Church as a Social and Spiritual Institution of Society

Introduction

In the XIX - early XX centuries. The Orthodox Church occupied a crucial place in the life of the Russian people. Priest A. Borisov spoke of its influence in this way: “The existence of the Russian Orthodox Church was for the people a sign of the presence of God in the world”. The social role and functions of religion in the 19th century changed dramatically. The church was presented as a legitimate institution, playing a huge role in human life, elevating spirituality over social, aesthetic and economic values.

In connection with significant changes in the country, new trends arose in church-state relations. The role of the Church began to prevail not only in the socio-cultural, but also in the political life of the Russian state. The Christian ideology of the Orthodox Church influenced the consciousness of Russian citizens.

The Russian Orthodox Church was able to cultivate in a person such qualities as love for people, patience, compassion, mercy, honesty, the ability to put oneself in the place of others, modesty, respect for the interests of one's neighbor, which forms the moral and spiritual basis of the individual. An objective assessment of any event cannot be given without a complete picture of the interaction of the Church and the state. In this regard, the Church can be characterized as a social institution. On the one hand, the Church was a community of communities, and on the other hand, it was a church hierarchy. In the era of the new era, the Church organically merged into civil society. Being a part of civil society, the Church has always been independent of the state and even competed with the state not only in the social sphere, but also in the spiritual.

Religion is the spiritual component of the Church. The ontology (picture of the world) and axiology (value system) that religion offered were different from the ideology of the state. Since the Church has always relied on traditions, it was perceived as “eternal” and unchanging, starting from its origins, and therefore it was an alternative to the “changing” world. The church professed an image of fidelity to tradition. Cultural beliefs, symbols and values were the sphere of religion, and they solved the issues of human existence.

In the 19th century, the Church exerted a great influence on society through church journalism (tserkovnaya publitsistika, 1880). In the early 1860s church journalism arose, which had its own laws. The religious needs of the estates and groups were reflected in church journalism. Along with the state, it was an important social institution. Two types of journalism appeared: religious and spiritual. Religious journalism relied on religious ideology and served for internal use in the Church. Spiritual journalism was created not only by ecclesiastical, but also secular figures. Ecclesiastical journalism differed from ecclesiastical journalism in that it illuminated secular issues related to relations in society, but at the same time it relied on church dogma. By studying such publications, one can imagine the type, classification, specifics and problems of the church press, its significance in the socio-political and church life of the Russian state. Periodicals in all regions played the role of an information center, which allowed for the exchange of information between the authorities and the population and a dialogue on the most important events in local life. The press united the local intelligentsia and made it possible to exchange information between different sectors of the population.

The main objectives of these societies were: creating historical descriptions of dioceses, studying the history of the Church, local archives, religious customs and rituals, taking monuments under protection.

Before the revolution, in Russia there were several types of church and local history organizations:

• 1.

  Archaeological and historical committees and commissions,

• 2.

  Commissions for the study of archives,

• 3.

  Historical and statistical committees for describing dioceses,

• 4.

  Church treasuries.