The article compares two understandings of childhood – the evangelical one and the philosophical-artistic one as represented in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. Drawing on the novels The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, as well as the writer's short stories and journalistic writings, the article reconstructs a holistic concept of childhood as the key to the "mystery of man." It is shown that for Dostoevsky, as for the Christian tradition, the child is not an "imperfect adult" but a bearer of special spiritual dignity, a measure of moral purity, and a symbol of a future transfigured humanity. In light of the conference theme "Education of the Human Person: Enlightenment – Upbringing – Mystery," the article concludes that authentic education cannot be reduced to the didactic formation of the personality; rather, it presupposes the preservation in a person of "childlikeness" as a capacity for immediate moral feeling and openness to the transcendent.
childhood, F.M. Dostoevsky, evangelical image of childhood, mystery of man, upbringing, enlightenment, Christian anthropology, philosophical anthropology
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