Teachers and students of the Humanitarian University of Yekaterinburg met with the rector of the Holy Filaret Institute

The rector of the Holy Filaretovsky Orthodox-Christian Institute, professor, priest Georgy Kochetkov met with teachers and students of the Humanitarian University of Yekaterinburg.

The initiative of this meeting belongs to the rector of the Humanitarian University Lev Zaks. “When I found out that Father George came to Yekaterinburg about his business, to his fraternity, it would be a sin not to introduce you to him,” he said, opening the meeting.

“After 1990, we are experiencing the process of revival, revival of church life. And one of the symptoms of such a revival was the appearance in Moscow of the Holy Filaret Institute. And the institute is headed by our guest, Father George Kochetkov, a very famous person in the church world and in the world of Russian intelligentsia,” the SPII’s information service quoted the words of Zaks.

A variety of questions were raised at the meeting: what is faith and disbelief? What are the criteria for genuine faith? How are faith diseases treated? How do you determine what "God" is?

Knowing that the priest Georgy Kochetkov is the founder of the Orthodox Brotherhood, teachers and students also asked about this phenomenon. What is a brotherhood? After all, this word itself in the minds of a modern person has a wide variety of connotations: does the charisma of personality have a meaning for the brotherhood? What is "charisma"? Personal issues were also raised. For example, about how Father George came to faith and why it was Orthodoxy.

Georgy Kochetkov drew attention to the fact that in connection with faith often there are a lot of misunderstandings. “Often in history, even very outstanding people believed that faith is a teaching, or that faith is a rite, a form of expression of some good wishes, feelings, human intentions, a kind of memory. But faith is something deeper,” said the rector of SPI. Answering the question of whether it is possible to positively determine faith, he added that this can be achieved thanks to the practice of life, through the experience of trust and openness, which "precedes faith with a capital letter."

The Humanitarian University of Yekaterinburg and the Holy Filaret Institute have been working on for several years. Last spring, Professor of the SMIFI David Mkortichevich GZGZYAN spoke at the Russia's international conference in the XXI century world: between violence and dialogue, organized by the Humanitarian University, and a year agoa Skype Most dedicated to the Church and Society dialogue in modern Russia.