The Relationship between the Concepts of Person and Value

Authors

  • Bishop of Egoryevsk Methody (Zinkovskiy) St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, 23B, ul. Novokuznetskaya, Moscow, 115184, Russian Federation; St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5221-544X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2025.101

Abstract

In the current situation of the formation of criteria for the content of traditional spiritual and moral values in Russia, it is important to consider to the prospects of the theological potential of the Orthodox Church. We see the Orthodox theology of person as a fertile area of intersection for interdisciplinary solutions to the pressing issues of our time, including the axiology of society. The notions of human person lie at the basis of any system of values. Any axiology is formed by a specific person or persons, exists for person and is transmitted through personal relationships. In antiquity, natural qualities were more valued, but gradually, the question of the inner search for the truth and the role of personal choice was raised. The New Testament values direct a person to eternal life, contribute to the growth and development of person, since they are given by the most perfect Person of the God-Man Christ. The inclusion of the concept of person in its New Testament understanding into the worldview, united by nature with his own kind and called to communion with God and other persons in the image of the Holy Trinity, generates new ideals associated with the role of the hypostatic principle. Axiological unity is fulfilled in Christianity, where oppositions, such as of one and many, of the morality of society and the morality of the individual, natural values and values of personal communication, are brought to common denominator. In Christian axiology emphasis is placed on the hypostatic property of a person to build relationships with his own kind within the framework of hypostaticnatural unity. The values of the modern world, based on natural constants and humanistic ideals, and Christian values, based on eternal truths about love and victory over death, represent an ontologically different types of axiology.

Keywords:

value, person, Christ, personal relationships, hypostatic-natural ontology, hypostatic-natural-energy ontology, antiquity, modernity, consumer society, eternity

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
 

References


References

Ado P. (2005) Spiritual exercises and Ancient Philosophy. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stepnoi veter Publ., Kolo Publ. (In Russian)

Averintsev S. S. (1994) Anthology of pedagogical thought of the Christian Middle Ages, in 2 vols. Moscow, JSC Aspect Press Publ. Vol. 1. (In Russian)

Aristotle (1983) “Nicomachean Ethics”, in Aristotle, Works in 4 vols, vol. 4, Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Baeva L. V. (2004) The existential nature of values. Dissertation for… Doctor of Philosophy. Moscow. (In Russian)

Brown P. (1988) The body and society. Men, women and sexual renunciation in Early Christianity. Columbia University Press.

Bufeev S. V. (2004) “Orthodox understanding of personality”, in Razvitie lichnosti, no. 2, pp. 97–111, no. 3, pp. 83–97. URL: https://azbyka.ru/pravoslavnoe-ponimanie-lichnosti (accessed: 03.02.2023). (In Russian)

Diogenes Laertius (1986). The Lives, Opinions, and Remarkable Sayings of the Most Famous Ancient Philosophers, translated by M. L. Gasparova, edited and prefaced by A. F. Losev. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Fromm E. (1993) Psychoanalysis and ethics. Moscow, Respublika Publ. (In Russian)

John Chrysostom, St. (1862) “On the Cross and the Thief / Joannes Chrysostomus. Sermones panegyrici in Solemnitates”, in Patrologiae cursus completes. Series Graeca. Ed. by J.-P. Migne, vol. 49, pp. 399–418.

Justin (Popovich), St. The Vocation of a Priest is To Be the Brief Gospel of the Church. Available at: http://www.pkrest.ru/n-46/46-9.html (accessed: 10.10.2023). (In Russian)

Justin (Popovich), St. (2004) Philosophical Abysses, Translated from Serbian by M. N. Iatsenko. Moscow, Sovet RPTs Publ. (In Russian)

Kirill (Zinkovskii), hierom, Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2008) “Theology of the Human Persona and of the Human Nature and Perspective of Theological Anthropology”, in Theology and Education. Yearbook of the Scientific and Educational Theological Association, pp. 129–138, Moscow, Poznanie Publ. (In Russian)

Kropachev N. M., Shmonin D. V. (2023) “Values in education and the modern university”, in Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 208–223. (In Russian)

