JOHN MCGUCKIN’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY: THE CONTEXT OF POSTSECULAR DISCOURSE

Abstract

Modern biblical theology and anthropology are in a phase of formation. At this stage, it is important to overcome secularizing monism and relativism, and therefore to integrate biblical and patristic teachings about man into biological and psychological science, not to mention the humanities. Scientific and theological cultivation of an authentic understanding of man as the image of God in the conditions of postsecularization also requires a thorough rethinking of traditional religious doctrines about sin, salvation and human nature, the ability to moral and spiritual improvement and deification. Many modern European theologians have made a huge contribution to the implementation of these ontologically important tasks, but their concepts have still not found proper articulation in Ukrainian philosophical and theological thought. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the philosophical and theological expression of the anthropological contours of biblical and patristic theology of John Anthony McGuckin, which contributes to the deep integration of the intellectual and spiritual achievements of European theologians of the 20th century into Ukrainian national religious and theological thought, science, and the educational process in particular. A comprehensive analysis of the philosophical and theological expression of the anthropological contours of the biblical and patristic theology of John Anthony McGuckin has been carried out, which contributes to the deep integration of the intellectual and spiritual achievements of European theologians of the 20th century into Ukrainian national religious and theological thought, science, and the educational process in particular. The critical synthesis of Platonic metaphysics, in particular the concepts of eide and Nous, which acquired forms, established ideological and semantic parameters, and value criteria in theological thought of the 20th century, is expressed and explicated through the work of the Orthodox theologian and practicing priest Father Anthony McGuckin. The hierarchical structure of human consciousness, scientifically objectively substantiated by the thinker, in which nous appears not only as the highest inner intellect, but primarily as the only locus capable of theoria – contemplation and true knowledge of Divine transcendence. On this basis, a delimitation of the dialectical relationship between Platonic philosophy and Christian anthropology is carried out to determine the dynamics of ascetic practice in the context of cleansing the soul from passions in the context of McGuckin’s anthropological concept. Research attention is also focused on interpreting the religious and theological content of the concept of deification as the highest ontological and eschatological achievement of human existence in the light of Gaki’s interpretation of the internal potential of the essence of phronema as a corporate, liturgical and doxological mentality, as the main feature of the integrity and immutability of the Eastern Byzantine ascetic tradition.