IDEAS OF THE PROTESTANTISM AND THE ETHICS OF THE WESTERN WORLD: INTERACTION FROM THE REFORMATION PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIMES

Abstract

The Renaissance pushed the European medieval specific way of life to revision, causing a new humanistic vector of development. Step by step, spiritual renewal swept through medieval Europe. Humanism, Protestant ethics, a new model of culture contributed to the emergence of the new paradigm of European thinking. The spread of the new ideas occurred at the time of the emergence of the new communication channels and the rapid integration of the new religious ethics into the already formed ethno-confessional differences. Such new religious ideas have strongly influenced the national characters and mentality of the European nations, which in the period of early Protestantism were clearly crystallized.

The article analyzes in details the historical path of the Protestantism in Ukraine, the ethno-confessional identity of the Ukrainian Protestants. The authors came to the conclusion that the Ukrainian Protestants support social transformation, the struggle for justice, and have their own vision of social mission. At the same time, spiritual values always dominate among the components of their worldview.

Research interest in the issue Reformation history is strongly connected with the peculiarities of modern post-totalitarian societies, for which the terms “crisis” and “reform” are extremely related, encompassing constant changes in politics, economics, society, culture, and all spheres of public life.

Under the conditions of global social breakdown, special attention is always paid to the turbulent and dramatic epochs of the ancient past. Modern society, in its search of new ways of development, attempts to obtain optimism and confidence in the knowledge of the past in order to make sure that all the challenges can be easily defeated and new catastrophes prevented.

In the historical literature there are many successful attempts to distinguish the causes and origins of the Reformation, to determine the nature of complex and contradictory social, religious and political transformations of the first half of the XVIth century. However, their research significantly outweighs the research of the people of that period, their experiences, forms of social behavior, views on their life and future. It was them, not abstract forces, who carried out reforms, formulated programs and requirements, and competed for the realization of their beliefs.