Free Personality as a Sovereign: understanding the harmony of man and society in Christian Personalism of the 20th century

Abstract

The article examines the ways of realizing the personal freedom of a Christian in a modern social environment. The search for harmony between a free individual and society was the focus of attention of Christian personalists throughout the 20th century. A generalization of the intuitions of religious philosophers and theologians of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions leads the author to an understanding of the free individual as a sovereign who assumes responsibility for his neighbors and society in the extreme conditions of the secular world. The concept of the individual as a responsible sovereign finds support in the Holy Scriptures and in the interpretations of the Holy Fathers. The relevance of the topic of the article is due to the direct connection between the ontological freedom of the personality and salvation. The methodological basis of the article is a comparative analysis in correlating its results with the New Testament Revelation.