MOSCOW, November 14 (Itar-Tass) – It is highly desirable for the Christian Church to avoid two extremities, one of which is succumbing to the laws of the secular world and the other is plunging into apocalyptic hysteria, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II said Monday in a speech at a
major international theological conference.
The title of the conference, Eschatological Teachings of the Church, indicates that it is entirely focused on eschatology, or the complex of Christian theories about “last things,” including the end of the world.
Teachings in that area of theology have always intensively attracted the minds of theologians and clerics, on the one hand, and secular scholars, on the other, sources at Moscow Patriarchate’ press center said.
“The topic is especially acute now that the world is on the threshold of globalization, as information and biological technologies have become widespread and rumors about the forthcoming end of the world are circulating with an ever-increasing intensity,” they said.
The global changes occurring in nowadays world have highlighted the topicality of eschatological theories, Alexy II said.
“But the Church must stand up against two extremities subordination to the laws of the secular world and full estrangement from it,” he said.
“Eschatological vision of developments, however, is crucial to solving the problems or relations between the Church and the world around it and for carrying out its mission and continuing its history,” Alexy II said.
In the past, he has strongly condemned apocalyptical feelings widely spread in some of Russian Orthodox monasteries, where the monks have virtually stopped exercising their routine liturgical and economic duties in an expectation of an upcoming end of the world.
Taking part in the conference are well-known philosophers from Russia, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Austria, the U.S., Australia and some other countries.
