Christian philosophy of the Middle Ages. medieval philosophy

The philosophy of the Middle Ages has its own characteristics. The lowering of the social status of philosophy, its complete dependence on religion, was also reflected in its content, the circle of the main problems discussed by it, its ontology, anthropology, epistemology.

1) The basis, the root cause of everything that exists is God. Moreover, God, as an omnipotent being, is not only the creator of the world and man, he is also the constant leader of all life, the "seer" of everyone's life. Thus, from the point of view of its doctrine of being, medieval philosophy was the philosophy of theocentrism.

Medieval philosophy also had a peculiar anthropology, the doctrine of man. According to this doctrine, man is not only created by God, but also similar to him. However, human nature is dual. It contains not only a soul, but also a body, not only something divine, spiritual, but also something bodily, sinful. To overcome his sinfulness, a person needs constant, from birth to death, the support of religion, the church.

Since it was quite difficult to rationally substantiate its ontology and anthropology of medieval philosophy, it created a kind of theory of knowledge, epistemology. Its essence boiled down to the fact that not only that which is justified by reason, but also that which corresponds to our inner experience, the desire to believe without reasoning, can be recognized as truth.

The main stages of medieval philosophy are patristics and scholasticism.

Patristics (Christian theology of the II-VIII centuries).

Representatives: Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Aurelius Augustine and others. These philosophers defended Christian religious dogmas against paganism and Gnosticism, arguing the incompatibility of ancient wisdom with the Christian faith. The main themes of medieval patristics are the problem of the essence and existence of God, the origin of evil in the world), the free will of man and the possibility of saving the soul.

Scholasticism (IX-XIV centuries). The term refers to "school philosophy", the wisdom taught in monastic schools and universities. Scholasticism develops the problems of patristics, systematizes and rationalizes the Christian worldview. Scholasticism is divided into a number of stages:

early (IX-XI centuries): Eriugena, Anselm of Canterbury;

Mature or classical (XII-XIII centuries): Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Pierre Abelard, John Roscelin and others;

late (XIII-XIV centuries): John Dune Scot, Meister Eckhart and others.

The problems of the correlation of faith and reason, individual and general, still remain as the most important topics questions about the existence of God, the possibility of saving the soul, etc. The central problem of mature scholasticism is the dispute about universals - general ideas, about the relation of the individual to the general and about the reality of the existence of the general. Depending on the answer to this question, three positions are formed in medieval philosophy. Realism, whose representatives argued that the general exists really, in the form of an ideal or real "thing" and is not a simple construct of the human mind. Realism was supported by the church, since it did not conflict with the official dogma and served as an additional justification for the existence of God. Representatives of realism were Eriugena, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas.

The opposite of realism is nominalism. The nominalists argued that universals are the simple names of things, therefore they exist only in the human mind, and do not have an independent existence as a thing. Nominalists do not answer the question of the primacy of matter or spirit; for them, as for all medieval philosophers, spiritual reality remains primary. Nominalism became widespread in late scholasticism, its representatives are John Roscelinus and William of Ockham.

Conceptualism is a philosophical position that reconciles realism and nominalism, according to which separate things really exist, and the general acquires reality in the sphere of the mind in the form of concepts. The creator of conceptualism is Pierre Abelard.

The basic principles of the medieval philosophical thinking are considered geocentrism - God is the central point of the worldview, creationism - the belief that everything that exists is an act of divine will, created by God from nothing; providentialism - belief in the divine predestination of everything that exists; eschatologism - belief in the end of the world and the effective expectation of it.

16. Humanism as philosophical direction became widespread in Europe in the XIV - mid-XV centuries. Italy was its center.

The main features of humanism were:

Anti-church and anti-scholastic orientation;

The desire to reduce the omnipotence of God and prove the self-worth of man;

Anthropocentrism - special attention to a person, chanting of his strength, greatness, opportunities;

Life-affirming character and optimism.

In its genre, humanistic philosophy merged with literature, was expounded allegorically and in artistic form. The most famous humanist philosophers were also writers. These primarily included Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Balla.

He sings of Christianity, but at the same time between the lines he ridicules the contradictions and inexplicable truths (dogmas) of Christian teaching;

Praises a person;

Departs from the interpretation of man solely as a divine creature;

Recognizes for a person the presence of both divine and natural principles, which are in harmony with each other;

He believes in the happy future of man, his initially good nature.

Other works of Dante ("New Life", etc.) are permeated with the same spirit.

Petrarch introduces ideas alien to scholasticism into literature, philosophy, and culture:

Human life given once and unique;

Man must live not for God, but for himself;

human personality must be free - both physically and spiritually;

Man has the freedom of choice and the right to express himself accordingly;

A person can achieve happiness, relying only on himself and his strength, has sufficient potential for this;

The afterlife, most likely, does not exist and immortality can be achieved only in the memory of people;

A person should not sacrifice himself to God, but should enjoy life and love;

Appearance and inner world human beings are beautiful.

The Renaissance was characterized not only by an increase in interest in man, but also by a great interest in the problem of the state, the structure of society, the relationship between the Church and state institutions, and believers. This issue was reflected in the socio-political philosophy of the Renaissance, the main directions of which were:

Philosophy of the Reformation;

political philosophy;

Philosophy of the Utopian Socialists.

The philosophy of the Reformation had as its goal the reform of Catholicism, the democratization of the Church, the establishment of more just relations between God, the Church and the faithful.

The prerequisites for the emergence of this direction were:

Crisis of feudalism;

The emergence and strengthening of the class of commercial and industrial bourgeoisie;

The weakening of feudal fragmentation, the formation of European states;

The disinterest of the leaders of these states, the political elite in the excessive, national, supranational, all-European power of the Pope and the Catholic Church;

The crisis, the moral decay of the Catholic Church, its isolation from the people, lagging behind life, the practice of issuing indulgences;

Spread in Europe of the ideas of humanism;

The growth of self-awareness of the individual, individualism;

The growth of the influence of anti-Catholic religious and philosophical teachings, heresies, mysticism, Gusism.

There are two main currents in the Reformation:

burgher-evangelical;

Folk.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) is considered the founder of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, on the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany, he nailed 95 theses against indulgences, which marked the beginning of an ideological (and in a number of countries, armed) struggle against Catholicism.

The main ideas of M. Luther were as follows:

Communication between God and believers must be direct;

Between God and believers there should be no such mediator as the Catholic Church;

It is necessary to simplify the rites;

The Church must become democratic, and the rites understandable to people;

It is necessary to reduce the influence on the politics of other states on the part of the Pope and the Catholic clergy;

The work of serving God is not only a profession monopolized by the clergy, but also a function of the whole life of believing Christians;

It is necessary to free culture and education from the dominance of Catholic dogmas;

Indulgence must be banned.

Unlike the philosophy of the Reformation, the subject of which was the relationship between God, the Church, man and the state, political philosophy explored the problems of managing a real-life state, methods of influencing people, and methods of political struggle. A prominent representative of political philosophy was Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527) - Italian (Florentine) politician, philosopher and writer. The philosophy of Machiavelli is based on the following main provisions:

Man has an inherently evil nature;

The driving motives of human actions are selfishness and the desire for personal gain;

The joint existence of people is impossible if everyone pursues only their own selfish interests;

To curb the base nature of man, his egoism, special organization- state;

The ruler must lead the state, not forgetting the base nature of his subjects;

The ruler should look generous and noble, but not be such in reality, because when in contact with reality, these qualities will lead to the opposite result (the ruler will be overthrown by far from noble associates or opponents, and the treasury will be squandered);

In no case should the leader encroach on the property and privacy of people;

In the struggle for the liberation of the motherland from foreign domination for its independence, all means are permissible, including insidious and immoral.

In the Renaissance, there is an increased interest in the problems of society and the state, the Church. As a rule, when studying them, philosophers sought to rely on real facts, explore the situation in a particular society and state, and tried to change the situation for the better during their lifetime. However, some philosophers focused their attention on the development of projects for an ideal state, where all social contradictions would be destroyed and social justice would triumph. Since their projects were far removed from reality and practically unrealistic, these philosophers went down in history as utopian socialists.

The greatest contribution to the development of the theory of utopian socialism was made by Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella.

Thomas More (1478 - 1535) is considered the founder of utopian socialism. He was well acquainted with the problems of the real state, since he was professionally engaged in political activity: from 1504 he was a member of parliament, 1523 - 1529. - Chairman of the House of Commons, 1529 - Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (the highest post in the state after the king). In 1535, T. More was executed as a supporter of Catholicism for refusing to take an oath to the king as the head of the Anglican Church, independent of the Pope.

T. More outlined his ideas about the structure of society and the state of the future in the work "Utopia". Utopia (Greek - a place that is not found anywhere) is a fictional island on which an ideal state is located.

The ideas of the utopian socialists put forward during the Renaissance were a response to the social injustice that had taken place and had many supporters among those who wanted to change the world both in the Renaissance and in the future.

17. Based on the biggest discoveries and technical progress in the Renaissance, a kind of natural philosophy (philosophy of nature) develops. It was she who had a decisive influence on the development of philosophy and natural science of modern times.

Naturphilosophy often had a pantheistic character, i.e., without directly denying the existence of God, it identified him with nature. A similar natural philosophy was developed by Bernardino Telesio [1509-1588], who founded an academy in Naples for the experimental study of nature, and the closest adviser to Pope Pius II, cardinal, scientist, philosopher Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464).

