Revelation and Discovery: The Case of Columbus (Religious and Cultural Aspects of Geographical Discoveries)

Abstract

In modern humanities, issues related to geographical discoveries of Modern times remain insufficiently studied, although it is in the process of discovering new lands that the deep essence of modern civilization is revealed, its hidden development potentials activated precisely during travels that expanded the idea of the planet's territory. Through the unique figure X . Columbus examines the unique concepts of the discovery of the new in the spatial movement to the undiscovered lands. In order to clarify the hidden cultural and transformative potentials of civilization, Columbus' gradual realization of his vocation as the discoverer of new worlds is analyzed in chronological order. The subject of the analysis is Columbus' spiritual attitude to the discovery of new spaces of the world, thereby analyzing the possibilities of religious consciousness for the transformation of reality. In the course of the research analysis, the possibility and the right of religious worldview to a real change in the established ideas of novelty are revealed. The article substantiates the thesis that Columbus's desire to discover the new as a representative of a changing civilization was based on the Christian position on the expansion of the concept of novelty, which received a special impetus during the life of Columbus. Geographical discoveries of the New Time, in the author's opinion, appear as a form of realization of the aspiration for the new inherent in Christianity, demonstrate the potentials of transformation of the surrounding reality inherent in the Christian system of values. The conceptual assessment of Modern travel presented by the author allows us to talk about the expansion of ideas about the world in the traditionally Christian sense, when the world appears as a multifaceted mystery, which, of course, can not be solved, but to see the greatness of this mystery and its versatility. The illustrative and culturological material presented in the article is intended to argue the thesis about the spatial "effectiveness" of Christianity, to show that the worldview based on the Christian system of values determined the impulse to discover new lands, to expand the boundaries of ideas about the world.