PRIORITY OF THE SPIRITUAL PERFECTION OF A HUMAN IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ORTHODOX TRADITIONALISM XVI – XVII CENTURIES

Abstract

The aim of the article. The article analyzes the conceptual features of understanding the existence and earthly purpose of a human in the philosophical and polemical texts of the representatives of Orthodox traditionalism of the XVI–XVII centuries. Methodology. To achieve this aim we followed the principles of dialectics, historicism, consistency and integrity while researching philosophical and polemical works. Analytical hermeneutics of texts by I. Vyshenskyi, I. Kopynskyi, Y. Kniahynytskyi, V. Surazkyi, H. Smotrytskyi, Vitalii from Dubna, etc. was used to identify in them the elements and ideas characteristic of the religious and mystical current. The methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization, abstraction and philosophical comparative studies were used during the study and substantiation of the conceptual features of the human existence understanding by thinkers of Orthodox traditionalism of the XVI–XVII centuries. Scientific novelty. The article states that the Orthodox traditionalism embodied by I. Vyshenskyi in the Ukrainian public opinion of that time was mostly focused on preserving the Byzantine basis of Orthodox holiness. Therefore, the thinker preached a complete isolation from the world, escape from the earthly worries to a monastery or cave, taught to despise carnal, earthly in a human, and saw the aim of a human in the earthly existence in the constant self-improvement of the spirit for deification – merging with God through grace. As for the figures from Ostroh and the brothers, they still allowed certain innovations, inclusions of Renaissance and Reformation elements in the cultural life. Conclusions. Byzantine Orthodoxy, focused on cultivating spirituality, prayer and achieving earthly joys through righteous living in accordance with the requirements of God, contributed to the establishment of the religious and mystical current in the Ukrainian culture in the XVI–XVII centuries. Representatives of Orthodox traditionalism were very biased towards philosophy, the possibilities of science, “external wisdom” – Western scholasticism and the achievements of Renaissance-humanist and Reformation thought. Mystics have argued that the meaning of a human earthly life should be the constant overcoming of the external, corporeal, evil and the pursuit of eternal ideals of the spirit.