N. Kuzansky, researchers of his work are considered the first outstanding representative of the pantheistic philosophy of the Renaissance. He brings God closer to nature, attributing divine attributes to the latter, and above all infinity in space; he also opposes the theological principle of the finiteness of the Universe in space and its creation in time, although he stipulates that the world is not infinite in the sense in which God appears as an “absolute maximum”. But still “it cannot be considered finite, because it has no boundaries between which it is enclosed”; according to N. Kuzansky, the Earth is not the center of the world, and the so-called sphere of fixed stars is not a circle that closes the world. N. Kuzansky expressed a number of dialectical ideas in relation to the understanding of nature: he saw the unity of opposites, one and many, possibility and reality, infinity and finiteness in nature.

Deep ideas were expressed by him in the theory of knowledge. He substantiated the concept of the scientific method, the problem of creativity - the limitlessness of human possibilities, especially in the field of knowledge. At the same time, his pantheism is also manifested in cognition: God is beforehand everything that can be. The beginning shines through in everything, and a person is able to think endlessly, overcoming any opposites.

The philosophical views of Nicholas of Cusa influenced the subsequent natural philosophical thought of the Renaissance.

One of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance was Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). He rejected all church dogmas about the creation of the world, about the alleged beginning of the world and its coming end; developed the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus, arguing that there are an infinite number of worlds in the universe. In "On Infinity. universe and worlds" he declared: "I proclaim the existence of innumerable separate worlds like the world of this earth. Together with Pythagoras, I consider her a luminary, like the Moon, other planets, other stars, the number of which is infinite. All these celestial bodies make up countless worlds. They form an infinite Universe in an infinite space ... "

At the same time, J. Bruno wrote a lot about God. He recognized the universal animation of matter. But his God is the Universe, which is both creative and created, both cause and effect. Pantheism in these arguments of J. Bruno is evident. There is no God standing above the world and dictating his laws to it; God is dissolved in nature. He devotes entire hymns to material nature: matter is a living and active principle.

Bruno's natural-philosophical views are combined with elements of elemental dialectics, which he draws in many respects from ancient sources. Noting the constant variability of all things and phenomena, he argued that over the course of many centuries the surface of the Earth changes, the seas turn into continents, and continents into seas. His arguments about man as a microcosm and his connection with the macrocosm (nature) are interesting. Man is a part of nature, his boundless love for the knowledge of the infinite, the power of his mind elevate him above the world.

In 1592 Bruno was accused of heresy and imprisoned. In 1600 he was burned at the stake.

18. Rationalism (ratio) - reflects a philosophical idea that recognizes thinking (reason) as the source of any knowledge and the criterion of its truth. This doctrine became popular in the 17th century. The foundations of the philosophical outlook, its traditions were introduced by Rene Descartes. In his Discourses on Method, Reflections on a New Philosophy, and other writings, the problem of the reliability of knowledge was solved in the sphere of knowledge itself and its internal characteristics. This, in the main, distinguished the rationalism of René Descartes from the theory of practical thoroughness of Bacon. The first, developing his idea, argued that there are four rules of knowledge: methodical doubt, control, analysis and evidence. The rationalism of Descartes established the certainty of the very presence of the knowing mind, the philosopher declared: "I think, therefore I exist." The proofs of this theory, in his opinion, lay in the justification of thinking itself, trust in it. At the same time, God acts as a guarantor of the comprehensibility of the created world, as well as the objectivity of human knowledge. The system of arguments that Descartes leads explains the idea of ​​the presence of innate ideas as one of the main provisions of rationalism. Created things are known only by deepening into the mind. At the same time, all things consist of two substances independent of each other - the body and the soul. At the same time, the nature of the body is nothing more than a mechanism. Strengthening the predominance of reason over feelings and bodily passions is the outgoing principle for the search for various formulas of moral behavior in a variety of life situations. This is the concept that Descartes' rationalism carries. It is necessary to note the great importance of this worldview for the development of philosophy and science. The rationalism of Descartes not only contributed to the formation of new rules and principles, but also formed the basis of some scientific disciplines, in particular analytic geometry, mathematics. The dualism underlying the idea made it possible to formulate a dual, mutually exclusive interpretation of the doctrine. The rationalism of Descartes provided an explanation of the structure of the world, presenting it in abstract and visual images at the same time. The structure of the world assumed the possibility of dividing it (using analysis) into components that would be logically interconnected and mathematically accurately described. This is the hidden methodological basis of the process of mathematization of natural sciences. A rational person, having a deductive and intuitive mind, can achieve reliable knowledge. The deductive method allows only those assumptions that are seen by the mind as clear, precise - do not cause any doubts about their truth. In addition, within the framework of this method, each complex problem is divided into individual parts that make it up, a periodic transition from the known and proven to the unknown and unproven, while gaps in the studied links are not allowed. In the time of Descartes, philosophy was given great importance. Science, on the other hand, was regarded as the highest value, and the possibility of its practical application in meeting various human needs further elevated the cognitive processes of thinking.

The 17th century is characterized by the confrontation between rationalism (Descartes) and empiricism (Bacon) in science, which determined the philosophy of the New Age. On the other hand, philosophy itself refers to science as a social phenomenon, putting forward the problems of method and epistemology.

"Empiricism" is a philosophical doctrine and direction in the theory of knowledge, recognizing sensory experience as the only source of reliable knowledge), elevating all knowledge to experience. At the same time, it remains unclear how scientific theories, laws and concepts arise that cannot be obtained directly from experience and observations. Francis Bacon is considered the founder of English philosophy, which insisted on the study of nature using the inductive method.The meaning of science is to tune in to the mind so that it does not remain at rest and does not freeze in its shortcomings.Identified two types of sciences: - which are based on faith (astrology, magic ) - ignoble, and sciences that come from the three abilities of the soul, concentrating in themselves knowledge, memory (history is based on it), imagination (poetry), reason (philosophy).

Philosophy does not deal with individual and sensitive impressions, but with abstract concepts derived from them, connecting the laws of nature and the facts of reality.

Philosophy has 3 subjects: God, nature, man and the threefold way of influence. Nature affects the intellect directly, God through creation (by refracted rays), man - by reflected rays, and hence in philosophy stand out: the doctrine of the Divine, the doctrine of nature, the doctrine of man.

In addition, Bacon divided the doctrine of nature into:

theoretical philosophy (causes of phenomena and processes) and

practical philosophy (result).

He attributed physics and metaphysics to the theory of philosophy. Being knowledge-oriented, Bacon drew attention to the method and distinguishes: inductive (from experience to axioms) and deductive. In these methods, he considered the most valuable experience, which he divided into fruitful - beneficial and luminiferous - allowing to know nature.

The most valuable is the inductive method. It singles out the complete induction. According to Bacon, incomplete induction actually reveals not only what is known, but also as judgments Bacon tries to create true induction, which is aimed at not only looking for facts confirming the conclusion, but also refuting it. Such an induction, which was the basis of the method, made it possible to consider Bacon the founder of the inductive method of cognition.

The unreliability of hitherto known knowledge is due to the unreliability of the speculative method of inference and proof. The first condition for the reform of science is the improvement of methods of generalization - induction. The next step should be clearing the mind of delusions. Bacon distinguishes 4 types of such delusions or idols - clan, cave, market, theater.

The idols of the family are an obstacle due to human nature. Chel judges nature by analogy with his own properties. This gives rise to a teleological conception of nature, errors arising from the imperfection of human feelings, under the influence of various desires and inclinations.

Caves are errors that arise as a result of subjective preferences, likes, dislikes of scientists: some see more differences between objects, others see their similarities. Some tend to believe in the infallible authority of antiquity, others, on the contrary, prefer only the new.

The market is an obstacle that arises as a result of communication between people through words. But in many words the meanings of words were established not on the basis of knowledge of the essence of the subject, but on the basis of a completely random impression of this subject.

Theater - obstacles generated by uncritically assimilated false opinions. The idols of the theater are not innate in our mind, they arise from the subordination of the mind to erroneous opinions.

Knowing the types of obstacles allows you to avoid mistakes. However, this knowledge is only the negative side of the creation of the scientific method. A positive teaching about the method of research is also necessary. In the history of science, two paths or methods of research clearly stand out: dogmatic and empirical. The dogmatic method begins with general speculative propositions and seeks to deduce from them all particular cases. The dogmatist is like a spider, a cat weaving a web out of itself.

A scientist who follows the empirical method is like an ant, which randomly drags everything that gets in its way. The true method consists in the mental processing of the materials that experience brings (bee)

Definition 1

Christian philosophy is a worldview based not only on the ability to think as a source of knowledge, but also on the power of the “heart”. These are two sources of knowledge, merged together and are the source of human cognitive activity.

In Christian philosophy, such questions come to the fore, to which philosophers could not give clear answers, since they are not derived through pure reason. This worldview as a doctrine of truth requires Christian faith, which gives philosophers maximum creative freedom.

Christianity enriched philosophical science with a powerful set of moral rules and attitudes. At the same time, for Christianity in general, as well as for its philosophy, revolutionary radicalism is not characteristic, it is not about a negative assessment of reality with calls for aggressive actions, but rather about moral protest. All the necessary changes, however, Christianity lays on God. Important components of Christian philosophy are faith in the second coming of Christ and the hope for salvation, for eternal life. Therefore, love for God and a righteous life on Earth are its central motives.

The principles of Christian philosophy and their brief description

The main principles of Christian philosophy include:

• monotheism
• theocentrism
• creationism
• personalism
• providentialism
• revolutionism
• linearity of history

Monotheism. The Bible for the first time speaks of God as one and unique, radically different from everything else, made it possible to understand the transcendent only possible way. In Greek philosophy, Plato pointed to the cosmos as a visible God, Aristotle called the stars "divine", but after the Bible such consciousness became impossible. "And when you turn your eyes to the sky and see the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything that is in the sky, do not let yourself be lured and do not worship from it."

Theocentrism is a concept opposite to anthropocentrism and cosmocentrism, in which God is considered the absolute highest being.

