Evolution of the spirit . From Moses to postmodernism. ( Presentation of the book ) A. Voin A Moscow-based publishing house DirectMedia presents a new book by Alexander Voin “Evolution of the spirit. From Moses to postmodernism” in its series called “University Library Online”. It has primarily been written for philosophers, and those interested in cultural studies. Here is an excerpt from the review of this book by an American philosopher Alexander Markovich : “… I can not think of another such work on the subject, which would have produced such an impression upon me (…). [The author] managed to intrigue the reader by a thorough analysis of the the genesis and development of the Christian idea and is truly profound in discussion of Judaism, Christianity itself, generally on religion and the church, the trend of occult, on obscurantism, nurtured by ignorance and speculation on religion, on human search of the world, soul and God. [The author] has somehow succeeded to present thousand years of Christianity problem in a new, spatial, stereoscopic fashion. [The study] is written in a very simple, it seems clear to any non-sophisticated reader. At the same time it shows a concerned and passionate author — with no needless mention of intellect, originality and depth, a heart is put into this research.’The electronic version of the book is already on sale ( RUR 105.00). It’s available at: http://www.biblioclub.ru/shop/index.php?page=book&id=210485 Below is a presentation of the book Today the Western civilization and with it the whole world is in a state of crisis . The acute question of where and how to move forward appears. At such moments, it becomes particularly important to glance over the previous history , see the roots from which sprang a civilization , to trace its evolution , to understand where the failure occurred , what it is and what its cause . This problem is posed by the author of the book. Why evolution of the spirit? Why is not evolution of civilization as such ? Because the evolution of the spirit determines the evolution of civilization in general in large stretches of time. Formation of Western civilization , as such, began with the adoption of Christianity. ( This explains why “from Moses” ) . The next crucial point in the evolution and development of this civilization was the Renaissance, the essence of which in the graft at the root of Christianity the values and , hence, the spirituality of Hellenic civilization. All further important stages in the evolution of this civilization, as the author intends to show in the book , are also associated with the evolution of the spirit. This is the general idea of the study and according to this plan book should consist of the following parts: "From Moses to Jesus Christ", "Christianity", "Renaissance", "Enlightenment", "Modernism" and "Postmodernism". But in the proposed version of the book only the first two parts are offered to the reader's attention. The rest parts the author intends to complete in the future. In these two parts of the study the evolution of the spiritual and moral teachings given by the Bible , first its evolution within the Old Testament , then New and finally , in the subsequent history of Christianity is explored. Since much of this research relates to the text of the Bible , and a huge amount of literature is devoted to the studyof it, it is necessary to say a few words about what this study differs from all previous ones. During the long centuries that have passed since the birth of Christianity endless debates about the meaning of the teaching given in his main book Bible and the correct interpretation of the Bible took place. And even before this and with it long disputes about the correct interpretation of that part of the Bible, which in Christianity is called the Old Testament and in Judaism, called the Tanakh took place within Judaism. But all these debates not only led to a common understanding and uniform interpretation of of the Bible , but split both Judaism and Christianity into many warring denominations on the basis of different understanding and interpretation of the Teaching. Warring up to the religious wars of the Middle Ages and still not dampened skirmishes on this ground today ( Ulster ) . By the way, it is issued from that how important is task to give such inretpreyation of teachings of the Bible , which could be accepted by all faiths. ( And all faiths agree that God is one and the truth is one , and , consequently, the correct interpretation should be one at all). Disputes about the correct understanding of the Bible is further aggravated by disputes about the correct method of interpretation . An urgent need to correct and generally accepted method of interpretation revealed in the first century after the death and ascension of Jesus Christ , when the overflowing sea wildest interpretations undermine the credibility of the Doctrine and threatened to bury Christianity as a religion . In further the Catholic Church has found a way out of this situation by introducing its own canonical interpretation and banning all but its highest hierarchs , not only to interpret the Bible , but even reading it , as well as translation of the Bible from Latin into other languages. It stopped orgy interpretations , but because the imposed to all interpretation was not justified it led to the dogma of the Doctrine and the associated medieval obscurantism with the persecution of heretics and religious wars that ended with the Reformation . The slogan of the Reformation was giving to each of their right to understand the doctrine , but at the end its founders Luther and Calvin entered each one his own canon and engaged in the persecution of heretics anew. After all there have appeared even a special science of hermeneutics , dealing exclusively with the correct interpretation of the Bible or, more generally, with the correct interpretation of any text. But scientists have not found a common language with each other and various hermeneutics exists almost as much as religious denominations. A