Man as the central theme of the philosophical and anthropological manuscript of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the first deciphered manuscript “Dogmatic Theology” by Metropolitan Platon (Levshin), a representative of the Russian theological academical philosophy of the first half of the 19th century. The purpose of this article is to undertake for the first time a philosophical and anthropological analysis of the main content of the manuscript. In the course of the research, the main thematic sections of this work are identified: the doctrine of the world (cosmology), the doctrine of angels (angelology) and the doctrine of man (anthropology), within which Christological and anthropological problems are considered. All the topics are connected by one main theme — the theme of man and his fate, which underlies all the arguments of Metropolitan Platon and leads to a conclusion about the anthropological orientation of the studied manuscript of theological academical philosophy of the first half of the 19th century. In the manuscript of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) “Dogmatic theology” the doctrine of man is revealed quite fully, deeply and consistently. At the same time, some contradictory statements have been found on the issues of the original existence of moral evil in man and immortality and painlessness originally inherent in man. Presumably, these contradictions are connected with some complexity of the presentation of the non-worldly Divine teaching in earthly terms and formulations for theological academical authors of the first half of the 19th century.