Theocentrism is based on the following ideological and religious attitudes:

• faith in one God, he is all things, not nature.
• faith in the universal presence of God.
• God's creation of man in the image and likeness of God
• the most important component of a person's earthly life is his spiritual knowledge, adherence to moral laws, love for one's neighbor.

Creationism is the concept that God is the creator of all being, based on the Word and Divine Will.

Today, there are various concepts of creationism, both Christian and non-Christian, that claim to be scientific. There are two currents in Christian creationism:

• Literal (young earth) creationism - that is, the world was created in just six days, as it is written in the Bible and about 6000 years ago.
• Metaphorical (old-earth) creationism - according to which six days of creation is a metaphor that is adapted for people with different levels of knowledge, in fact, the earth was created for billions of real years. This is due to the fact that in the Bible the word "day" does not always mean a day, but also an indefinite period of time.

Providentialism is a historical and philosophical method, which consists in the study of historical facts as the providences of God, higher Providence, the movement of history according to God's pre-prepared plan for the salvation of man.

Remark 1

Eusebius and Jerome were the first Christian philosophers who considered world history as a consistent branching system of events on the way to the eschatological kingdom of God, and also in the works of Blessed Augustine, Divine will is at the heart of the movement of the historical process. It was he who set the consideration of history before the advent of Christ and after, according to the "six ages" of the world, "according to the four world monarchies."

Personalism is an existential-theistic concept, according to which the person is considered as the highest spiritual value, while God is understood as the supreme person.

Personalism in Christian philosophy, unlike various other types of personalism, is based on the belief in the divine origin of man and his creation in the image and likeness of God. It is also important that the freedom of choice of the individual in Christianity is one of the spiritual values.

Linear history. In antiquity, time was generally understood as cyclical and infinite. In Plato, for example, the idea of ​​the cyclism of history was expressed in the opinion that events in history repeat periodically, including the philosopher himself and his school.

Remark 2

According to the researchers, Old Testament with eschatological ideas laid the foundation for understanding time as unique and irrevocable. Thus, Augustine considered the idea of ​​the cyclicity of time to be false, because the cyclicity and repetition of time makes it impossible for the unique appearance of Christ and the final salvation of man at the Last Judgment.

Revolutionism - revelations of God underlie medieval epistemology, all the necessary knowledge for salvation to man is slightly revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, intuitive, spiritual knowledge of God occupies an important place.

The Greek philosopher Plato put forward the theory of eros, while eros is understood as the desire for improvement. Christianity, on the other hand, proposed a new concept of "agape" - love, which is a selfless and eternal gift of God to people. At the same time, God loves first of all, but a person is capable of new love only when he changes his inner self, becoming like God in good deeds and deeds. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have no love, then I am a ringing copper, or a sounding cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing.

1. Historical conditions for the emergence of medieval philosophy

2. Patristic philosophy. Teachings of Aurelius Augustine the Blessed (354 - 430 AD)

3. Medieval scholasticism. Realism and philosophy of F. Aquinas (1225 - 1274 AD)

4. Nominalism and its essence.

1. Medieval Christian-religious philosophy (like any other) arises in special socio-historical and cultural conditions and circumstances that largely determine, if not the content, then the nature of philosophy and philosophizing. Chronologically, it follows the collapse of the ancient world and ancient culture. The collapse of the ancient world was accompanied not only by the decline of economic life, slavery has exhausted itself, but also by an unprecedented decomposition of the moral and ethical foundations in life, an unprecedented revelry of gross passions and the barbarization of life. The ancient world collapsed both under the influence of the barbarian tribes that crushed the Greco-Roman civilization, and as a result of its own degradation. Which gave rise to general chaos, which caused a feeling of inevitable catastrophe. Therefore, the emergence of Christian-religious culture and philosophy was certainly a reaction to this crisis of ancient values. In order to overcome the general crisis, it was necessary to oppose it new system values ​​of a universal nature, which could give universal existence a stable character. The assertion of new values ​​took the form of a merciless and sharp reaction against the general corruption.

The emergence of Christian religious philosophy was also associated with the establishment of Christian ideology, purely religious, as the dominant ideology, which did not tolerate and persecuted all other types of ideology. This ideology was based on the mystical idea of ​​the existence of the One God as the creator of all things, who, before the creation of the World, created Mind and Spirit. The central idea is that God created the world out of nothing. The fundamental moment of the new ideology was the doctrine of Christ, the son of God, who in his person, in his personality, directly embodied the single essence of the Creator, Creator. He is the flesh of the creator's flesh. Therefore, he is the bearer of God the Father, he is the bearer of the Divine mind, he is again the Holy Spirit, but, in addition, he is a person who conveys to us in his teaching, as the message of God the Father, the true essence of God the Creator, enshrined in the sacred Scripture - Old and New Testaments. Of course, this is clearly a mystical idea, the main form of comprehension and affirmation of which can only be faith in the actual Existence of the One God, in Christ - as evidence of this existence, confirmed by his supernatural acts within the framework of earthly existence.

2. The first distributors of the new ideology and worldview were the fathers of the new christian church who sought to establish the new faith in its purity, as well as to assert the authority of the church as the only truly divine authority. Therefore, the assertion of the Faith, the assertion of a new ideology and the power of the church was of a total and irreconcilable character.

At the same time, the new Christian religion, but especially the church, needed a philosophical understanding and theoretical justification of the new religious ideology, as well as a philosophical comprehension and justification of the essence of God, the First Creator and Creator, as a kind of universe. Since the Church Fathers were the first religious, Christian philosophers, at first medieval philosophical thought was concentrated in monasteries, since they had libraries containing the works of ancient and Roman philosophers and thinkers. Therefore, naturally, the formation of Christian medieval philosophy was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, etc. Especially the Platonic doctrine of supernatural entities, the Aristotelian concept of God as the prime mover of all things, the doctrine of form as an organizing force and the Aristotelian concept of the Logos, the Stoic theory of fate with the predestination of human existence. And since the founders of Christian-religious philosophy were the Church Fathers, this period in medieval philosophy was designated patristic philosophy (Patristics)(from lat. Pater - father). Christian-religious philosophy initially acquired the status of official philosophy, focused on the needs of religion and the church. Since philosophy is a form and method of rational explanation and understanding of the world, philosophy was largely used as a method of rationalistic explanation and justification of the mystical, supernatural essence of God. The fulfillment of such a task constantly required an appeal to Reason, and not just to faith. In addition, philosophy has its own subject of knowledge, which cannot fully coincide with the subject of religion and faith. That is why medieval philosophy was characterized by inconsistency, which Christian-religious philosophers, thinkers tried to constantly overcome in the form of dogmas, dogmas - officially recognized and not questioned.

All medieval Christian-religious philosophy, and for patristic philosophy, has a common initial theoretical and methodological principle - principle of theology1. It is the initial basis of all philosophizing in this period. Theology proceeds from 4 postulates-dogmas.

1. Recognition of God as a person, a supernatural subject.

2. The initial basis for comprehension of the essence of God are the dogmas of the "Holy Scripture", understood as axioms.

3. Recognition of creationism, the creation of the world by God from nothing.

4. Faith in the existence of the reality of the Immortality of God, and under certain conditions - faith in the immortality of man.

One of the founders of patristic philosophy was Augustine the Blessed(354 - 430 AD), who also held the high church post of bishop. He created a doctrine that was called Augustinianism, which existed as the dominant one until the 12th century AD. In his famous work "Confession" he formulates the basic principles and tasks of philosophy, adapted to the needs of religion and the church. The subject of philosophy, according to Augustine, is the comprehension essence of order and unity of the universe as creations of God, and hence the comprehension of the essence of God. And since a person inevitably enters into a relationship with God, then the knowledge of man, his essence and his soul, the search for the true path of man to God also included in the subject and task of philosophy. Therefore, true philosophizing consists in comprehending the truth of God, since truth is God. According to religious dogma, God appears to us as revelation He sends a message to all people that needs to be both understood and interpreted. But first one must find universal form discovering God as a reality, as truly consubstantial, obvious to all. Faith, as a spiritual and psychological phenomenon, is a universal means of establishing God as an object and as a reality. Outside of faith, God is not revealed for the subject, the person like reality. Therefore, the primacy of Faith is naturally affirmed in religious philosophy. But faith in itself does not yet give knowledge, it gives just an object for knowledge. And the Divine essence also needs describe, explain and understand. This goal can only be achieved through Mind, on the basis of whose activity we receive true knowledge about the essence of God. Faith needs reason as a proof and instrument for interpreting the essence of God and his deeds. In the philosophy of Augustine, the problem of the unity of Faith and Reason is stated, which has become fundamental for all Christian-religious philosophy. But Faith necessarily precedes Reason, and therefore it is above reason. Without Faith there is no object for Reason, which he knows. “I believe, therefore I understand” becomes an axiom. Augustine draws attention to the dialectics of Faith and Reason, their interconnectedness and interdependence. Mind Without Faith empty, and Faith without Reason, which gives knowledge of God, blind. The mind, which thinks of God and gives knowledge about him, his invisible essence, must rely on on dogmas and axioms Holy Scripture, so as not to fall into error or heresy. Therefore, the goal of philosophy, according to Augustine, is to create a doctrine of God as the creator of all things.

Augustine formed his theory of knowledge, epistemology, as an activity of the mind based on Faith. But knowledge is a special creative Act, it is the activity of the soul, which is understood as a thinking entity, the activity of which is aimed both at the knowledge of God, and at the knowledge of man of his essence, as a reflection of the Divine essence. The soul is not the life-giving principle of the body, but the ability that the Creator, Creator, God gives us. The subject of cognition is rather not a person, but his soul. Therefore, knowledge begins with immersion in oneself, one finds in oneself a prototype of the eternal truths of God, the contemplation of which, as it were, takes place in the form of illumination, but the very knowledge of truths is achievable only through concepts, categories. (About God, about his essence, about his Being, etc.). And since the thoughts of God precede the things themselves, therefore the goal of knowledge is not the knowledge of the material world, but the knowledge of the thoughts of God.

