GENESIS OF OLD BELIEVERS ANTHROPOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
Oleg V. Parilov ◽  
Lev E. Shaposhnikov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
Old Believers ◽  
Original Works ◽  
Game Simulation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God

Introduction. The modern globalized postmodern consumer society, total game simulation, colossal disconnection is extremely destructive for the individual. The Old Believer outlook, which affirms the soborn-person, attached to the fundamental foundations of the national religious culture, the bearer of higher transcendent meanings, acquires a particular urgency today. Accounting for both positive and negative experience of Old Believer anthropology will allow to determine the ideal of an integral convinced person who overcomes the extremes of conformism and fanaticism. Materials and Methods. The article is prepared on the basis of the original works of the Old Believer authors; pre-revolutionary, Soviet, modern Russian and foreign studies of Russian culture and the Old Believer worldview. The methodological basis was: a civilizational approach to history, methods of hermeneutics, comparative-historical, the unity of historical and logical, analysis, synthesis, analogy. Results of the study. The article deals with socio-cultural, spiritual factors of the borderline era of the 17th century, under the influence of which a unique Old Believer anthropology is formed, reflecting the worldview characteristics of the Russian Middle Ages and Russia of the new time. The dynamics of Old Believers’ views on man during the XVII–XX centuries is investigated; revealed spiritual, historical reasons for the transformation of the anthropological views of the Old Believers. Discussion and Conclusion. It is established that the early Old Believers, as representatives of the medieval people’s Orthodox consciousness, affirm a person of a sacral, conciliar, but individually immature. However, under the influence of modern trends, Old Believer gives rise to the idea of the charismatic personality of the Old Believer apostle. For the Old Believers of modern times, anthropocentric tendencies, significant existential interest, exaltation of man as the Image of God, especially his reasonable abilities, are characteristic. But due to the self-consciousness of the last defenders of Holy Russia, the guardianship, the Old Believers miss the fact of the damage to human nature, underestimate the need for spiritual development.

scholarly journals Fantastic theology of Robert Sheckley: A pseudo-secular world

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-176
Author(s):  
S.V. Ryazanova
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Formal Similarity ◽  
Value System ◽  
Fantastic Literature ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God

The article considers one of the views on God existing within the modern Western literary tradition and out-side of religious systems. The image of God was chosen as a cultural phenomenon relevant for interpretation, which exists both in religious and secular discourse. The research involved the creative heritage of Robert Sheck-ley – one of the most popular authors of fantastic literature in the mid-20th century. The analysis was based on fantastic tales, since they provide the opportunity to prove all strategies for social behaviour, as well as different views on life. The image of God created by Sheckley was reconstructed using intertextual analysis, which helps identify original mythological and religious narratives and individual allusions. This provides the opportunity to define the features of Sheckley's individual fantastic theology and find the reasons for using the image of God in secular literature. The analysis revealed that the used religious names, denominations and plots bear only formal similarity with the traditional ones. They are used and interpreted arbitrarily. God is interpreted as being anthro-pomorphic, pragmatic, partial and not interested in the fate of his creation. Communication with God is described as commercialised and is built on the model of the consumer society. The works of Sheckley indicate the possibil-ity and necessity of contact between the man and God with the obligatory personal participation of the individual. The American writer creates texts that are modernised in terms of the plot using traditional Christian ideas about the spiritual development of people and the need to preserve the Christian value system as a universal one. In this connection, Sheckley offers possible behavioural models for the created image of God.

scholarly journals PATH OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE UKRAINIAN MIDDLE AGES AND THE EARLY MODERNISM REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DOCTRINE OF THEOSIS

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-127
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Image Of God

In the article the author tries to analyze the vision of the path of spiritual formation in the philosophical and religious views of the Ukrainian Middle Ages and the early modernism representatives in the context of the doctrine of theosis. It is noted that the doctrine of deification is considered fundamental to the theology of holiness. Theosis, the idea of which is to renew the image and the likeness of God in a person, is the main goal of life from the standpoint of the Eastern Church. After all, the combination of the Divine and human natures opens the way to God for a person. As a state of subjective experience of a human person, theosis is considered in hesychasm, which interprets it as synergy - an interacting combination of energies of man and God. The path to the development of knowledge about God is connected with the ascetic rejection from the worldly life, and the path to the union with Him is connected with the union of the Divine and human natures in a person. Followers of hesychasm believe that theosis is the practice of the subjective experience of a human person; synergy is the interacting combination of the energy of man and God. The main task of austerity is the attainment of divine grace. It dissolves the will of man in the process of a human being transformation. The doctrine of theosis had an impact on the formation of the theocratic idea in the culture of Kiev Rus, in which love of wisdom played an important role in human understanding themselves as the image of God. Analyzing the views of the Ukrainian Middle Ages and early modernism representatives on the path of spiritual development of man, the author concludes that they were characterized by the vision of deification as a person’s approach to God through self-exploration and moral improvement. Theosis is the final result on the path of spiritual growth for the representatives of the Middle Ages and early modernism philosophical conception, who attached great importance to gaining inner mystical experience and sought to experience spiritual ecstasy as the ultimate goal in the mystical path to deification.

