Abstract
The historical figure of Innocent Gisel is viewed through the prism of the postmodern era and represents a representative of the cohort of influential Ukrainian cultural and church figures of the mid-seventeenth century. Innocent Gisel is one of the most active participants in the Council of the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis in 1640, within the framework of which the “Catechism” of the Orthodox Church was adopted, and several decisive steps were implemented in the context of further reforming the church and the religious sphere of life. Being a famous theologian, Innocent Gisel was one of the first scholars to begin teaching the subject of philosophy at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. For a rather long time, the theologian performed the duties of the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery. At this time, Innocent Gisel continued the course initiated by Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, aimed at improving church life in the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis. With the blessing of the theologian and under his personal guidance, several significant church and religious publications were published in the printing house of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, which comprehensively contributed to the improvement of certain aspects of church life. In particular, among them, it is necessary to single out a voluminous treatise on the problems of moral theology entitled “Peace with God to Man”, which was published in 1669. The mentioned edition became the first treatise in the Orthodox Church of the early modern period, which opened up various aspects of the interpretation of issues of religious morality, taking into account the peculiarities of the development of society at that time. “Peace with God to Man” had a significant impact on the progress of the Ukrainian theological space and the national culture of the turn of the 17th – 18th centuries. Despite the fact that “Peace with God to Man” appeared more than 350 years ago, its narratives have not lost their relevance and can be successfully used by modern Orthodox theologians in the process of considering religious, moral and social issues. Evidence of the lasting significance of the influence of the theological practice of Innocent Gisel is the reprinting of “Peace with God to Man” in 2012 in Ukrainian.
References
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