Augustine creates a fairly universal philosophical system, which reveals all the parameters of the Being of God as a world entity, the order of the world order. Thus, nature appears in the philosophy of Augustine as a naturalization of the ideas and thoughts of God that precede it, and it is itself the act of creation of God. (The world is created from nothing). It is the lowest step of the divine Existence, barely rising above non-existence. And space and time are not objective forms of the existence of nature, but forms of the existence of the soul and spirit. Outside of God and spirit there is neither space nor time. Eternity is an attribute of God, and not of the bodily world; it is an attribute of the human spirit, and not of his body. Therefore, time exists only in the soul and nowhere else. "In you, my soul, I measure time," says Augustine. Time, in essence, is an endless duration of the acts of the free will of God, aimed at the Absolute Good and Good. The symbol of the Divine unity of space-time is the vast sky, the endless path of God to self-fulfillment, in which essence and existence coincide, are identical. "Divine time" can only be found in a spiritual act, a spiritual experience of the past (memory), present (consciousness), future (hope). earthly and human time- the duration of the free will of fallen man and mankind, his egoism, the duration of man's path to death, at the end of which the eternity of the existence of God and the possible eternity of the existence of man are revealed to him in the form hope to comprehend the essence of God through Faith and Reason and hope to atone for one's sinfulness through Faith and Reason, which opens the gates of Heavenly Divine Paradise for salvation human soul and gaining eternity.

Augustine seeks to philosophically substantiate the mystical concept of man, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Give it the character of an intellectual interpretation that appeals to Faith and Reason. He, in fact, formed the basic principles of Christian-religious anthropology, which in one way or another influenced all subsequent religious and idealistic teachings about man. Man and the human race, according to Augustine, were created by God, endowing them with a body, soul, mind and free will, aimed at knowing and comprehending the essence of the First Creator. But a person falls into original sin, which consists in the service of his corporeality, in the desire to comprehend not the truth of God, but to comprehend the pleasures of bodily existence. It was not the body that became the servant of the soul, but the soul the servant of the body; passions take possession of the human mind. The Fall leads to rebellion against God, the falling away of man from God, he (man) imagines himself to be God. The Fall inevitably leads to evil, which is the absence of the proper Good, Good and Truth, which are in God. The betrayal of Faith in God is the source of evil. Hence the thesis - evil is not in the world, evil is in man, generated by his arbitrary will. God is the creator of good and good, man is the creator of evil. And since people are no longer guided by faith and reason, after the fall they are rather inclined, predestined to evil. The loss of faith involuntarily leads people to create evil, although they subjectively strive for good.. They no longer know what they are doing. The existence and life of a person acquire a tragic and torn character. And on their own, people without the help of God cannot free themselves from evil, interrupt the tragic nature of being. Overcoming the tragedy - in the restoration of unity with God on the basis of holy faith, on the basis of reason, revealing the truth of God and forcing the arbitrariness of the human will. But, since God is Absolute Good and Good, Absolute Mercy, man was initially chosen by the Creator for salvation. God only gives him hope for salvation, but does not predestinate salvation itself. God sends people his son Jesus Christ, who by his example redemption for the salvation of mankind shows the way to salvation. In fact, God sacrifices his son in the name of man's salvation. Christ suffers for all mankind because he is endowed with love to the neighbor. Therefore, the salvation and redemption of people from the fall is possible through the observance of the transcendent feeling of love of each person for his neighbor as his brother, thereby pacifying the feeling of hatred and selfishness, selfishness in the heart and soul. The atonement of sinfulness and the overcoming of evil in oneself requires from a person, first of all, repentance, awareness of their sinfulness, practical redemption. And since Christ sacrifices himself in the name of atonement for the sinfulness of all, so every person must not only repent, not only pray for the mercy of God, but in the name of saving himself must sacrifice earthly passions, earthly blessings in the name of purifying his soul and thoughts, regaining Faith into God, which means gaining hope for salvation. Earthly life is only the preparation of oneself for entry into city ​​of God, into the kingdom of God, in which a person acquires true happiness after cleansing from the fall. That's why suffering man within the boundaries The earthly city has a humble and inevitable payment for the original fall. The person appears to be faced with a choice between good and evil which he is free to determine voluntarily. But the very realization of human freedom is possible only on the basis of Faith in God and within it, beyond the boundaries of which he is absolutely not free, and therefore beyond the boundaries of Faith, he involuntarily and inevitably falls into sin and is turned to evil. Developing and formalizing the Christian-religious ethics, Augustine comes to the need to create a concept of the organization of society and the state, which found expression in his essay "On the City of God". He identifies two cities of the Divine (civitas Dei), the focus of the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of God and the city of the earth (civitas terrena), the focus of sinfulness, carnal and vain desires, the world of delusions. In the first there are the righteous, in the second - the wicked and apostates from the faith. "At the heart of the heavenly city is love for God, brought to contempt for oneself", at the basis of the earthly one is love for oneself, brought to contempt for God" 1. The divine city is "eternal", no one is born there, because no one dies where true and complete happiness is the gift of God. The earthly city is not eternal, but exists from the beginning of the creation of the world to its end. "The founder of the earthly city, says Augustine, was the fratricide Cain"3. But between them there is no abyss, but there is the ascent of a person from the city of Earth, to the city of God, through the atonement of sin and overcoming evil in himself. The plenipotentiary representative of the city of God in the earthly city is the church, embodying in itself and the ministers of the church the essence of God. She is called upon to fight the wicked, who created a secular state, as the personification of the power of evil. Therefore, history appears as an eternal struggle between Good and Evil. It is possible to defeat evil if you initially defeat evil in yourself, then there is a hope for the possibility of moving from the city of Earth to the city of God. The City of God, as it were, is born from the city of the Earth, but the transition itself requires enormous efforts of the spirit and sacrifices.

Therefore, the history of mankind acquires a tragic character, and the very the rescue appears as miracle, achievable only with the help of the will of God. Thus, Augustine creates a fairly universal philosophical system of the Existence of the world, as the Existence of God and man. It should be noted that the philosophy of Augustine is both a preaching and a philosophical justification of Christian humanism, the essence of which is the mercy of God to man and the mercy of people to each other.

3. From the 11th century until the 14th century, a special period begins in medieval philosophy, called - scholasticism(from lat. scholastica - school, scientist). The so-called dispute about universals served as a direct impetus for the establishment of scholastic philosophizing. Its essence lies in the search for an answer to the question: how does the single essence of God manifest itself - directly in its entirety and in an exhaustive way, or indirectly through individual acts of God's deeds? This dispute was preceded by an earlier conflict between Augustine and Pelagius about the possibility of atonement for original sin. Augustine believed that redemption is available to man only as the grace of God, redemption is granted from above, redemption is an act of the will of God. Pelagius, on the other hand, believed that the atonement of sin is an act of a separate will, a separate (single) individual, achievable in the performance of good deeds pleasing to God. If Augustine has redemption is determined, determined by God, then in Pelagius - redemption is indeterminate, not determined in advance. It would seem that this dispute is just a formal one, about interpretations, but, as it turned out later, it had far-reaching consequences for the development of all subsequent medieval philosophy.

Scholasticism proceeded from the recognition of the truth of the dogmas of faith and theology. The task of scholastic philosophy was to proof through philosophy and reason, the inviolability of the truth of the dogmas of faith, religion and theology, and not the knowledge of the existence of the objective world. Philosophy still remained in line ministry of religion and churches.

Within the framework of medieval philosophy, two competing currents appear, realism and nominalism who claim to be a truer and more authentic interpretation of the essence of God's Existence and its manifestation as a universe.

Realism(from the late Latin realis - material, real), based on Plato's teachings about the original and objective existence of the world of ideas and things, based on the postulate-dogma that God's thoughts precede the act of creating the world. Through thinking, God creates the world, and thinking itself is an attribute of the spirit. (A mystical statement about the creation of the world out of nothing). And since thinking always turns into concepts, concepts exist before things and before the sensually perceived world and contain the essence of things before the things themselves. AT first period scholastic realism takes an extreme form ("Extreme Realism"), an outstanding representative of which was Anselm of Canterbury(1033 - 1109 AD) English bishop. It comes from the idea that general concepts (universals) exist directly in reality, before things. They are the foundation and basis existence of the world of the senses. (The method of ontology is the doctrine of the foundations of the world). A world based on concepts, supersensible, we can only understand but not to know, and it is revealed to us in the form of faith. Therefore, God is such an object, there is something higher than and greater than which cannot be conceived. This is how the dogmatic postulate "I believe in order to understand" (credo ut intelligam - lat.) is born. Faith is higher than reason, but does not contradict reason, since those "truths of the revelation of God" that are through faith, but can be proved through reason based on concepts. By means of reason, for example, one can prove that the world of ideas and the universal essence of God are eternal, necessary and absolute, while the world of things is fluid, non-eternal, relative, finite. Therefore, concepts as universals are real and to prove universality is the task of philosophy. As you can see, here too the fundamental problem for Christian-religious philosophy is solved, the correlation of faith and reason, knowledge, religion and philosophy in favor of faith and religion. Reason and knowledge based on reason, as well as philosophy, remain subordinate to faith and religion.

