DIALOGUE OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEWS BY METHODS OF NATURAL THEOLOGY

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has traditionally performed interfaith dialogue with representatives of many religious worldviews. But the promising field of modern philosophical communication, namely the dialogue of worldviews, based on the methods of natural theology, widely used by philosophers and theologians since ancient times remains largely unexplored. The aim of this paper is an attempt to prove the following thesis: natural theology used by the Russian Orthodox Church in interreligious dialogue is a promising field for fruitful dialogue of religious world views with each other. Mainly interreligious dialogue is a testimony for Orthodox Christians of their Orthodox and heterodox Christians, non-Christian creeds. The purpose of the dialogue with non-Christian religions is two-fold: apologetic and polemical. 1. ROC maintains a dialogue with Catholics and Protestants, which should ideally facilitate the connection of Christians around the world. Fundamental aspects of interreligious ecumenical dialogue of Christians do not concern the substance of natural theology, equally present in these churches. Christians do not argue that God is the Creator and the Sustainer of the world, as it follows from the Holy Scriptures - the Bible, common for all Christians. 2. The analysis of the history of theological debate and dialogue between Christianity and Islam leaves a firm belief that in these meetings mostly natural theology was used. The conversation was conducted in the plane of the biblical history and biblical paradigms, but the very text of the Bible as an authority was not used, as the text is nothing for the Muslims. In such circumstances, the emphasis shifted to rational debate evidence, appeal to reason, everyday experience, to what is common to everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs. 3. Apologetic dialogue between Orthodoxy and Judaism is a truly sincere dialogue between religious worldviews, as the talk is about saving eternal souls of the companion. The dialogue is carried out on settling, rather than hiding one's beliefs. Methods of natural theology in these religions help to use it widely for its natural science and philosophical demonstration of God's creating this world. 4. In the dialogue of the ROC with unscriptural religions natural theology is primarily the dialog field, which even takes precedence over the value-meaningful dialogue based on the field of ethics of interpersonal and social communications. Natural theology in this case completes the missionary task, and the dialogue only benefits from that.