Psychological Factors that Hinder Churching and Building Trust in Orthodox Church
The article examines the psychological factors of the lack of even inducement to church in a certain part of people. One of the reasons for finding a person "behind the church fence" is a high level of distrust of the Church - on the one hand, while a high degree of trust in various destructive myths about Orthodoxy and distortions of the Orthodox faith - on the other hand. At the same time, an important aspect of the level of trust-distrust is not only a low level of awareness, knowledge about the true situation of things, but also psychological barriers. It is especially interesting why people who position themselves as "believers in the soul" believe that in order to search for God, to communicate with Him, it is not necessary to go to the temple, participate in sacraments and even be a member of any church. The author of the article sees the root of the problem in a person's subconscious fear of the upcoming paradigm of thinking and lifestyle - from the so-called "horizontal" - with the prevailing hedonistic value system and ego-thinking to the paradigm of "vertical" - spiritual and moral, where the paradigm of service, self-restriction and self-denial is based. Subconsciously feeling fear of a change in the worldview paradigm, a person builds protective mechanisms, including a high level of distrust of the Church. And he believes in them not because he is illiterate and he does not have the opportunity to obtain reliable information, but because he wants to believe in them in order to justify himself before conscience for inaction. In conclusion, the author suggests ways to solve the problem.