The role of Christianity in the Middle Ages. Christianity as the core of medieval culture. Busy historical period

Medieval Christianity

Over the first six centuries of Christian history, significant advances were made that allowed the Christian religion to withstand numerous threats. Many conquerors from the north adopted the Christian faith. At the beginning of the 5th century. Ireland, before the 9th century. remaining outside the Roman Empire and not subject to foreign invasions, it became one of the main centers of Christianity, and Irish missionaries went to Britain and continental Europe. Even before the beginning of the 6th century. some Germanic tribes that settled within the former borders of the empire adopted Christianity. In the 6th-7th centuries. The Angles and Saxons who invaded Britain were converted. At the end of the 7th and 8th centuries. Most of the territory of the modern Netherlands and the Rhine Valley becomes Christian. Even before the end of the 10th century. began the Christianization of the Scandinavian peoples, the Slavs of Central Europe, the Bulgarians, Kievan Rus, and later the Hungarians. Before the Arab conquest brought Islam with it, Christianity had spread among some peoples of Central Asia and was also practiced by small communities in China. Christianity also spread up the Nile, into the territory currently occupied by Sudan.

At the same time, by the first half of the 10th century. Christianity has lost much of its strength and vitality. In Western Europe it began to lose ground among newly converted peoples. After a short revival during the Carolingian dynasty (8th - early 9th centuries), monasticism again fell into decline. The Roman papacy had weakened to such an extent and lost its prestige that it seemed inevitable death awaited it. Byzantium, the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, whose population was predominantly Greek or Greek-speaking, survived the Arab threat. However, in the 8th-9th centuries. The Eastern Church was shaken by iconoclastic disputes related to the question of the admissibility of venerating icons.

From the second half of the 10th century. a new flowering of Christianity begins, which lasted about four centuries. Christianity was officially adopted by the Scandinavian peoples. The Christian faith spread among non-Germanic peoples along the Baltic coast and on the Russian plains. On the Iberian Peninsula, Islam was pushed to the south, and in the end it held only in the extreme southeast - in Granada. In Sicily, Islam was completely ousted. Christian missionaries carried their faith to Central Asia and China, whose inhabitants were also familiar with one of the eastern forms Christianity - Nestorianism. However, east of the Caspian Sea and Mesopotamia, only small groups of the population professed the Christian faith.

Christianity experienced a particularly rapid flourishing in the West. One of the manifestations of this revival was the emergence of new monastic movements, new monastic orders were created (Cistercians, and somewhat later Franciscans and Dominicans). The great reforming popes - primarily Gregory VII (1073-1085) and Innocent III (1198-1216) - ensured that Christianity began to play an important role in the life of all classes of society. Numerous movements also arose among the people or among scientists, which the church condemned as heretical.

Majestic Gothic cathedrals and ordinary parish churches were erected, expressing the faith of Christians in stone. Scholastic theologians worked to comprehend Christian doctrine in terms of Greek philosophy, primarily Aristotelianism. An outstanding theologian was Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274).

Introduction

The Middle Ages lasted almost a thousand years - from the 5th to the 15th centuries. During this historical period, enormous changes took place in world history: the colossus of the Roman Empire collapsed, then Byzantium. After the conquest of Rome, barbarian tribes created their own states on the European continent with a defining national culture.

During this period, a lot of changes occur in the world in all areas of state development. These changes did not spare culture and religion. During the Middle Ages, each nation had its own history of cultural development and the influence of religion on it.

At all times, people needed to believe in something, hope for someone, worship someone, fear someone, explain the inexplicable with something, and all peoples had their own unknown. There were pagans, Muslims, Christians, etc.

At this time, Christianity was considered the main religion in the West and in Rus'. But, if the Russian Middle Ages were considered to be the 13th–15th centuries, then in the West it is the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, i.e. the most prolific years in the formation of Western European culture. In our country, at least the first two of these three centuries correspond to defeat, cultural isolation from the West and stagnation, from which Rus' was just beginning to climb out at the very end of the 14th and 15th centuries.

That is why I would like to separately understand how Christianity influenced the culture of Western European peoples and Rus'.

To understand how religion influenced culture, you need to understand how people lived at that time, what they thought about, what worried them and cared most about them then.

The establishment of Christianity as the state religion in some countries, starting from the 4th century, and its active spread led to a significant reorientation of all spheres of late antique spiritual culture into the mainstream of a new worldview system. All types of artistic activity were directly captured by this process. In fact, the formation of a new theory of art began, the preconditions of which were already formed in the early Christian period. The Fathers of the Church made their significant contribution to this process.

1. General characteristics of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, natural farming was primitive, productive forces and technology were poorly developed. Wars and epidemics bled nations dry. The Inquisition suppressed any thought that ran counter to church dogma, brutally dealing with bearers of heretical teachings and those suspected of collaborating with the devil.

At this time, machines began to be used, windmills, a water wheel, steering, book printing and much more.

The very concept of “the Middle Ages” cannot in any way be a kind of integrity. There are Early, High Middle Ages and Decline. Each period has its own characteristics of the spiritual sphere and culture.

The clash of cultural orientations gave rise to the multilayered and contradictory nature of the consciousness of medieval man. The commoner, living at the mercy of folk beliefs and primitive images, had the beginnings of a Christian worldview. An educated person was not completely free from pagan ideas. However, for everyone, religion was the undoubted dominant.

