Doctrine of Law by St. Nicholas of Serbia (1880–1956): an Attempt of Systematization and Estimation

Sergey Aleksandrovich Isaev PhD of History, Master of Theology, assistant professor, Saint-Petersburg Theological Academy (naberezhnaya Obvodnogo kanala, 17, St. Petersburg, 191167)
isayevsviir@yandex.ru

Isaev S. A. Doctrine of Law by St. Nicholas of Serbia (1880–1956): an Attempt of Systematization and Estimation, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2019, vol. 8, pp. 34–59.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2019-00005

Language: Russian

The author proposes his own systematization of law, in order to estimate the doctrine of law proposed by Serbian Orthodox scholar. He distinguishes between the law, as the rule of repeating some outward experience, and the law as the norm of human’s behavior, elaborated and coined in words. Dealing with «outward» law, he supposes that laws organizing material world, like by Newton and Mendeleev, were created by God, but laws not committed by anything material, like of multiplication or logic, can be considered as God Himself, available to rational humans even without revelation. Dealing with «human» laws, he considers the doctrine of natural law, in its Paulinistic understanding (Decalogue, available even for pagans), as basic for proper jurisprudence, whereas the other components can be labeled as the positive law. In St. Nicholas’ doctrine of law the author notices the tendency to reject the existence of any outward law, but at the same time to glorify the «moral law», in fact natural law, as the only existing law.

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Key words: Decalogue, justice, law, laws of the Mountain Sermon, miracle, natural law, positive law, St. Nicholas of Serbia (1880–1856)

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/en/isaev-2019-en/

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Ideas of justice and fairness in the Greco-Roman magic tablets: a comparative-historical aspect

Kudryavtseva Tatyana Vladimirovna, PhD, professor, The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (St. Petersburg, Russia)

tatyanavk@yandex.ru

Kudryavtseva T. V. Ideas of justice and fairness in the Greco-Roman magic tablets: a comparative-historical aspect, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 116–135.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00007

Language: Russian

The article examines the use of magic arts by ancient litigants, in particular, the lead curse tablets (defixiones) in order to guarantee a favorable outcome of a trial. In the Hellenistic and Roman period of the Ancient history the judicial magic underwent certain changes: a supplicant more often asked deities to help in the lawsuit, to bind the opponent’s tongue or speech etc. It other words, he requested the gods to take the responsibility of judge, to punish the guilty, i. e. to revenge and to carry out divine justice; the emphasis was made on the idea of justice and retaliation. These innovations have allowed some scholars even to distinguish a special group of the judicial prayers. The author marks several reasons for the changes in the traditional judicial magic: monarchical consciousness that developed in the Hellenistic period, and some disappointment in the human justice or certain perception of its weakness and limits, which resulted in seeking justice and retribution from the supernatural powers — typical of the religious mentality. In a broader context, it is possible to speak about the shift in emphasis in the resolution of criminal scenarios and even more — of a conflict situation: from the contest in which “a winner is always right” and “the winner will get all” to the exercise of jurisdiction as the triumph of Justice, protection of “the insulted and humiliated”. The magic “prayer for justice” becomes a kind of harbinger of a Christian prayer.
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Key words: magic, Athens, Greco-Roman World, trialtabellae defixionum (curse tablets), judicial prayer, justice

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/kudryavtseva-2014-en/

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