Second period realism as scholastic philosophizing in the 12th-13th centuries AD. The leading representatives were Abelard(1079 - 1142), Albert the Great(1193 - 1280) and Thomas Aquinas(1225 - 1274). Realism gets more moderate. During this period, interest in secular science and natural science began to be intensively manifested, especially in the form of Aristotelianism, which was largely dogmatized and absolutized. Abelard already admits the existence of universal concepts as foundations in the sphere of human spirit and mind, which are formed by the mind due to the impact of the sensory world on it. But sensory perception is the basis for the cognition of separate, single, not eternal things. But the knowledge of the Universals of God (invisible essence) is available only to the mind, and faith opens object (essence of God) for knowledge. Faith, although preferable, needs a prerequisite in the form of reason. Abelard formulated the postulate: "I understand in order to believe." The mind, as it were, is endowed with a relatively independent cognitive function, but only to strengthen and fund faith (to believe!). Touching upon ethical problems and problems of the will, he treats the essence of sin in a more relaxed way. Sin, according to him, is agreement on the wrong, on the evil, expressed already in intention to act against the will of God. And of course act evil does not add anything new to intention do evil. Intention inevitably leads to action. But both good and evil, sin, sinfulness are available reasonable understanding and therefore control to a certain extent. A person, as it were, is placed before a conscious choice in action. Knowledge of the law of God and his essence, his thoughts must precede the act of will, the action of man. Lack of knowledge, knowledge above all of the Gospel, does not absolve one from guilt, but this guilt not intentional. A person becomes, as it were, a victim of his ignorance. To a certain extent, this is a more tolerant attitude towards human imperfection and, to a certain extent, a protest against religious fanaticism.

A special place in the framework of scholastic philosophy is occupied by Thomas Aquinas. He tried to create a universal system of philosophy within the framework of scholasticism and a religious worldview. His teachings started Thomism, such a trend in philosophy, which, having survived the centuries, occupies an authoritative place in modern, especially Western philosophy. As a philosopher, thinker and as a religious figure, he set himself the most difficult theoretical and practical task - find grounds for the unity of faith and reason, religion and philosophy, religion and science, especially since he brilliantly understood the growing importance of science and scientific knowledge. Justify their harmony and consistency, complementarity in such a way that faith and religion turn out to be above without belittling the positive significance of philosophy and science.

In the dispute about universals, he adheres to the point of view of the triplets of their existence: 1) before things, in the Divine mind, as ideas, 2) in things, as their essence and substantial principle, 3) after things in the human mind, as a reflection of the essence of things in concepts, as a result of abstractions of the mind. Since the world is a hierarchical system consisting of the supernatural world of God as a creative spiritual entity and the world natural things and objects, sensually perceived. The prerogative of faith is the realm of God, who is eternal and original. The task of reason and science is the knowledge and explanation of the laws of the material, natural world, which is lower in comparison with the world of God. That's why Vera and science do not contradict each other, but complement each other, but faith still turns out to be higher than science, scientific knowledge. He leaves, makes a place for independent function science, but severely limits it. Furthermore, Faith as a way to God, Divine truth is available to all, while scientific knowledge is available only to a few. In this he also sees the advantage of faith over science. The vocation of philosophy lies in the interpretation, submission religious truths in terms of reason and in refutation arguments against faith also in the categories of reason. In this refutation of arguments against faith, philosophy can also rely on scientific knowledge. Thomas Aquinas finds, as it were, a great and necessary compromise between Faith and knowledge, between religion and philosophy.

Adhering to the Augustian interpretation of the nature and essence of man, he also tries to find a compromise in man between the divine and the earthly, ordinary. For him, the virtues - wisdom, courage, moderation, justice, faith, hope, love - are aimed not only at uniting and drawing closer to God, but should be present in a simple, everyday worldly life. In the doctrine of the state and society, he also tries to find a compromise between secular state, the personification of which is royalty, and Divine state, the personification of which on earth is the church. Since the secular state is only a temporary and relative part of the kingdom and state of God, the principle of subordination is necessary between them. superior and inferior, a secular state is based on a contract. The existence of a secular state must be authorized ecclesiastical authority and at the same time secular authority should not diverge from the principles of religious dogmas. In a worldly society and a worldly state, all relations should be as unshakable and eternal as in the "Heavenly Kingdom", the kingdom of God, the kingdom of absolute good and absolute good. Within the framework of the earthly kingdom, this is achievable only on the basis of a compromise between the “tops” and the “bottoms”. Thomas Aquinas tries only to rationalize religion through philosophy, while retaining all the virtues of superiority for religion.

4. Within the framework of medieval Christian-religious scholasticism, as philosophizing, another trend is gradually taking shape, called - nominalism(The term is derived from the Latin nominis - name, denomination). In it, as well as in realism, the problem of universals is central. But a different interpretation and a different solution is given. Recognizing the existence of the universal essence of God, the representatives of nominalism believed that it really manifests itself not directly, but indirectly, through individual hypostases of God and through individual things, his universal essence is revealed. It should be noted that the ideas of nominalism date back to the dispute between Augustine and Pelagius regarding the expiation of original sin. Augustine believed that the atonement for sin is determined (determined) by God's grace. Pelagius believes that redemption is the lot of the individual will of man, aimed at doing things that are pleasing to God. Redemption itself comes from the individual, and therefore is not determined from above. Pierre Abelard(1079 - 1142) in his "Introduction to Theology" comes to the conclusion that universals are manifested in sensible things potentially, and not actually. Therefore, at first we experience the impact on us of sensible things, in which the invisible essence of the universe is hidden. Then we must give a name to a thing by means of the concepts of reason. And then, through concepts, the mind comprehends the invisible essence of the Divine universal truths. This is how the principle is born: "To know in order to believe." The cognition of the truths revealed by faith goes from the cognition of individual, separate things to the cognition of the general, the universe through conceptual thinking. Duns Scott(1270 - 1308) and Ockham(1285 - 1349), English thinkers, philosophers and church leaders go even further. They believe that universals outside of thought exist only as names, the names we give them. Cognition, especially scientific knowledge, is aimed at understanding the properties of the sensory-objective world. This defines the scope of reason and science. While the entire realm of God is available to human knowledge, therefore, only faith reveals to us the availability of God. Faith retains a sacred and mystical character, which serves as proof of the authenticity of Divine, and, consequently, religious truths due to their inaccessibility to the human mind. Therefore, it is preferable to blindly trust faith than to try to justify it rationally. In such a peculiar form, in the form of nominalism, the way is opened for the development of scientific knowledge as an activity of the mind, thinking in concepts. Faith and science seem to be divorced, they coexist, each retaining its sovereignty. And philosophy is a sphere of compromise between faith and knowledge. Since it serves as a proof of religious dogmas and truths, and it gives concepts to scientific knowledge. It is, as it were, a "science of sciences". But after nominalism, new opportunities for development appear for philosophy, which manifest themselves in subsequent periods.

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Patristics is an early Christian philosophy.

The process of development of Christian philosophical thought, which began already in the first century of Christianity, continued in subsequent centuries. The spread of Christianity not only throughout the ancient ecumene, but also beyond its borders, as well as the strengthening of the Church, posed questions and tasks for the most educated part of Christians related to the in-depth development of not only doctrinal dogmas, but also the philosophy of Christianity. For a long time, these problems were solved by Christian thinkers, whom the Church later called the Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church. As a result, the body of their creations began to be called patristics (from Latin pater - father), and the period of their work was called patristic. It is customary to historically divide patristics into two periods: pre-Nicene, or apologetic, and post-Nicene, where the first Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in 325, serves as a kind of watershed. Also geographically - into Western Christian and Eastern Christian patristics, by the way, such a division can be considered a prototype of the future split of the Christian Church into Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.

The ideas formulated by patristic literature left an indelible imprint on the worldview and culture not only of the era in which the works of the Holy Fathers were written, but influenced all subsequent cultural development throughout the Christian world and even beyond. It was patristics that gave rise to Western scholastic philosophy, and even in subsequent eras, despite the processes of secularization of society, the ideas of patristics were not completely excluded, but rather modified the form of perception. Patristic literature became one of the main sources of Russian culture and philosophy, and its influence can be clearly seen right up to the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, we can state the fact that direct or indirect influences of the ideas of Christian patristics also take place in modern culture and philosophy.

Patristic literature had as its goal not only the religious and moral edification or protection of Christianity from heresies and attacks by pagans, but also, to a large extent, the study and systematization of the philosophical ideas of Christianity. The patristic period in the development of Christian philosophy is characterized by the greatest wealth and a wide range of literary works in which Christian thinkers solved the philosophical problems set by their opponents, answering them in philosophical words and concepts, actually "theologising in a philosophical way." Such a disclosure of the Christian doctrine was in full measure the "tip of the iceberg", the basis of which, of course, was the very life of the Christian community, thus these were purely theoretical positions not divorced from reality, which was a direct movement of philosophical Christian thought.

One of the elements of the early Christian worldview in relation to ancient culture was a wary-negative perception of philosophical ideas. This was expressed in the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, and above all in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians: “Be careful, brethren, that no one captivate you with philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ...” [ Qty. 2:8]. These words of the "apostle of tongues" reflect the generally cautious attitude of early Christianity towards human learning, which is opposed to the divine word of Christ.
In the book “Acts of the Holy Apostles” there is a description of the case of a discussion in the Athenian Areopagus, initiated by some ancient philosophers from Athens: “Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to argue with him; and some said: what does this vagrant mean?, and others: it seems that he preaches about foreign deities, because he preached Jesus and the resurrection to them. And, taking him, they brought him into the Areopagus and said: can we know what this new doctrine is that you preach? For you are putting something strange into our ears. Therefore, we want to know what it is? [Acts. 17:18-20].

