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Abstract:

The article examines how, in Russian thought of the last quarter of the 19th – early 20th century, the tradition of interpreting the Book of Revelation has formed, according to which the promises of the Kingdom of God on earth, “a new heaven and a new earth” are realized not only by Divine will, but also by human effort. The concept of active and creative eschatology, as N.A. Berdyaev called it, opposed the pessimistic and catastrophic worldview, according to which fallen history is interrupted by the unilateral action of the Deity at the end of time. Russian scholars have examined the rationale for the “active and projective understanding of the Apocalypse” in the works of N.F. Fedorov and V.S. Solovyov, which were significant for the Russian God-seeking in the Silver Age, shown its connection with the idea of justifying history, and analyzed the disputes about social and church renewal that took place during the First Russian Revolution. In the light of the ideas of the collaboration between God and man, the universality of salvation, the doctrine of Golgotha Christianity is considered, the content of the newspaper “Emerging Land” (1910–1912) and the magazine “Emerging Wine” (1912–1913) is analyzed, and it is shown how, due to contact with the ideas of N.F. Fedorov, Golgothaians overcame the impulses of catastrophism. The collection “The Universal Cause” (1914) is considered, in which an attempt was made, relying on Fedorov, to unite the ideological space of Russian thought, to affirm the ideal of unity of science and faith in divine-human action.

Keywords: Active and Creative Eschatology, Catastrophism, Pessimism, the Conditionality of Prophecies, Russian God-seeking, the Idea of Church Renewal, Christian Politics, Golgotha Christianity, “Emerging Land”, “Emerging Wine”, “Universal Cause”.