Alexandermen (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alexandermen) wrote,@ 2007-11-24 11:40:00 |
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II-2 From Seven Talks on the Creed
This, reprinted from the magazine First Hour, is a substantial excerpt
from the first of seven talks on the creed. It is ,like all Fr Men's
writing, far ranging in reference and implication.
Seven Talks on the Creed
The Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol
Excerpt from Talk I
Every one of you, if you pay a visit to any of the Orthodox Christian churches of Moscow, Leningrad, or any other place at the time of the liturgy, will notice that at a certain moment of the service the choir stops singing and all the people sing. This is an ancient tradition but it was recently revived, in the first years of the revolution, at the initiative of Patriach Tikhon. This initiative was not without a purpose. The point is that what is being sung is the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith. It was the idea of the prelate that it should be engraved on and remain in the memory of the people for a time when everything would be taken away from them, even a written text. This "Symbol" has an exceptional importance for the Christian Church. Therefore every Christian should know it by heart and understand its meaning. There a knowledge of the main points and the essence of the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol is necessary fir those who are preparing to receive the Mystery of Baptism, for those who were baptized in childhood but didn't become active members of the church, for those who wish to acquaint themselves with the basis of the Christian faith, and for those who wish to know the foundations of European and of Russian secular culture that are based on Christianity. For historians, literary critics, art historians, writers, poets, people of the most diverse creative specialties and people in various branches of the humanities it is also necessary to be acquainted with this fundamental Symbol. Therefore, as I briefly set forth its meaning to you, I am going to address everyone — those who are preparing for Baptism, and those who have been baptized, and those who wish to look at this simply with the eyes of an educated person. We are not thrusting anything one anyone. The notion of agitation is alien to the Church; we simply bear witness.
First of all, what is the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol in a literal sense? Nicaea is an ancient town in Asian Minor, where an Empire-wide Congress of the Christian Church was convened in the year 325. This congress was convened in Nicaea under the Emperor Constantine the Great to decide important spiritual and organizational problems of the Church. It is called an Ecumenical Council, the first. "Universal/ecumenical" was at the time synonymous with the Roman Empire. "Council" [Sobor] is an old Church-Slavonic word which signifies an assembly of people, a meeting of the representatives of the Church. It was at this First Ecumenical Council in AD 325, i.e. a few years after the Emperor Constantine the Great had proclaimed freedom of the confession of the faith in his Empire, that a short confession of the faith was composed. A person entering the Church was to recite it at the time of Baptism, in the course of the rite that precedes the Baptism. We call this rite ‘proclaiming’ [oglashnie — connected with the term Catechumen in Ch. Slavonic ―Tr.], when a person who have received instruction in the fundamentals of the faith, bears witness not only to his desire but also to his conscious intention to set forth on the road to which Christ calls. Additions to the Symbol of Faith were made after half a century in the year 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople. In Ancient Rus' this city was called Tsar'grad [«The City of the Emperor» < Lat. Caesar ―Tr.] and for that reason this confession of faith came to be called in brief the "Nikeo-Tsar'grad" Symbol.
Why "symbol"? "Symbol" is a capacious word with multiple meanings. A symbol is a sign revealing a kind of other reality; on this was erected an entire literary-philosophical movement, Symbolism. Ultimately, our language as well as our art as well as much else that permeates human civilixation and spiritual culture, is impossible to imagine without symbols. I am not going to enumerate them but I call your attention to just one of these. Not to speak of symbols, emblems, and all possible kinds of conventional symbols, let us take just the word. A word is an astinishing thing. It is a signal that one soul gives to another soul. Signals that animals give to each other are simply signals. Danger, challenge, warning, establishing of a fact that, let us say, this place is occupied — my nest is here. Such are the signals, or we could loosely say, "symbols", in the animal word. Human symbols are different. They are mysterious connections between separate soul-islands — because every soul lives in a particular world. Not for nothing did Tyutchev [Feodor Tytchev, Russian poet, 1803–1873―Tr.] say, "A thought put into words is a falsehood." It will be easy for all of you to imagine how difficult it is to convey authentic deep experiences. Words are insufficient to describe experiences of the mystery of the world, experiences of love, experiences of the fullness of life or of despair. But I ask you to consider one interesting thing. Feodor Ivanovitch Tyutchev, when he said, "A thought put in to words is a falsehood," nevertheless did put this thought into words anyway. And in a beautiful poetic form.
. . .
"...Human thought is unable to grasp all of Reality as a whole
and therefore physics has come up with the principle of
complementarity. This very important principle in science
fully suits dogmatics as well. Moreover the principle of
complementarity was employed in the dogmas of the Church
before Nels Bohr and others introduced it in science.
Fr Pavel Florensky, one of the outstanding Christian thinkers
of the 20th century, used to say this. "The undivided truth in the
process of falling from heaven as it were shatters into separate
parts and we see it in a broken condition." As Hegel noted the "Symbol
of Faith", the same creed we are speaking of, is set forth in
"theoretical" form.
It is not a philosophy or a theological system
but a sequence of images.
I would say artistic capacious images, alluding to the Reality that
stands behind the words.
The first word pronounced by a person reciting the Creed is
"I believe". Ofthen this word is employed in the negative context of
"blind faith". But No , we strongly protest such a definition.
On the contrary faith is not blind but clairvoyant..."
Translated by Colin Masica with Olga Trubetskoy
Copyright © 1998 The First Hour, The Magazine of the Patristic Society