It is this event, described in the book "Acts of the Holy Apostles", that can be considered one of the first public discussions between the two directions of philosophical thought, the existing - ancient and emerging - Christian. And although it is worth noting that some thinkers (for example, Gilson E., Mel R. and some others) of later times sometimes rejected the very existence of “Christian philosophy” as a phenomenon, nevertheless, to deny the existence of this religious philosophical tradition means to refuse from an objective view of historical reality, because "all the so-called patristics - early Christian philosophy - is also a page of the philosophy (intertwined with religion) of the ancient world, but this is a special page ...". The point of view that marks three main directions ("motives") in the early Christian views on philosophy can be considered generally accepted. First, the rejection of philosophy as human wisdom, which is opposed to the teachings of Christ, transmitted to the apostles. Secondly, the realization of the search for the possibility of a "synthesis" between Christianity and ancient philosophy, in which the achievements of ancient thought could be creatively assimilated by Christianity. And, thirdly, the emergence and development of the concept of Christian philosophy as love for the Divine Sophia - the Wisdom of God - Christ, where the comprehension of wisdom is understood as growth in the knowledge of God and the desire for a virtuous life. Archim. Cyprian (Kern) remarks on this: “Christian writers of antiquity, in fact, were more afraid of philosophy than they were carried away by it and gave themselves up to its obedience. They appealed to the wisdom of the ancients when circumstances forced them, but to be unconditional students of one or another they would never have agreed to another philosopher. At the same time, one can name many such highly educated writers of the ancient church who studied all philosophical systems, but serious scientists do not dare to enroll them as unconditional students of any particular philosopher, without the risk of falling into artificial constructions ".

The confrontation between Christian and ancient philosophy must be viewed in a historical context, not as a phenomenon, but as a process. Moreover, it should be noted that one of the most important reasons for this opposition lies, first of all, in the fact that ancient philosophy itself was, at the same time, ancient theology, in accordance with the religious consciousness of antiquity. As Zenkovsky V.V. quite reasonably notes: “At one time she [i.e. e. ancient philosophy] grew out of mythologems created by religious consciousness, and ended with Plotinus and his followers with constructions in which philosophical ideas are inseparable from theology.

Indeed, from the very beginning of philosophy, Greek philosophers criticized traditional Greek mythology, accusing it of logical inconsistency and immorality. But speaking as a critic, the philosopher, in no case, breaks with the cultural tradition, with the mores and customs of the social community to which he himself belongs, and does not create a doctrine, as it were, from "nothing", in a new "naked" place. Quite rightly P.P. Gaidenko emphasizes: "The whole drama of the history of philosophy - and the historical fate of philosophers is often dramatic, sometimes even deeply tragic - is rooted in the philosopher's attitude to tradition - religious and moral, cultural and artistic, political and legal, and finally, to traditional forms of life and way of life" .

Contrasting itself with the "old wisdom of this age", the emerging Christian philosophy was not only an opposition, but also, in a way, a successor to ancient philosophy and, at the same time, its further development. Nevertheless, the dependence of Christian philosophy on ancient Neoplatonic dialectics is "only formal-conceptual, structural, but by no means dependence on content, that is, not dependence on content-personality" .

Of course, Christian philosophy borrowed some ideas from ancient philosophy, but this process was rather complex and ambiguous. It would be erroneous to assume that there was an arithmetical addition of Christianity as a religion with ancient philosophy, as a result of which Christian philosophy appeared. Christian philosophy was born and "growth" in that cultural and historical environment, which was formed, including and not least, thanks to the efforts and labors of ancient pagan philosophers, it could not be otherwise. “The theological and philosophical speculation of the Church Fathers arises and develops, like Christianity itself, in the Hellenistic world, deeply agitated by religious and philosophical quests, intensely striving for absolute truth.”

Obviously, among the early Christian thinkers there was no unambiguously formed attitude towards ancient philosophy. Between the two extreme opinions, from the complete and unconditional rejection of ancient paganism to the equally complete fusion of Christian ideas with the philosophical ideas developed by ancient thinkers, there was a great variety of opinions and points of view that had a decisive influence on the history of the formation and development of Christian philosophy. An example is St. Justin the Philosopher and his student Tatian the Assyrian, who had, one might say, diametrically opposed points of view on contemporary philosophy. The first is convinced that “philosophy is truly the greatest and most precious acquisition in the eyes of God: it alone leads us to God and makes us pleasing to him, and truly holy are those who have directed their minds to philosophy ...”, “without philosophy and sound no one can have wisdom." Tatian's opinion, on the contrary, expresses an extreme rejection not only of pagan polytheism and ancient philosophy, but of literature, science, etc. “Your books are like labyrinths, and those who read them are like a barrel of Danaids. You, sharing wisdom, have removed yourself from true wisdom,” Tatian is indignant.

However, both cautious supporters (Clement of Alexandria, the Cappadocians, etc.) and opponents of ancient wisdom (such as Lactantius, Tertullian, etc.) willingly and with maximum benefit used both the philosophical methodology and the philosophy of antiquity itself, not to mention the developed its terminology and conceptual apparatus. And there is nothing paradoxical or, moreover, negative in this. Christian writers - the fathers of the Church - were born and raised in the ancient cultural and historical environment, they were not foreign aliens, alien to the heritage of the outgoing ancient world, the ancient world was their world, Hellenistic culture was their native culture, the Greek language was their native language. “It would be very strange if the Fathers of the Church did not speak the language of their time and their people. And just such a language, in which then only it was possible to theoretically express the truth, were the concepts and hypotheses of Hellenistic philosophy, developed, moreover, not without the participation of Christians. All this points not to the conditionality of Christianity by paganism, but to the historicity of Christianity.

In the eyes of Christians, as carriers of a new, universal, Christian worldview, all religions of the ancient ecumene appeared as pagan, i.e. folk religions, religions of "one language", focused on separate, relatively closed ethnic communities of people and inherent in a particular people. So the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks became the basis on which the outstanding minds of the ancient world - Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus - built their philosophical systems. The loss of influence by the ancient religions and the spread of Christianity meant at the same time the emergence of a new philosophy. Together with Christianity, the universalism of the worldview is affirmed, and although Christianity coexists with paganism for a long time, a new type of philosophizing arises, corresponding to Christian universalism. This type of philosophizing is based on the fundamental ideas expressed by the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

But here a contradiction arises that needs to be resolved. Appeals to an unbelieving audience based on the authority of the Holy Scriptures are meaningless, because. to prove the truth of the entire system of Christian doctrine, the texts of Holy Scripture and references to Holy Tradition don't matter. Scripture and Tradition will acquire their value and authority for those who already believe in their truth, and for this it is first necessary to have conviction and faith that these texts are accepted by the Church, that they are correctly understood and interpreted, that they are spoken or written down by the apostles, that the apostles correctly understood the teachings of Jesus Christ, and, most importantly, that Jesus Christ Himself is God. “To base the truth of the Christian religion on the texts of Holy Scripture means to base the beginning on the end, i.e. spin in a logical circle. Holy Scripture is intended primarily for those who believe in it. St. Hilarius of Pictovia put it most vividly: "Scriptra est non in legendo, sed in intelligendo". The message that comes from God as Holy Scripture was written in the community and for the community, which by its faith testifies to its truth and sacredness, because the biblical canon is defined and approved by the Church. Tertullian generally refused to appeal to Scripture to all those who were outside the communion of the Church. In his famous work "De praescripcione haeriticorum", he argues that Scripture belongs to the Church, and heretics have no rights to someone else's wealth, they should not even refer to it, because. they have not received the Divine Message, and therefore have no access to it.

The God of the transmitted Message unites the various parts of Scripture into a single whole and through the Message reveals himself to those who believe in him, thus the God of Sacred Revelation is Deus Revelatus, and not Deus Absconditus. This message itself is not just a testimony about God, it is itself the Epiphany. Therefore, the Truth is not an idea, but a Person, Jesus Christ Himself incarnated as a God-man.

It is quite obvious that pre-Christian antiquity did not know the personal and single God, in the full and real sense. In Greek mythology, the gods appear more like ordinary people, as if endowed with immortality. Therefore, already in the early stages, mythology is subjected to harsh, one might say, crushing criticism from ancient philosophy, which, for example, warns against worshiping something formless and indefinite (“meon”). For example, "Plotinus saw all the emptyness and emptiness of the then folk-traditional and already obsolete idolatry" .

Already in the philosophy of Plato, the One expresses the principle of delineation, separation, and in Aristotle it is supplemented by the idea of ​​a formalized integrity (Mind as “the form of all forms”). In contrast to the pagan worldview, which allows the existence of other divine beings besides the One, the Christian understanding of God excluded the possibility of implying anything else by “divine”.
Hellenistic late antique philosophy was ready to accept Christianity, but only by combining it in many sects with a bizarre interweaving of various areas of ancient philosophy and the inclusion of elements of Judaism. This direction, as an eclectic mystical-philosophical doctrine, in general, had little to do with Christianity. It adopted the general name "gnosticism" after the name of its representatives, the gnostics - "knowing" or "possessing knowledge" (from the Greek ;;;;;; - knowledge), historically, the term "gnosis" was assigned a specific meaning, as a special way knowledge of God through mystical illumination available to the elect. Gnosticism takes its origin, according to one of the early Christian writers, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, from the Samaritan Simon the sorcerer, whom the Apostle Luke mentions in the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles [Acts. 8:9-23]. Gnosticism, which attempted to combine the idea of ​​a personal God with emanationism and subordinationism, inevitably came into conflict with the Holy Scriptures not only of the New Testament, but also with Old Testament Judaism.

Such a connection was unacceptable for Christianity, because. would destroy its very foundation, which is why the Holy Fathers of the early patristic period entered into a tough opposition to Gnosticism, protecting themselves from “false knowledge” with the dogmas of faith. In defending the most important foundations of Christian doctrine, there was an urgent need for Christian philosophy as an instrument.
The idea of ​​a personal God required substantiation in the form of overcoming emanationism, opposing it with the doctrine of the creation of the world "out of nothing", and overcoming, on the basis of the Christian trinitarian dogma, ancient subordinationism.

