UPDATE OF ESCHATOLOGY: IDEAS OF “SAVIOR” AND “ANTICHRIST” IN THE CONDITIONS OF MODERN WAR

Abstract

Philosophical analysis of eschatology as a process affecting the formation of a person’s worldview is carried out. It is emphasized that a special role in the perception of modern war is played by eschatological ideas, feelings, moods, which accompany both religious culture and the culture of humanity as a whole. An analysis of eschatological ideas during martial law in Ukraine is presented. Such methods as included observation, hermeneutic analysis of blogosphere texts and analysis of sources by research topic were used. The transformation of modern eschatological worldviews during martial law is revealed. The philosophical understanding of eschatology at the theoretical level is based on the understanding of the philosophy of the Middle Ages. A new interpretation of history appears in religious Christian consciousness. It is characterized by the idea of irreversible movement towards a certain goal. The symbol of the Kingdom of God is based on a linear understanding of time. The inherent orientation of history into the future brings eschatological expectations to the symbol of the Kingdom of God, towards which history is heading. In religious Christian eschatology and in the symbol of the Kingdom of God, there is a problem of interpreting the future in order to understand existence. The answer to the question about the meaning of existence in religious consciousness is connected with the answer to the question about the meaning of the future and the meaning of history. In the foundation of European civilization, which was based on a religious, Christian worldview, there was an active attitude towards the world. European civilization is aimed at improving life, prepared by the entire course of historical development and worldview consciousness. In the socio-philosophical discourse of the Modern era, the concept of the “end of history” introduced by Hegel appears. The course of modern apocalyptic ideas is studied as one of the convergent processes in the religious sphere today. Analyzing the blogosphere, it was concluded that eschatology is being actualized today. It was found that the “actualization of eschatology” acts as a basis for analyzing the problems of modern war in the eschatological dimension. Conclusions are made regarding the problems of knowing eschatological attitudes in the modern era. On the one hand, the general catastrophe that threatens humanity is realized within the existing forms of knowledge. On the other hand, it is mystified, trivialized, archaized, vulgarized. It is proved that the modern mass media form an ambivalent image of the perception of the eschatological interpretation of the events taking place during the war. In religious discourse, apocalyptic moods include the use of concepts such as “Saviour”, “Antichrist”, “Apocalypse”, “end of the world”, “Armageddon”, strengthen the sacralized perception of events related to the war in Ukraine. It is substantiated that the same concepts, if used in a secular environment, contribute to their desacralization. It was found that both discourses cause cognitive dissonance in the information consumer.