The essence of the medieval way of relating to the world was determined by the divine model of the world, which was supported by all the means available to the church (and the state subordinate to it). This model determined the features of the medieval era. The main features of this model are the following:

a specifically medieval understanding of the Universe, where God acts as the main world creative force, human intervention in divine affairs was unacceptable;

medieval monotheism, in which the Universe was conceived as absolutely subordinate to God, to whom alone the laws of nature and the divine cosmos are accessible. This is a force infinitely more powerful than a person and dominated him;

man is an insignificant, weak, sinful creature, a speck of dust in the divine world, and particles of the divine world are available to him only through the atonement of sins and the worship of God.

The central event of the medieval model of the world was God. The entire complex of the super-complex social hierarchy of events in the medieval world fit into this event. A special place in this hierarchy was occupied by the church, which was entrusted with a divine mission.

The main population of the Middle Ages were peasants.

2. The process of Christianization in the Middle Ages

The ideological position of the church was that it was actually on the side of the masters, being, moreover, the largest owner. And yet the church tried to smooth out conflicts in society, preaching equality before God, humility and the sanctity of poverty. The poor experience troubles and hardships on earth, but they are God's chosen ones, worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Poverty is a moral virtue.

The medieval church recognized labor as a consequence of original sin. Working to get rich was condemned. The work of an ascetic - work to eradicate idleness, to curb the flesh, for moral improvement - was considered a godly deed.

2.1 Process of Christianization in Europe

In Europe, society in the minds of people was divided into three main social strata: clergy, peasants and knights. The social ideals were the life of saints and the heroic deeds of the warrior. The process of Christianization proceeded with great difficulties. The state used its authority and power to eradicate paganism and introduce Christianity. The peasant was excluded from the system of public legal rules and could not be a warrior. People who remembered their free ancestors had a hard time experiencing their bondage. The people associated their freedom and independence with the pagan faith, and Christianization with the power and oppression of the state.

The most comprehensive measures were taken to eradicate pagan superstitions. Particular attention is paid to rituals associated with the cult of the forces of nature. Fortune telling, spells, and divinations were also considered forbidden and were severely punished.

In the fight against paganism, the Church used not only punishment, but also careful adaptation. Pope Gregory I was a supporter of the gradual replacement of pagan religious stereotypes with Christian rituals. He advised not to destroy pagan temples, but to sprinkle them with holy water and replace idols with altars and relics of saints. Animal sacrifice should be replaced with feast days where animals will be slaughtered for the glory of God and for food. He recommended that instead of the pagan walk around the fields for harvest, processions should be organized for Trinity.

The life of peasants in the Middle Ages was determined by the changing seasons, each person goes through the same cycle of events. Constant employment and focus on traditions and rituals made it impossible to go beyond the cyclical framework.

Christianity, instead of the cyclical flow of time, natural for the peasant, implanted a linear historical flow of time with the Super-event of the Last Judgment at its end. Fear of retribution for sins becomes a powerful factor in joining Christianity.

The reverse process also took place - Christianity adopted paganism and subjected it to changes. This was due to several reasons. One of them was that the priests themselves were often from peasant backgrounds and in many ways remained pagans. Another reason was that the worship of saints was associated with the needs of the majority of the population, who were unable to understand the abstract God and needed to worship a visible, understandable image. The clergy exalted the saints for their piety, virtues, and Christian holiness; the flock valued them, first of all, for their ability to perform magic: the ability to work miracles, heal, and protect. Medieval man existed on the verge of oblivion: famine, wars, epidemics claimed many lives, almost no one lived to old age, and infant mortality was very high. Man felt an urgent need for protection from dangers approaching from all sides.

The Church could not help but take on the functions of magical human protection. Some magical rituals passed into Christian rituals almost without changes. Moreover, the church even multiplied and complicated ritual life. The veneration of God was carried out in the Christian church through sacraments such as communion, baptism, and priesthood. Also used were blessed water, bread, and candles. Blessed objects were used at home and in everyday life. Theologians saw only symbolism in all this and did not recognize their supernatural power. Common people used them primarily as amulets: not for cleansing from sins and communion with God, but for protection from diseases, slander, and damage. Peasants even used church gifts to heal livestock.

Excessive ritualization emasculated the spiritual essence of faith and mechanized communication with God. Rituals degenerated into mechanical, meaningless repetition. Believers, in order to cleanse themselves of sins, could do without a high spiritual attitude, just by formally performing rituals. The Church could not abolish superstitions, rituals and rites that distorted the foundations of the Catholic faith, for they were an integral part of the mentality of medieval man, and without them Christian teaching could not be accepted.

2.2 The process of Christianization in Rus'

The first centuries of Russian medieval culture. Coming mainly from the period of Kievan Rus, they are permeated with the bright joy of learning something new, discovering the unknown. In the light of the new worldview, the natural world, man himself, and their relationships appeared different before the Slav, not to mention the spiritual, which sanctified all seemingly familiar things and phenomena with a new light. The traditional rather narrow horizons - geographical and historical, social and spiritual - have expanded indefinitely.

Realizing all this, and most importantly - himself as the goal and crown of creation, the image of the Creator himself, man, with childish spontaneity, rejoiced at the discovery of the world. His entire life and work are filled with a joyful worldview; his aesthetic consciousness is inspired by it; Finally, it acted as an important stimulus for the rapid rise of culture in Kievan Rus.