The dogma about the creation of the world “out of nothing” was one of those dogmas that eventually formed the doctrinal foundation of the Church.
The entire countless series of Gnostic sects, which interpreted their beliefs in different ways, were primarily united by cosmology, which carried a single meaning, consisting in the opinion that the world is not the result of the creative will of God the Creator, but the “illness” of some eons (from the Greek. ;;;;) – emanations of the Divine. A very significant question for Christians about the creation of the world by God, in Gnosticism loses its meaning, because. for them, creation is not a manifestation of the free will of the Creator, God the Creator as a Personality who created the world “out of nothing”, but a mistake, a disease of divinity, its obscuration, “ignorance”. Thus, the question of the origin of the world is resolved by the Gnostics in the spirit of Neoplatonic emanationism.

Representatives of various Gnostic sects, defining the origin of "eons", their number and properties in different ways, agreed on one thing - that the Holy Scripture is a narrative, for the interpretation of which some special "secret knowledge" is needed. Such "knowledge", according to the sarcastic remark of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who, according to him, had personal conversations with representatives of Gnosticism, the Gnostics found in their heads, from which they “threw their brains”, as well as in “apocryphal and false writings that they themselves compiled in order to amaze people who are senseless and who do not know the true scriptures." As a direct example of the cosmological inventions of the Gnostics, one can cite the so-called. The “Apocrypha of John” from the collections of the Gnostic library from Nag Hammadi, which lists a long string of “eons”, one of which, Ialtabaoth, born of Wisdom, the first archon, who created “for himself other eons in the flame of bright fire ... And he set seven kings… And he separated them from his fire, but he did not give them from the power of light, which he took from his mother, for he is the darkness of ignorance. And when the light mixed with the darkness, he caused the darkness to shine. And when the darkness mixed with the light, it darkened the light and became neither light nor darkness, but became sick ... ". All this was perceived by early Christian thinkers as “profound idle talk” and “the way in which they deceive their minds by violating the scriptures and attempting to confirm their fiction with them”, because creation in this form is not such, but is self-deployment, self-distribution, “complication » Deities, direct, natural action internal energies, producing the existing by virtue of the Divine nature itself. Moreover, the existing happened not only without the participation of the Will, but even against the Will of the Creator. Against this, St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes: “Those who say that the world was created against the Will of the Most High Father by angels or some other creator are mistaken, ... for this is the superiority of God, that He does not need other tools for the creation of the created, but His own Word is capable of and enough to make everything." The birth of one eon from another (even before 365), which was approved by the Gnostics, as a result of which the world appeared, representatives of Christian philosophy consider it impossible, “since birth,” says St. John of Damascus is a natural action and comes from the very essence of God, it must be beginningless and eternal, otherwise birth would cause a change, there would be God “before” and God “after” birth, God would multiply, As for creation, then it is the work of the divine Will, and therefore God is not eternal. The creation of the world is not a necessity. God might not have created it." St. Basil the Great remarks: “to invent a beginning for a beginning is very ridiculous”, therefore, in contrast to the “matryoshka” idea of ​​self-unfolding worlds - eons (“dimensions”) nested in each other, the only beginning of the world is opposed, everything at once, the entire space-time continuum, because “before creation” nothing could exist. And when Scripture and the Holy Fathers say “out of nothing,” they mean not only matter, in the sense of matter, but space itself and time itself, which do not exist outside of each other. “For this reason, wisely explaining to us the existence of the world, reasoning about the world, very opportunely added: “in the beginning he created,” that is, in this beginning, in the beginning of time, ... that is, suddenly and instantly. All "emanations of the aeons", if they existed, should be extended in time, because they “occur”, but since there is time, then there is space, there is a world that already exists, created, and there is no place for “eons” in it, in the world created by God “out of nothing”. Unlike the Gnostics, the Christian Church has the basis of the doctrine of the creation of the world in Holy Scripture and in the Tradition of the Holy Fathers: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” [Gen. one; 1], “through Him all things were made, and apart from Him nothing was made that was made” [Jn. one; 3], “God created everything out of nothing…” .

Another particularly complex problem that required its solution from Christian philosophy was the problem of the trinity of God. Aleksey Fedorovich Losev formulated this problem as follows: "... in the original, pre-Nicene theology, that ontological hierarchy was still preserved, which, as we know, is characteristic of all pagan philosophers, including the Stoics and Neoplatonists. One or another higher principle was recognized; and everything else was interpreted as an outflow, or emanation, of this original principle. Christianity, which recognized the absolute Personality as the initial principle, could not stop at such a pagan subordination position, which was nothing but consistent pantheism, excluding any personalistic monotheism ".

It is customary to single out, as it were, three historical forms of subordinationism in Christianity. The first, expressed by Tertullian, is the so-called “economic” subordinationism, which grew up on the basis of Stoic philosophy, where the Son is subordinate to the Father in the order of revelation, revelation. In Origen, the second is revealed, which appeared under the influence of Neoplatonic teachings, subordinationism, bears the name of "ontological", i.e. in the process of the internal dialectic of the Trinity. And the third form is “cosmological” subordinationism, which came out of the philosophical views of Aristotle, associated with the name of the Alexandrian priest Arius and his teachings, which received the name of Arianism, where the Son is subordinate to the Father at the moment of the creation of the cosmos.

The overcoming of hierarchical subordinationism occurred primarily in the course of Christological and Trinitarian disputes. A long process of discussion, sometimes turning into a fierce confrontation, escalated by the beginning of the 4th century, during which the first two Ecumenical Councils were held (the first - in Nicaea in 325, the second - in Constantinople in 381), which formed the basis of dogmatic doctrine in the form Nicene-Tsaregrad Creed. But with the victory of Christianity at the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople, its confrontation with emanationism and subordinationism did not end. It periodically manifested itself until the 14th century, in different places with different strengths, when ancient ideas appeared under a new guise, and in the 19th-20th centuries they gained a "second life", scattered in a modified form among many religious and quasi-religious groups around the world.

By the middle of the 4th century, the Cappadocian holy fathers - Archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia Basil the Great, his closest friend Archbishop Gregory of Nazianzus the Theologian and the younger brother of St. Basil, Bishop Gregory of Nyssa. As rightly pointed out by Prof. A. Spassky, the Cappadocians "once and for all put an end to the substantive subordinationism that dominated the former theology, and in its place put co-hypostatic co-subordination, which did not in the least detract from the Divine dignity and unity of Hypostases" .

In general, the time of the activity of the Cappadocian Fathers was the heyday of Eastern Christian patristics, during which, using the accumulated experience of philosophizing, the main Christian dogmas were formulated. This period is often referred to as the "golden age" of Christian theology and Christian philosophy. In addition to the three great Cappadocians, the fourth century is inextricably linked with the names of great writers: St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, and besides them, the so-called. "lesser teachers": St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Didim the Blind of Alexandria, Serapion of Tmuit and Amphilochius of Iconium. In the same period they became famous: the exegete of the blessed. Jerome Stridonsky; exegete of prep. Ephraim Sirin, historian Eusebius of Caesarea; hereseologist St. Epiphanius of Cyprus; in the West, the theologians of St. Hilarius of Pictavia and St. Ambrose of Milan (Milan). In the same century, Christian ascetic literature was born, where, before others, should be mentioned: Rev. Anthony the Great, Rev. Macarius the Great, Evagrius of Pontus.

This flourishing of Christian philosophical and theological writing can be partly explained by the fact that the church, since the Edict of Milan in 313, has entered a new historical period. It is gradually becoming an institution that the state not only recognizes and does not persecute, but also begins to pursue a policy of protectionism against the church. In these new conditions, Christianity was able, without fear of external persecution, to devote itself to creative work in the field of thought, interpretation of the Scriptures, deepening into the inner spiritual life, the development of Christian philosophy, etc. But on the other hand, internal upheavals in the life of the church itself. As Savrey V.Ya. notes: “To the extent that church issues also became public issues, dogmatic disputes and disagreements lost their local character. They were now brought up for broad discussion, giving rise to an abundant polemical literature. It was during this period that the uncertainty of concepts, the underdevelopment of the emerging Christian philosophical thought, and dissatisfaction with borrowings from ancient philosophy became fully apparent. But the thought of that era was not yet sufficiently prepared to catch all the shades of terminology and comprehend all the questions included in it.

This manifested itself, first of all, in a collision with heresies of a new type. The previously existing differences of opinion were "random" in nature and always local, regional. Questions of the inner life of the Deity, or, what is the same, the trinitarian theme, were not at all alien to the writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, both Orthodox and their opponents, the heretics. In the fourth century, Christianity came face to face with the first major theological heresy, of significance and scale, one might definitely say, universal. Arianism and the controversy that followed it about the Holy Spirit stirred up more than just the province of Alexandria, Antioch, or any other; they, threatening the purity of the faith of the whole Church, represented a danger to the entire Christian world. Got up important question about the very existence of Christ's faith. The main dogma of Orthodoxy, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, was jeopardized by the emergence of that doctrine, which went down in history with the name of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, but received its further ideological development from Aetius, Eunomius and others, if not wholly sharing the Arian doctrine, then in in any case hostile to the Orthodox confession. The active phase of this struggle took almost three-quarters of a century, and here the formation of Orthodox dogmatic teaching was possible only thanks to a very deep, systematic and thoughtful justification of the Nicene faith. The very process of developing dogmas was one of the most important, determining its development. At the same time, it is necessary to emphasize the caution with which the dogma of the Christian church was developed, because the formulation of dogmas did not take place “by itself” and not at all with the aim of “development” of Christian doctrine, but as a response to an already thrown challenge to reject false interpretations of this doctrine.

