The Interpretation of the Doctrine of the Origin and Essence of Human in the Patristics and Its Further Development in Russian Spiritual-Academic Theism of the 19th Century
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article explicates the key aspects of human existence, which have existed within it from the very beginning, within the framework of patristics and Russian spiritual-academic theism of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The primary research methods are historical and philosophical reconstruction and comparative analysis. It is demonstrated that, from the perspective of the Book of Genesis, patristics, and Russian spiritual-academic philosophy, the man being as a person possesses five crucial aspects of existence: resemblance to a perfect being; a dialogic and reflective nature; the capacity for autonomous choice and status as an independent being; existence as a moral subject - a subject of moral responsibility; and the capacity to know that which transcends being. There are differences in the interpretation of these foundations between patristics and Russian philosophy: Russian thinkers substantiated the concept of moral sentiment as a further development of the idea of the rationality of morality and demonstrated the distinction between the external and internal moral law. It has been established that the Christian myth regarding the origin and essence of man gives rise to the concept of the person, defining the individual as a moral subject - a subject of moral responsibility. Furthermore, stripped of its mythological narrative, the Christian doctrine of man, lacking its specific object of faith, could not exist as a form of rational philosophy.
Author: Grigoriy K. Ezri
Institution: Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220671997