CULTURE FORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE ORTHODOX ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CONTEMPORARY GREEK THEOLOGIAN CHRYSOSTOMOS STAMOULIS

Abstract

The study aims to determine the latest understanding of the place and role of culture in Christian anthropology. The author proceeds from the lack of translation of the works of Chrysostomos Stamulis and the absence among Ukrainian religious scholars and theologians of ideas about the range of transformations of the fundamental ideas of Orthodox theology in modern Greek theological thought. Scientific novelty lies in defining the place and role of culture within the transformations of contemporary Greek Orthodox anthropology. The newest approach to understanding of culture as an expression of the divine in man provides the Orthodox anthropology with new vectors of development. The study indicates that the Orthodoxy continues to play significant role in formation of the Greek nation. Within this context, the dialogue with culture initiated by Chrysostomos Stamulis becomes an important factor of this formation and search for identity. Culture, in all forms of its expression, appears not only as a form of spiritual secular being, but also as the deep essence of man, one of the aspects of the image and the likeness to the God, that encourages man to go beyond the boundaries of everyday routine, and with the ability to admire Beauty, to reach the state of Love. The theologian is trying to demonstrate that presence of Christ in man cannot be measured only by man's presence at the liturgy or involvement in the life of the church, but that extent of man's freedom is also an important factor. Man is not an angel whose mission is solely to perform the will of the God. Man is the image and the likeness of the God, man is graced with mind, freedom, creativity and love. With them, man is the creator of our world, through culture, art and science, as well as through multiple social and personal relationships. Chrysostomos Stamulis unveils significant culture formative potential of the Orthodox anthropology, in which is formed the kind of man who is able to see good, beauty, love of the world created by the God, and through herself she affirms them in the outside world boldly starting a dialogue with it. And both culture and art play important role in this dialogue.