eschatology

Prophecies of «youth Vyacheslav» as an eschatological discourse about disasters

Vladimir Yur’evich Lebedev,
Aleksandr Michaylovich Prilutskiy
Doctor of Philosophy, professor, Tver’ State University (ulitsa Zhjelyabova, 33, Tver’, Russia, 170023)
semion.religare@yandex.ru
Doctor of Philosophy, professor, The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (Moika Embankment, dom 48, korpus 20a, St. Petersburg, Russia, 191186)
alpril@mail.ru

Lebedev V. Y., Prilutskiy A. M. Prophecies of «youth Vyacheslav» as an eschatological discourse about disasters, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2022, vol. 11, pp. 80–93.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2022-11-80-93

Language: Russian

The article discusses the religious veneration of the «Youth Vyacheslav», a teenager who died in the city of Chebarkul in 1993. Despite the fact that at present the cult of Vyacheslav is distributed mainly within the Orthodox ritual sphere, in terms of its content it can be assessed as pseudo-Orthodox and para-Orthodox. This article analyzes the specifics of the eschatological narratives about catastrophes attributed to Vyacheslav. The authors substantiate the thesis that the sociopsychological reasons for the demand for apocalyptic narratives about catastrophes in popular religiosity are due to the formation of lumpenized strata in society, who see eschatological catastrophes as an instrument of punishment for their more successful and wealthy fellow citizens. The content analysis of the body of texts allows us to conclude that the discourse on eschatological catastrophes presented in the prophecies of the «Chebarkul lad» contains five interrelated themes: «Hunger», «Death of cities», «Diseases», «Cryptozoological and cosmoeschatological plots», «Social catastrophes». The specificity of this phenomenon is the combination of banal narrative material and the construction of the narrative itself with a somewhat unusual situational frame.

Key words: Orthodox Church, Estonia, World War II, Baltic Exarchate, Pavel Kalinkin

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/en/en-lebedev-prilutskiy-2022/

Preface to the Latin Edition of the Collected Works of Martin Luther (1545): Introduction, Translation, Сomment

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Rodion Valentinovich Savinov PhD in Philosophy, associate professor, Saint-Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine (ulitsa Chernigovskaya, 5, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 196084)
savrodion@yandex.ru

Savinov R. V. Preface to the Latin Edition of the Collected Works of Martin Luther (1545): Introduction, Translation, Сomment, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2022, vol. 10, pp. 336–356.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2022-10-336-356

Language: Russian

The material is devoted to the problem of interpreting a number of sources on the history of the Reformation, in particular, Martin Luther’s autobiographical texts. These sources have recently become into researchers’ scopus, because they contain unique information about the personality of the author and his worldview, which allows reconstructing the author’s personality. Martin Luther’s personality is inseparable from his theology, and an attempt is made to show that those texts that are traditionally historical are in fact precisely such ego-documents, and they are significant in their subjective definiteness, which makes it difficult for historical comment on these materials. At the same time, the reconstruction of the context, which is possible on the basis of the historical method, makes it possible to identify the fundamental features of ego-documents, which, on the one hand, differ in the specific ranking of events, but vary by linking them to certain concepts that are significant for the author of this text. One of the most famous ego-documents is Martin Luther’s «Preface» to his own collected works of 1545, where he describes the events preceded the beginning of the Reformation and took place at its first stage (1517–1520). It is shown that the text combines a number of key ideas that determine the nature of material grouping and its assessment. It is concluded that this text, although not an artifact for historiography, is an important source of both theological and historical order.

Key words: Reformation, Theology, Early Modern, Luther, History, Eschatology, Biography

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/en/savinov-2022-en/

Epistle to Philemon in the light of Theology of Apostle Paul

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Vladimir Aleksandrovich Bitkin Bachelor of Theology, master of Biblical studies, Theological Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (der. Kolbino, 25a, Leningrad region, Vsevolozhsk district, Russia, 188680)
maestro921@mail.ru

Bitkin V. A. Epistle to Philemon in the light of theology of apostle Paul, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2022, vol. 10, pp. 16–35.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2022-10-16-35

Language: Russian

The article deals with the shortest epistle of the apostle, with a pronounced practical instruction. The appeal to Philemon stands out from the rest of Paul’s writings. However, despite its formal and rhetorical peculiarities, it should be considered in the light of the general Pauline corpus. Having critically analyzed the academic approach on the issue, the author insists that the brevity of the epistle does not mean its theological insignificance. Also, arguments are collected in favor of the traditional interpretation of the epistle, and some considerations are made regarding the place of its creation, that could have been either Ephesus or another city on the route of Paul’s journey. The content of the epistle is an example of the filigree rhetoric of persuasion and, at the same time it can’t be separated from the deep eschatological worldview of the apostle.

Key words: exegesis, Ephesus, Rome, Onesimus, slavery, belief, eschatology

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/en/bitkin-2022-en/

«A train of disasters»: apocalypse, xenophobia, shame and false witness in New England crisis of 1680–90s

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Dmitriy Dmitrievich Galzin, PhD in history, The library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Birzhevaya liniya, 1, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034)
dmitrygaltsin@gmail.com

Galzin D. D. «A train of disasters»: apocalypse, xenophobia, shame and false witness in New England crisis of 1680–90s, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2013, vol. 2, pp. 160–184.

DOI: 10.24411/2308-0698-2013-00018

Language: Russian

In 1680–90s Puritan New England underwent political and cultural transformations that would eventually turn it from a Puritan «covenanted society», virtually independent of the mother country, into a much more open and secular royal province. The events that shaped the crisis and transformations alike were the establishment of a royal Dominion of New England in 1686 and its downfall in the bloodless Boston revolution of 1689, «King William’s War» with the French and their Algonquin allies and Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. The article touches upon some aspects of colonial culture crisis of the time, such as eschatology, religious intolerance, xenophobia, false witness and shame for the Puritan community, that manifested in the birth of the colonists’ new identity as members of a larger British Atlantic community. The sources are mostly socially significant texts (such as sermons or pamphlets), written by New England Puritan political and cultural elite of the period.

Key words: New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Plymouth, xenophobia, eschatology

Permanent link: http://rcs-almanac.ru/galzin-2013-en/

Eschatology of the old believers: social discourse

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Grigorenko Andrey Yur’evich, PhD, professor, The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (St. Petersburg, Russia)

relig-rgpu@yandex.ru

Grigorenko A. Y. Eschatology of the old believers: social discourse, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 94–115.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2014-00006

Language: Russian

Eschatology is an imminent phenomenon of waiting the end of the world of the Christian Church throughout its history. It has many dimensions, one of which is a practical refraction expressed in ideas of social chiliasm. Interconnection of the idea of the Second Coming with the socio-economic upheavals has been always emphasized by scholars, and this article gives a brief retrospective analysis of these relationships. The author states that starvation of folks was one of the causes of the chiliastic ideas and led to social protest in different eras of European history, starting from ancient civilizations till Thomas Münzer revolt during German Reformation. The researcher demonstrates an accurate use of Marxism methodology, that still can provide a fresh glance on some subjects. The author focuses on the Russian Old Believers’ tradition and shows both its universal character and national specifics. The study basing on careful analysis of source data gives amount of key points, when religious reflection of the schematics led not to escape and rejection of the “world”, but to protest and struggle with the official Church, that was seen in traditions of Eastern philosophy as integral part of the State. The author comes to conclusion that the impact of social and political upheaval on the structure of the Old Believers’ discourse was stronger than it seems at first glance.

Key words: eschatology, the Old Believers, Marxism, famine, rebellion, secession

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/grigorenko-2014-en/