Formally, the date of the baptism of Rus' is considered to be 988, although this is the probable year of the baptism of St. Vladimir, his squad, Kyiv and Novgorod with their surroundings. Christianity appeared in Rus' long before Vladimir, and the process of converting all of Rus' dragged on for at least another two centuries; as for the remote eastern regions, especially the Volga region and the Urals (not to mention Siberia), it ended only in the 18th or even 19th century.

By the middle of the 10th century, there were at least two Christian churches in Kyiv, which indicates some kind of Christian activity in Dnieper Rus'. And, of course, the personal baptism of Grand Duchess Olga around 955 probably stimulated a certain number of people, at least from her circle, to accept baptism.

As for Vladimir himself and his internal politics, the act of baptism itself cannot be considered solely from a political point of view. Vladimir, according to the chronicles, after baptism completely changes both his personal lifestyle and his internal politics. Having allegedly had 800 concubines before baptism, Vladimir becomes a monogamist after baptism, having married the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil, Anna. He introduces a system of social protection for the poorest segments of the population, ordering the periodic delivery of free food and clothing to the poor at the expense of the grand ducal treasury. He begins the rapid construction of churches, opening schools with them, and by force forcing his boyars to send their sons to them. Finally, he issues his church charter, which provided the Church with very broad civil rights and powers.

The Christianization of Rus' had a number of characteristic features and was a long, painful process. Politically and economically, it was beneficial only to the Kyiv princes. The majority of the population did not want to part with the old faith and Christianization was largely adapted to pagan customs. Thus, pagan holidays were timed to coincide with Christian ones, and pagan rituals were largely transferred to Christian rituals. Not only the common people, but often the clergy also took a position of dual faith. Orthodoxy has much in common with Catholicism. Thus, it recognizes the magical power of Christ's atoning sacrifice and the consecrated "gifts of God." Each religious action and objects of worship are considered not just symbols, but also material carriers of the “holy spirit.” The Orthodox faith calls, first of all, not for individual salvation, but for a universal, supra-personal “conciliarity” based on the union of Christians who love each other. Like Catholicism, Orthodoxy divides humanity into laity and church ministers. The laity cannot be saved on their own, without clergy who can atone for their sins from God.

For a Russian, society is a big family, clan. The ruling prince or king is the father of the nation as a family in which his subjects are considered as his children. The vision of society as one big family, a single organism, was one of the reasons that the concepts of individual freedom did not take deep roots in the culture of the Russian people, in which the place of Western values - pride and honor - was taken by such feminine values as fidelity, humility and a certain passive fatality. Confirmation of this can be seen in the special veneration of the first Russian saints - Boris and Gleb. They refused to oppose their elder brother Svyatopolk on the grounds that after the death of his father, he legally occupies the throne and submission to his will must be unquestioning. And they went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter, rejecting the advice of their squads to engage in battle with the forces of Svyatopolk. Whether this really happened is not important. It is important that it was precisely this passive way of behavior that corresponded to popular concepts of holiness.

Let us return to the era of the early centuries of Christianity in Rus'. We must not forget about the colossal size of the country, the small population and the enormous difficulties of communications in such a continental block, where the most reliable way of transportation - rivers - is covered with ice for 3-5 months a year, where the long period of snow melting and ice drift in the spring and gradual freezing in the fall stops any communication between different regions of the country for many months.

Undoubtedly, the Orthodox Church, one might say, nurtured the Russian person, influenced the formation of his character, and introduced Christian concepts into everyday life. Even in terms of language: no Western language has the same vocabulary influence of the Church as the Orthodox, especially Russians. The Western Church used a language understandable only to a small educated elite, leaving the average resident of medieval Latin Europe in almost complete ignorance of Christian teaching and lack of understanding of everything that happened in the temple. Under these conditions, the Church in the West became elitist.

3. Culture in medieval Europe

Knowledge of Latin was a criterion for education. The popular language developed according to different laws than Latin. Concrete, visual images were transmitted and fixed on it. The Latin language expressed abstract judgments, theological and political concepts. The difference in the structure of the vernacular and Latin languages increased the difference between uneducated people and the educated elite.

In the 5th–10th centuries, church books appeared on parchment with miniatures depicting animals and people in two-dimensional space (flat and without shadows).

Compared to antiquity, this period was a cultural decline. The works were devoid of grace and sophistication. They were dominated by the cult of brute physical strength. Many achievements of antiquity were forgotten. Thus, the ancient sculpture was lost. Images of humans become primitive. The decline continued from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 11th century.

4. Culture in medieval Rus'

In the 10th–11th centuries, the “time of the Grand Dukes” begins in the history of ancient Rus'. Although Kievan Rus was free to accept the cultural influences of the West and East, Byzantium had a special influence on the development of ancient Rus'. Byzantine culture was “grafted” onto the tree of Slavic-pagan culture and was the source of Christian cultural traditions, which included legal norms and ideas about government, education, upbringing, science, art, morality and religion. The centers of cultural exchange were Constantinople, Athos, the monasteries of Sinai, Thessaloniki.

In 988, Christianity was officially recognized and declared the state religion. It radically restructured the worldview of the Russians and largely changed the cultural development of ancient Rus'.

