October 19, 2012, 10:23 Semyon Novoprudsky

Putin's loyalist theology

The Russian government, through its actions and speeches, is actively creating a fashion for atheism in society. The opening of the Department of Theology at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI fits perfectly into the mainstream of these actions and speeches.

On October 15, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, chairman of the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission, rector of the All-Church Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies named after Saints Cyril and Methodius, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, as if nothing had happened, participated in a meeting of the completely secular Academic Council of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI . The Academic Council unanimously approved the opening of the Department of Theology at National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. And at the same time, the candidacy of Metropolitan Hilarion as its head.

Then the Metropolitan met with the students and explained in detail the need to create a department of theology at the university, which hardly shares the basic postulates of nuclear physics.

“The task of teaching theology as part of a general university course is precisely to provide students with the opportunity to gain knowledge in an area that continues to play a significant role in people’s lives, that is, in the field of religion,” said, in particular, the newly appointed head of the department . As you can see, Metropolitan Hilarion speaks of “opportunity,” and not of duty or “honorable obligation.” Does this mean that students will not be forced to attend classes in the new department? After all, in the lives of a large number of people, religion does not play any role.

“We are faced with the fact that a brilliantly erudite person, who has a wide variety of knowledge in different areas, displays amazing incompetence as soon as it comes to religion. This incompetence makes us, professional religious figures, laugh: for example, a person, speaking publicly, says that he visited a “Muslim church,” the Metropolitan sneered. Further in his speech, the professional religious figure literally said the following: “In Russia... there are also those who position themselves as atheists or, as it is more fashionable to say now, agnostics.” Although considering agnostics a more fashionable synonym for atheists is about the same as going to “Muslim churches.” Atheists believe that there is no God, agnostics doubt the ultimate knowability of the world and, in principle, do not consider the question of the existence of God.”

“Overcoming this incompetence and ignorance in the religious sphere, which we inherited from the Soviet past, is the very first and simple task of the theology department,” said the head of the department. Here's the most interesting part.

It was the secular government, in company with the church hierarchs, that changed the attitude towards religion in the enlightened class, including among scientists.

In Soviet times, a craving for religion or at least knowledge of the history of religion was a sign of freedom and resistance to the system, a desire to find answers to important questions that official propaganda was even afraid to ask, a way of searching for truth. In today's conditions, fraternization between priests and security officers to the point of indistinguishability is a sign of a desire to play along with the basest instincts of the crowd and help the authorities keep people in stupid obedience, downtroddenness and ignorance.

The problem is not the opening of a theology department in a university completely far from this one. If there were a normal democratic country, it would be good. And in Russia it will be the department of Putin’s loyalist theology. She will substantiate the correctness of everything that is happening and will powder students' brains with church-state propaganda, and not introduce them to subtle spiritual matters. There is no doubt about this - Metropolitan Hilarion is one of the supreme hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church , which publicly supported Putin in the presidential elections, and in MEPhI itself in 2010 they made Patriarch Kirill, also a nuclear physicist, an honorary doctor.

Under the Soviets, the forbidden craving for religion elevated people. Under Putinism, the implanted official theology in secular universities will only corrupt their souls and minds. And the priests themselves in Soviet times often turned out to be educators and victims, and now they are increasingly willing to play the role of obscurantists and inquisitors (I know that the word “Inquisition” does not historically refer to Orthodoxy).

“Will the creation of such a department contribute to interfaith harmony in our society? - Metropolitan Hilarion asked a reasonable question in his “speech from the throne”. And he himself answered it in a non-trivial way. – I must say that there is already positive experience in the work of such departments of theology, which are headed by Orthodox clergy, but within the framework of which special courses are conducted on Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and other religious traditions. All this can be created at the MEPhI Department of Theology.”

Let's also teach nuclear physicists, for example, Kabbalah and Zoroastrianism - they are worse in terms of their contribution to the general treasury of human cultural experience. Moreover, let all these subjects be taught exclusively by Orthodox priests or church-going teachers.

The next step will be the creation of sovereign Orthodox chemistry, physics and mathematics.

It is not surprising that the thinking journalist Valery Panyushkin has to write a text in “Snob” entitled “15 questions for atheists.” And this text looks not so much as an attempt to argue with non-believers, but as a way of a person’s self-justification for a common faith with the current hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is very significant - people with intelligence and conscience have to justify their faith against the backdrop of rampant vulgar loyalism, covered with church vestments.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. The fashion for atheism and agnosticism instilled by the authorities, no longer official, collective, militant, but conscious, personal, peaceful, may turn out to be very useful for Russia. The crisis of consciousness of our never-fulfilled civil nation is obvious. AND

The more broad, free from blind faith in power - whether earthly or divine - the view of the world of as many people as possible turns out to be, the greater the chances that it will someday be possible to establish more humane and reasonable orders here.

Where God, even by those for whom he exists, will not be used as a cover agent to combat dissent.

The opening of the Department of Theology at MEPhI should be followed by the creation of Orthodox chemistry, physics and mathematics - Gazeta.Ru