This article belongs to the lore of Ajax.

Alban Nazarism: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(7 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 3: Line 3:
| icon                = Ichthus.svg
| icon                = Ichthus.svg
| icon_width          = 25px
| icon_width          = 25px
| name                = Alban Emendatic <!--Elegantic from elegans/ Emendatic from emendatus or Sostric from sostó in greek)--> Church
| name                = Alban Emendatic <!--Emendatic from emendatus--> Church
| caption_background  =
| caption_background  =
| image              = St. Anthony of Padua Church in Istanbul 06.JPG
| image              = Ajax Alban Flag.png
| imagewidth          = 150px
| imagewidth          = 150px
| main_classification = [[wikipedia:First Council of Nicaea|Non-Nicaean]]
| main_classification = [[wikipedia:First Council of Nicaea|Non-Nicaean]]
| orientation        = [[wikipedia:Modalistic Monarchianism|Modalistic Monarchianism]]
| orientation        = [[wikipedia:Modalistic Monarchianism|Modalistic Monarchianism]]
| theology            =  
| theology            =  
| polity              = {{wp|Episcopal polity|Episcopal}}
| polity              = {{wp|Monasticism|Monastical}}
| governance          =  
| governance          =  
| structure          =
| structure          =
| leader/moderator    =
| leader/moderator    =
| leader_title        = Leaders
| leader_title        = Leaders
| leader_name        = [[Emendatic Patriarch|John XVIII, Emendatic Patriarch]]<br>NAME, Metropolitan of Meud
| leader_name        = {{wp|Hegumen|John XVIII, Protohegumen}}
| headquarters        =  
| headquarters        =  
| founder            = {{wp|Paul the Apostle|St Paul}} <small>(according to tradition)</small><br>[[Saint Alban of Vigueria]]
| founder            = {{wp|Paul the Apostle|St Paul}} <small>(according to tradition)</small><br>[[Saint Alban of Vigueria]]
Line 21: Line 21:
| founded_place      = [[Sydalon (city)|Sydalon]]
| founded_place      = [[Sydalon (city)|Sydalon]]
| separations        =  
| separations        =  
| members            = [number]
| members            = Over 36 million
}}
}}
The '''Alban Emendatic Church''', also referred to as '''Alban Christianity''', is a group of Christian churches adhering to the teachings of [[#St Alban|Saint Alban]]. Adherents are commonly referred to as Albanists or Emendatics, and consider themselves to practice what they understand to be the true Christian faith, founded by Jesus, with a common apostolic succession from {{wp|Paul the Apostle|St Paul}}.
The '''Alban Laura''', or '''Alban Nazarism''', officially the '''Holy Emendatic Pneumatic Laura of Saint Alban''' but more often simply referred to as '''Albanism''' is a major {{wp|Christianity|Sarpetic religion}}, alongside [[Fabrian Catholic Church|Fabrianism]] and [[Aletheic Church|Aethelism]]. The faith is named for its founder, [[Saint Alban of Vigueria]], who popularized a {{wp|Gnosticism|Gnostic}} interpretation of the {{wp|Bible|Two Treasures}}, and codified a {{wp|Monasticism|Monatist}} set of rules to help people abandon the material world and reach the purely spiritual domain where God resides – the “Land of the Living”.


The Emendatic Church shared communion with the [[Christianity in Ajax|Imperial Catholic Church]] until the [[wikipedia:First Council of Nicaea|First Council of place]]. The faith originally flourished in early Christian communities in Western Belisaria, primarily [[Gelonia]] and later found a following in the [[Drevstran|Drevstranese]] [[Alban Pentapolis]]. The faith was pushed underground in Western Belisaria until the [[Christianity in Ajax#Reformation|Reformation]], where it saw a resurgence in [[Gelonia]], [[Ostrozava]], and [[Drevstran]].
In modern day, Albanism is especially common around Lake Kulpanitsa, with [[Ostrozava]] having the largest Alban community worldwide. It remains, in this country and others, an important and influential cultural factor. Pockets of Alban Nazarists remain in western Belisaria, but are a minority. Despite [[Latium]] being the birthplace of the religion, due to centuries of condemnation and persecution, the core of the community was driven eastward. The most famous episode of this persecution being the so-called [[Alban Crusades]] of the 12th century, which failed to purge Nazarists heresies from Eastern Belisaria. Worldwide, in 2020, Albanism represented around 40 million people.


