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Мережковский, или Актуализация религиозно-философских смыслов европейской культуры
The article deals with the fate of one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the late 19th – mid 20th centuries Dmitry Merezhkovsky, creator of the novel trilogy “Christ and the Antichrist”, a treatise that shook the whole of Europe, “L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky”, the creator of the meanings of the Silver age. The author’s interest is focused on the idea of the Second, Christian Revival, which, according to Merezhkovsky, should take into account the experience of the Renaissance; it “will find the Holy Flesh”, turning conscious efforts not in the previous, pagan era, but directly into Christianity itself. Merezhkovsky saw The Second Revival in the possibilities of new imagery of Russian literature, imbued with the new trends of the mysterious “John’s Christianity”. He outlined Russian literature, earlier than L. Shestov, as a Russian philosophy of the cultures in a series of philosophical articles – “The Forthcoming Ham”, “Sick Russia”, “The Prophet of the Russian revolution” perceived by contemporaries as a revelation of a new era. After Joachim of Fiore Merezhkovsky actualized the idea of the Third Testament. This actualization had a huge impact on the society and culture of European countries. The author shows that Merezhkovsky seems to be testing Christianity for the possibility of preserving and realizing human freedom. The thinker argues that Christianity has lost the very idea of freedom, so Nietzsche is right to speak with his “Antichrist” against the Christian Church. The article shows that the Joachim of Fiore’s idea of the Third Testament, accepted by Merezhkovsky, would facilitate the return of freedom to Christianity when the way for the Second Revival will be opened. Every idea is changing in the minds its of supporters. The article notes that instead of freedom in the idea of the Third Testament, the Nazis saw the idea of the Third Reich. The fate of Merezhkovsky in the era of Nazism and Bolshevik totalitarianism was an endless flight. The author comes to the conclusion that the idea of freedom, which was to be realized in the Third Testament of Merezhkosky, was the answer of the intellectual and writer to the practice of totalitarian structures of the ideocracy of the 20th century.