New theology as a conceptual (methodological) basis for the work of M. M. Tareev

The article is devoted to the problem of the “new theology” as a conceptual and methodological basis of the worldview of M. M. Tareev. The main vector of M. M. Tareev’s scientific research aims at moral theology. In accordance with the professor’s thought, moral teaching should consider how exactly dogmatic theology is manifested and embodied in Christian life. Thus, for Tareev, dogmatics becomes “static theology”, while the doctrine of morality, the “philosophy of life”, reveals a certain spiritual dynamic of development: “dogmatics deals with the abstract formula of Christianity, and moral-subjective doctrine cognizes Christianity in its vital mobility, in its lively rhythm, in its concrete dialectics”. The “new theology” of M. M. Tareev, as a research problem, appears as a search for antinomical unity between scholastic and exact dogmatic theological science - and a moral necessity comprehended in the desert of being, possibly not in the images of Gethsemane of the “moralists” or Golgotha of the “legalists”, but in a subjective, inner striving for victory over the temptations of this world, transforming a person in the Christian direction of personality development, conquering the temptations of the desert of everyday life.