Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification
The article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the work...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Religions |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/8/575 |
| _version_ | 1797522204396617728 |
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| author | Olga Chistyakova |
| author_facet | Olga Chistyakova |
| author_sort | Olga Chistyakova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the works by Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, who in the theological disputes with the Western Church Fathers elaborated the Christian creed. Based on an analysis of the texts of Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, the most important provisions of Eastern Patristics are deduced and discussed, which determined the specificity of Christian anthropology. In this context, different approaches of the Eastern Fathers to the explanation of the Old Testament thesis on the creation of man in God’s <i>image</i> and <i>likeness</i> and the justification of the <i>duality</i> of human essence are shown. Particular attention is paid to considering the idea of <i>deification</i> as overcoming the human dualism and the entire created universe, the doctrine of the Divine Logoi as God’s energies, and the potential elimination of the antinomianism of the earthly and Divine worlds. The article reflects the anthropological ideas of the pre-Nicene Church Father Irenaeus, the non-canonical early Christian work <i>The Shepherd of Hermas</i>, and the teachings on the man of the classical Eastern Patristics period by Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:26:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-33eb6e0b84c540d5a2bb982a06644f6e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:26:10Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-33eb6e0b84c540d5a2bb982a06644f6e2023-11-22T09:29:24ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442021-07-0112857510.3390/rel12080575Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in DeificationOlga Chistyakova0Department of History of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 117198 Moscow, RussiaThe article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the works by Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, who in the theological disputes with the Western Church Fathers elaborated the Christian creed. Based on an analysis of the texts of Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, the most important provisions of Eastern Patristics are deduced and discussed, which determined the specificity of Christian anthropology. In this context, different approaches of the Eastern Fathers to the explanation of the Old Testament thesis on the creation of man in God’s <i>image</i> and <i>likeness</i> and the justification of the <i>duality</i> of human essence are shown. Particular attention is paid to considering the idea of <i>deification</i> as overcoming the human dualism and the entire created universe, the doctrine of the Divine Logoi as God’s energies, and the potential elimination of the antinomianism of the earthly and Divine worlds. The article reflects the anthropological ideas of the pre-Nicene Church Father Irenaeus, the non-canonical early Christian work <i>The Shepherd of Hermas</i>, and the teachings on the man of the classical Eastern Patristics period by Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/8/575Christian anthropologyEastern Church Fathersdeificationenergies and Logoiman as the image and likeness of Godreligious philosophy of Byzantium |
| spellingShingle | Olga Chistyakova Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification Religions Christian anthropology Eastern Church Fathers deification energies and Logoi man as the image and likeness of God religious philosophy of Byzantium |
| title | Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification |
| title_full | Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification |
| title_fullStr | Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification |
| title_short | Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification |
| title_sort | eastern church fathers on being human dichotomy in essence and wholeness in deification |
| topic | Christian anthropology Eastern Church Fathers deification energies and Logoi man as the image and likeness of God religious philosophy of Byzantium |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/8/575 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT olgachistyakova easternchurchfathersonbeinghumandichotomyinessenceandwholenessindeification |