NIKULIN Andrej - Acta Patristica, volume 10, issue 21/2019
PAGANISM IN THE LIGHT OF CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
/POHANSTVO VO SVETLE KRESŤANSKEJ REFLEXIE DUCHOVNÉHO ŽIVOTA/
Andrej NIKULIN
lecturer, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Presov, Masarykova 15, 080 01 Presov, Slovakia, andrej.nikulin@unipo.sk, 00421517724729
Abstract
The paper deals with the influence of pagan thinking on the spiritual life of man. It analyzes the various forms of pagan thinking their, psychological and spiritual bases. It points to the fundamental differences between magic thinking, which is the core of pagan thinking and Christian thinking, which is based on faith in a personal God and a spiritual relationship with Him.
Keywords
Paganism, Christianity, magical thinking, Christian spirituality
SUMMARY
Pagan thinking can be analyzed from several points of view from historical, spiritual but also psychological. When it comes to spiritual causes, its origins are related to the fall of grandparents Adam and Eve and the loss of spiritual experience based on a personal relationship with God. When we discuss pagan thinking as a psychological and social phenomenon, we can associate it with the beginning of human awareness as a social being and an attempt to understand the outside world and find a way to anticipate and manage unexpected events. It is a precursor to the self-reflection of man as a spiritual and thus a free being. This possibility is fully acquired by the advent of Christianity, which returns to man the possibility of a personal relationship with God through Christ. Christian spirituality gives man the opportunity to get to know God and, through this relationship with Him, get to know himself. This opens the opportunity for a change of man, which the Apostle Paul describes when comparing an old man with one who received Christ. We can say that spirituality in Christian understanding, unlike magical thinking, is not aimed at manipulating the outside world, but is focused on the inner change of man through asceticism and its external manifestation of virtue.
(Language: slovak)