds: "In the beginning was the Word … and through Him everything began to be."
Jesus Christ, speaking about the most important commandments, speaks of the one that calls "to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength." This is not impromptu: Jesus is quoting the words of the Old Testament. But the Lord slightly corrects the commandment, and His interlocutors apparently do not notice this in the heat of the dispute. In the Old Testament commandment (Deut. 6: 5), which Jesus utters, there is no word "understanding" - the heart, soul, strength is, but there is no understanding. The commandment is changing: the Lord now calls not only to love, but also to understand - that is, to understand.
And you can only understand something specific. It is impossible to understand something if it is imageless and formless. Christianity meticulously specifies what (in Whom) it believes. In the polemic with the Arians, the dispute with them was due to one iota - only this unfortunate iota distinguishes the Greek word "subessential" Arian from "consubstantial" of the Orthodox. But we are talking about the most important: is Jesus only like God or is He Himself God.
This zeal of Christians about the finest specifics is also explained by the fact that God is Love. It is impossible to love "anything". You can only love "something." Or "Someone." The dogma, the letter, is the refinement of the concept of the One you love. Jesus Christ himself was a very specific person. Having revealed Himself, He showed that the image and concretization are not necessarily paganism and deviation from the true Creator. The Lord is the best icon for Himself. Having incarnated, He allowed and even commanded to think about Himself, and thoughts naturally form into words consisting of letters.
The call “let us leave letters and dogmas and love the Spirit” is not the granting of freedom of thought, but a departure from it. Christianity, in spite of all its joy and grace, is a harsh religion in the sense that it is very well aware of what belongs to it and what does not. Christianity has reliably fenced its love with walls of dogmas - not in order to interfere with thought, but in order not to let this very thought get loose, not to deprive it of its choice.
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If there is no dogma, it means that anything can be dragged into the space of love, any idea can be passed off as truth. And then the face of the Beloved will be blurred, the features in it will contradict themselves, and love will become an oxymoron. It seems that loving God in Spirit, without specifics, is easier. No, it’s easier NOT to love Him. You can't love "anyone."
"Dogmas are not needed, the main thing is to believe in something." What does it mean? This means I don’t want to know who He really is. But forgive me, what kind of love is this that does not seek a beloved Face? This, of course, is not about how we see Christ on icons. It is unlikely that He was a fair-haired, blue-eyed Slav. It's about the nature of God. If we don’t want to know the specifics, then we don’t want to love God, we don’t want to fulfill the commandment of "understanding", and in the worst case, we want to love ourselves, covering it up with love for God. We want to love what we like without thinking too much about how it relates to God.
But even if you discard ALL dogmas, abandon ALL letters and begin to honestly comprehend God from scratch, then you will instantly acquire your own dogmas. It is impossible to be in the midst of equally possible ideas all the time, this is not far from schizophrenia, you still have to choose. And then hold on - these dogmas can describe not the truth and not God, but your own convenience.
God Himself wants to be specific. But this concreteness is like a vessel with boiling water: the walls by no means imply emptiness, just as a built house does not mean at all that no one lives in it. On the contrary, real life is possible only under the protection of strong, reliable walls. Love for a specific person (namely, the Personality is described by dogmas) does not imply the death of a relationship. God as a Person is unlimited, it is impossible to exhaust Him, it is impossible to know Him completely. To stop loving Him is probably also impossible.
DARIA SIVASHENKOVA