author: Bohdan Gulyamov
Urgency of the research. Various strategies for interpreting the values of individual rights and dignity have been at the center of discussions on ways to develop the social teachings of the Orthodox Church. Modern worldview debates in the United States and other countries no longer allow us to limit ourselves to general phrases and not to decide on human rights issues. Theoretically, all local Orthodox churches and theological schools recognize the value of the individual as created in the image of God. But from the recognition of the high dignity of the human person can draw various conclusions, on which today there are fundamental disputes.
Target setting. In early 2020, the Ecumenical Patriarch approved a social doctrine entitled "For the life of the world. On the way to the social ethos of the Orthodox Church" and this declaration was made public for general discussion. This doctrine offers a holistic vision of Christian humanism, the theological legitimization of democracy through an emphasis on the absolute dignity of the individual as one who can be in communion with God.
Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Today, Orthodox social doctrine is undergoing two transformations through the work of the Ecumenical Patriarchate: the transition from late modern to postmodern theological discourse in its own language and the victory of the post-liberal political theology of the Fordham School of Orthodox Thought led by prominent professors, including Aristotle Papanikolaou and George Demacopoulos. This sets new perspectives for all discussions of social doctrine in Orthodoxy and, more broadly, throughout Christianity. The formation of post-liberal social doctrine has been the greatest achievement of theological thought of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in recent centuries and requires systematic study.
The research objective. The aim of the study is to analyze the main features of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's social doctrine on dignity and human rights, to identify the main features of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's new social doctrine on individual rights and dignity in the context of theological discussions on human freedom, democracy, and the official confrontation between official Orthodoxy and fundamentalism.
The statement of basic materials. The concept of human rights and the dignity of the individual, contained in the new social doctrine of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, proposes to recognize modern theories of human rights and their implementation in today's democracy as self-evident truths. These truths are quite legitimate in religious discourse, because the personal dignity of man as capable of mystical communion with God is absolute. The Orthodox Church presupposes that the dignity and freedom of the individual, his vocation and perfection are much higher than all the many values and norms offered by modern secular moral and legal consciousness, relevant international acts and constitutional norms. In the field of social doctrine, this leads to the requirement of absolute recognition of classical human rights and freedoms. No conclusions are drawn about the need to accept today's expanded interpretation of human rights, because the absolute dignity of the individual is not protected for the sake of approving ideas and practices that show signs of totalitarian coercion.
Conclusions. The Orthodox social doctrine, proposed in early 2020, seeks to give new impetus to the ideas of modernism as an unfinished project, emphasizing the full agreement between the Enlightenment and Orthodox ethics on the dignity of the individual and human rights. The idea of a consensus between secular and religious visions of human rights comes from the theology of Patriarch Bartholomew and modern Orthodox thinkers in the United States.
Keywords: social doctrine of the church, personalism, human rights, dignity of the individual.
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