GENESIS OF OLD BELIEVERS ANTHROPOLOGY

Abstract

Introduction. The modern globalized postmodern consumer society, total game simulation, colossal disconnection is extremely destructive for the individual. The Old Believer outlook, which affirms the soborn-person, attached to the fundamental foundations of the national religious culture, the bearer of higher transcendent meanings, acquires a particular urgency today. Accounting for both positive and negative experience of Old Believer anthropology will allow to determine the ideal of an integral convinced person who overcomes the extremes of conformism and fanaticism. Materials and Methods. The article is prepared on the basis of the original works of the Old Believer authors; pre-revolutionary, Soviet, modern Russian and foreign studies of Russian culture and the Old Believer worldview. The methodological basis was: a civilizational approach to history, methods of hermeneutics, comparative-historical, the unity of historical and logical, analysis, synthesis, analogy. Results of the study. The article deals with socio-cultural, spiritual factors of the borderline era of the 17th century, under the influence of which a unique Old Believer anthropology is formed, reflecting the worldview characteristics of the Russian Middle Ages and Russia of the new time. The dynamics of Old Believers’ views on man during the XVII–XX centuries is investigated; revealed spiritual, historical reasons for the transformation of the anthropological views of the Old Believers. Discussion and Conclusion. It is established that the early Old Believers, as representatives of the medieval people’s Orthodox consciousness, affirm a person of a sacral, conciliar, but individually immature. However, under the influence of modern trends, Old Believer gives rise to the idea of the charismatic personality of the Old Believer apostle. For the Old Believers of modern times, anthropocentric tendencies, significant existential interest, exaltation of man as the Image of God, especially his reasonable abilities, are characteristic. But due to the self-consciousness of the last defenders of Holy Russia, the guardianship, the Old Believers miss the fact of the damage to human nature, underestimate the need for spiritual development.