DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND CHRISTIANITY

Abstract

The system of democratic rights and freedoms is most often associated with secularization, the liberation of society and the state from the influence of the church, but the valuable basis of democracy, fundamental freedoms, including freedom of conscience and religion, have their foundation in religion, in particular, Christianity. The main directions of modern democracy emphasize the spiritual basis of their ideologies. The famous German philosopher and sociologist Y. Habermas emphasizes that such ideas as the protection of human rights, democracy, and freedom come from the Jewish ethics of justice and the Christian ethics of love. At the same time, secularization has not completely coped with the task of legitimizing the social order and needs help from religious spirituality, which has become clear in the post-secular era of modernity. 
 On the other hand, the realization of the rights and freedoms of believers is ensured by the legal basis of democracy. The state of democracy in modern society is also connected with the representation of systems of independent associations of sovereign individuals and freely established connections between them - civil society. Church communities and various social and church associations have a significant presence in this society. The problems of civil society formation are echoed in the doctrine of subsidiarity and solidarity of Christian social teaching. Liberalism, liberal democracy, is primarily a question of freedom. The impetus for freedom of religion, as proven by many researchers, came from Protestant sects. M. Weber determined that religion can act as one of the factors of social dynamics, and that the Reformation and Protestantism contributed to the awakening of the spirit of entrepreneurship and laid the foundations of a market economy.
 The article is devoted the influence of Christianity on the formation of the value foundations of democracy, the formation of a system of democratic rights, freedoms and civil society. The theoretical justification of Christian and liberal democracy is analyzed, as well as the influence of the established norms and freedoms of a democratic society on the emergence of Christian social teaching, changing the image of the church in the modern world, and on the spiritual definition of citizens as a whole.