Christianity contributed to the emergence and development of a typological community of temple architecture, monumental mosaics and frescoes, icon painting and music. Russian cities began to be decorated with churches and other monumental buildings - fortresses, princely chambers, etc., and the homes of citizens and peasants - with objects of applied folk art. One of the characteristic features of ancient Russian architecture was the combination of wooden and stone forms. The construction of temples, which became centers of cultural and intellectual life, acquired particular significance in medieval Russian culture (as well as in Western culture). One of the most famous architectural structures was the majestic Kiev Cathedral of St. Sophia.

Jewelry craftsmanship developed - casting, production of unique enamel, including the famous Byzantine cloisonné. Jewelers not only borrowed artistic technology, but also invented their own. They used graining, filigree, casting, chasing, silver engraving, and forging.

Temple culture also contributed to the development of monumental painting and icon painting. Regional art schools were created in Kyiv, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Chernigov, and Rostov the Great. Churches are painted using samples of canons; they were called “tablets” and later “copybooks”. The name of the monk who painted the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra has survived to this day: his name was Alimpius.

The Christianization of Rus' greatly contributed to the emergence of Russian philosophy. The first attempt to comprehend human existence as an integrity, in the unity of personal, family and state life, belongs to the Grand Russian Prince Vladimir Monomakh.

The period of the mature Middle Ages became tragic for the Russian people and their young culture. In the 13th century, Rus' found itself under the Mongol yoke and lost its state independence. The surviving monasteries often remained the only cultural centers.

Let's take a closer look at the ancient Russian book culture and the Russian library of that era.

One of the first Slavic-Russian translations after liturgical books was “The Source of Knowledge” by John of Damascus, from which the Kiev literate drew basic concepts about the philosophical systems of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. So the reading Kievite had an idea of ancient philosophy. Damascene then gave information about the basic sciences, dividing them into two categories: 1) theoretical and 2) practical philosophy. To theoretical philosophy, as was then customary, he included: theology, physiology and mathematics, the subdivisions of which were arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Practical philosophy included ethics, economics (housekeeping) and politics.

The less developed north was not silent either. The most outstanding spiritual author of this region, whose writings have survived to this day, was Bishop of Novgorod Luka Zhidyata, apparently one of the baptized Jews, judging by the name. His style cannot be compared with the grace and decoration of the southerners. The Jews are stingy with words, their language is extremely close to colloquial speech, and their ethics are instructive, objective, and concrete.

The main theological expression of the north and northeast, however, was temple building and icon painting, which there achieved both national originality and artistic and spiritual perfection, while in the south and southwest we see the work of Byzantine masters directly or their direct imitation, for which followed the destruction and decline of the 13th–15th centuries. An independent and artistically significant icon-painting tradition did not appear there.

As for the north and northeast, the Tatar-Mongol invasion there destroyed and interrupted traditional Russian crafts for a long time: masons, carvers, and masters of artistic enamel were captured and forcibly taken to Central Asia. But neither the pagan Tatars nor the Muslim Tatars needed icon painters. In addition, the Tatars had great respect for Orthodoxy, exempting the clergy and monasteries from taxes. All this contributed not only to the preservation, but also to the development and improvement of the skills of icon painting and frescoes.

The most remarkable literary work of that era was, of course, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” unsurpassed in the richness of language and poetic imagery in pre-Pushkin Russian literature. There are strong moments of foreboding of the failure of the campaign based on natural phenomena, but along with this there are frequent appeals to God, and everything in the work is imbued with a Christian worldview. And the very fact of chanting not a proud victory, but to some extent even the deserved defeat of Igor’s campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185, with the implication that defeat is necessary for humility, is a punishment for arrogance, arrogance - all this is alien to paganism and reflects the Christian life understanding.

Some historians believe that such a masterpiece could not have arisen on bare soil and that other literary works of the same era and the same significance simply have not reached us. Indeed, it is surprising that “The Lay” reached the 18th century in only one copy, while many other literary works, albeit mostly from a later era, have survived in multiple copies. The explanation for this, perhaps, lies in the fact that the copyists were monks, for whom the fiction of the Lay was alien. They were more interested in the lives of saints, chronicles, sermons, and teachings.

5. The influence of religion on people's culture

Religion “physically” and spiritually enters the world of culture. Moreover, it constitutes one of its constructive foundations, recorded by historians almost from the advent of “homo sapiens.” On this basis, many theologians, following the outstanding ethnographer J. Fraser, assert: “All culture comes from the temple, from the cult.”

The power of religion in the early stages of cultural development went beyond the boundaries of the latter’s dimension. Until the late Middle Ages, the church covered almost all cultural spheres. It was at the same time a school and a university, a club and a library, a lecture hall and a philharmonic society. These cultural institutions are brought to life by the practical needs of society, but their origins are in the bosom of the Church and are largely nourished by it.

While spiritually ruling over its flock, the Church at the same time exercised guardianship and censorship over culture, forcing it to serve the cult. This spiritual dictatorship was especially felt in the medieval states of the Catholic world, where the Church dominated politically and legally. And almost everywhere it dominated morality and art, education and upbringing. Church tutelage and censorship, like any dictatorship, did not at all stimulate cultural progress: freedom is the air of culture, without which it suffocates. While noting the positive aspects of religious influence on the realities of culture, we should not forget about this.

Perhaps religion had the greatest influence on the formation and development of national identity and the culture of an ethnic group.

