HUMANISTIC POTENTIAL OF EASTERN CHRISTIAN STUDIES

Abstract

Introduction. The danger of changing of human’s nature, depreciation of her natural life are growing concerning with the development and application of new biotechnologies. Humanity stands before the necessity of forming of the new axiological purposes, which will form its attitude towards living and essential principles of exact life on the principle new basis from those which are present today. Purpose. The aim of research is the analyses of the constituents of hierarchizing of living, study of the role of person in the hierarchy of living and clarification of the humanistic potential and meaning of studies of the representatives of Eastern patristics in the estimate of modern theological thought. Methods. Such methods were applied: of systematic and historical-genetic analysis, structural and functional analysis. Results. Created living is the embodiment of God’s energy, who created it not from His essence, but from nothing, putting in it otherness from the very beginning as the relation between the Absolute and relative. Depending on the extent of perfection each living animal creature occupies certain place in the hierarchy. First of all created living being reflects spirituality of God. Person, having reflected God in herself, became his living icon, carrier of its divine power. Originality. The Eastern Christian conception of living proposes some model of its structuring, which has significant humanistic life-asserting potential. And this perspective is following up  in modern orthodox, representatives of which, supporting the concepts of Eastern church fathers about the essence of living, try to modernize them according to new science data. In their interpretations of living the accents shifting more in the axiological area. Conclusion.  Thinkers of Eastern patristics built up the created by God hierarchy of living: angels, human, animals, plants. Created living is the embodiment of the God’s energy, who created it not from his essence, but from “nothing”, from the very beginning putting in it otherness. Person in herself is hierarchical, and all what she would be correlated with, is hierarchized. Human brings order in the world of living, revealing the beauty, which is the reflection of hierarchical divine beginning.