Adoption and the Image of God

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-260
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Nydam
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Heinz Kohut ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
God Representations ◽  
Ontological Foundation ◽  
The Image Of God

Presents some of the basic struggles that may surround extrafamilial adoption. Examines both psychologically and theologically the possible effects of the process on a child's view of God. Draws on the works of Ana-Maria Rizzuto and Heinz Kohut to offer a way of understanding the God-representations that adopted children may employ. Presents Paul Tillich's existential-theological perspective as an ontological foundation for the various conceptions of God of adoptees. Suggests that adoption, as one of many human dilemmas, may deeply influence both psychological and spiritual development.

Jesus as Mother and Abbot as Mother: Some Themes in Twelfth-Century Cistercian Writing

1977 ◽  
Vol 70 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 257-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Walker Bynum
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Idea Of God

A number of scholars in this century have noticed the image of God or Jesus as mother in the spiritual writings of the high Middle Ages. The image has in general been seen as part of a “feminine” or “affective” spirituality, and neither of these adjectives is incorrect. The idea of God as mother is part of a widespread use, in twelfth-century spiritual writing, of woman, mother, characteristics agreed to be “feminine,”and the sexual union of male and female as images to express spiritual truths; the most familiar manifestation of this interest in the “female” is the new emphasis on the Virgin in doctrinal discussions and especially spirituality. And the frequency of references to “mother Jesus” is also part of a new tendency in twelfth-century writing to use human relationships (friendship, fatherhood or motherhood, erotic love) in addition to metaphysical or psychological entities to explain doctrinal positions or exhort to spiritual growth.

scholarly journals Vrou as beeld van God, Deel 1: 'n Historiese ondersoek - Vanaf Genesis tot die Middeleeue

2000 ◽  
Vol 56 (2/3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Patriarchal Society ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Middle Ages

Woman created in the image of God, Part 1: a historical investigation - from Genesis to the Middle Ages. This study indicates that the traditions in the Pentateuch, especially the creation traditions, implied the egalitarian status of man and woman as image of God. The context of this traditions, however, was patriarchal and thus opened the possibility of the exploitation of women. Though Genesis 1:27 does not specifically attest to the asymmetry between man and woman in patriarchal society, the fate of women in general was bound up with the presentation of God as a male creator. The implications of this presentation can be clearly seen in texts of the intertestamental period. The study points out the degree to which Philo's view of a hierarchy concerning man and woman as immanent to God's order of creation, strongly influenced Christian thought on the place of women. Since the "fall of woman" necessitates a "soteriology", women in general are portrayed negatively in patristic texts. Mary is seen as the positive counterpart of Eve. The image of women then becomes that of submission on account of their alienation from God. The article concludes with the view of Thomas Aquinas that the subservience of slaves is less than that of women, because in their case it is not an order of creation.

The theological value of autonomy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiel Zimran
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
The Will ◽  
Abrahamic Religions ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Will Of God

Abstract Western liberalism is based on two different humanistic traditions: First, the biblical tradition of the Abrahamic religions, according to which man was created in the image of God; and, second, the tradition that developed in the age of Enlightenment, which claims man’s absolute independence of any heteronomous or transcendental being and views the very existence as a goal in and of itself. Each one of these two traditions restricts the autonomy of the individual in different ways, thus influencing the constitutional structure one of whose principal functions is to safeguard the autonomy of the citizens. This article deals with the theological value of autonomy. It analyzes the tension between the humanistic-anthropocentric worldview, which sanctifies human freedom, and the humanistic-theocentric way of thinking, which sees God as the source of all norms and holds that the freedom of man is limited by the divine imperative. Subsequently, the article presents three different models of understanding the relations between the will of God and the will of man, through an analysis of the exegesis of three Jewish thinkers on the stories of man’s creation in the image of God and the sin of the Primordial Man. These models represent three attitudes towards the theological value of autonomy. After having presented the different models, I shall compare them to each other and explicate the conceptual differences between them. To conclude, I shall further assess the contribution of these models to contemporary discourse on autonomy and liberty.