Church rites often continue in the institutions of folk life and the calendar. At times it is difficult to separate the secular principle in national traditions, customs and rituals from the religious. What, for example, are Semik and Maslenitsa for the Russian people, Navruz for the Azerbaijanis and Tajiks? Secular-folk and church-canonical are inextricably intertwined in these holidays. God save (thank you) - is this a religious or secular formula for a wake - is this a purely church ritual? What about caroling?

The awakening of national self-awareness is usually associated with a revival of interest in the national religion. This is exactly what is happening in Russia.

In Europe, schools for monks at monasteries became cultural islands. In the Middle Ages, architecture occupied a leading place. This was caused primarily by the urgent need for the construction of temples.

A further cultural stimulus was the growth of cities, centers of trade and crafts. A new phenomenon was urban culture, which gave rise to the Romanesque style. The Romanesque style arose as a strengthening of the authority of the Roman Empire, necessary for royalty and the church. The Romanesque style was best personified by large cathedrals located on hills, as if towering above everything earthly.

The Gothic style rejects the ponderous, fortress-like Romanesque cathedrals. The attributes of the Gothic style were pointed arches and slender towers rising to the sky. The vertical composition of the building, the rapid upward thrust of the pointed arches and other architectural structures expressed the desire for God and the dream of a higher life. Geometry and arithmetic were understood abstractly, through the prism of knowledge of God, who created the world and arranged everything by “measure, number and weight.” Every detail in the cathedral had a special meaning. The side walls symbolized the Old and New Testaments. Pillars and columns personified the apostles and prophets carrying the vault, portals - the threshold of heaven. The dazzling interior of the Gothic cathedral personified a heavenly paradise.

Early Christianity inherited from antiquity an admiration for the products of creativity and contempt for the people who created them. But gradually, under the influence of Christian ideas about the beneficial, elevating significance of work, this attitude changed. In the monasteries of that time, it was believed to combine activities leading to communication with God, to insight into his essence, such as divine reading, prayers, and manual labor. It was in the monasteries that many crafts and arts were developed. Art was considered a godly and noble activity; it was practiced not only by ordinary monks, but also by the highest church elite. Medieval arts: painting, architecture, jewelry - were founded within the walls of monasteries, under the shadow of the Christian church.

In the 12th century, interest in art increased significantly. This is due to the general technical, economic and scientific progress of society. The practical activity of a person, his intelligence, and the ability to invent something new are beginning to be valued much higher than before. The accumulated knowledge begins to be systematized into a hierarchy, at the top of which God continues to remain. Art that combines high practical skills and reflection of images of sacred tradition receives a special status in medieval culture.

Attitudes towards art in the Middle Ages underwent great changes. Thus, during the early Middle Ages (V–VIII centuries), ancient ideas about art dominated. Art is classified into theoretical, practical and creative. Since the 8th century, Christian ideas have actively intertwined and interacted with non-religious ones. The main goal of art is the pursuit of divine beauty, which is embodied in the harmony and unity of nature.

Christianity, spreading to all spheres of the life of medieval man, naturally determined the direction and content of artistic creativity and limited art with its dogmas. Artistic creativity could not spread beyond their borders. It was significantly limited by the iconographic tradition. The main goal of creativity was the preservation and exaltation of Christian teaching. The entire medieval culture was subordinated to a single reality - God. God has true subjectivity; a person depicted in works of art striving for an ideal must subordinate his will to God. Everything is in God: fate is determined by God, the world is explained by God. Christianity determined the preferred themes and forms of art. In literature, a favorite genre is the lives of saints; in sculpture - images of Christ, the Mother of God, saints; in painting - an icon; in architecture - a cathedral. Themes of heaven, purgatory and hell are also common. The artist had to capture the beauty of the divine world order in his works, coordinating his vision with the ideas of the Christian clergy. Human creativity is relative, limited, and therefore must be subordinated to the will of God. There can be no creativity outside of God. The main theme in art is Christ and his teaching.

Works of art should not only bring sensual pleasure from the contemplation of beautiful and harmonious beauty, they should educate a person in the spirit of striving for God. Piety is the most important spiritual quality awakened by art.

In Rus' in the 15th century, art schools appeared, architecture and icon painting flourished. A famous representative of the golden age of the Novgorod monumental school was the Greek master Theophanes the Greek. He did not use iconographic “copybooks”; his works were deeply original and uniquely individual. He painted more than 40 churches. Monumental and decorative works, which stood on a par with other greatest creations of world art, were created in the 15th century by Andrei Rublev. In memory of Sergius of Radonezh, he wrote his most perfect work - the Trinity icon. Thus, under Ivan III, the Assumption Cathedral, the Annunciation Cathedral, the Chamber of Facets were erected, and the walls of the Kremlin were built. The original national spirit was embodied in St. Basil's Cathedral.

Conclusion

And even in our time, if you carefully analyze the life of peasants, you can find some traces of the Middle Ages in their life.

Famous Gothic cathedrals still amaze people today; among them, Notre Dame Cathedral, the cathedrals of Reims, Chartres, Amiens, and Saint-Denis are especially famous. N.V. Gogol (1809–1852) wrote: “Gothic architecture is a phenomenon that has never before been produced by the taste and imagination of man. ... Entering the sacred darkness of this temple, it is very natural to feel the involuntary horror of the presence of a shrine, which the daring mind of a person does not dare to touch.”

