METAPHYSICS OF THE CITY. SECULARISM AND THEOCRACY. THE ANTAGONISM "WITH GOD" OR "WITHOUT GOD"

Abstract

The concept of the divine origin of cities is a universal metaphysical doctrine shared by many ancient civilizations. The idea that cities were created or blessed by gods was fundamental in the ancient world, which was an important condition for the legitimization of power and the importance of cities as centers of religious, political and cultural life. In a metaphysical context, the city can be defined as a complex ontological phenomenon that goes beyond its material manifestations and functions as a place of dialectical tension between the human and the transcendent. It is not just a physical center of social, economic and political structures, but also a symbolic space in which fundamental philosophical categories such as time, sacred and profane space, order, chaos and identity are embodied.
One of the main theses of the article is that the city is not only a physical, but also a metaphysical space that reflects fundamental ideas about human existence, power and spirituality. The balance (or conflict) between secularism and theocracy shapes the character not only of cities and their societies, but also of human existence itself, for life “with God” or “without God”. The article is an attempt to show how secularism and theocracy (the profane and the sacred) create different models of organization of society and the symbolic dimensions of urban space. It invites not only a deeper understanding of these interactions and their imprint on urban space in a historical, cultural and philosophical context, but also sheds light on a fundamental and ontological question related to the quintessence of human existence – existence “with God” or “without God”.