CHARITABLE ACTIVITY OF LYUBOVE IVANOVNA KURIS (1852-1935)

The article examines the life and charitable activities of the famous Kuris family representative in the South of Ukraine – Lyubov Ivanovna Kuris. Based on the primary sources study, archival documentation and publications of the Lyubov I. Kuris' life period, Lybov Ivanivna's activity in Odesa region charitable societies, in her own noble estate in her homeland and in Kurisovo-Pokrovsky is covered.Particular attention is paid to Kuris family charity tracing and continuing charitable work from generation to generation. Research of the charitable activity basis and types in the south of Ukraine.It is established that Lyubov I. Kuris continued to carry out charitable activities after her husband's mother, Lyubov Stanislavivna Kuris, who worked fruitfully for the benefit of the Odessa Women's Charitable Society until her death.Among the Lyubov Ivanovna main merits is the construction and maintenance of educational institutions, churches, patronage, assistance to sick children and the needy. Lyubov Ivanivna Kuris was fascinated by the idea of public education spreading. As a trustee of Kurisovo-Pokrovsky, she did a lot for the village school and school garden. In 1862, her father Ivan Alexandrovich Gizhitsky founded the first local school in Ryasnopil, which he maintained at his own expense until 1869. Later, Lyubov I. Kuris tried to continue his work.However, the greatest cause in the field of charity Lyubov I. Kuris was her participation in the work of the Odessa Society for the Sick Children Care. She devoted almost 30 years of her life to this activity, having done many good deeds and invested in it her Christian love, charity and unquenchable energy.Lyubov I. Kuris' activity as the chairman of the society allowed to establish contacts and involve many famous and influential people of the city. The main achievement of the Society was the medical station for children and a children's kitchen "Drop of Milk" construction. By 1901, more than 1,500 children had undergone a treatment full course at the sanitary station. Lyubov I. Kuris was also a member of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities, was a philanthropist, passing part of her husband's collection, antique exhibits, the museum for the benefit of society.

A.S. Khomyakov and “people’s thought” in the epic novel by Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”

The article reveals the deep connections of the “people’s thought” and Tolstoy’s philosophy of history in “War and Peace” with the theological and literary-critical works of A.S. Khomyakova. The author of the work analyzes the dispute between Tolstoy and the cult of an outstanding personality, with the Hegelian understanding of his role in the historical process. Tolstoy is alien to the Hegelian rise of “great personalities” over the masses, the Hegelian liberation of the “genius” from moral control and evaluation. Tolstoy believes that it is not an exceptional personality, but the life of the people that turns out to be the most sensitive organism, catching the will of Providence, intuitively sensing the hidden meaning of the historical movement. Anticipating Tolstoy, Khomyakov sharply criticizes the cult of personality in the church hierarchy, the Catholic dogma of papal infallibility, of the unconditional authority of an individual in matters of conscience and faith. Khomyakov reveals deep religious roots that feed the centuries-old Western enmity towards Russia. The article proves that Tolstoy is close to Khomyakov’s idea that Divine Providence overshadows with its grace only the believing people, united into a single organism by Christian love, that the epic basis of “War and Peace” is anticipated in Khomyakov’s literary-critical works “Glinka’s Opera ‘Life for Tsar’”, “On the Possibility of the Russian Art School”, “Ivanov’s Painting. Letter to the editor of ‘Russian Beseda’”. The article proves that “War and Peace” overcomes the conflict between the individual and society, the hero and the people, and reveals the epic horizons lost in the Western European novel.

Christianity and the “Social Question” in N.А. Berdyaev’s and S.L. Frank’s Philosophical Works

The article analyzes and compares two interpretations of the “social question” and the ways of solving it as they are offered in the works of N.A. Berdyaev and S.L. Frank. A particular attention is paid to the connection between the “social question” and the problem of “Christian socialism”. While acknowledging the general importance of the social issues for the Christian mindset, both philosophers traced the origin of social injustice to the human nature rather than to the social structure. In both interpretations, in fact, the value of social justice is inferior in its hierarchal status to the value of Christian love. However, while they both rejected the socialist utopia of a “paradise on Earth” and the idea of a “Christian socialism”, Berdyaev and Frank radically diverged in their interpretation and assessment of socialism as a social system. This article highlights the fact that Berdyaev combines a criticism of the ideological claims concerning atheistic and materialist socialism with an uncritical acceptance of a number of socialist ideologies (e.g. “class struggle” and “exploitation”) and assumptions. Unlike Berdyaev, in interpreting the “social issue” Frank tended to distance himself from both classical liberalism (with its notions of private property, freedom, and state) and from socialism, which he considered as another ideological extremity. Frank’s social philosophy treats the thesis that the socialist system is more consistent and successful than others in tackling the “social issue” as an empirically dubious assumption. On the contrary, Berdyaev took this thesis for granted and used it as the starting point of his reasoning. This divergence, along with the fact that the same key terms were often used by the two philosophers in different (ideological) meanings, partly accounts for their differences in the interpretation of the “social question” and in the assessment of socialism.

