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Artimo meilės darbų stimulai Apaštališkųjų Tėvų išganymo sampratoje
Date Issued |
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2014 |
After the death of the apostles the Early Church had a tough task to continue the mission that Jesus communicated. The proclamation of the Good News became an integral part of the Church not only in the domain of an institutional building, but in the review of philosophical doctrines and identification of appropriate terminology. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church are quite different; each one of them creatively developed theologic thoughts, but at the same time maintained the unity of the Church. Lacking unified consistent terminology, they did not use the concept of „salvation“ consistently. The Apostolic Fathers usually used other terms to express salvation, therefore their notion of salvation is best known in conjunction with other elements of the spiritual life: being part of the Church, discipleship or following Christ, human efforts, martyrdom, repentance, and works of charity. Some authors consider works of charity being the cause of Church‘s rapid growth at that time. Christian activities in their writings are interpreted in the moral context without the aim to provide social, political or economic analysis. Works of charity are important for the salvation both of Christians and non- believers. The aid should be given to everyone that is in need, but particularly to those who proclaim the Word of God, because they equal the Lord himself. In their writings we find both direct and indirect statements witnessing the active grace, but the fear of God is emphasized much more often. Such statements could have been caused by the situation at the time when some Christians rejected the law. It seems that the Fathers of the Church were close to the idea from James‘ letter: „As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without work is dead“ (James 2, 26); they also stressed only one of the parts of the letter to the Philippians: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. [...]
Remiantis Apaštališkųjų Tėvų raštais šiame straipsnyje analizuojama, kokie pagrindai buvo pakloti poapaštaliniu laikotarpiu aiškinant ir skatinant krikščionis artimo meilės darbams. Straipsnyje bus ieškoma, kokie stimulai: Dievo baimė ar malonė, Apaštališkųjų Tėvų pasirinkti interpretuoti artimo meilės darbams, kurie ateityje išaugs į aktyvią krikščionių socialinę, politinę ir ekonominę veiklą.