Losev A. F. (1988) “Twelve Theses on Antique Culture”, in Losev A. F. The Daring of the Spirit. Collected articles of A. F. Losev, ed. by Iu. A. Rostovtsev, pp. 153–171, Moscow, Political literatury Publ. (In Russian)

Losev A. F. (1993) Remarks on Ancient Symbolism and Mythology. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Lossky V. N. (1991) An essay on the mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. Dogmatic Theology. Moscow, Tsentr SEI Publ. (In Russian)

Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2018–2019) “Kenoticity as a Hypostatic or Personal Property”, in Aktual’nye voprosy sovremennogo bogosloviia i tserkovnoi nauki, no. 2, pp. 218–227, St. Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo Sankt-Peterburgskoi Dukhovnoi Akademii Publ. (In Russian)

Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2017) “Religious Education of the Individual vs Atheistic-deistic-pantheistic Educational Models”, in Review of the Russian Christian Academy for the humanities, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 83–93. (In Russian)

Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom., Kirill (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2019) “Theology of Person and Dynamic Theory of Matter”, in Issues of Theology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 8–22. (In Russian)

Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom., Kirill (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2020a) “Theology of personality and modern social and scientific development”, in Tserkov’ i vremia, no. 2 (91), pp. 31–48. (In Russian)

Methody (Zinkovskii), hierom., Kirill (Zinkovskii), hierom. (2020b) “The Importance of Christian Culture in the Education of the Individual in the Context of the Patristic Teaching About the Logos and Logoi”, in Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii IX Piukhtitskie chteniia “Aksiologicheskii podkhod k sovershenstvovaniiu lichnosti na osnove vzaimodopolniaemosti pravoslavnoi i svetskoi kul’tury” , pp. 91–100, Piukhtitsy, Piukhtitskii Uspenskii stavropigial’nyi zhenskii monastyr’. (In Russian)

Nikolai (Sakharov), hierom. (2012) The Term “Kenosis” in Theological Thought of archim. Sophrony (Sakharov) in Tserkov’ i vremia, no. 1 (58), pp. 53–82.

Nicholas (Sakharov), hierom. (Nicholas V. Sakharov) (2002) I Love, Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archimandrite Sophrony. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York.

Plato. (1994) “Phileb”, in Plato. Collected Works, in 4 vols, eds A. F. Losev, V. F. Asmus, A. A. Takho-Godi, vol. 3, pp. 7 – 78. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Plato. (2005) State, introduction by K. A Sergeeva, L. S. Kamneva; transl. by A. N. Egunova. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Plato. (1994) “Laws”, in Plato. Collected Works in 4 vols, eds A. F. Losev, V. F. Asmus, A. A. Takho-Godi, vol. 4, pp. 71–437. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Plato. (1993) “Theaetetus”, in Plato. Collected Works in 4 vols, eds A. F. Losev, V. F. Asmus, A. A. Takho-Godi, vol. 2, pp. 192-274. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)

Reale G., Antiseri D. (1994) Western Philosophy from its Origins to the Present. In 4 vols. St. Petersburg, TOO TK Petropolis Publ. Vol. 1. (In Russian)

Shmonin D. V. (2019) “Scientific rationality and the “return to theology”, in Issues of Theology, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 280–306 (In Russian)

Stoliarov A. A. (1995) Stoya and Stoicism. Moscow, AO Kami Grup Publ. (In Russian)

Stolovich L. N. (1994) Beauty. Goodness. Truth: An Essay on the History of aesthetic axiology. Moscow, Respublika Publ. (In Russian)

Vernan J.-P. (1988) The origin of ancient Greek thought. Ed. by F. X. Cassidy, A. P. Yushkevich. Moscow, Progress Publ. (In Russian)

Yarkho V. N. (1972) “Did the ancient Greeks have a conscience? (To the image of a man in an Attic tragedy)”, in Grabar-Passek M. E. (ed.) Antichnost’ i sovremennost’. Sbornik statei: k 80-letiiu F. A. Petrovskogo, pp. 251–263, Moscow, Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Downloads

Published

2025-04-30

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Research

License

Articles of "Issues of Theology" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.