The Law of Homicide

2011 ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
David Novak
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter argues that the law prohibiting murder is the Noahide commandment most immediately and rationally evident. The rabbis considered its prohibition from two distinct points of view, the theological and the political. In theological terms, murder is the intentional taking of another human life, a life created in the image of God. In political terms, murder wrecks social life. Regarding murder at the individual level, the rabbis differentiated criteria for the punishment of Jews and gentiles. For Jews who commit murder, the death penalty is employed only under the strict standard of “hatra'ah,” or forewarning. Such a dispensation was not available to non-Jews. The law of homicide also deals with the morally knotty issue of abortion. Rabbinic Judaism permitted abortion only when the mother's life was in danger, but for Noahides, abortion was proscribed in every case.

Die Wirkmacht der Nachahmung. Tanzende Heilige und tanzende Klosterleute im hohen und späten Mittelalter

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-280
Author(s):  
Jörg Sonntag
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Fundamental Categories

AbstractThis article sets the dancing of religious and saints and their role models in the perspective of imitation in terms of an essential cultural technique of the Middle Ages. Since the religious were compelled in their search for God by the imitation of Christ and the saints, their dancing was also to be integrated into the symbolic order of the monastery. Given that dance and religious practice are both governed equally by two fundamental categories – regularity and ritualization on the one hand, and ecstasy, unboundedness from all being and in result ascension to God on the other – this heterogeneous phenomenon could not be seamlessly integrated into another phenomenon. Here, it clashed with the symbolic ordering of the monastery; the ambiguities contained in this dualism could be reinforced or cancelled out. With the individual and his or her conscience becoming more appreciated, and the ushering-in of a more plural society (that also dances), as well as the rearrangement of old role models which had been typical of mysticism towards Christ, had clear consequences for the image of God, which in the Late Middle Ages received a new more human face with the ‘playing’ God. As a result, believers re-anchored dance and all its facets in the order-oriented thinking of the European-Christian Middle Ages. Christ had become the best of all dancers, someone (not only) every believer had to imitate, at least in his or her soul.

In the Image of God

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Kent
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Middle Ages

Christian writings from late antiquity through the Middle Ages have much to say about the dignity of various beings but little to say about the dignity that all humans have simply because they are human. Few authors of the Latin West used the biblical account of creation to argue for the kind of human dignity we often hear about today. Why? This chapter argues that two factors do much to explain their silence. First, patristic and medieval authors believed that God made angels as well as humans in his image, so that humans were not the sole creatures endowed with understanding, will, and free choice. Second, most authors thought that human nature was badly deformed by the Fall and needed to be reformed in the likeness of Christ. They focused less on creation than salvation, an end they believed attainable only through the grace of baptism and God-given virtues.

scholarly journals PHILOSOPHICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL IDEAS IN THE WORKS OF PERSONALITIES OF FRATERNAL SCHOOLS (XVI – XVII CENTURIES)

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Surrounding World ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God

In the article the author tries to analyze the representation of philosophical and anthropological ideas in the works of fraternal schools in the XVI–XVII centuries. It is noted that man was considered in the unity of soul and body as a microcosm and one that was created in the image of God. Self-knowledge was interpreted as a way of liberation from the burdens of the surrounding world, dependence on earthly sensuality. In particular, Stefan Zizaniy had a rationalist vision of the dogmas of orthodox Christianity. The work of Kyrylo Tranquillion-Stavrovetsky shows a neo-Platonist tradition associated with humanism. In accordance with the traditions of the Renaissance, the philosopher turns to the idea of double truth, considering wisdom from the standpoint of theology and practical philosophy of life. K. Tranquillion-Stavrovetsky, according to the Stoic doctrine, regarded man as a dual nature. But the philosopher also emphasized the unity of soul and body, because they are strongly interconnected. It is noteworthy that the scientist reveals the problem of soul and body from the Renaissance-humanistic moral-ethical and epistemological positions. Isaiah Kopynsky emphasizes that self-knowledge and cognition of the surrounding world does not occur through the study of nature and observation of natural phenomena, but, on the contrary, through immersion in your inner spiritual world through “smart deeds”. It contributes to the knowledge of the outside world, self-knowledge and knowledge of God. I. Kopynsky’s views are close to early Hesychast Byzantine theology. The anthropological views of the theologian are focused on the individual who takes an active part in the historical process. In his works, M. Smotrytsky also pays special attention to the transcendent nature of the human spirit, in particular, analyzing the question of the interaction of action and will. The author concludes that the philosophical and anthropological ideas of the fraternal schools were formed in the context of European philosophical culture and were a reflection of the cultural and historical features of the historical period we are studying.

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