| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this paper is to analyze Justin the Martyr’s relationship with pagan culture, which is represented by Greek philosophy; relationship with Jewish culture, which is represented by Judaism; and his relationship with different Christian communities in Rome. This approach is determined by Justin’s life, i.e., he lived in different parts of the Empire in a wide variety of different cultures. This paper is also taking into consideration how this close contact with different people from these different cultures shaped Justin’s Christian worldview. This works demonstrates that in Justin’s thought we cannot see bold demarcation lines between cultures. Instead, Justin claims that Logos always was in the world and thus people could reach the truth, because within all people there’s a seed of truth and, therefore, philosophers, although they said many wrong things, sometimes were able to grasp the truth. Justin employs typological exegesis and professes that Christus, the Messiah, is the key to the Old Testament and it can only be understood from Christocentric point, thus claiming that Christians is the true Israel and Jewish Scripture belongs to the followers of Christ. Also, Justin was one of the first representatives of the proto-orthodoxy, who further developed a Christian concept of hairesis, which he attributed not to the category of teaching (as previous authors did), but to the moral category, so that heretics are false Christians and immoral people. |
