Preface

In our time, many people, especially young people, after long and painful spiritual wanderings and searches, discover the Orthodox faith, its divinely inspired truth, its inestimable significance for the life and salvation of each person. Meanwhile, in order to begin to live in this truth, it is necessary to learn about it from authentic, reliable sources, from true witnesses of the faith, but as far as possible contemporary with the reader and close to him in his spiritual aspirations. Thus, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Based on the word of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures, the preaching of the faith, preserved and transmitted in the Church from generation to generation by the experience of church life and salvation, first of all in the Holy Liturgy, is one of the main tasks for the current generation of pastors and theologians; this is especially important today, when false prophets and self-appointed teachers of the faith, people of perverted minds and far from the truth, proud ignoramuses, who do not follow the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching of piety, infected with a passion for contests and arguments (cf. 1 Tim. 6:3-4), are multiplying (cf. 1 Tim. 6:3-4). Authentic church teaching on faith, that is, a truly Orthodox, apostolic and patristic catechism, is now an urgent need both for those who are just entering the path of faith and for those who have grown up and been brought up in Orthodoxy since childhood, but have not had the opportunity to gain deeper knowledge of the faith. Such a catechism should be inseparable from church preaching, inspired by the word of God, but at the same time simple, accessible and convincing not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of the spirit and power (1 Corinthians 2:4). Such was the catechism of the early Christian centuries, the most famous of which was written by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The patristic catechism, as a rule, was addressed to catechumens (catechumens, that is, those who study the faith to receive holy baptism) or the newly baptized and interpreted the Symbol of Faith, a brief confession of the basic truths of the Christian faith, which is pronounced before the sacrament of baptism.

The most complete, ecumenical, and obligatory symbol of faith for all is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, so called because it was formulated and accepted as an infallible expression of the Church's faith by the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in 325, and the Second Ecumenical Council, held in Constantinople in 381. Since then, at every liturgy, we, Orthodox Christians, confess the essence of our faith in his words. We will not find a single Orthodox prayer book, not a single church publication of an instructive nature, which would not contain the Symbol of Faith.

This small book, which you, dear reader, hold in your hands, is precisely such an ecclesiastically authentic and patristic inspired, but also living modern catechism, that is, an exposition and explanation of the content of the Symbol of Faith, a divinely inspired text that testifies to us the faith once handed down to the saints (Jude 1:3), faith in one God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, and in one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The author of this book, St. Nicholas (Velimirovic) (1881-1956), one of the greatest modern preachers of the word of God, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča, is better known as Bishop Nicholas.

We would like to draw the reader's attention to the very title of the book, which Vladyka Nicholas gave to his unsurpassed commentary, the catechism of the Orthodox Christian faith: The Faith of Educated People. Someone may ask: "Is Orthodoxy a faith only for the educated, is it not for everyone? And is there one faith for the educated, and another for the uneducated?" The answer is simple: with this title, the author wanted, without direct polemics, to unobtrusively point out one fatal and very widespread misconception, especially among the non-ecclesiastical intelligentsia, that Orthodoxy is attractive only to the "primitive" and "uneducated," while the so-called "educated" can and should be engaged in "modern systems" of the occult-magical or syncretic-sectarian trend. Very important is the play on words and the subtle irony of Vladyka, who called his book in this way, for the uninitiated it may go unnoticed: Vladyka Nicholas wanted to say that a spiritually and essentially educated person is not one who is more or less well-read, not one who accumulates knowledge in vanity, but one who is educated inwardly, with all his heart, with all his being, who is conformed to the image of God. He who is Christlike, transfigured, renewed, deified. A man filled with grace is a heavenly man already here on earth. In this interpretation, our faith, the faith of the Church, the faith of the Holy Apostles and Holy Fathers, the faith of Orthodox Christians, is truly the faith of educated people.

But this meaning of the concept of education is revealed to the reader only in the course of reading the book. Therefore, we put the original title of the book in the subtitle, and the book itself was called by one, but all-encompassing and defining word for our life - I believe.

We are confident that this book will help every reader to believe Orthodoxly, truly and salvificly.

Bishop Irinej (Bulović) of Bačka

Символ Веры

Верую во единаго Бога Отца Вседержителя, Творца небу и земли, видимым же всем и невидимым. И во единаго Господа Иисуса Христа, Сына Божия, Единороднаго, Иже от Отца рожденнаго прежде всех век: Света от Света, Бога истинна от Бога истинна, рожденна, несотворенна, единосущна Отцу, Имже вся быша. Нас ради человек и нашего ради спасения сшедшаго с Небес и воплотившагося от Духа Свята и Марии Девы, и вочеловечшася. Распятаго же за ны при Понтийстем Пилате, и страдавша, и погребенна. И воскресшаго в третий день по Писанием. И возшедшаго на Небеса, и седяща одесную Отца. И паки грядущаго со славою судити живым и мертвым, Егоже Царствию не будет конца. И в Духа Святаго, Господа, Животворящаго, Иже от Отца исходящаго, Иже со Отцем и Сыном спокланяема и сславима, глаголавшаго пророки. Во едину Святую, Соборную и Апостольскую Церковь. Исповедую едино крещение во оставление грехов. Чаю воскресения мертвых, и жизни будущаго века. Аминь.

Верую во единаго Бога...