Apostasy and the Apostate Man in Eschatological Presentiments of Russian Religious and Philosophical Thought

The relevance of the presented research is determined by the fact that eschatological presentiments in Russian religious and philosophical thought reveal the future of the problem of good and evil. Eschatological problems investigated in the context of religious and philosophical discourse contribute to a more in-depth analysis of the ontological causes of social conflicts, violence phenomena, as these problems draw our attention to the spiritual and moral phenomenon of apostasy. The church legal concept and definition of apostasy, too focused on external anti-clerical forms of apostasy (accentuated on its external features), does not give a complete picture and does not reveal the full depth and multi-dimensionality of this phenomenon. The phenomenon of apostasy, if it is not reduced only to the manifestations of the church legal historical reality and signs that qualify the rejection of faith, is a deep and multifaceted phenomenon of spiritual and moral life of the individual, which has a direct impact on culture and society. Existing in the context of Judeo-Christian discourse, it can be characterized not only by external and internal apostasy from the faith and the church. It often becomes a dangerous and hypocritical form of apostasy and from all existential good, love, humanity as a whole, that is, acquires a certain global significance. The article considers the sources of the Russian religious and philosophical tradition, which reveal the problem identified in the title of the article in the context of apostasy as a phenomenon of apostasy from the value foundations of spiritual and existential goodness. The general directions in approaches of Russian religious philosophers to the theme of eschatology are revealed. The aim of the work is to show the importance and relevance of spiritual and moral issues, the choice of good and evil to deepen the modern philosophical discourse in the direction of prevention of interreligious, public and social conflicts, violence, extremism, and terrorism. Russian religious and philosophical thought came to understand the insolubility of the problem of evil, only in the context of the church ascetic worldview, but thoroughly confirmed the need and importance of spiritual and moral life. The eschatological direction of Russian religious and philosophical thought mainly correlates with the Eastern Christian cultural tradition and focuses on understanding the universal problems of the fate of the world and man, salvation and death, life and death, good and evil. Being outside the church legal and religious philosophical understanding, this phenomenon has acquired large-scale development prospects, rebelling on the spiritual and moral foundations of human life. It has become not only an external, but also internal characteristic of a person. This is confirmed by the extraordinary development of the phenomena of violence, extremism, and terrorism. But the movement of apostasy towards the peak of its development is not yet complete. These processes again turn our attention not to the external forms of apostasy, but to its deep essence. Hence the need arises to transfer the analysis of apostasy from the field of the church legal, cultural historical, and prophetic to the field of the spiritual moral, ethical.

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