Old Scandinavian and Christian Eschatology (original) (raw)
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Cultures of Eschatology, 2 Vols., 2020
See all contributions OA here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110597745/html 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 expansion 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.
Toward an Interreligious Eschatology: Hermeneutical, Methodological, and Systematic Considerations
Barbato, Melanie/Schneider, Mathias/Völker, Fabian (eds.): Beyond Boundaries. Essays on Theology, Dialogue, and Religion in Honor of Perry Schmidt-Leukel (Münster/New York: Waxmann, 2024), 87-97., 2024
Socio-Historical Implications of Eschatological Elements in the Scandinavian Myths, the
The battle-maiden " Eschatology " is often accompanied by her sister " Utopia. " For agricultural peoples such as the Vikings, the end things were part of a cyclical occurrence. Binary good and evil did not exist, and every few years the world as it was known had to be destroyed to bring about something different. This new world did not have to necessarily be better or worse, just different and renewed. In the Nibelungenlied, a product of medieval feudal society whose success depended upon respect of authority and domination of nature and chaotic forces of " evil, " the end of the cosmos was not at stake. However, the reader is impressed with the necessity of following one's betters to the point of death in order to maintain the rules of honor and the privilege of nobility. Wagner presents us with an eschatology that topples the hierarchy of command, criticizing its inconsistencies and its " empire built on treaties, " in order to elevate and empower the commoner. Eschatological elements dominate these stories, promising tragic endings that suggest the author's and the audience's cultural context, ideals of social order, as well as Utopian values that will reign following the tragic ending. Much like earlier Nordic peoples would proudly trace themselves back to Sigurd the Volsung, son of Odin, Middle High Germans could trace their history back to Siegfried as their heroic and magical cultural ancestor, and the 19 th Century German revolutionary movements found legitimacy within the narrative of Wagner's Ring Cycle.
Eschatology in a Secular Age: An Examination of the Use of Eschatology in the Philosophies of
2013
Babylonian "Combat myth" (Gattung), 2 whose themes included "primal time" (Urzeit), "end-time" (Endzeit), creation and new creation (Clifford 2003:3). 3 These dramatic narratives were ancient Near Eastern way of thinking "philosophically" about the world. Clifford notes, Retelling one basic narrative in slightly different versions enabled ancients to reflect about the governance of the world and explain the course of history, especially the history of their own nation. Their era took for granted the existence and power of the gods and factored them into their reflection, as our era takes for granted and reckons with a different (and less ultimate) range of forces, for example, the power of ideas, of free trade, of energy resources. To do philosophy, theology, and political theory, modern thinkers employ the genre of the discursive essay rather than the narrative of the combat myth. Despite the differences, one should not forget that ancients and moderns share an interest in ultimate causes and both are intent on explaining the cosmos, the nature of evil, and the validity and the functions of basic institutions. Apocalyptic literature at bottom is not bizarre and opaque, but is rather a narrative way of reflecting about theology, philosophy, and history, and of inculcating a way of life. (2003:26) Central to ancient Mesopotamian eschatological understanding was the interpretation of the movements of the astrological constellations. The practice of astrology in ancient Babylon goes back to 3000 BCE. The Babylonian "Dominion of the Zodiac" consisted of the number twelve, which represented their gods. Twelve divisions were assigned time values of one-thousand years each to form the Dominion of the 2 See Hermann Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit and Endzeit: Eine religiongeschichtliche Untersuchung über Gen 1 Ap Joh 12 where he argues that Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 are adaptations of traditions ultimately from Babylon. Gunkel argued that apocalyptic literature was rooted in The Combat Myth was the normal way of thinking about the world. Examples of Mesopotamian myths include Lugal-e, Anzu, and Enuma elish. Later discoveries (from 1929) of Ugartic, Sumerian and Akkadian texts have demonstrate a link, according to Clifford, to the Biblical apocalyptic literature. "Creation" accounts were not typically of the physical order, but what emerged from the victory of a successful God was a populated universe of organized human society in service to the gods and king. 3 "Prophetic" texts from Mesopotamia typically begin with the phrase "a prince shall arise" which are prophecies after the fact (vaticinia ex eventu). Clifford notes that passages from Daniel, I Enoch, and the Sibylline Oracles follow this style. The prophecies show that "the apocalypticists were anthologists, borrowing genres such as the post-factum prediction to demonstrate that the course of history was under God's control and that in their day history as they knew it had come to an end and a new ages was about to dawn." The most relevant themes from these early works which influence the later apocalyptic literature are cosmic threat and new creation.
2013
Babylonian "Combat myth" (Gattung), 2 whose themes included "primal time" (Urzeit), "end-time" (Endzeit), creation and new creation (Clifford 2003:3). 3 These dramatic narratives were ancient Near Eastern way of thinking "philosophically" about the world. Clifford notes, Retelling one basic narrative in slightly different versions enabled ancients to reflect about the governance of the world and explain the course of history, especially the history of their own nation. Their era took for granted the existence and power of the gods and factored them into their reflection, as our era takes for granted and reckons with a different (and less ultimate) range of forces, for example, the power of ideas, of free trade, of energy resources. To do philosophy, theology, and political theory, modern thinkers employ the genre of the discursive essay rather than the narrative of the combat myth. Despite the differences, one should not forget that ancients and moderns share an interest in ultimate causes and both are intent on explaining the cosmos, the nature of evil, and the validity and the functions of basic institutions. Apocalyptic literature at bottom is not bizarre and opaque, but is rather a narrative way of reflecting about theology, philosophy, and history, and of inculcating a way of life. (2003:26) Central to ancient Mesopotamian eschatological understanding was the interpretation of the movements of the astrological constellations. The practice of astrology in ancient Babylon goes back to 3000 BCE. The Babylonian "Dominion of the Zodiac" consisted of the number twelve, which represented their gods. Twelve divisions were assigned time values of one-thousand years each to form the Dominion of the 2 See Hermann Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit and Endzeit: Eine religiongeschichtliche Untersuchung über Gen 1 Ap Joh 12 where he argues that Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 are adaptations of traditions ultimately from Babylon. Gunkel argued that apocalyptic literature was rooted in The Combat Myth was the normal way of thinking about the world. Examples of Mesopotamian myths include Lugal-e, Anzu, and Enuma elish. Later discoveries (from 1929) of Ugartic, Sumerian and Akkadian texts have demonstrate a link, according to Clifford, to the Biblical apocalyptic literature. "Creation" accounts were not typically of the physical order, but what emerged from the victory of a successful God was a populated universe of organized human society in service to the gods and king. 3 "Prophetic" texts from Mesopotamia typically begin with the phrase "a prince shall arise" which are prophecies after the fact (vaticinia ex eventu). Clifford notes that passages from Daniel, I Enoch, and the Sibylline Oracles follow this style. The prophecies show that "the apocalypticists were anthologists, borrowing genres such as the post-factum prediction to demonstrate that the course of history was under God's control and that in their day history as they knew it had come to an end and a new ages was about to dawn." The most relevant themes from these early works which influence the later apocalyptic literature are cosmic threat and new creation.