Didkis'kyy A. Orthodox Ethics: the Humanistic Potential and Historical Forms of Legitimacy

It is the first time in Ukrainian religious studies that the dissertation suggested a conceptual review of humanistic potential of Orthodox ethics in the context of the diachronic approach. To this end, the available in today's domestic and foreign philosophical and theological discourse ethics programs are highlighted and it is shown that the Orthodox religious ethics gradually acquires fullness, including the elements of the law (deontology), virtue ethics, ethics, values, consensus ethics, examplarism, dialogue ethics and ethics of tolerance. It is revealed that when any element of religious and ethical system becomes absolute religious fundamentalism can occur which destroys religious ethics from the inside. An important role in this thesis is played by disclosure of the nature of modern Orthodox ethics. There is a tendency to a revival of virtue ethics, which in conjunction with the fundamental principles of the dialogic ethics (openness, personalism) defines a common humanistic potential of modern Orthodox ethics. On the basis of this there demonstrated the ethical origins of ideological confrontation between Ukrainian and Russian Orthodoxy, the foundation of which serves, among other things, the traditional tendency of the latter to fundamentalism. The dissertation explicates the general trends of Orthodox ethics and demonstrates their compliance with the development of Christian ethics, Catholicism and Protestantism, highlights the main trends in Orthodox ethics, which develops under the influence of philosophical and theological paradigms of thinking and, therefore, goes through three major periods in its development - pre-modern, modern and postmodern.