“Let Your Lamps Be Ready”: Individual Destiny and Collective Identity in Eschatological Perspective (the Case of the Moscow Spiritist Circle)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to highlight the links between eschatological ideas and social/ethical beliefs of the Moscow spiritist circle who viewed their fellowship as a religious eschatological community. Eschatological doctrine of the group could be characterized both as “catastrophic” and “progressive” millennialism. Eschatological social project suggested the elimination of the border between the earthly and heavenly realms and a shift towards egalitarian social model through a total renewal of the present world. The analysis of the documents demonstrates that the circle members considered themselves as active participants of the escha-tological process. According to the catastrophic worldview of the circle's members, the final battle of Good and Evil, which involves both human and spirits, is already in progress. In advance of the Apocalypse, ethical questions were crucial, because the realization of the ethical ideal was a key to salvation. The members of the circle perceived the outside world as a hostile environment and tended to redraw the boundaries between the community and the “infected” world.