Antropologia i ascetyzm

Abstract

Socrates described man as a soul imprisoned in the body, whereas the soul is in him that something which participates most in the divine nature, something that governs us. The Bible though sees a man as a complete whole, in which the soul, the spirit and the body are described as certain aspects of the functioning of this whole, and not its autonomous parts. a man is also understood as predestined by God to be saved thanks to the redemptory mission of the messiah – Jesus Christ. apostle Paul introduces the idea that a man consists of the body, the spirit and the soul. Human soul, due to the inherited results of the original sin, is in a permanent danger of the evil temptations. The key to its health is the mind which enables the man to know God, the interior sense of the things and the principles of created things. The mind tends to God, it can purify itself of the evil and introduce and maintain the holiness coming from God. The Fathers of the Philocalia considered the heart as the spiritual centre of the human person directly engaged in the spiritual warfare, and its purification considered as an indispensable condition of man’s transformation.God loves man, He created him on His image, gave him freedom and calls him unceasingly to the completion of the divine likeness – that is to the natural participation in the divine life. During the earthly life this participation is attained by a slow process of elevation above one’s own limits and opening oneself to the action of the uncreated energies of God. This process implies the purification of the hole human being by an ascetic effort in order to overcome the sinfulness. ascesis in Christianity is understood as a practice of renouncements, aiming at the spiritual freedom of any disordered attachement to the created reality. monastic ascesis is a complete renouncement, a constant crucifying of oneself in order to fight with the passions, to keep God’s commandments and to acquire virtues. This ascesis had different forms, of which the most important and significant is the practicing of the “pure prayer”, “the prayer of the heart” which helps a man to purify himself of the passions and acquire the knowledge of God, the ultimate peace and the contemplation of God.