This article gives an interpretation of some religious and symbolic concepts presented by the French philosopher P. Ricoeur as the most significant in the study of the issue of human essence. Based on the works of P. Ricoeur, the necessity of rethinking ethical categories, which were previously considered only from religious positions, is substantiated. The article reveals a number of problematic aspects of the herme-neutical understanding of the religious text. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the essence of man as a methodological problem needs a modern interpretation, and we find its most interesting reading in the works of P. Ricoeur. Through the prism of multidirectional, well-established and most significant, key philosophical trends, Ricoeur proposes to rethink the problem of man in a new way. The discourse of religion is one of the fundamental in philosophical reflection. Therefore, we present it possible to comprehend the essence of a person through a religious sym-bol, which has a significant impact on the formation of his self and spiritual individuality. By delving into the essence of key symbolic aspects of the Christian religion, we shape our own experience through the interpre-tation of ethically significant concepts such as freedom and hope, guilt and consolation. In the process of interpreting the Scriptures, considering the problem of correlation of the Testaments, the researcher approaches self-understanding and plunges into self-reflection, thanks to which he develops the product of his own worldview. This is the approach to the rational part of religion - logos.