Albanist teachings are considered [[wikipedia:Gnosticism|gnostic]] by theological scholars.
==Name==
==Theology==
Albanists do not accept the [[wikipedia:Trintarianism|trintarian]] views espoused following the [[wikipedia:First Council of Nicaea|First Council of PLACE]], and follow the nontrintarian view of [[wikipedia:Modalistic Monarchianism|modalistic monarchianism]]. These teachings consider God to be one while working through the different "modes" or "manifestations" of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


Albanist theology also follows the view of two opposed deities: [[wikipedia:all-forgiving God|all-forgiving God]], as portrayed in the [[wikipedia:New Testament|New Testament]], who dwelt in Jesus Christ and is the creator of the [[wikipedia:Holy Spirit|spirit]] and Old Testament's [[wikipedia:Divine retribution|wrathful God]], though since the Reformation is often conflated with [[wikipedia:Satan|Satan]], or his creator or seducer. Some communities believe in a more moderate form of this dualism, and that Satan was previously the all-forgiving God's servant before rebelling against him. Communities also believe in a spirit realm created by the all-forgiving God, known as the "Land of Light" or "Land of the Living".
'''Albanism''', the faith’s most common name, comes directly from its supposed founder: St. Alban of Viguera, who was a candidate to the [[Patriarch of Alba|Patriarchate of Alba]] before he published his thesis and became the icon of a ''Monist Gnosticism''. He was ultimately forced into exile and spent the rest of his days on the border between the Latin Empire and [[Tervingia]].
===Biblical canon===
Alban biblical canon largely mirrors that of other mainstream christian faiths. The major differences, however, are the exclusion much of the {{wp|Old Testament}} except for a severely edited version of {{wp|Book of Genesis|Genesis}}, and the inclusion of the {{wp|Apocalypse of Paul|Revelation of Paul}}. The order in which the Gospels appear are different as well, with the {{wp|Gospel of John}} appearing first. The bible includes 29 books:
* '''Historical book''' : {{wp|Book of Genesis|Genesis}}
* '''Poetry''' : {{wp|Psalms}}, {{wp|Book of Proverbs|Proverbs}}
* '''{{wp|Gospel#Canonisation|Gospels}}''' : {{wp|Gospel of John|John}}, {{wp|Gospel of Matthew|Matthew}}, {{wp|Gospel of Mark|Mark}}, {{wp|Gospel of Luke|Luke}}
* '''{{wp|Acts of the Apostles}}'''
* '''{{wp|Pauline Epistles|13 Letters of Paul}}'''
* '''{{wp|General Epistles}}''' : {{wp|Epistle of James|James}}, {{wp|1 Peter}}, {{wp|2 Peter}}, {{wp|1 John}}, {{wp|2 John}}, {{wp|3 John}}, {{wp|Epistle of Jude|Jude}}
* '''{{wp|Apocalypse of Paul|Revelation of Paul}}'''
==Organization==
The Alban Church does not have a single religious authority such as the [[Pope of the Fabrian Catholic Church|Pope]] in {{wp|Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism}}, as {{wp|Jesus Christ}} is considered to be the head of the Church. Instead it is guided by the group of {{wp|Autocephaly|autocephalous}} patriarchs with the [[Emendatic Patriarch]] holding distinction as first among equals, due to claimed {{wp|Apostolic succession}} from {{wp|Paul the Apostle|Saint Paul}}, whom is regarded as the first Emendatic Patriarch. The Emendatic Patriarch has little authority among other autocephalous churches. Albanists originally accepted the are five patriarchates established by [[Iovinus, Latin Emperor|Latin Emperor Iovinus]]: [[Patriarch of Alba|Alba]] (seated in [[Castellum]]), [[Sydalon (city)|Sydalon]], [[Konstantinopolis]], [[Patriarch of the North]] (seated in [[Jugny]], and [[Yerushalayim]].


Following the [[wikipedia:First Council of Nicaea|First Council of PLACE]] and the Albanist Schism, the Emendatic Patriarch was seen as the prius inter pars among Albanists, centered in [CITY]. With the church's decline and later resurgence the Emendatic Patriarchate has shifted over the centuries, and is now located in [CITY].
The more proper name of Holy Emendatic and Pneumatic Laura is an aggregation of multiple concepts. A Laura is the name given to a kind of Monasteries especially popular among Albans. Pneumatic, ''Spiritual'', refers to in the Alban Gnosis the highest order of humans, above the Psychics and the Hylics. Through his discipline of life, inner cultivation, and study of the Gnosis. Pneumatic beings can escape the doom of the material world. Finally, Emendatic refers to both the latin verb ''Emendo'', “without fault”, and to the practice of the ''Emendatio'' where a Corrector improves a text by adding ''Emendationes'', or corrections. By his work, St Alban “corrected” the too-literal interpretations of his time, and allowed the true meaning of the Treasuries to reveal themselves.


