Popular theology of human activity and labour in Ukrainian sayings and proverbs.

The author of this article analyses a stratum of Ukrainian proverbs which by its semantic content constitutes a kind of popular theology of human activity and labour. The meaning of a number of paremies reflects the inner world of a religious person, wherein the individuality's development via daily labour is consistent with the plan of providence. According to popular Christian conceptions of God, He provides aid in every deed, word, thought, and wish. In popular religious cultural traditions, as well as in ecclesiastical traditions, rational activity is the aim and norm of all earthly human life; economic activity is included in God's plan, and is considered a positive value.

Labour is a basic element of every human’s life. It significantly influences not only our value system, personality or behaviour, but also life of the whole society. Therefore, it is not unusual to work as a prisoner as it is not unusual to work as a free man. Labour is understood as the acknowledgment of the same rule that’s applicable both to prison and the outside world. This article discusses labour as a form of resocialization. It describes good sides of resocialization through work that’s being implemented at organizational units of the Prison Service, employment of convicts and also actions taken as part of the state programme “Work for prisoners.” Work performed while serving a sentence, based on rules of equal treatment, is very important in the resocialization process. It takes up convicts’ free time, thus lowering the probability of occurrence and continuation of negative behaviours and attitudes. It teaches them the role of a worker and adjusts their consciousness to the relation between satisfaction of needs and necessity of performing occupational work, an important element of their preparation for life on the outside. Therefore, it is a positive forecast for their social readaptation, which is an indisputable purpose of serving a sentence.