Features of the origins of religious and philosophical thought in Kyivan Rus

Abstract

The ideological origins of the religious form of philosophical thought in Kyivan Rus’ were
investigated. Sociocultural factors that determined the peculiar character, the tendencies of the
origin and development of the Kyivan Rus’ philosophy in the form of religious and philosophical
thought were considered. Patristic sources of the religious philosophy of Kyivan Rus’ as a theoretical
basis of her Christian theology were analyzed. The peculiarities of forming the conceptual and
confessional content of religious and philosophical thought in Kyivan Rus’ were explained by all
these circumstances.
The Byzantine Christian tradition had a decisive influence on the formation of the origins of the
religious and philosophical thought of Kyivan Rus’. The emergence of philosophy in Kyivan Rus’ is
the result of all the spiritual and practical development of the world in the process of Christianization
of the Kyivan Rus’ culture. Ideological sources and origins of philosophical thought originate from
the translated literature of Kyivan Rus’. The greatest reflection in the Kyiv’ philosophical thought
was found in the ideas of Neo-Platonism, “Christianized” by representatives of eastern patristics.

The consideration of its patristic sources is a prerequisite for a comprehensive study of the
ideological origins of the religious form of philosophical thought in Kyivan Rus’. The Neoplatonic
philosophy was changed and continued in the theological thought by the Eastern Christian Fathers of
the Church. Christian thinkers redefined the ancient philosophical heritage in the field of divination
and knowledge of God. It was Neoplatonicism that became the ideological predecessors of the
monotheism of Christianity with its main dogma of faith in the Three Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity.
Philosophy of Neoplatonism has developed a system of means of philosophical substantiation of
monotheistic theology.
Therefore, the sources and ideological origins of the religious form of philosophical thought
of Kyivan Rus’ was the philosophy of Neoplatonism interpreted in the Eastern Christian Fathers
tradition.
Keywords: religious philosophy, ideological origins, Neoplatonism, patristic, God-knowledge,
monotheism