main conclusion of the majority of scholars interpreters is to ensure that no integral teaching in the Bible does not exist , and it is simply the set of unrelated texts. In this case it is quite unclear how Christianity could have such a strong influence on the formation of the western civilization. Author on the basis of his unified method of justification of scientific theories ("Unified method of justification of scientific theories ," Aletheia, St. Petersburg , 2012 and articles in philosophical journals and books ) built his own hermeneutics and used it in the analysis of the teaching of the Bible. In accordance with the unified method of justification any teaching and in particular Teaching given in the Bible , to be integral and noncontradictory (otherwise it can not be called the teaching ) , it must be based on a noncontradictory system of basic postulates - axioms , from which follow all conclusions of the teaching. At the same time it is well known that the Bible contains many seemingly contradict each other utterances. ( For example, many appeals of Jesus Christ to the peace and his own statement " not peace , but a sword I bring you "). What, incidentally, was the cause of countless interpretations , deviding of Christianity and Judaism into confessions and issue of scientists hermeneutics about the absence of integral teaching of the Bible. So first of all the author was tasked to draw out from the Bible noncontradictory system of axioms - postulates. It is shown in the book that all the contradictions contained in the Bible can be divided into visible, removable and fundamental, unavoidable ones. Fundamental, unavoidable contradictions are contradictions between what God Father and his Son Jesus Christ teaches and what human persons teaches in the Bible : Solomon , the apostles , especially Paul and John , and others. It should be noted that in the tradition of all Christian denominations apostles are considered divinely inspired people transmiting the words of God , received by them in visions . And every their word as sacred as the words themselves of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Scientists hermeneutics also do not distinguish between the texts attributed to , say, Paul or John, and ascribed to Jesus Christ in the transfer of the Apostles or to God the Father in the transfer of Moses. ( Although scientists do it for other reasons than theologians and church fathers). The author shows that although the Apostles can be regarded as divinely inspired in some sense , but not in the sense that every their word is sacred on a par with the words of God the Father and Jesus Christ. A large part of spoken by the Apostles is gag associated with bad misunderstanding of the divine teachings and exalted imagination ( in the case of John) and fundamentally contrary to what is actually God the Father and Jesus Christ taught. Consequently, for the construction of axioms - postulates teachings of the Bible this gag should just be discarded. As for the apparent contradictions between the statements themselves God the Father and Jesus Christ, some of them (eg , the above contradiction in the statements of Jesus about the peace) has been clarified and, thus , already eliminated earlier in the works of theologians and scholars of hermeneutics . Another part of them the author explains and eliminates in the book, as using previously tested methods of hermeneutics ( accounting context of the book itself and the historical context and others), so taking into account the evolving nature of the teachings of the Bible. As a result, the author extracts from the Bible the whole and consistent spiritual - moral teaching , and shows that the moral part of this doctrine agrees quite well with norms of the theory of optimal morality which the author built on a purely rational basis. ("Neorationalism ", Kiev , 1992 , part 4). As for the evolution of the spirit and teachings in the Bible it means , above all, that teaching is not given at once to all volume but in parts. Each part corresponds to the level of the people to whom it is given , at the time when it is given . Ie , to use the terminology of the Bible itself , we can say that the Giver Doctrine knows the ultimate goal to which He wants to bring people . (This goal can be called the "image and likeness of God "). But He did not want immediately to create the appropriate people that correspond to the ultimate goal , but giving people the freedom of choice, left it to them themselves to move towards this goal in the way of making errors. And gives Himself the right to intervene only when people deviate too far from the direction of the ultimate goal . Each of the next portion of this teaching is such intervention carried out in another critical moment, but at the same time developing the doctrine itself in the direction of the target. The first portion of the Doctrine - a covenant with Abraham is given, when , according to the Bible , humanity , forgetting his Creator , far deviated from the "image and likeness of God." And God , not wanting to destroy humanity again (as in the Flood ) , elects the option to create a chosen people , which will pave the way to the "image and likeness of God " for themselves and through that - for other nations . But because people have forgotten their Creator God you need first of all to re- attach them to Him. To do this, in the God's covenant with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all teaching is reduced to demands unquestioning obedience to God's direct orders . Even if His instructions are contrary to the norms of morality, which correspond to the "image and likeness of God " and are already known to God, but not yet incorporated into a covenant with the patriarchs and created by Him the people, not yet able to perceive them . (As, for example, in the case of a failed sacrifice by Abraham at his son Isaac , which is contrary to the commandment "Thou shalt not kill "). To further consolidate the newly created nation of faith in one God and a willingness