Словесност и релевантност ранохришћанског дискурса у теологији Светог Јустина Философа
Rationality and Relevance of Early Christian Discourse in the Theology of Saint Justin the Philosopher

Summary/Abstract: The present paper discusses the strategy that Saint Justin the Philosopher used in order to clarify the attitude of Christians towards the vast and rich cultural, literary and customary heritage of Greco-Roman culture. This topic is considered in the context of a kind of distancing from the comfort and complexity of classical Greco-Roman literature and customary norms in which the newly converted Christians grew up and were brought up, and leaning towards the enigmatic cultural matrix of the Middle Eastern climate. Distancing of this type was seen by pagan contemporaries as irrationality characterized by adherence to barbaric writings and beliefs whose sophistication was nowhere near that of the culture that Christians consciously abandon. Justin’s refutation of such objections is evaluated in the context of his explanation of the rationality that characterizes the Christian faith. The process of articulating a Christian cultural identity should, from Justin’s perspective, function as a basis for establishing a dialogue with those who objected to the early Christians and their supposedly counter cultural ethos. In this way,Justin was looking for an effective legitimization of the position that the Christian faith by no means represents a culturally unsophisticated, speculative and impotent superstition, but that it implies a “philosophy”, i.e. a complex, comprehensive and inculturated view of the world, life and matters of human destiny about its own origin and designation.

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