The Phenomenon of Marginality in the Middle Ages

The article considers the phenomenon of marginalization as the ability of the subject to activate the internal processes of worldview in the process of overcoming the fear of contemplation of alternative coordinate systems, inconsistent worlds of values and various cultural programs. It is stated that being in a marginal state is a conscious choice, which is dictated by the need of the subject to take an active position in life. It is determined that the main feature of the medieval world is social statics, which ensured the stability of the world. In conditions of non-reflexive self-perception, the processes of self-identification are not activated. At the same time, marginality is positioned as a difference in relation to the inviolability of the universe of social hierarchy in a conformal and comfortable social structure, as a deviation from the stable state of the system. The study used such methods: analytical - to determine the conceptual approaches to the study of the idea of marginality in cultural studies, systemic - to determine the integrity of the phenomenon of marginality in Western European culture; historical - in the reconstruction of the process of formation of the core of culture in each historical period of Western European culture. It is determined that the marginal groups that opposed their way of life and system of values to the medieval society are the early Christian community, the monastic order, the heretical sect, and so on. Their common features are: the equality of group members, anonymity, external equality, the absence of clearly defined private property, the maximization of a virtuous lifestyle both in spiritual programs and in their implementation. Physical or spiritual searches as the basis of self-organization, being chosen by God, distancing from secular institutions have become one of the determining factors of the cultural marginality of modernity in the Middle Ages.