For what can we excommunicate and anathematize?

Quite often we hear an expression in whichcontains the idea that someone needs to be anathema. The meaning of this phrase, like as, and understandable, but from this article you will learn a few more interesting facts!

First, let's see what this means.So, to anathematize is to separate a person from a certain community. Yes, despite the fact that the expression is associated with the church, it is often used in other areas. If we talk about what the phrase "anathema" means in the world of religion, then, as a rule, we mean the excommunication of a person from the church. But this is not so simple. The fact is that excommunication is the removal of the clergyman (or the common man) from the opportunity to participate in rituals, to be within the walls of the temple, and so on only for a certain (usually a small) period, after which he can return to his former way of life. Anathema is the complete exclusion from church life without the right to "rehabilitation."

How to distinguish, in what cases it is necessary to excommunicatefrom the church, and in what - to anathematize? This question is very difficult and, moreover, controversial. However, speaking in general, then those who simply stumbled are excommunicated, made a small mistake in the eyes of God. Those who committed a mortal sin or blasphemed the Creator are anathema. On the other hand, this state of affairs concerns modernity. If we talk about the Middle Ages, for example, if the clergy learned that the woman was cheating on her husband, they could easily betray her anathema.

Who has the right to such an action and what are hiseffects? Here, again, there are no definite answers. Anathematize simple people of ordinary people (except for their proximity to the church, of course). And people, as is known, have, mainly, subjective thinking, the same judgment and, as a consequence, the same conclusions. Therefore, if for one, an act is an excuse for an anathema, the other believes that it is only a short-term excommunication from the church, but the third one will say that this simple act and simple repentance from the sinner will be enough.

It should be noted that those who simply expressed their discontent with the church, even in a mild form, could be anathematized. In general, any manifestation of anti-church sentiments was thwarted.

The most famous fact of the tradition of anathema iscase with Leo Tolstoy. It is believed that the Orthodox Church decided to anathematize the great Russian writer. However, this fact is controversial. The fact is that some argue that the clergy were, of course, unhappy with the anti-Christian speeches of Leo Tolstoy and the same motives in his works, but there was no excommunication. According to other sources, before his death, Tolstoy repented that he openly criticized the church and blasphemed God. However, these facts can also hardly be called facts, because there is no serious evidence for this.

In general, it can be concluded that with the help ofexcommunication and anathema, the church (both Catholic and Orthodox) got rid of and got rid of dissenters, revolutionary people, thus inspiring the fear of providence in others.