On the purpose of family union through correleation of the concepts of “Church” and “Small church”

The purpose of the study is to formulate the purpose of the family union by clarifying how the concepts of “Church” and “Small church” relate, to what extent they can be considered identical, and what practical significance is seen in such a correlation. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that today the institution of the family is in decline in about 70% of marriages, which is confirmed by Rosstat data. At present we have access to many works of the Holy Fathers and prominent theologians who consider the marriage union as a “Small church”, there is also a significant number of works on Orthodox ecclesiology, but there are no studies that clarify the purpose of Christian marriage through the correlation of the concepts of “Church” and “Small church”.

This article is an attempt to substantiate the common ground between Christian teaching on marriage and the Church, and to distinguish from this the practical significance in the preservation of marital unions. The author uses the methods of critical analysis of sources, a comparative method, generalization and synthesis. The author in the article, relying on the heritage of the Church Fathers, deduces a direct and close connection between the doctrine of marriage and the dogma of the Trinity of the Godhead, from which the dogma of the Church is derived.

The practical consequences of the identification of the “Small church” and the Church are the affirmation of the true purpose of marriage, which consists in the achievement of the spouses of the likeness of God and the establishment of the nature of the marriage relationship as an exclusive union on the basis of sacrificial love and the resulting high moral requirements for the spouses, since the family is ideally the Church as the body of Christ: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her” (Eph 5, 25).

marital union, “Small church”, purpose of the family union, dogma about the Church, dogma about the Trinity, the teaching of the holy fathers on family union