PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

Ivar Kh. Maksutov, Moscow State University, Russia
Orthodox Anthropology and Psychology in Post-Soviet Russia: Friends or Foes?
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In Russian Orthodox Christianity the problem of interaction with psychology has currently
become very prominent, especially in the course of weak systematization of theological
anthropology. After the October Revolution in 1917 theological education in Russia was ruined
and thus Orthodox studies in the field of anthropology (doctrine of human being) was frozen.
At the same time, psychology became an independent well-structured discipline and as so it
was trying to introduce to higher education and science of Soviet society. As long as orthodox
anthropology and secular psychology were developed separately, they have different lexicons,
concepts and approaches in the same sphere, sphere of spiritual being. Consequently, attempts
to bridge the gap between two disciplines raised many problems, questions, struggles and
Discussions. In my paper the most urgent of them, which have arisen in the introduction of
psychology to Russian Orthodox Christianity, will be examined step-by-step as examples of
the situation in the Post-Soviet area.
Raffaele Pettazzoni and Religious Anthropology
Wed 16 th , 11.00, Classroom 12
It is of no doubt that if a historian of religion aim to understand religion, one need to consider
the anthropological (‘humanological’) question in his research. It means that when we study
particular religious tradition, we should at the very first step understand what this tradition
considers human to be. Such approach was developed in a discipline called ‘religious
anthropology’, i.e. a comparative study of religious concepts, views on human being. The
discipline has never been independent, but a part of the phenomenology of religion or the
history of religions. The first and the last monograph focused on this topic was a collection of
essays ‘Anthropologie religieuse’ (ed. C.J. Bleeker, 1955). At the very beginning of this book a
short article of Raffaelle Pettazzoni ‘La condition humaine’ was situated, where he formulated
general approach to anthropology as a study of human and religious anthropology as a
discipline. In my paper basic principles of this discipline in its contemporary state alongside
with examples of its use in the works of honorable scholar of religion Raffaelle Petazzoni will
be studied step-by-step.
Pietro Mander, University of Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy
Radici nel pantheon sumerico-babilonese di Hekate degli Oracula Chaldaica
Tue 15 th , 16.20, Classroom 8
Anche se “caldaico” nella Tarda Antichità non è un attributo specificamente geografico, esso
non esclude un riferimento, pur generico e vago, all’area vicino orientale e mesopotamica. La
figura della dea Hekate negli Oracula Chaldaica è stata fatta oggetto di recenti indagini
esaustive: cfr. Johnston, Sarah Iles, Hekate Soteira: a Study of Hekate's Roles in the Chaldean
Oracles and Related Literature, American Classical Studies 21. Atlanta, Scholar's Press, 1990.
A questo si aggiungano le considerazioni sviluppate da West, David R., Some cults of Greek
Goddesses and Female Daemons of Oriental Origin, Alter Orient und Altes Testament Bd.
233,Kevelaer (Germany) : Butzon & Bercker ; Neukirchen-Vluyn : Neukirchener Verlag,1995,
dove è considerata la figura demonica della Lamaštu come fonte della più tarda Hekate. Al di
là di collegamenti generali tra le concezioni degli Oracula Chaldaica e quelle mesopotamiche,
che saranno oggetto di uno studio più ampio, tratti significativi delle grandi figure femminili
divine del mondo sumerico-accadico sono distintamente riconoscibili nella Hekate degli