The Lost Antiquity and Permanent Present: Understanding of History in the "Western and Middle Eastern Tradition
The Lost Antiquity and Permanent Present: Understanding of History in the "Western and Middle Eastern Tradition

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays the Western mass media continue to explain many processes in the world (including the tragic events in the Middle East) "historically", linking them to a certain tradition, type of culture, etc. However, how important is actually the past in the collective consciousness of the Middle East? And to what extent historical identity is only an ideological construct of the West? The task of the article was to compare the place and meaning of history (and the past) in the intellectual tradition of the Middle East (Islam) and the West (Christianity). For this purpose, the historical method was used, and conclusions were made on the basis of historical reasoning. At the same time, hermeneutic approach of textual analysis was used when analysing religious texts, that can be interpreted differently, concrning sources related to specific religious and philosophical traditions.

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