Ontological and anthropological foundations of asceticism in the tradition of Eastern Christianity

Abstract

The purpose of the study is a philosophical and religious study of the formation of the early Christian ascetic tradition and its anthropological basis in the context of the development of Eastern monasticism in the 4th–5th centuries. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the spiritual and ideological foundations of ascetic practice, the concept of a “single heart”, the phenomenon of koinonia as a spiritual community, as well as the formation of a Christian anthropology of integrity within the framework of Orthodox theological thought. The study uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines the methods of historical-theological, philosophical-anthropological and hermeneutic analysis. The historical and religious study method allowed us to trace the evolution of monastic practices from individual asceticism to community koinonia; the phenomenological method allowed us to reconstruct the spiritual experience of monasticism; the hermeneutics of texts made it possible to reveal the semantic transformations of anthropological concepts of asceticism. The method of comparative analysis was used to identify the kinship between biblical and hesychast anthropology. It was found that early Christian asceticism was not only a practice of bodily self-denial, but acted as a complex system of spiritual self-knowledge aimed at restoring the unity of man with God. It was established that Eastern Christian anthropology is based on the principle of the integrity of man – all components of his nature equally participate in communion with God. Dichotomous and trichotomous schemes are interpreted not as ontological, but as functional ways of spiritual self-expression. The early Christian ascetic tradition formed a unique theological and philosophical anthropology that combined mystical experience and theoretical understanding of man as a single spiritual-bodily entity. Asceticism appeared not as a denial of corporeality, but as a path to its sacralization through the synergy of human will and divine energy. The concept of the whole person, initiated in desert asceticism and koinonia, became the foundation of the subsequent tradition of Orthodox hesychasm and Eastern mystical anthropology, in which spiritual life is understood as a continuous process of communion with God and inner transformation. The findings contribute to the development of philosophical anthropology and theology of Eastern Christianity in modern academic discourse.