RHETORIC OF EARLY APOLOGISTS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FORMATION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY

Annotation

Early Christian apologists (Justin the Philosopher, Tatian the Assyrian, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian) harshly criticized paganism in their writings: the pagans do not know the truth and therefore worship demons, they execute the righteous and serve the princes of this world, indulge in sins. For Christians, the center is Christ, for pagans the subject is “decentered” and Christian apologists criticize pagans for this. Firstly, this explains the connection between Christian Personality and Christology. Secondly, in this article it is important to note that the techniques used by apologists are connected with ancient rhetoric. Rhetoric is a tool that sets norms and rules, it is related to subjectivity. Aristotle in “Rhetoric” defines person as someone who has a body and a logos, with the logos being the determining factor in this pair. Just and unjust, blessed and evil — can be expressed and represented by logos. Apologists, using rhetorical methods, put them at the service of the Christian Church — they defend their own convictions with arguments and rhetorical correctness. For Aristotle, person is a political being, and the first definition and manifestation of the political is the polis. For apologists, person is also a political being, but the true polis is the ecclesia, the Church, which was persecuted during the historical period in question. Therefore, according to the thought of Christian apologists, man cannot unite with anything outside of himself and turns his search into himself, and there is Christ.

Keywords

rhetoric, apologists, Aristotle, personalism, Logos, subjectivity, paideia

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Исследование выполнено за счет гранта Российского научного фонда № 23-18-00971,
https://rscf.ru/project/23-18-00971/