The Origin of the Stereotype of the Catholic and Catholicism in the Orthodox Russia

Abstract

The problem of relations between Russia and the West, including the relation between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, is traditionally numbered as one of the most significant ones in Polish historical literature. The article presents the process of forming the stereotype of the image of the Catholic and Catholicism in Russia in the span of ten centuries.

Continuous meeting strangers in the times of Kiev Ruthenia did not give any grounds for a negative attitude towards foreigners due to their Latin rite. A poor level of Christianization of Eastern Slavs does not allow perceiving other reasons for the arising hostilities than political and economic ones.

The Tartar invasion broke the continuous history of the Ruthenian duchies and isolated the north-eastern ones from the others. It was in that period of isolation that the theory of the exceptional quality of the Moscow State originated, and of its particular role in the life of the surrounding nations. The religious factor served as a tool for policy of Russification and for making the other nations dependent.

The author of the article tries to point to theological backwardness of the Orthodox clergy, to the fact that they uncritically adopted the Greeks’ attitudes, and then the attitudes of West European philosophers, towards Rome. It is exactly the lack of good knowledge of the subject and a close bond between religion and politics that does not allow the Orthodox Russians to enter a dialog with Catholics.