Thus, the Middle Ages, on the basis of the Christian tradition, created a mass person who was interested in solving the problems of equality, freedom, and was concerned about the system of legal and other guarantees of individual existence.

The artist was a mediator between people and God. It was in this way that the medieval model of the world developed through the idea of exaltation, through an appeal to man the creator.

This is an integral principle of the European model of the world, opposite to the Eastern one - the principle of stability, harmony, naturalness.

Old Russian traditionalism was strengthened by Orthodox traditionalism. The community, society mattered more than the fate of an individual.

The process of formation of ancient Russian culture was not just a process of simple forward movement. It included ups and downs, periods of long stagnation, decline and cultural breakthroughs. But in general, this era represents a cultural layer that determined the subsequent development of all Russian culture.

The Church leaves milestones in the material culture of the people through monastic production and temple construction. The production of cult decorations and vestments, the printing of books, the heritage of icon painting, frescoes.

From the very beginning of its existence, the Church had to determine its position in relation to society. At first she represented a minority, often persecuted and persecuted. Small but rapidly growing Christian communities sought to develop a distinctive lifestyle based on love for God and one's neighbor. There is no doubt that Christianity has had a huge impact on society. Thanks to the Church, the first hospitals and universities appeared in medieval Europe. The Church built great cathedrals and provided patronage to artists and musicians. Obviously, religion and culture are not identical. Religion takes shape earlier and reshapes social consciousness accordingly. New cult-cultural archetypes begin to form, which form the foundation of a new culture. Christian culture acquired its adequate appearance (or rather Face) only in mature Byzantium and Ancient Rus' and in medieval Western Europe (Latin-Catholic branch). It was then that all the main spheres of human life and spiritual-material creativity, all the main social institutions were completely embraced by the Christian spirit; religion, church cult, Christian worldview have become the main culture-creating factors

Literature

1. Viktor Bychkov 2000 years of Christian culture sub specie aesthetica. In 2 vols. Volume 1 Early Christianity. Byzantium. M. - St. Petersburg: University Book, 1999. 575 p.

2. Viktor Bychkov 2000 years of Christian culture sub specie aesthetica. In 2 vols. Volume 2 Slavic world. Ancient Rus'. Russia. M. - St. Petersburg: University Book, 1999. 527 p.

3. Religion in history and culture: Textbook for universities / M.G. Pismanik, A.V. Vertinsky, S.P. Demyanenko and others; edited by prof. M.G. Pismanika. – M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1998. -430 p.

4. John Young Christianity / trans. from English K. Savelyeva. – M.: FAIR PRESS, 2000. -384 p.

Novgorod is one of ancient centers culture. Here, at the St. Sophia Cathedral in the 11th century, the Russian chronicle. More than half of the written monuments of ancient Rus' of the 11th-17th centuries are located in Novgorod.

Formation of the first Byzantine concepts in the field of aesthetics as a fusion of ideas of Hellenistic Neoplatonism and early patristics. The prominence of medieval science as an understanding of the authority of the Bible. Study of Russian and Ukrainian culture of the Middle Ages.

The main features of medieval spiritual culture and worldview. Formation and development of the Christian Church. Life values medieval man and the role of cities. History of the Cathedrals of San Marco, Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims and Aachen.

Russian culture has its roots in the ancient pagan era. Paganism - a complex of primitive views, beliefs and rituals - had its own history..

Conditions for the emergence and stages of development of the culture of the Middle Ages, its characteristic features and features. Religion and the Church in Medieval Society. Artistic culture medieval Europe, Gothic art and architecture, medieval music and theater.

The importance of Byzantium for Ancient Rus' is difficult to overestimate. It can be said that the Byzantine form of Orthodoxy, adopted Eastern Slavs in the 10th century, created historical figure future Russia.

History of the formation and further development of the art of Ancient Rus'. Icons as the main genre of ancient Russian painting. General characteristics and features of the formation of the national style in Russian art of the 9th-12th centuries, the influence of Byzantine culture on it.

Periodization and origins of medieval culture, the role of Christianity as the foundation of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages. Knightly culture, folklore, urban culture and carnivals, creation school system, universities, Romanesque and Gothic, temple culture.

The Baptism of Rus' became a turning point in the history and culture of Rus'. Together with the new religion, they adopted writing, book culture, stone construction skills, canons of icon painting, and some genres and images of applied art from Byzantium.

Legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire. A new worldview in culture and art. The process of formation of Christian art and the formation of Christian aesthetic system. The combination of pagan elements with Christian ones as an overcoming of paganism.

A cultural archetype is a basic element of culture. Traditional attitudes of Russian culture. Formation, development, features of the formation of Russian culture. Development of the culture of Ancient Rus'. Icon paintings by Russian masters and Christianity, stone structures.

Christianity as the basis of a worldview, its emergence, the main idea. Acceptance and dissemination of teachings in Rus'. Orthodoxy is the cultural and historical choice of Russian society, the motives for making the decision. His influence on the formation of Russian culture.

Inquisition and crusades. Monasticism and the Crusades. Folk culture Middle Ages. The Renaissance gave the Middle Ages a very critical and harsh assessment. However, subsequent eras made significant amendments to this assessment.

The beginning of ancient Russian statehood dates back to the times before the Baptism of Rus'. The Tale of Bygone Years connects its beginning with the arrival of three Varangian brothers in Rus': Rurik, Sineus and Truvor.