The Argument from Divine Hiddenness and Christian Love

In the paper it is argued that the conceptual resources of Christianity topple the hiddenness argument. According to the author, the variability of the divine love cast doubt on the soundness of Schellenberg’s reasoning. If we understood a perfect love as a maximal and equal concern and identification with all and for all, then a divine love would entail divine impartiality, but because of conflicts of interest between human beings the perfect, divine love cannot be maximal.

From the Ivory Tower to the Grass Roots: Ending Orthodox Oppression of Evangelicals, and Beginning Grassroots Fellowship

When considering the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church, can we both celebrate progress towards unity, while acknowledging where growth must still occur? Dr. George Hancock-Stefan, who fled the oppressive communist regime of Yugoslavia with the rest of his Baptist family, now frequently returns to Eastern Europe to explore topics of modern theology. During these travels, he has recognized a concerning trend: the religious unity and interfaith fellowship celebrated in Western academia does not reach the Eastern European local level. This is primarily due to the fact that Orthodoxy is a top to bottom institution, and nothing happens at the local level unless approved by the top. This lack of religious unity and cooperation at the local level is also due to the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church claims a national Christian monopoly and the presence of Evangelicals is considered an invasion. In this article, Dr. Hancock-Stefan unpacks the history of the spiritual revivals that took place in various Eastern Orthodox Churches in the 19th–20th centuries, as well as the policies established by the national patriarchs after the fall of communism that are now jeopardizing the relationship between Orthodox and Evangelicals. By addressing this friction with candor and Christian love, this article pleads for the Orthodox Church to relinquish its monopoly and hopes that both Orthodox and Evangelicals will start considering each other to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

Raskolnikov on the Way to ‘Holy Russia’: Hermeneutics of Raskolnikov’s Image in F. M. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

The image of Raskolnikov in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment has been widely researched and commented upon. However, suggesting a particular approach to the material — that of hermeneutic linguistics — and focusing on the problem of holiness (two essential principles of this article) provide new results in understanding the content of Raskolnikov’s image, the direction of its development, and the inner plot of the novel’s epilogue. The paper focuses on defining markers of the idea of ‘Holy Russia’ in the image of Rodion Raskolnikov as well as the role of ‘holy’ symbols both in its own development, and, through it, in the novel’s overall plot. Particular attention is paid to intertextual connections of the novel with the New Testament and established prayers, as well as to temporal and topic religious symbols referring to the hero. The paper argues that both the ideals of ‘Holy Russia’ and Dostoevsky’s ‘Russian idea’ play a significant role in the development of the plot and the hero’s character. It also analyzes the connection of the hero’s inner journey (his spiritual and moral fall and his later rebirth) with embodying the ‘Russian idea’ in the image of an intellectual in the novel. The hermeneutic research demonstrates that Dostoevsky, bringing his hero through the abyss of ‘theoretical’ temptation, inner schism, and jail, discovers in him those powers that can become sources of transformation for his soul and his life, putting him on the way to holiness. The image of Raskolnikov appears to be charged with meanings connected with the ideals of ‘Holy Russia’ both in terms of individual transformation (the way to holiness) and in terms of social unity (the way to self-sacrificial service, mutual Christian love, and the common good).

Cultivating Christian Love

In his “Great Commandments” Jesus places love at the heart of the virtuous Christian life. Yet, the task of trying to cultivate Christian love might seem impossible from the start. For, a prominent Christian tradition understands love (charity) to be a gracious gift from God, not a virtue we can acquire through practice. Moreover, love seems to involve emotions that are outside of our control. In response to these worries, Pelser explains how it is possible to work toward the cultivation of Christian love, even though it is an infused, emotional virtue. He develops Søren Kierkegaard’s insight that Christians can contribute to the cultivation of love in one another’s hearts by “presupposing” love in each other. Pelser concludes by explaining how certain practices that combine loving action with contemplative reflection can help till the ground of our hearts so that love might be cultivated in us by God and others.

A Metaphysics of Love

The book is the third and final part of a philosophy of Christian life. The first part applied a phenomenological approach to the literature of the devout life tradition, focussing on the feeling of being drawn to devotion to God; the second part examined what happens when this feeling is interpreted as a call or vocation. At its heart, this is the call to love that is made explicit in the Christian love-commandment but is shown to be implied every time human beings address each other in speech. A metaphysics of love explores the conditions for the possibility of such a call to love. Taking into account contemporary critiques of metaphysics, Dante’s vision of ‘the love that moves the sun and other stars’ challenges us to account for the mutual entwining of human and cosmic love and of being/God and beings/creatures in love. Conditions for the possibility of love are shown to include language, time, and social forms that mediate between immediate individual existence and society as a whole. Faced with the history of human malevolence, love also supposes the possibility of a new beginning, which Christianity sees in the Incarnation, manifest as forgiveness. Where existential phenomenology sees death as definitive of human existence, Christianity finds life’s true measure in love. Thus understood, love reveals the truth of being.