to unquestioningly follow His instructions , God sending of the Jews in Egypt, where they, acording His plan and will, gets into slavery, and then He uses the wonders due to remove them from this slavery . And only strengthening Jewish belief in Himself and their willingness to carry out His instructions, God gives to the Jews through Moses more comprehensive and more appropriate to final plan ( the "image and likeness of God ") spiritual - moral teaching in the form of the Ten Commandments and their expansion in Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers . And then the Jews are given the opportunity to move yourself to the ultimate goal . At this stage (before Jesus Christ) God uses only the punishment of the Jews , when they too deviate from covenant with Him , and encouraging them when they go back to it. And , despite the fact that this whole period is replete with digressions Jews from the covenant , the evolution towards the teachings of the "image and likeness of God ," due to the efforts of prominent representatives of the people such as Moses, David , Solomon and the prophets , occurs . It is shown that the evolution of this period generally takes place in the direction of the coming of Christianity. However , the evolution of the doctrine and the evolution of the people, who took it (at least , proclaimed its adoption ) , though linked, but not so tight connection to any progress in the teaching carried out by prominent persons immediately transmit to all the people and led to an immediate his progress on the path to the "image and likeness of God ." On the contrary, this progress may be delayed for centuries and even at that time, as thinkers and prophets promote teaching forward, the people can retrace back to the most savage state as a result of external influences , as well as false teachings of false prophets. In particular , before the coming of Jesus Christ the Jewish people falls into the so-called Pharisaism , the essence of which is to deprive Doctrine of its spirit and represent it as enforceable countless formal ritual prescriptions . The danger of the Pharisaism is that people stay in the belief that they dedicated to teaching and this devotion comes even to fanaticism . But the essence of teaching, his spirit while goes out of it. Therefore Teachings of Jesus Christ , which is the next step in the evolution teachings in general, focuses primarily on the development of the spirit , and especially the love of neighbor, which was killed by Pharisaism, replacing it by ritual observance . At the same time , Jesus Christ does not abandon constructive , rational part of the Teaching given by God through Moses, the commandments and the law ( "I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets "). But a strong shift in the Doctrine from moral, constructive part on the spirit , made by Him ( considering the state of the Jewich people at the time of His coming), leads to the fact that in the future , starting with Paul, added in this respect a lot of wheeze and misunderstanding, Christianity takes ambivalent position on morality , wavering between the need to respect moral norms and do not necessarily do that, if one has a sincere faith in God and Jesus Christ. This made the strongest impact on the future evolution of the Teaching within Christianity that is tracked in the book. At this the book presentation, I mean, the presentation of two parts of the planned research fulfiled into this book, can be ended. But the author believes it is important that the reader got an idea about the plan as a whole, including those parts that have to be written . Therefore, the following provides a condensed presentation of the parts of the book , which is still to be written . In these parts it will no longer go on the evolution of the spirit of Christianity, but on the spiritual evolution of the western society in general, evolution, part of which will remain Christianity , but the importance of this component will gradually decrease. First, during the Renaissance, as already mentioned, to the Christian roots were vaccinated borrowing of Hellenic spirituality. At the same time the foundation of the Christian teaching that comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ has been preserved, but it has been added to part of the Hellenic values and simultaneously corrected some distortions in the Teaching begins with Paul and aggravated dogmatization Teaching in the Middle Ages. In particular arising from misunderstanding the Teachings of Jesus Christ idea of the sinfulness of the human body and all earthly joys was changed by harmony of bodily and spiritual origin of human been, as well as the harmony of spirit and rational . This harmony has developed and strengthened in the epoch of Enlightenment and even began to spread in Europe atheism, denying the existence of God, , took the system of values and morality coming from Christianity (amended during Renaissance and Enlightenment). And only in the era of modernism began a decisive retreat from Christian values , morality and spirituality toward paganism , not high Hellenic, but primitive, barbaric, with the pursuit of sensual pleasures and the removal of the majority of moral prohibitions . In the postmodern era rollback undergone visible softening, but this camouflage only made the situation worse actually . The reasons for this rollback author investigated in many of his articles, but here in this concise presentation the author will not express them . I note only that in the rollback of the ancient Jews from the covenant with God false teachings of false prophets played an important role, and now false philosophical theories play this role. Finally, it should be noted that in recent years there has been some , and in some countries is strong enough (Ukraine) revival of the Christian religion. However, this revival has mostly rather formal, external, ritual character, without error analysis of Christianity in the past and attempts to fix them. And so it has little effect on the overall situation.