Смирение и оправдание или бунт и борба – философски бележки за отношението към страданието в религиозната вяра и обичайната нравственост
Humility and Justification or Rebellion and Struggle: Philosophical Notes on the Attitude to Suffering in Religious Faith and Customary Morality

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I consider an essential difference between religious faith and morality with regard to their respective attitudes towards suffering. Humility and justification or rebellion and struggle against suffering – this is the framework in which I try to outline the difference in question and to trace the choices made by heroes such as Sisyphus, Abraham and Job, and literary characters such as Zossima, Father Ferapont, Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov, Dr. Rieux and Jean Tarrou. Based on the example of these characters, I find that certain acts of unconditional religious faith dismiss the bad human conditions and earthly purposes (pain, suffering, bodily need, etc.), in contrast to the norms and maxims of morality deriving from people in their joint human existence and struggle. Insofar as religious faith is first and foremost turned to itself (it is a personal feeling that relates to the individual in his individuality) and is intended to achieve salvation (deliverance, healing, the attainment of Nirvana, etc.) of the believer’s soul, it can be said that faith in one’s attitude to life is ultimately a personal attitude (stemming from fear, reverence, or love) of man towards God or towards the divine. By contrast, acts of morality stem primarily from a perspective on human existence as coexistence with others, from empathy for others based not on the faith they share with us, but on the fact that they feel, understand and share with us the common destiny of vulnerable but authentic human beings.

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