The attitude of Saint Eucherius of Lyon (†ca. 450) to the “secular philosophy”

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleОтношението на св. Евхерий Лугдунски (†ок. 450) към „светската философия”
3. Language term Bulgarian
4. lemma author Nachev, Ivaylo
5. lemma category Orthodox theological tradition and practice
6. lemma work Миланов, Росен [Author]. The attitude of Saint Eucherius of Lyon (†ca. 450) to the “secular philosophy”
7. lemma manifestations Богословска Мисъл
8. Keywords Saint Eucherius of Lyon
9. Lemma body

   1. Elaborating on differences between the Christian and the secular worldview and philosophy, the article drew attention to the life and works of the 5th century bishop Saint Eucherius of Lyon with a focus on his treatise “On the contempt of the world and the secular philosophy”.  Milanov noted that in our almost fully secularized time there are attempts for partial reconciliation with “the hostile world”, but this has not always been the case in the early Christian history and Church Fathers who had openly talked against secular criteria. According to Milanov who analyzed the original text in Latin, the work of Saint Eucherius distinctly developed the dichotomy between secular and Christian, carnal and spiritual, and secular versus Christian or heavenly philosophy. There are two alternatives to men: earth or heaven and choosing one of them means also choosing between the secular and the Christian philosophy. The secular philosophy does not meet the chief requirement of accepting that human life is a divine gift and all efforts should first be devoted to God. Eucherius’ treaties also referred to a number of church fathers who, having excelled in secular knowledge but understood it’s vain, had turned to the heavenly philosophy (Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Basil the Great and others). In contrast to them the secular wise men cannot see the true justice and true wisdom.