UDC

124:228

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.1.84

Authors

Aleksandr A. Belyaev
Radboud University (the Netherlands); St. Petersburg Christian University; Narvskiy prosp. 13B, a/ya 211, St. Petersburg, 190020, Russian Federation;
e-mail: abelyaev@spbcu.ru

Abstract

This article presents a religious analysis of political topics in the Book of Revelation and their perception by Evangelical Christians based on Johann Kargel’s works. Along with other biblical books, the Apocalypse of John serves as the key source of theologies of all Christian denominations. However, Evangelical Christians following the Protestant Sola Scriptura principle consider the Bible to be the only source for the formation of theology and perception of the world around them. Written in the 1st century AD, the Apocalypse of John was addressed to the early church during the period of persecutions started by various political and religious institutions. Throughout the centuries, the final book of the Bible had been a source of inspiration for many Christians who found themselves in the middle of persecutions. This can also be said about the period of repression in Russia in the 1920s: Evangelical Christians turned to the Apocalypse of John in order to interpret the political situation through the prism of the Book’s political theology. The Apocalypse raises questions related to the political aspect of society. At the same time, the context of religious persecutions determined the negative nature of the political institutions presented in the Book of Revelation. In the 1920s, Evangelical Christians living in Leningrad turned to the Apocalypse in search of explanations for the political situation around them. The religious analysis showed that Evangelical Christians viewed the state and its institutions from a negative perspective, according to which the state and the church cannot and should not have anything in common.

Keywords

Apocalypse of John, religious studies, political theology, Evangelical Christians, Johann Kargel, Russian Protestantism, repression

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