In this process, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Archbishop of Constantinople, later called the Theologian. It should be noted that only three people in the history of Christian thought have received such a title: the beloved apostle of Jesus, one of the four evangelists John the Theologian, the aforementioned Archbishop Gregory the Theologian, and St. Simeon the New Theologian, whose nickname, however, initially had a pronounced ironic connotation assigned to him by his enemies. This is evidence that St. Gregory of Nazianzus occupies a special place among the Cappadacian Fathers, as well as among the philosophers and theologians of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the Christian East in general.

Christianity and philosophy

Christians of various churches are very often very wary of philosophy. How justified is this attitude? At first glance, there are basics for it. This foundation - if you wish, of course - can be found at least in the following words of the Apostle Paul: "Be careful, brethren, that no one captivate you with philosophy and empty deceit, according to human, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ" (Col. 2 :eight). Let's try to figure out what kind of philosophy the apostle warns us against... Is any philosophy reprehensible from a Christian point of view? In other words, is all philosophy an empty delusion?

The word "philosophy" literally, in its original meaning, means "love of wisdom." It is unlikely that Paul warns Christians against love for wisdom as such, against love for wisdom, not only not contrary to the Gospel, but, on the contrary, having a firm foundation in the Good News of Jesus Christ. He speaks of empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. I am convinced that not every philosophical doctrine is an empty seduction according to the elements of the world... Therefore, Christian philosophy is possible and has long existed - a philosophy that not only does not contradict the Gospel and the words of the Apostle Paul cited earlier, but, on the contrary, is based on the saving Gospel message.

But first, a few words about philosophy in the most general sense...

What does philosophy do?

I think it is impossible to give an exhaustive answer to this question in a general way. There are so many philosophical doctrines - the most diverse - that it is impossible to more or less fully "embrace" them with a brief description. But at least a few explanatory remarks are not only possible, but necessary.

The word "philosophy" is of Greek origin and means literally "love of wisdom", or, as in the XVIII century. wrote in Rus', "love of wisdom." It can be said that philosophy is an intellectual enterprise, the task of which is the search for wisdom ...

Various philosophical theories are the results of these searches.

The sphere of reflection of the philosopher is the so-called final questions of being, which include, for example, the following:

How is the world?

Does the soul exist? Is she immortal?

What is free will?

What is the sense of life?

What is the meaning of history?

The most important tasks of philosophy include a clear expression in language and a systematic substantiation of some general principles, which people usually perceive in the course of their individual development without criticism, on faith ... Examples of such principles: “Every event has its cause”, or “The world outside of me is exactly the way I perceive it - I see, hear, smell, touch, etc. d.", or "Different things are built from the same type of elements", etc.

Philosophers analyze these principles, improve their formulations, study and refine their areas of applicability, and so on.

A characteristic feature of philosophy, which distinguishes it from specific sciences - mathematics, physics and others, is, as a rule, the lack of unity of opinion on any general philosophical issue. Thus, materialists argue with idealists, supporters of free will - with opponents, philosophers who believe that history has an internal meaning - with philosophers who argue that there is no such meaning and cannot be. Philosophers of different schools and directions cannot agree with each other in any way. Philosophical disputes have been going on for at least two and a half thousand years. So, maybe it is worth stopping them, abandoning philosophizing as such, or finally developing the “only correct” eternal philosophy? There is, for example, the only correct arithmetic, which is studied in elementary school!

The question, however, is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. I am convinced that people will never be able to give up philosophizing. Similarly, I am convinced that it is impossible to create a "only correct" eternal philosophy. In other words, the diversity of mutually exclusive philosophical positions on the same issues is indestructible.

What is the reason for this indestructibility? With the fact that philosophers are very diverse in their positions in life and in temperament, by which I mean the totality of typical ways a person reacts to various circumstances and events.

People have different temperaments, and philosophers, so to speak, "are" representatives of these temperaments.

“Why are you saying this? - they can ask me. - And physicists differ in temperament. But physics, as a science, is one. If philosophy is a science, then even in it the diversity of temperaments of philosophers can be neglected.

The fact of the matter is that philosophy is essentially not a science, although in it, as in the real sciences, there are logically rigorous doctrines.

The eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell spoke of philosophy as follows: “Philosophy is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists in reasoning about subjects about which exact knowledge has hitherto been unattainable; but, like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether tradition or revelation.”

This is largely a correct characterization of philosophy, although, in my opinion, the assertion that exact knowledge is unattainable in theology is doubtful, I think that it is still achievable in a wide variety of theological doctrines. It can also be added that philosophy, in its essence, is perhaps closer to fiction than to science. Therefore, it is not surprising that a number of great works fiction has a deep philosophical content. (Let us recall at least the works of L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky.)

Thus, philosophers often do not so much reflect the world as express their soul - the content of their soul ...

Why, or rather, who needs philosophical doctrines? I think that they are, to one degree or another, not without interest for all people who are not alien to spiritual inquiries. In addition, they are a vital necessity for a certain type of people, which can hardly be more precisely defined than "philosophical people." Philosophy helps people of this type to live, to cope with life's difficulties, to maintain a state of peace of mind, avoid the fear of death, or at least try to “talk” this fear and thereby at least partially “reconcile” with the thought of death. For such people, philosophy is a kind of rational psychotherapy, that is, the awn of psychotherapy that eliminates mental ailments through persuasion. (One of the following chapters will be devoted to philosophy as a specific psychotherapy.)

By the way, the variety of philosophical doctrines provides flexibility and variety of methods of philosophical psychotherapy: some are well “helped” by Hegel in solving their problems, others by Schopenhauer, others by Russell, etc.

But any kind of treatment, any kind of medicine is good in moderation and only in those cases when it is really applicable for the treatment of a particular disease. This remark is fully applicable to philosophy as a kind of spiritual therapy. Philosophy is the healer of the soul, overdoing it, can lead the soul into the temptation of pharisaic complacency. This temptation is also manifested in the desire to create so-called "comprehensive" philosophical systems. This desire, in my opinion, is nothing more than a desire to once and for all get at your disposal a certain “universal answer” to all worldview questions, a kind of “universal master key” to all the “locks” of worldview problems. The realization of this desire finds its expression in the construction of closed, artificial conceptual worlds, examples of which are the world of self-developing absolute idea of ​​Hegel, as well as the world of self-developing matter of Marx and Engels.

As a rule, the creators of such "worlds" claim to substitute their "creations" for God's Revelation about the world contained in the Bible.

It is against such philosophical doctrines that the apostle Paul warns us.

Having discovered philosophy "to our liking" and accepting it as the foundation of our views on the world, we are by no means guaranteed against the temptation to believe in some kind of Absolute, as in God, in an artificial conceptual world invented by one philosopher or another. In a certain sense, any philosophical doctrine that claims to be “absolute” is nothing more than idolatry, asserting that the “current” understanding of the world, the current “packing” of the world into one or another conceptual scheme, is absolute. Philosophy in this case turns into a dream of a darkened mind, which dreams that the world, for example, is nothing more than a gigantic machine operating according to the strict laws of classical mechanics.

It must be said that people - and professional philosophers are no exception in this case - tend to absolutize the "framework" of their understanding of the world. This absolutization is idolatry.

Idolatry can be characterized as a lack of perception of the world, a stoppage in the movement towards God. By the way, this or that theological doctrine can also fall into specific idolatry if it begins to claim its own completeness and absolute perfection in the knowledge of God.

Knowledge of God is potentially infinite: we can always take one more step on the way to God… And we must take this step… We must not stop!..

A good illustration of the idea of ​​the potential infinity of the process of our approach to God is the statement of one of the heroes of the novel by Yu. Karabchievsky "The Life of Alexander Zilber". He argues as follows: “People are sitting below, on the seashore, and do not know how to climb the mountain - and God is on the mountain for them. And it is true. But many years pass, perhaps hundreds or thousands of years, and people climb the mountain, and God is not there, because He is much higher ... - in the Cosmos. But people will fly into space, and it will be the same there. Because - listen to what I tell you! - because God is always above people, And no matter how high a person rises, God will remain five hundred years of the way higher!

A deep realization that God is always beyond our conception of Him helps us to draw closer to Him spiritually...

A few more words about philosophizing as a specific form of idolatry. The possibility of turning philosophizing into idolatry becomes a reality for an agnostic and especially atheistically oriented philosophical mind, for those “fools” who “have said in their hearts: ‘There is no God’” (cf. Ps. 13:1). In such cases, the philosophical doctrine seeks to replace the truth of the Christian faith, to become the “way, truth and life” of a person outside of God, outside of Christ, that is, it turns into another idol. And “service” to this idol, which is expressed by limiting the horizons to the framework and actions performed according to its “recommendations”, is idolatry, no matter what formulations that claim to be scientific and rational, it may be masked.

Philosophical idolatry, from the theological point of view, is nothing but pride, the result of the separation of our mind from God. Pride is the “devilish spirit of arrogance” (St. John Cassian), the beginning of all sin, the selfish turn of a person’s attention to himself, such an exclusive interest in himself that his own “I” becomes the center of the universe. Pride is the beginning of the "encapsulation" of the darkened mind in itself, the beginning of man's rupture with God, the "original sin", which at one time marked the beginning of the rupture of the creature and the Creator. Pride is a wall between us and God. And all these characteristics of pride are fully applicable to the part of philosophy that has become idolatry.

In conclusion, I repeat once again: the Apostle Paul calls us to beware not of any philosophy, but only that which becomes our “idol”, a “barrier” between us and God, and which people begin to worship and serve as God.

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