At the same time, he noted that the only thing that somehow distinguishes him from ordinary people is that "I give lectures – at the academy, public lectures, I receive a lot of letters, I see how good I am, and I see how much better I feel and see, and I can't wait for only one thing: when will I be canonized alive?" "But, unfortunately, this moment does not come, and when I talk about it, everyone laughs. And what's funny about it, isn't it? That's my whole biography. The only thing I would like to say is that the day when I will pass into another world, and the hour, have not yet been revealed to me. I don't know this yet, so life is not over. I was told that life was behind me; Yes, what is behind you has already passed, but the most important thing now is what is ahead. And God grant that what is ahead - at least in this period of time to begin to be an Orthodox Christian," the professor said.

Russian Line

Who is God?

Lecture by Professor A.I. Osipov on Basic Theology, delivered at the Sretensky School, October 10, 2000

Religion can only be called a worldview in which there is a thought about God, the idea of God, recognition of God, and faith in God. If there is no this, there is no religion. We can call such a belief whatever we like: shamanism, fetishism, astrology, magic... But this is no longer a religion, it is a pseudo-religion, a degeneration of religion. Today I would like to talk to you about the fundamental question for any religion, of course, and for Christianity, - the teaching about God.

The question of God is not simple. You will have to hear more than once: "Here you Christians tell us about God, prove that He exists. And who is He? Who are you talking about when you say the word "God"?"

I'll start very far away, don't be surprised and be patient for a minute. Plato, a student of Socrates, has the following idea: first principles (simple things that have no complexity) cannot be defined. They are impossible to describe. Indeed, we can define complex things through simple ones. And through what? If a person has never seen the color green, how do we explain to him what it is? There is only one thing left - to offer: "Look." It is impossible to tell what the green color is. Father Pavel Florensky once asked his cook, the simplest, most uneducated woman: "What is the sun?" She looked at him in bewilderment: "Sun? Well, look at what the sun is." He was very pleased with this answer. Indeed, there are things that cannot be explained, they can only be seen.

The question "Who is God?" has to be answered as follows. Christianity says that God is a simple Being, the simplest of all that exists. It is simpler than the sun. He is not a reality about which we can reason and through this understand and know it. It can only be "seen". Only by "looking" at Him can one know Who He is. You don't know what the sun is, look; you don't know who God is, look. How? - "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). I repeat, not all things lend themselves to verbal description and definition. We cannot explain to the blind what light is, and to the deaf what the sound C of the third octave or D of the first octave is. Of course, there are as many things as you want that we talk about and explain them quite clearly. But there are many that go beyond the boundaries of conceptual expression. They can be known only through direct communication.

Do you know what was called theology in pre-Christian Greco-Roman literature, and who was called a theologian? Theology meant stories about the gods, their adventures, and deeds. And the authors of these stories were called theologians: Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus. (What we find among them, I will not say.) So much for theology and theologians. Of course, there are interesting ideas about God in Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers, but these ideas were not popular.

And in Christianity, what is called theology? The term "theology" is the Russian translation of the Greek word "theology." In my opinion, this is a very unfortunate translation, because the second part of the word "theology" - "logos" - has about 100 meanings (the first - Theos, or Theos, is clear to everyone - God). In the ancient Greek-Russian dictionary of I. Dvoretsky there are 34 nests of meanings of the word "logos". Each nest has several more values. But if we talk about the basic religious-philosophical meaning of this concept, then most of all, I believe, it corresponds to "knowledge", "cognition", "vision". The translators took the most common meaning, "word," and translated theology with such a vague concept as theology. But in essence, theology should be translated as knowledge of God, knowledge of God, knowledge of God. At the same time, knowledge in Christianity means something completely different from what the pagans thought - not words and reasoning about God, but a special, spiritual experience of direct experience, comprehension of God by a pure, holy person.

St. John Climacus formulated this idea very precisely and concisely: "The perfection of purity is the beginning of theology." Other Fathers call it feoria, i.e. contemplation, which takes place in a state of special silence - hesychia (hence hesychasm). St. Barsanuphius the Great said beautifully about this silence: "Silence is better and more amazing than all narratives. Our fathers kissed him and worshipped him, and they were glorified by him." You see, how ancient, patristic Christianity says, or rather, spoke about theology. It is the comprehension of God, which is realized only through the correct Christian life. In theological science, this is called the method of spiritually experiential cognition of God, it gives the Christian the opportunity to truly comprehend Him and, through this, to understand the true meaning of His Revelation given in the Holy Scriptures.

There are two other methods in theological science, and although they are purely rational, they also have a certain significance for the correct understanding of God. These are apophatic (negative) and cataphatic (positive) methods.