Old Russian painting is one of the recognized peaks of world art, the greatest spiritual heritage of our people. The interest in it is enormous, as are the difficulties of perceiving it for us.

Common features and differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The influence of Catholicism on culture Western Europe. Monasteries are the centers of European civilization. Reflection of the ideals of Orthodoxy in Byzantine art. Iconocentrism of medieval Russian culture.

The origins of Christianity in Rus'. The influence of Christianity on the culture of Ancient Rus'. Philosophy of Russian religious art. History of Russian art. For a long time, until the 19th century, Christianity would remain the dominant culture.

It was Byzantine culture and literature in line with the early Cyril and Methodius tradition that contributed to the emergence of original ancient Russian literature and the temple-building activities of Russian princes.

The foundations of Orthodoxy, its significance for the development of spirituality and morality in Russian people, its contribution to the emergence of Russian historiography and art. Ideals of Orthodoxy in Russian culture. The history of the complex relationship between the state and Orthodoxy.

Culture of the Western European Middle Ages. The process of formation of Christianity. Romanesque and Gothic art. Culture of Byzantium and Ancient Rus'. Development agriculture and crafts. Renaissance culture. Anthropocentrism. Proto-Renaissance period.

The Christian Church in the Middle Ages played the role of a connecting factor for European states. At the same time, the church also performed an identification function. After 1054 (the break with the Byzantine Patriarchate), the church turned into the center of political life in Europe (G.

Vatican, Rome, Italy).

According to the doctrine of St. Augustine, the church asserted and defended its priority over secular power. Not a single king could challenge the privileges of the pope or interfere in the political life of his own state. Of course, secular rulers were looking for ways to neutralize the strong and unnecessary influence of the Catholic Church. But these victories were rather the exception to the rule.

The main weapons in the fight against rebellious monarchs were the financial press and the institution of anathema. During the period of feudal irritability, kings were most dependent on the will of the Pope. The struggle for the integrity of the state required considerable cash, because the rebellious feudal lords were often richer than the overlord. Monetary assistance was provided in exchange for expanding the pope's influence in the region.

If the king turned out to obey the head of the Vatican, then the anathema mechanism was activated. Anathema is a church curse, eternal excommunication from the church of an objectionable person. Anathema entailed terrible, irreparable consequences.

The French king Henry VII fell into this trap, notorious for his campaign in Canossa, where after incredible humiliations he was nevertheless forgiven by the Pope.

Unlike secular power, the Catholic Church had a solid financial income - church tithes from peasants, generous gifts from powerful feudal lords and benefits provided by the monarch.

During the early and middle Middle Ages, the Catholic Church controlled all spheres of human life: from politics to the spiritual world of the individual. The person took every step with the permission of the clergy. This position led the church to a double morality. The church demanded strict adherence to all moral standards from parishioners, but allowed itself the impossible.

Education was controlled by “black and white cassocks”; everything that contradicted official morality was removed from the programs of schools and universities. The natural development of science was hampered by dogmatism: for example, among the victims of the geocentric model of the world was D. Bruno, who was declared a heretic. Another talented scientist, G. Galileo, who was more diplomatic, had to beg for forgiveness for a long time.

But these circumstances do not negate everything positive that was done by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. Monasteries were the center of culture; many of them contained evidence of the great deeds of the Roman Empire. Literate monks painstakingly copied ancient scrolls.

The Church encouraged the development of such genres as all kinds of lives of saints and chronicles “from the Nativity of Christ.” Note that Orthodox Church led chronology from the Creation of the world.

To dominate the minds, hearts and souls of its contemporaries, the church practiced various methods of monitoring changes in society. Of course, the methods chosen were not the cleanest, although they were effective. The arsenal includes surveillance, denunciations and good job Inquisition. There was an ongoing witch hunt. As a result, hundreds of thousands of “witches” were burned at the stake. Mass executions were practiced; up to 500 women were burned at the stake per day. Inquisitors, who are also the dark instruments of the Dominicans (Order of St. Dominic), in their search for heretics, were guided by the instructions of the treatise “The Hammer of the Witches.” The charges were absurd, the punishments were inhumane and cruel. Torture was used to force the victim to sign his own sentence. The most popular are the “iron maiden” hug, the Spanish boot, hanging by the hair, water torture. As a sign of protest, no less terrible “black masses” took place throughout Europe, which caused a new surge in “witch hunts.”

The influence of the Catholic Church began to decline sharply in the late Middle Ages, with the end of the centralization process. Secular power noticeably pushed the clergy away from government decision-making, which resulted in some liberalization of all aspects of life.

The position of the church proved to be stable in those European countries where the rate of economic growth noticeably lagged behind the leaders (Italy, Spain).

It marked the beginning of the Middle Ages, which lasted approximately from the 5th to the 15th centuries. Established Christianity also gave rise to a new worldview. Social consciousness has reoriented towards the ideal, sensual, spiritual world, and this became the basis of medieval culture. No longer a hero, but a passion-bearer, like Jesus Christ, George the Victorious, in the sacrificial struggle defeats evil not by force, but by greatness of spirit. If in ancient culture If man-centrism reigned, then in the Middle Ages theocentrism became a priority - the supremacy of God, whose omnipotence is undeniable and whose will in the fate of mankind is indisputable.

