СВЕТИ ЈУСТИН ЋЕЛИЈСКИ И АСКЕТСКИ КЉУЧ ТЕОЛОГИЈЕ ЛИЧНОСТИ
Justin Popović; theology of personality; deification; ascetic existence.

Author(s): Svilen Tutekov
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Justin Popović; theology of personality; deification; ascetic existence.
Summary/Abstract: The topic of this paper is the thought of St. Justin of Chelije, as the locus of a neopatristic ascetic theology of personhood, as well as the possibility of its reception in contemporary Orthodox anthropology. The question of personhood is the main theme of religious-philosophical and theological reflections from the beginning of the 20th century and Justin’s theological thought should be seen as a neopatristic response to this intellectual and spiritual challenge. The fruit of Abba Justin’s neopatristic synthesis is his existential dynamic anthropology which assumes the concept of personhood as the point of convergence of the existential-moral with the ascetic. The theme of personhood is the topos of Justin’s return to the Church Fathers, where the theological question of personhood is articulated through an ascetic discourse. The initial motives of Abba Justin for theologizing about personhood are gnoseological, yet radical Christologization of his theological-anthropological thought reveals the profound existential ontological dimension of his theological perception of personhood. From this Christological perspective, the ontological truth about the likeness of humanity to God and the existential task of attaining this likeness constitute the dynamic structure and the God-human logosness of human nature, which must be realized as a person which has acquired the image and likeness of Christ: to wit, which is Christ-like. According to Abba Justin, precisely the dynamism of such a god-bearing and god-like personal structure creates the anthropological foundation of askesis, as well as the way and mode for the realization of person. The ascetic dimension of personhood reveals the dynamic character of human existence, which in the Christological key means the realization of Godhuman logosness of the human nature. In Abba Justin’s view, however, this dynamism also reveals the agapic content of personhood as created in accordance to image and likeness of the triune God, who is Love. According to Abba Justin, the reintegration of the fallen human person is possible only in this agapic perspective and this is the core, alpha and omega, of authentic ascesis, as a way of one’s personalization (oličnošćenje) or of one’s person-making (ličnostnotvorenje). Thus, ascesis is the way and the mode of truthing (oistinjenje) human existence in Christ, that is, the self-realization of the human being as the existential bearer of God’s image. Accordingly, Justin’s thought can be interpreted and evaluated as a model of an authentic neopatristic and ascetic theology of personhood, which in turn can be incorporated in a creative way into contemporary theological-prosopological discourse.

• Details
• Contents