Валерия Косякова – Apocalyptic Concepts in the Middle Ages (страница 3)

Monotheistic End of the World

The eschatology of the most ancient faiths is cyclical, in contrast to the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) with their linear concept, in which the time of the world is like an arrow released by God and rapidly flying towards its final eschatological goal.

According to the Bible, the beginning of the world and human existence also belongs to a kind of "golden age," but with the violation of God's will, the life of Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise comes to an end. This is followed by the degradation of the human race, culminating in the flood. After the "ritual purification by water," a new life begins with the line of Noah. However, until Abraham, the true God remains hidden from man. The relationship between God and man is finally cemented on the tablets of the covenant given to Moses. The coming of the prophet marked the beginning of the eschatological time. The Jews reached the highest spiritual level at the time of the giving of the Torah, but their worship of the golden calf, contrary to divine commandments, prevented the advent of the messianic era. God's chosen people were forced to continue their wait for the true messiah, which for them was not Jesus of Nazareth.

The views on eschatology vary across the various doctrines of the Abrahamic religions. Some Jewish and Islamic texts speak of a fatal error or catastrophe that occurred during the creation of the world, which is why it is always characterized by an element of imperfection and decay. Christian teaching, however, holds that the Kingdom of God is already among believers (Luke 17:21), so the Christian perception of time is characterized by a permanent sense of the End of the World: " He is certainly good who daily looks for death, and he is holy who desires it at every hour . " 6The culmination of this sense is the idea of the Second Coming of Christ and the Apocalypse. In Jewish and Christian religions, the End of the World will occur only once, since the world was created only once. In the Judeo-Christian myth, time is linear and irreversible. Eschatology reveals the sacred significance of human actions: people will be judged by their deeds. After the Last Judgment, only the righteous, those who believe in Holy Scripture, will attain eternal bliss.

The Judeo-Christian paradigm introduces new notions of secular and divine time into the history of culture, reunited in an inevitable future event when the heavenly and the earthly will converge at a single point—the apocalypse. Christian temporality breaks the vicious circle of archaic time cycles and rushes forward, like a spear-bearer on horseback, yearning for defeat or triumph, toward its highest, predestined goal—the End of Ends, the Last Judgment, the meeting place of man and God.

Prophecies of the End of the World have captivated theologians from the dawn of the Christian era, through the Middle Ages, and into the modern era—right up to the present day. Even completely secularized apocalyptic signs, symbols, and images, while no longer considered essential, still provide a link to fundamental cultural codes.

Eschatological concepts are present in many myths and beliefs, but the Apocalypse, as a distinct literary genre, originates in the Jewish and early Christian traditions, describing revelations received by a seer or prophet about events, symbols, and an afterlife inaccessible to most ordinary people. The central idea of the Apocalypse is an allegorical, figurative depiction of the future and the End of the World.

The term "Apocalypse" (Greek: ἀποκάλυψις —revelation, disclosure (of secrets), Latin synonym— revelatio ) was first used in the late first century by John the Theologian to denote a specific genre of revelation. The term caught on with the audience and became established in the titles of subsequent apocalyptic works. However, characteristics of the apocalyptic genre are attributed to earlier works, and its origin is associated with the Jewish literary milieu of the mid- second century BC.

Why did a specific genre arise that describes disasters, plagues, punishments, death and human suffering, on the one hand, and the promise of salvation and bliss to the righteous, on the other?

All eras, especially those of unfavorable and changing times, are sublimated and reflected in concentrated form both in folklore, tales, and legends, as well as in works of art and the heroes created by the outstanding authors of these eras. Often, in the popular consciousness and art, passionate historical figures—Patriarch Nikon, Peter the Great, Napoleon, Lenin, Stalin, etc.—are conceptualized as the Antichrist or as horsemen of the apocalypse, appearing in the world shortly before the Last Judgment. At the same time, at the end From the 17th to the first half of the 19th centuries, the Marquis de Sade's provocative prose emerged as a premonition and consequence of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The rise of Romanticism saw the development of increasingly terrifying and monstrous images, while Goethe's Werther and Faust, Pushkin's Onegin, and Lermontov's Pechorin became iconic figures—symbols of the era. Artistic interpretations of disasters and catastrophes seem called upon to re-experience the past, but in a detached or even alienated way, allowing people to cope, cope, and come to terms with what cannot be reconciled.

In the 20th century, after World War I, Expressionist artists captured the mutilated inner world of their contemporaries on canvas, while German Expressionist cinema brought to the screen a host of monsters, interpreted by Siegfried Kracauer as a premonition of Hitler's rise to power and the coming tragedies provoked by the Moloch of Nazism. After World War II, European cultural figures identified with the devastated heroes of the existential prose of Sartre and Camus.

The artistic image of a universal disaster has a cathartic, therapeutic quality. It can be terrifying, horrifying, or distorting of reality, but it can also take on reactionary forms, becoming an image of hope and salvation. For example, in the 1930s, a new hero emerged in America —Superman. These were times of the Great Depression and lawlessness, and the utopian aspirations of the masses found their deliverer, savior—a new Christ—in the guardian of law and order.

For European culture, the artistic meta- and proto-formula of any total catastrophe—presupposing the restoration of justice, the coming of the Savior, the Last Judgment, and the reward of each according to his deeds—is most vividly and fully represented by the biblical Book of Revelation. However, this paradigmatic Apocalypse also has deep roots in the Jewish tradition.

As a result of historical catastrophes, a series of destructions, deaths, and violence, a genre of unique consolation and retribution gradually emerged, figuratively offering hope for liberation from the oppression of earthly circumstances in an apocalyptic future. Historical reality offered no consolation or contentment to the Jewish people, usurped by foreign states, religions, and traditions—Egypt, Babylon, Rome.

The utopian project of the apocalypse provided answers to the most important questions regarding the future of the Jews and the world as a whole, and also provided the most important imperatives in connection with the fatal future: the culminating passages of apocalyptic writings paint pictures not only of the punishment of sinners who have not overcome their sin, but also of the forgiveness and consolation of the righteous.

What kind of apocalyptic works are we talking about?

Early Abrahamic eschatology, which served as a source of inspiration for future monotheistic religions, is found in the books of the prophets, created during the reign of the First Temple and before the creation of the Second Temple ( 10th – 6th centuries BC).

As political and religious figures who fought against archaic beliefs and pagan cults, miracle workers and intercessors, prophets and their sons constantly appear in the biblical books. From the 8th century BCE, these functions were supplemented by preaching: seers foretell impending disasters, call for abstinence, and promise deliverance and reward in the afterlife. Furthermore, the prophets themselves—Amos, Hosea, Isaiah—began to create large-scale works predicting global events of cosmic proportions—a doctrine of the ultimate fate of the world.

The Book of Isaiah became the most striking prophecy of the First Temple era, linking historical events and eschatological images: the Assyrian invasion for the sins of the Jews is the central focus of the narrative (Isaiah 7:17, 23-24). Isaiah foretells the punishment of the proud and powerful (Isaiah 2:11-15, 19), thus creating a picture of the judgment of entire nations in cultural history (Isaiah 2:2-4). Following the extermination of sinners, an era of total annihilation of evil will follow, culminating in messianic prosperity and the conversion of all people to the true God, with peace and harmony reigning.