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The problem of personality

Appendix B

The spread of Christianity

With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the papacy became a political player, first visible in Pope Leo's diplomatic dealings with Huns and Vandals. The church also entered into a long period of missionary activity and expansion among the various tribes. Whilst arianists instituted the death penalty for practicing pagans (see Massacre of Verden as example), Catholicism also spread among the Germanic peoples,^[119] the Celtic and Slavic peoples, the Hungarians, and the Baltic peoples.

Around 500, St. Benedict set out his Monastic Rule, establishing a system of regulations for the foundation and running of monasteries.^[119] Monasticism became a powerful force throughout Europe,^[119] and gave rise to many early centers of learning, most famously in Ireland, Scotland and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

From the 7th century onwards, Islam conquered the Christian lands of the Middle East, North Africa and much of Spain, resulting in oppression of Christianity and numerous military struggles, including the Crusades, the Spanish Reconquista and wars against the Turks.

The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church. Pope Gregory the Great dramatically reformed ecclesiastical structure and administration. In the early 8th century, iconoclasm became a divisive issue, when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors. The Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favor of icons. In the early 10th century, western monasticism was further rejuvenated through the leadership of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny.

The problem of personality

A huge step towards solving the problem of personality and human relations has been made with the spread of Christianity. Christianity gave a strong impetus to the development of self-consciousness of the individual. Firstly, this was due to the recognition of the equality of all people before God, which didn’t exist in the ancient consciousness. Secondly, Christianity has proclaimed that the behavior of each person depends on himself, on his own free will, his individual moral qualities, because God has endowed man with free will. Thirdly, Christianity defined man's place in the world. If the ancient consciousness of man considered as a particle of the cosmos, his subordinate, living and acting according to its laws, the Christian vision of man, created in the "image and likeness of God", which was originally put him over all things, believed his master of nature. Fourth, Christianity proclaimed the principle of human relationships - "love thy neighbor as thyself."

But Christianity imposed certain restrictions on the development of human individuality and the nature of human relationships, because, firstly, to give priority not an individual, but the cathedral (the church) subsistence rights (this priority has been substantially undermined only in Protestantism). Thus, the highest value was recognized for communication with God and not with their own kind, although it carried a very powerful moral message.