The Alban Emendatic Church operates as an {{wp|episcopal polity}}, with numerous bishops and archbishops that receive holy orders within each regional church. The highest level beneath a regional church's patriarch is that of bishops who hold jurisdiction over a diocese, followed by local priests that are ordained by bishops, and finally deacons who work in various ministerial roles within the regional church or local diocese.
==Organisation==
==Alban Christianity in various countries==
 
A {{wp|Lavra|Laura}} is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. It is the core of a semi-eremitic lifestyle promoted by Saint Alba, where the Monks live in their cells alone during weekdays, but would gather for masses and festivities during week-ends and holidays in the central cenobium and church. The church itself was public, and the monks would celebrate the sunday’ mass with the Psychics (unordained people who still believe in Saint Alba’ lessons).
 
With two ordained Abbots and a position of priest ({{wp|Hierodeacon}}) rotating weekly among the Monks, the Laura became the basic unit of the Alban Faith. As the social and political importance of Lauras grew during the ending years of the Tervigian Empire, the monks ended-up forming Orders, often between a parent-laura and the communities it had established. An example of such an order is the Order of Achamoth, originating from Barbellon, which became a dominant political faction during the post-Tervingia era, with its own military and bureaucracy. Posterity gave the name of Alban Pentapolis to their state. Leadership varies from order to order, but it is standard for their highest authority to hold the titles of '''Protohegumen'''.
 
Beside Lauras, other forms of religious organisations exist within Albanism: solitary hermits that live completely isolated even from their fellows while some monachist orders prefer to live in their own community… Some orders even promote a wandering life, their monks living a Mendicant life traveling from town to town, teaching and preaching among the communities that receive them.
 
==Beliefs==
The beginning of Creation is considered to have been a Pleroma (literally, a 'fullness'). At the centre of the Pleroma was the primal Father or Bythos, the beginning of all things who, after ages of silence and contemplation, projected 30 Aeons, heavenly archetypes representing the Six Principles of the Nazarist faith. Among them was Sophia, whose weakness, curiosity, and passion led to her fall from the Pleroma and the creation of the world and man, both of which are flawed. The work of redemption consists in freeing the spiritual souls that got caught in the fall of Sophia from the material world. The first step needed is to recognize the Father of All Things as the true source of divine power in order to achieve gnosis (knowledge). This represents the main point of divergence between Albanism and other Sarpetic religions – knowledge, and not Faith, is the key to salvation.  
 
===Salvation===
In Alban theology, Immortality can only be reached once the soul has been shed of all physical and material shackles, and rejoined God in the Pleroma. Immortality thus cannot be reached either through self-improvement nor Miracle, but through the process of Salvation.
 
Salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Aeons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil matter. This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up and destroyed.
 
==Albanism in various countries==
<!--If you add statistics for your nation's Alban population, please adjust the worldwide numbers accordingly-->
<!--If you add statistics for your nation's Alban population, please adjust the worldwide numbers accordingly-->
{| class="wikitable sortable"
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
|-
! Country !! Patriarchate !! Followers !! Percentage of population
! Country !! Patriarchate !! Followers !! Percentage of population
|-
|{{flag|Drevstran}}
|[[Barbellon|Metrolaurate of Barbellon]]
|6,750,000
|15.0%
|-
|-
| {{flag|Ostrozava}}  
| {{flag|Ostrozava}}  
| Patriarchate of Karsko
| [[Karsko|Grand Laurate of Karsko]]
| 26,095,270
| 26,095,270
| 33.8 %
| 33.8 %
|-
|-
|{{flag|Drevstran}}
| {{flag|Polnitsa}}
|[[Alban Pentapolis|Patriarchate of Barbellon]]
| [[Polnitsa#Religion|Laura of Modbrjoh]]
|6,750,000
| 1,698,681
|15.0%
| 43%
|-
|-
| {{flag|Gelonia}}
|{{flag|Zamorodna}}
| [[Church of Gelonia|Patriarchate of Meud]]
| [[Zamorodna#Religion|Laura of Potyk]]
| 3,677,112
| 1,572,200
| 35.2
| 11.0%
|}
|}


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Christianity in Ajax]]
*[[Sarpetic religions]]
[[category:Alban Christianity]]
[[category:Alban Christianity]]
[[Category:Religion (Ajax)]]
[[Category:Religion (Ajax)]]

Latest revision as of 15:20, 12 February 2024


Alban Emendatic Church
Ajax Alban Flag.png
ClassificationNon-Nicaean
OrientationModalistic Monarchianism
PolityMonastical
LeadersJohn XVIII, Protohegumen
FounderSt Paul (according to tradition)
Saint Alban of Vigueria
Origin1st century
Sydalon
MembersOver 36 million

The Alban Laura, or Alban Nazarism, officially the Holy Emendatic Pneumatic Laura of Saint Alban but more often simply referred to as Albanism is a major Sarpetic religion, alongside Fabrianism and Aethelism. The faith is named for its founder, Saint Alban of Vigueria, who popularized a Gnostic interpretation of the Two Treasures, and codified a Monatist set of rules to help people abandon the material world and reach the purely spiritual domain where God resides – the “Land of the Living”.

