MONARCHICAL SERVICE AS AN OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL UNDERSTANDING

In the present time of loss of spiritual orientations, social distance and military conflicts, the society has special need of leaders raised in the spirit of civic consciousness, patriotism, and dedication. Spiritual-moral training of heirs to the Russian throne for their royal service can be an example of such upbringing. The paper carries out the cultural and historical analysis of the concept “service” and its certain phenomenon peculiar for the time of Tsarist Rus – “monarchical service” and gives the theological substantiation of the throne charisma within its religious and cultural-historical context. In the result of the analysis of theological essays and works of Russian religious philosophers, the author uncovers the spiritual and sacral meaning of royal service, draws a parallel between the Golgotha deed of Christ, as the highest form of service to neighbor, and the earth tsar mission, as an “icon”, image and likeness of Heavenly Father. The author underlines the uniqueness of the intercessor’s function of a monarch as the mediator between God and people, his simultaneous status of both the sovereignty and vassalage superior representative. It is said that the mission of Orthodox tsar, the Lord’s anointed, was not only in the discharge of responsibility for the subjects while strictly supervising how they abided by laws but in the personal spiritual growth of a ruler, the culmination stage of which was the readiness for an act of sacrifice. Using the examples of acts of heroism of our countrymen from different epochs and socio-legal groups, the author concludes about the ontological nature and the universalism of such concept as “service to neighbor”. The author proves the necessity to bring the idea of “service to neighbor” as a norm of life back to the object field of contemporary pedagogical science.