The Katechon as a Theologo-political Paradigm of the World Order

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the possibility of representing the world order in theologo-political optics based on the doctrine of the katechon as a force restraining the onset of the end of the world. The heuristic potential of this approach is expressed, firstly, in the demonstration of the world order as a spatio-political projection of katechonic temporality, and secondly, in the reception of political realism in the guise of “political katechonism”. For this purpose, a brief historical and hermeneutic digression into the problem of interpretation of the Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians was first carried out and a sketch of conceptual reconstruction was proposed, presenting it as the quintessence of New Testament political realism. The culmination of this tradition is C. Schmitt’s idea of the katechon as a historical force that produces the spatio-temporal order of the Christian empire, the collapse of which led to the transformation of the katechon into a secular security state. The influence of C. Schmitt on the realistic approach to the world order can be traced, in particular, in H. Morgenthau’s perception of the international balance of power systems through the prism of the concept of “the holder of the balance”, which is in reality traced from the concept of “katechon”. The conclusion asserts the idea that there is no alternative in the foreseeable future to the idea of a historical force restraining political anomie on a global scale and delaying the final catastrophe. From this point of view, differing variants of the architecture of the world order do not fundamentally affect its theological (katechonic) foundations.