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Nike-Tsaregrad symbol of faith: sociocultural background and historical significance
Authors: Igor Mironov
Number of views: 455
The article considers socio-cultural prerequisites for the formation of the dogmatic foundations of the Christian church in Byzantium. As religious and philosophical prerequisites, the ideological opposition of the Church to gnosis and early Christian heresies is determined. The political and legal prerequisites for establishing the main foundations of Christian doctrine were the activities of the Roman emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the dominant religion and transferred the capital of the state to Byzantium, organizing a new state system; issued the Edict of Milan, which was the legal basis for the free practice of faith by Christians. The reason for convening the Council of Nicea was the heresy of Arius, a priest from Alexandria, who opposed the teaching of the church about God the Son, denying his one essence with God the Father. As a result of the condemnation of Heresy Arius, the Nicene Creed was formulated at the First Ecumenical Council. The Second Ecumenical Council, Constantinople (381), was dedicated to the condemnation of the heresy of the Constantinople bishop of Macedonia, who rejected the deity of the third Person of the Holy Trinity – the Holy Spirit, whom he regarded not as God, but as a created power serving God the Father and God the Son like angels. The Ecumenical Council of Constantinople supplemented the Nicene Creed, adding to it the last five members, in which the notion of “consubstantiality” was extended to the Holy Spirit. The author emphasizes the importance of the dogmatic foundations of the church in ideological struggle with various modern religious false teachings, including religious extremism.