Abstract
This article analyzes the recently observed transformation of religious conscience. The author believes that these changes are most obvious during the period of global crises, such as COVID-19 pandemic. The article suggests that the most optimal perspective for examination of the transformation of religious conscience s consists in the analysis through the prism of eschatological problematic. Eschatology manifests as an indicator for the transformation of religiousness, which is substantiated by actualization of apocalyptic moods in the context of global civilizational crises. Methodological framework of this research is comprised of the system-structural and functional approaches, which allowed resolving the set tasks in the broad interdisciplinary context, including the experience of philosophy, theology and sociology. The author leans on the results of several sociological research dedicated to the dynamics of youth value orientations that were conducted over the period from 1997 to 2020. The empirical material contains the data of such social media ad Vkontakte, Facebook and Instagram, messenger (Telegram), and video hosting platform (YouTube). The author highlights a number of basic ideas viewed within the framework of eschatology of the Abrahamic religions (namely Christian eschatology). Firstly, private eschatology, reflected in the attitude towards one's own death and related questions of afterlife retribution. Secondly, the belief in arrival of the Messiah; and, thirdly, the expected end of history and time. These ideas developed during the viral shedding of COVID-19. The author meticulously analyzes how the eschatological theme mainstreams in the conditions of pandemic and self-isolation regime. The conclusion is made that the manifestations of apocalyptic moods during the pandemic are characterized by game nature, tendency to hype, focus on individual experiences, shift in the higher value of eschatology towards the collective culture, which is expressed in the effect of carnivalization of consciousness, transfer of eschatological problematic from religious to sociopolitical plane.
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