World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 9 стр.

cal tradition, which shows itself in the wrestling over the doctrines of the Incar-    have a reason for allowing evil, which we do not comprehend, and they have
nation and Trinity, as well as many others, has resulted in an exceptional devel-      pointed out that faith in a life after death holds out the hope that justice will fi-
opment of the theoretical side of Christianity by comparison with many other           nally be done. But in its conception of the suffering God, Christianity offers
religions, especially with Judaism and Islam. For example, it provided Christi-        what might perhaps be called an existential response to the problem. The God
anity with a philosophical understanding of such concepts as person and nature.        who made the world, and who by nature was far above all experience of evil,
Christ, as God incarnate, was one person, namely the divine person of God the          nonetheless, out of love for mankind, took on himself the full burden of human
Son, but a person with two natures, one divine and one human. The Trinity by           existence, and with it suffering and death. While this does not solve the prob-
contrast was three persons with one nature, namely the divine nature. The na-          lem, Christians feel that it sets it in a new light.
ture of a being represents the kind or species of being that it is, while the person
represents the acting subject, the individual who is responsible for the being ac-                            Purgatory and prayers for the dead
tions. These concepts were applied not only to the understanding of the divine,              Through Christ God offers us the grace necessary to attain salvation.
but also of human beings.                                                              Whether we accept that grace, however, depends on us. A person who accepts
      One of the noteworthy achievements of Christian thought was the philoso-         God’s grace and leads a good life will acquire merit before God, and will de-
phical elucidation of the concept of God, carried out especially by St Thomas          serve to enter heaven, while one who rejects God’s grace and leads an evil life
Aquinas (1224–1274). God, said Aquinas, making use of conceptions devel-               will deserve the eternal punishments of hell. Between the saint, so devoted to
oped by Aristotle, is Pure Actuality, without trace of potentiality, Pure Being,       God that he or she enters heaven immediately after death, and the person who
without any element of becoming. Aquinas insisted that there can be no hostil-         deserves hell, will be many who deserve neither the one nor the other. The souls
ity between religion and reason, the true religion must be reasonable, because         of these at death will enter temporarily an in-between state known as Purgatory,
the same God created both. In defense of this view he developed the theory of          in which they will experience sufferings designed to expiate their guilt, and af-
the Analogy of Being, which explains how it is possible for our human minds            ter a time, when they have been sufficiently purified, they will enter heaven.
and conceptions, which are limited, to attain some knowledge of God by rea-                  On the basis of this doctrine it is possible for the living to help the dead by
son. When we say that God is good, for example, while it is true that there is an      their prayers. The living can intercede with God to have pity on the souls in
infinite gap between God’s goodness and anything we can possibly mean by               Purgatory, and even offer their own present sufferings and merits in this life so
“goodness” on the basis of our limited human experience, and so the word               that the dead may be released the sooner from their sins. The chief form that
“good” used of God cannot not mean precisely what we normally mean by it,              this intercession for the dead takes is the offering of the sacrifice of the Eucha-
nonetheless the statement can be meaningful and true because there is an anal-         rist or Mass on their behalf.
ogy between our meaning and the reality of God. In other words, there can only
be one universe, the finite and the infinite do not exist in separate worlds but                              The split between East and West
necessarily stand in some relation.                                                         By the end of the third century the Roman Empire had become too big for
                                                                                       one emperor to manage. The Emperor Diocletian split it into two, an eastern
                       Christianity and the problem of evil                            half including Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt, where the predomi-
     Our sense of the meaningfulness of the life is threatened fundamentally by        nant language was Greek, and a western half including Italy, Spain, and Gaul,
our experience of evil. This is of two general kinds, physical and moral. On the       where the predominant language was Latin. This political division had a far-
one hand human beings, like the rest of the animal world, are condemned by the         reaching effect on the Christian Church.
course of nature to eventual death, and often to extremes of suffering during               Gradually the two corresponding halves of the Church began to drift apart.
their lives, as the result of illness and accident. On the other, they inflict harm    Although nominally united, significant differences developed between them.
and death on one another, often without cause. If there was a God both all-good        The Church in the Eastern Empire came to be more closely identified with the
and all-powerful, it is often objected, he would not permit this state of affairs,     state, becoming in effect a department of the imperial government, a system,
for he would have both the desire and the power to prevent it.                         which has been called Caesaro-papism: the emperor was the practical head of
     Christianity does not offer a theoretical solution to this problem, although      the Church. In the West the Church retained its independence. Especially, the
theologians have argued that we cannot rule out the possibility that God might         Eastern Church had a different conception of the government of the Church. It

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