In modern day, Albanism is especially common around Lake Kulpanitsa, with Ostrozava having the largest Alban community worldwide. It remains, in this country and others, an important and influential cultural factor. Pockets of Alban Nazarists remain in western Belisaria, but are a minority. Despite Latium being the birthplace of the religion, due to centuries of condemnation and persecution, the core of the community was driven eastward. The most famous episode of this persecution being the so-called Alban Crusades of the 12th century, which failed to purge Nazarists heresies from Eastern Belisaria. Worldwide, in 2020, Albanism represented around 40 million people.

Name

Albanism, the faith’s most common name, comes directly from its supposed founder: St. Alban of Viguera, who was a candidate to the Patriarchate of Alba before he published his thesis and became the icon of a Monist Gnosticism. He was ultimately forced into exile and spent the rest of his days on the border between the Latin Empire and Tervingia.

The more proper name of Holy Emendatic and Pneumatic Laura is an aggregation of multiple concepts. A Laura is the name given to a kind of Monasteries especially popular among Albans. Pneumatic, Spiritual, refers to in the Alban Gnosis the highest order of humans, above the Psychics and the Hylics. Through his discipline of life, inner cultivation, and study of the Gnosis. Pneumatic beings can escape the doom of the material world. Finally, Emendatic refers to both the latin verb Emendo, “without fault”, and to the practice of the Emendatio where a Corrector improves a text by adding Emendationes, or corrections. By his work, St Alban “corrected” the too-literal interpretations of his time, and allowed the true meaning of the Treasuries to reveal themselves.

Organisation

A Laura is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. It is the core of a semi-eremitic lifestyle promoted by Saint Alba, where the Monks live in their cells alone during weekdays, but would gather for masses and festivities during week-ends and holidays in the central cenobium and church. The church itself was public, and the monks would celebrate the sunday’ mass with the Psychics (unordained people who still believe in Saint Alba’ lessons).

With two ordained Abbots and a position of priest (Hierodeacon) rotating weekly among the Monks, the Laura became the basic unit of the Alban Faith. As the social and political importance of Lauras grew during the ending years of the Tervigian Empire, the monks ended-up forming Orders, often between a parent-laura and the communities it had established. An example of such an order is the Order of Achamoth, originating from Barbellon, which became a dominant political faction during the post-Tervingia era, with its own military and bureaucracy. Posterity gave the name of Alban Pentapolis to their state. Leadership varies from order to order, but it is standard for their highest authority to hold the titles of Protohegumen.

Beside Lauras, other forms of religious organisations exist within Albanism: solitary hermits that live completely isolated even from their fellows while some monachist orders prefer to live in their own community… Some orders even promote a wandering life, their monks living a Mendicant life traveling from town to town, teaching and preaching among the communities that receive them.

Beliefs

The beginning of Creation is considered to have been a Pleroma (literally, a 'fullness'). At the centre of the Pleroma was the primal Father or Bythos, the beginning of all things who, after ages of silence and contemplation, projected 30 Aeons, heavenly archetypes representing the Six Principles of the Nazarist faith. Among them was Sophia, whose weakness, curiosity, and passion led to her fall from the Pleroma and the creation of the world and man, both of which are flawed. The work of redemption consists in freeing the spiritual souls that got caught in the fall of Sophia from the material world. The first step needed is to recognize the Father of All Things as the true source of divine power in order to achieve gnosis (knowledge). This represents the main point of divergence between Albanism and other Sarpetic religions – knowledge, and not Faith, is the key to salvation.

Salvation

In Alban theology, Immortality can only be reached once the soul has been shed of all physical and material shackles, and rejoined God in the Pleroma. Immortality thus cannot be reached either through self-improvement nor Miracle, but through the process of Salvation.

Salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Aeons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil matter. This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up and destroyed.

Albanism in various countries

Country Patriarchate Followers Percentage of population
 Drevstran Metrolaurate of Barbellon 6,750,000 15.0%
 Ostrozava Grand Laurate of Karsko 26,095,270 33.8 %
 Polnitsa Laura of Modbrjoh 1,698,681 43%
 Zamorodna Laura of Potyk 1,572,200 11.0%

See also