Another question to (patristic) theologian friends

[anglomedved]

Is there a good patristic scholar out there who can answer me the following question :  do we already find the concept of ‘value’ (as in ‘moral values’) in the Church Fathers, or is it a later invention?

In fact I am wondering whether, historically speaking, it isn’t essentially a post-Christian idea....

I ask because it occurs frequently in a contemporary Russian Orthodox writer whom I am working on....

Comments

[ailoyros.livejournal.com]

I'm not a patristic theologian, but...

A question: do we find the word "faith" in the Old Testament? It sounds absurd, but... we don't. The word "faith" is virtually absent form it. Instead, we find "seeking God", "obeying God's commands", "knowing God", "walking in front of God", "doing the right things in God's eyes" etc. All that is about faith, isn't it? But we don't fing there anything similar to the New Testament "pistis", especially as we see it in the Pauline epistles.

So, I would say that the very concept of faith is there but they just didn't call it by the same word as we do. I assume this may be the case with some other ancient writers.

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hear what you are saying. You may be right. I just have this funny feeling that the use of the word 'values' in public debate is in fact a child of the 19th century, of the period when society starts to split into two camps, a Christian (+ monarchist) camp and a non-Christian (essentially republican) camp. In Republican France in particular great emphasis was placed on 'valeurs républicaines', as opposed to 'valeurs chrétiennes', really to say that we Republicans can be as moral as you Christians, but without all your piety bondieuserie).
I would be happy to be proved wrong....