Naumova N.V., Glushak A.S. Slavic spirituality in the context of Eastern and Western worldview paradigms

Abstract: Analyzing the specificity of perception of the Slavic world, this article demonstrates that after accepting Christianity, the Russian culture as if froze in the religious captivity. All the development was taking place within the framework of the religious, namely Christian Orthodox tradition. The authors examine the shift of the spiritual dominants in transition from Paganism to Christianity. If Paganism taught a man to live in harmony with nature, Christianity teaches how to live in society. Christianity has its own peculiarities; it was never abstract or theoretical, but practical, ethical, and educational. The work also reviews the human relation to nature and society in the context of Eastern and Western worldview paradigms. For East it is characteristic to be in accordance with the voice of nature, while the West struggles against the nature, and imposes a feeling of a supernatural being. Rationalism dominates in the West, and irrationalism – in the East. The authors attempt to determine to which type of world and life perception the Eastern Slavic community can be referred to. Based on the views of C. Jung and A. Schweitzer, the conclusion is made that the Western culture is more extravert, while the Eastern culture is introvert. The West is progressive, and the East is conservative. For Orthodoxy, it is more characteristic to deny the world and life; it is more valuable to realize how to live a life properly, understanding the meaning and goal of life, rather than study the question of how this world is structured. Analyzing the dispute between the Westerners and Slavophiles, we should note that the viewed the dilemma of East and West in the context of differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and not in a broader sense as the differences between the Eastern and Western worldview paradigms.

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