"Changing the Image" of Gods, Religion and theology in Ernst Junger's Optics

Abstract

The article is devoted to a little–studied topic in Russian humanities – the issue of "changing the image" [1] of gods, religion and theology in the works of the German writer and thinker Ernst Junger (1895 - 1998). In Russia, this author is better known as one of the ideologists of the conservative revolution. However, in the post-war years, E. Junger began to pay considerable attention to issues of religion and the church. And this is not by chance. E. Junger believed that in a new technologized society, the essence of a person is suppressed, he ceases to feel the true values of life, transferring them to external ones. According to the writer, it is possible to find a way out of this situation only by relying on the help of three great forces: art, philosophy and theology. However, by assigning such an important mission to them, E. Junger makes a fundamental reservation – the old religions and churches based on faith can only fight the consequences of the Enlightenment project today. The struggle against the "chimeras" and Leviathans of modernity is only possible for new forms of spiritual life and new spiritual practices that bring a person closer to himself, and which we define as transcendence. Starting with "Going into the Forest", through "Heliopolis" and "Eumeswil", E. Junger gradually finds their "image". According to the writer, he and, consequently, the "image" of the new world will depend entirely on the quality of human freedom. Then the "divine, desiring to appear in the highest degree of spirituality" will no longer need masks of animals and people. The new theology will be distinguished by a new quality of language in which a person can talk about the gods – poetry is such for E. Junger. In this sense, the work of the "last knight" is characterized by the highest humanistic pathos, and he himself is undoubtedly the "prophet" of another Reformation.