In the Western European Middle Ages, there are two main artistic style- Romanesque and Gothic. The Romanesque style originated one century earlier, when the bulk of the population was concentrated in the countryside around castles - fortresses. Therefore, the Romanesque style received its most complete embodiment in architecture. In addition, wars for power between feudal lords were almost continuous. And the main feudal lord, who actively defended her rights with a cross and sword. And it is not surprising that almost all Romanesque buildings resemble fortresses: impregnable fortress walls, numerous towers, and loopholes. Christian cathedrals, facades and altars, which are decorated with rich sculpture on biblical themes, amazed with their grandeur. The monumental sculpture of the Romanesque style affirmed the insignificance of man in the face of God Almighty, the weakness and helplessness of man before the incomprehensible and mysterious world.

The painting was distinguished by a flat, symbolic, conventional image, which was expressed by the hierarchical size of the figures: Christ in the picture was always higher than the angels or apostles. The theme of the frescoes is purely religious, based on biblical stories. The Gothic style originated in cities. The new worldview born of Christianity was reflected in the architecture and sculpture of the city's cathedrals. Tall buildings with pointed arches, narrow and elongated windows, numerous towers reaching into the sky, and a thin spire instead of a dome. Tall, pointed cathedrals demonstrated the aspiration of the human spirit upward, towards God. IN sculptural compositions and painting, the theme of the Fall, repentance, sacrifice and atonement prevails.

In a Gothic style temple during a service on emotional state people are influenced by music and painting, decorative and performing arts. The sounds of chorales, thanks to the internal spaciousness, sounding as if from heaven, and the flickering light of stained glass windows appeal to high spiritual feelings. Most famous monuments Gothic style of medieval culture: Notre Dame in Paris, Strasbourg Cathedral, Reims Cathedral (France), Cologne Cathedral (Germany), St. Vitta (Czech Republic), Milan Cathedral (Italy), Salisbury Cathedral (UK).

Introduction

The Middle Ages lasted almost a thousand years - from the 5th to the 15th centuries. This historical period Huge changes took place in world history: the colossus of the Roman Empire collapsed, then Byzantium. After the conquest of Rome, barbarian tribes created their own states on the European continent with a defined national culture.

That is why I would like to separately understand how Christianity influenced the culture of Western European peoples and Rus'.

To understand how religion influenced culture, you need to understand how people lived at that time, what they thought about, what worried them and cared most about them then.

The establishment of Christianity as the state religion in some countries, starting from the 4th century, and its active spread led to a significant reorientation of all spheres of late antique spiritual culture into the mainstream of a new worldview system. All types of artistic activity. In fact, the formation of a new theory of art began, the preconditions of which were already formed in the early Christian period. The Fathers of the Church made their significant contribution to this process.

1. General characteristics of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages subsistence farming was primitive, productive forces and technology were poorly developed. Wars and epidemics bled nations dry. The Inquisition suppressed any thought that ran counter to church dogma, brutally dealing with bearers of heretical teachings and those suspected of collaborating with the devil.

At this time, machines began to be used, windmills, a water wheel, steering, book printing and much more appeared.

The clash of cultural orientations gave rise to the multilayered and contradictory nature of the consciousness of medieval man. The commoner, living at the mercy of folk beliefs and primitive images, had the beginnings of a Christian worldview. Educated man was not completely free from pagan ideas. However, for everyone, religion was the undoubted dominant.

The essence of the medieval way of relating to the world was determined by the divine model of the world, which was supported by all the means available to the church (and the state subordinate to it). This model determined the features medieval era. The main features of this model are the following:

Specifically, the medieval understanding of the Universe, where God acts as the main world creative force, human intervention in divine affairs was unacceptable;

Medieval monotheism, in which the Universe was conceived as absolutely subordinate to God, to whom alone the laws of nature and the divine cosmos are accessible. This is a force infinitely more powerful than a person and dominated him;

Man is an insignificant, weak, sinful creature, a speck of dust in the divine world, and particles of the divine world are available to him only through the atonement of sins and the worship of God.

The central event of the medieval model of the world was God. This event included the entire complex of a super complex social hierarchy of events medieval world. A special place in this hierarchy was occupied by the church, which was entrusted with a divine mission.

The main population of the Middle Ages were peasants.

2. The process of Christianization in the Middle Ages

Representations and assessments with the help of which participants in discussions achieve mutual understanding. The greatest invention of the Middle Ages can be considered the university as a principle and as a specialized organization. 2.2.3 Artistic culture of Medieval Europe. 2.2.3.1 Romanesque style. The first independent, specifically artistic European style of medieval Europe was Romanesque, ...

The most famous songs of the German Minesingers, decorated with portraits of singers, scenes of tournaments and court life, and coats of arms. 3. Artistic culture of Medieval Europe 3.1 Christian consciousness - the basis of medieval mentality The most important feature medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and christian church. In the context of a general decline in culture, immediately...

One of her most original genres was chronicle writing. Chronicles are not just monuments of literature or historical thought. They are the largest monuments of the entire spiritual culture of medieval society. Chronicles were not only records of events year after year. The chronicles included historical stories, lives of saints, theological treatises, legal documents, records of...

Determined policy in the field of education. The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity. An important layer in the formation of folk culture during the classical Middle Ages was sermons. The bulk of society remained illiterate. In order for the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite to become the dominant thoughts of all parishioners, their...