Cultural History of Apocalyptic Thought / Kulturgeschichte der Apokalypse
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Edited by:
Catherine Feik
For more than 2,000 years, apocalyptic notions of doom and salvation, of Last Things and ultimate truths, of final destruction and renewal have been part of the cultural foundations upon which European societies were built. The series Cultural History of Apocalyptic Thought presents a diverse and interdisciplinary approach from the perspective of historical, social and cultural sciences, emphasizing contemporary epistemic, medial, and political contexts. It aims to trace the social dynamics and discursive strategies behind apocalyptic notions in order to shed light on the dynamic relations between processes of identification and apocalyptic interpretations. In doing so, the series encourages both authors and readers to break with uniform readings of so-called apocalyptic traditions, and also to engage with cross-cultural comparison in different religious and geographical contexts.
The “fall” of Rome continues to rouse great interest. This book analyzes eschatological concepts in this late antique period of upheaval, exploring potential apocalyptic interpretations tied to a new understanding of earthly power. It focuses on the extent to which the concept of apocalypse can be understood as an interpretative framework and a crisis-management strategy that did more than simply predict the end of the world.
This volume expands the cultural history of the apocalypse to include the history of the media techniques of apocalyptic thought, perception, and action. It rests on the hypothesis that every contemplation of the world and its possible end, as with every expression of the apocalypse, goes back to technologically and historically contingent modalities of world experience.
In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions.
The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic invasion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Buddhism. Examining apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology in medieval Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities, the contributions paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time scenarios and provide their readers with a broad array of source material from different historical contexts.
The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, examines the formation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions, and the role they played as vehicles for defining a community’s religious and political enemies. The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatology: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. It also analyses modern readings and interpretations of eschatological concepts.
How can one address the multiple themes linked to the "apocalypse" – the end days, the last judgment, Armageddon, catastrophe, as well as personal revelation and collective disillusionment? How should we understand pre-modern and "secular" notions of the end days? This study offers a cultural critique, exploring the conditions surrounding "apocalyptic" knowledge and vision.
The articles investigate European notions of the apocalypse from late antiquity to the 21st century. Oriented to cultural studies, the volume contains three chapters on modernity and three chapters on the early modern era and the Middle Ages. The articles address a number of themes, including forms of the Almighty, medial regulation, thoughts on contingency, typological schemata, differences, community, and time frames.
During the Reformation and the massive conflicts surrounding the church and important questions of faith, the idea of the end of the world also gained in significance. Various reform movements interpreted events, opponents, and also themselves as apocalyptical waypoints and used them to justify their teachings. The resulting end-times discourse is the object of study in this volume.
