Viduramžių teologinė paradigma Baltijos kraštų egzistencijoje

LTStraipsnyje analizuojama krikščioniškos misijos sankirta su senuoju baltų tikėjimu. Lyginant senąjį baltų tikėjimą, pagrįstą mitine, simboline patirtimi besiremiančia politeistine išpažinimo forma, su griežtai monoteistine krikščioniška doktrina, kurios esmė – tikėjimo ir proto sklaida, atskleidžiama egzistencinė ir religinė priešprieša, turėjusi tam tikrų pasekmių mūsų tautos istorijoje. Straipsnyje, turint omenyje įvairias pasekmių interpretacijas, siekiama atskleisti, jog krikščionybės atėjimas į baltų kraštus neišvengiamai praplėtė religinę viziją, atskleidė gamtos, kultūrinę, doktrininę ir antropologinę dimensijas.

ENEvery existence embraces two main domains, the profane and the sacred. The realm of the sacred, of God, is the conceptualized transcendental reality constantly intervening into human activity. In the polytheistic beliefs of the Baits, the sacred reality manifested itself through natural phenomena, which were perceived as the activity of various deities. On the basis of functions attributed to particular deities a pantheon evolved. Their concept of individual deities and religious doctrine are complicated to reconstruct, as it a belief primarily based on emotion, experience, and immediate involvement, and less on the effort to record it. Christianity, a monotheistic religion rooted in the heritage of Greek philosophy, developed its theological models and employed them to solve the problem of the knowledge of God. While comparing the two systems of belief, it is important to note that one professes one God while the other multiple deities. Medieval world saw the two word-outlooks engaged in controversy which often generated painful consequences, as democratic ways of coexistence had not been yet developed. Contemporary investigators are still puzzled by the purpose of such a multitude of gods and raised the question why the religious experience of the time, including that of the Baits, was shaped in such a variety of god figures?.M. Eliade also raised the question why religious people were seeking "to substitute the deity that would be closer to humans, visible and identified by its functions for the abstract and distant god figure" J. Velasco concluded that a growing number of god figures witnessed to "the inability of a polytheist believer to embrace by the same god figure the transcendental nature of the Mystery as well as its proximity, its active and personal nature". The Deity perceived and venerated as the highest being embracing the totality of existence, simply could not reveal, by one of its manifestations, the transcendentality and universality of the divine. The Baltic people found themselves in a similar situation. They applied earthly laws to transcendental reality and aspired to gain understanding of this domain, to become closer to it and to possess it, to dedicate to it all of their earthly troubles. A variety of images and ideas provided for a more fulfilling religious feeling to an individual of that particular culture, and it served as a more reliable link between the sacred and the profane in his world. Yet from the standpoint of monotheistic religion, the aspiration to distribute transcendental powers unto a number of deities shows the lack of confidence of believers, while submerging them into multiplicity of their earthly realm. [...].