There is no question that Nicolas Berdyaev has distinguished himself in this twentieth century as the Christian philosopher and prophet of freedom and creativity, par excellence. The purpose of this present study is to bring attention to an untreated aspect of Berdyaev's Weltanschauung which underlies the whole of his thinking. This untreated aspect is the eschatological emphasis found in the writings of Nicolas Berdyaev. This study will lead to the conclusion that Berdyaev was not only the philosopher of creativity and freedom par excellence, but he was also an eschatological philosopher of equal excellence. - Introduction.

The authors in this anthology dispel the illusion that if communism failed in Russia it was due to an accident of history, having been tried in the wrong country and implemented by incompetent leaders. The evidence presented here should demonstrate that its failure was not only inevitable, but also anticipated long before it occurred.

In this book, João Nunes de Almeida rethinks the relationship between crisis and fascism in today’s liberal democratic societies. Arguing that fascism has adapted to a post-modern idea of endless crisis, Almeida challenges one of the strongest liberal myths in western politics, namely that fascism and liberal democracy have different roots. Fascism, in Almeida’s view, is at the center of the very production of social relations in western capitalist societies, and is the result of the very desire to be saved from crisis underlying liberal democracy. It draws on stormy examples from Portugal’s contemporary history, with a particular focus on its fascist past and revolution, to explore affinities between crisis and fascism in other spatial and historical contexts. João Nunes de Almeida concludes that refusing to be saved from crisis becomes the refusal of any form of fascism in a more global context.

Antonios Finitsis provides a distinctive view social worldview and message of Zechariah.

This book addresses the current crisis that threatens the rule of law and has led to the need for its adjustment as normative concept, legal principle and pragmatic guideline for the behaviour of political players. Rule of law is a pillar of the constitutional orders and a key principle of national, international and EU law. Yet, rule of law is subject to pressure for change in the face of emergency, crisis and transition. This book explores how constitutional crisis, emergency constitutionalism and constitutional polycrisis assert pressures for the transformation of rule of law and thus produce a state of flux. It examines the rule of law from the viewpoint of constitutional imaginaries, memory politics and identity politics. It critically assesses the responses given by the EU and its member states to the current crisis. The work also provides an analysis of the most important challenges to rule of law stemming from the performance of constitutional courts, including the risks of judicial activism, politicization of the courts and judicialization of politics. The book will be an invaluable resource for researchers, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of Constitutional Law and Political Science.

Eschatology is the study of the last things: death, judgment, the afterlife, and the end of the world. Through centuries of Christian thoughtfrom the early Church fathers through the Middle Ages and the Reformationthese issues were of the utmost importance. In other religions, too, eschatological concerns were central. After the Enlightenment, though, many religious thinkers began to downplay the importance of eschatology which, in light of rationalism, came to be seen as something of an embarrassment. The twentieth century, however, saw the rise of phenomena that placed eschatology back at the forefront of religious thought. From the rapid expansion of fundamentalist forms of Christianity, with their focus on the end times; to the proliferation of apocalyptic new religious movements; to the recent (and very public) debates about suicide, martyrdom, and paradise in Islam, interest in eschatology is once again on the rise. In addition to its popular resurgence, in recent years some of the worlds most important theologians have returned eschatology to its former position of prominence. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology will provide an important critical survey of this diverse body of thought and practice from a variety of perspectives: biblical, historical, theological, philosophical, and cultural. This volume will be the primary resource for students, scholars, and others interested in questions of our ultimate existence.

When God is “dead” and governments themselves are increasingly subject to the power of global corporations, massive movements of peoples, transnational political upheavals, and ecological disasters, what does sovereignty mean for the 21st century? Sovereignty in the 21st Century is Carl Raschke's deep theoretical dive into the meaning of sovereignty in both its historical and contemporary settings, showing how the idea can be expanded beyond politics and offer emancipatory strategies for previously marginalized peoples. Picking up Carl Schmitt's idea of sovereignty's 'divine' associations making it an implicitly theological concern, Raschke explains how political and religious thought have always been intertwined. These intertwined strands find their relevance today in debates around class, race and domination, making the question of sovereignty not just a political but a social and economic one. Bringing to light the ways in which great transnational conflicts today are not between authoritarianism and democracy but between neoliberalism and populism, this book brings us closer to a profound understanding of what we truly mean by democracy, or 'popular' sovereignty in the 21st-century.

This groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost theoreticians of Russian literature, culture, and thought gives for the first time an extensive and detailed examination of the development of Russian thought during the late Soviet period. Countering the traditional view of an intellectual wilderness under the Soviet regime, Mikhail Epstein offers a systematic account of Russian thought in the second half of the 20th century. In doing so, he provides new insights into previously ignored areas such as Russian liberalism, personalism, structuralism, neo–rationalism, and culturology. Epstein shows how Russian philosophy and culture has long been trapped in an intellectual prison of its own making as it sought to create its own utopia. However, he demonstrates that it is time to reappraise Russian philosophical thought and cultural theory, now freed from the bonds of totalitarianism. We are left with not only a new and exciting interpretation of Russian thought, but also an opportunity to rethink our own intellectual heritage.