Ivan Franko’s Exegi Monumentum

Abstract

The author discusses Ivan Franko’s poem Moses, regarded by Yurii Sherekh as the „Second Testament” of Ukrainian literature. This positive opinion of the Moses stimulates research interests. Using the methods of comparative contextual hermeneutics, the author analyses Ivan Franko’s specific “theology of hope” in the historical literary and philosophical theological context. He argues that the basis for hope in Franko’s philosophical reflection upon history was the Old Testament eschatology, born from God’s covenant with Israel and from the faith in a liberating-salvation mission of Moses. He draws special attention to the prophetic meaning of the Prologue and the poet’s references to the figure of Moses.