The dissertation, focusing on Christianity, studies the transformation of apocalyptic ideas and plots in modern narratives as a response to the challenges of the globalizing world. The methodologies of the study of apocalyptic narratives are applied based on historical, sociological, philosophical, literary, and religious studies, where special attention is paid to the interdisciplinary approach. The study examines the Book of Revelation by St. John the Theologian as a matrix that generates new narratives. After all, the symbols and images of the Apocalypse underwent modifications over time and were embodied in various forms in the globalized world, which constituted the subject field of the research. Without claiming to be an exhaustive analysis of traditional apocalypticism, the study focuses on those transformations that were represented by the apocalyptic reflections of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
The polyvariance of Christian eschatology is substantiated and the confessional specificity of apocalyptic ideas is investigated in the light of modern problems, where the fact is important that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches use the dogma of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come, and within the Protestant denominations and neo-Christian trends, the understanding of the end of the current world has different variability. It is determined that the confessional interpretation of the Book of Revelation by St. John the Theologian represents the individual author’s reflection because the awareness of the apocalyptic problem is significantly influenced by pluralism as an important element of the religious consciousness of a modern man.
It is determined that among the main risk factors of a planetary-civilizational scale to which theologians most often turn are the following problems: wars, diseases, and environmental problems. It is stated that the Christian civilization throughout its history has experienced a large number of outbursts of apocalyptic expectations, which became the key to instilling fear and hysteria. Eschatological tensions became a certain method of manipulating people, in order to retain power not only by the supremacy of the church but also by secular power, which was often linked to the church hierarchy by multiple ties.
The modern Ukrainian and foreign biblical studies on the problem of interpretation of the Apocalypse are considered, in which attention is focused on interpretive approaches to understanding the Apocalypse (futuristic, preteristic, historical, and symbolic).
It is proved that the transformation of apocalyptic ideas and plots in modern narratives is due to the reaction to the challenges of modernity, on the one hand, and apocalyptic consciousness and postmodern tendency, on the other hand. It is stated that the conversion of apocalyptic motives in the postmodern, globalized mass culture takes the Apocalypse beyond the research principles inherent in hermeneutics, exegesis, beyond philosophical, religious approaches and even moves away from the sphere of spirituality, turning into a brand, ultimately laying the foundation for the exploitation of natural human emotions and fears.
Within the Christian narrative tradition, based on the study of confessional, fiction, and biblical literature on apocalyptic topics, the core of the narrative is classified – the timeless relevance of New Testament apocalyptic prophecy (the Book of Revelation by St. John the Theologian), as well as peripheral (marginal) structures – the destiny of the last days, the Millennial Kingdom, and symbolic images.
It is stated that in the scientific discourse of modern Ukraine, the circle of people interested in this issue has expanded and includes philosophers, religious scholars, theologians, biblical scholars, and literary critics. Ukraine is in a protracted crisis period caused by a number of events – from the Chernobyl accident, the collapse of the Soviet Union, economic and political instability – to military aggression in the east of the country, the spread of coronavirus infection, as a result of which philosophical and religious discourse produce new forms of visionaries of the end of the world.
It has been proven that modern Christian consciousness has moved away from the original understanding of the end of the world, and for non-believers, it has never been based on the primary source, in turn, modern interpretations of the end of the world are increasingly virtualized and modernized, thus influencing the society.
