Marxist revolutionary messianism and conservative anti-messianism in the social and political thought of Russia in the beginning of the 20th century: the God-builders and V. V. Rozanov
Abstract
In the article, the author examines the most important forms of a religion supplement proposed by the Marxist revolutionary messianism, on the one hand, and the anti-messianism of conservative consciousness and conservative social and political thought in Russia, on the other. The metaphysical projection of such clash has an especially historical dimension – in the revolutions and world wars. This kind of metaphysics has been primordially a special type of religious or quasi-religious reflection over the destiny of man, i. e. the collective movement of the humanity towards the ideal of happiness (socialism, Marxism, liberalism) which was interpreted differently but always within the logic of a collective movement and struggle. The conservative thought was represented by various forms of nationalism and messianism because it relied on global historic metanarratives such as the Christian doctrine. Christianity is claimed to have been the source of the very idea of a historical messianism. In the article, as an example of the revolutionary and messianic logic of argumentation, the theory of “propaganda” proposed by the Russian Marxist God-builders is considered. To analyze the conservative thought the criticism of the New Testament by V. V. Rozanov is regarded.
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