Zombies and Deconstruction of the Christian Resurrection: An Eschatological Timeline of Doomsday Rhetoric (original) (raw)

The End of the World . . . Again? Apocalypticism in Medieval Christianity

A study of millennial expectation and spirituality in the Middle Ages, focusing on Anselmian, Franciscan, and female cloistered spirituality. The paper argues that eschatological expectation in the Middle Ages is less important as a theological trope, and more as a motivator for spiritual and social transformation. [Forthcoming in Apocalypses in Context, ed. Murphy and Schedtler, Fortress Press 2016]

Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism (Mediaeval Studies)

2014

Apocalypticism is a worldview. It is a fundamental cognitive orientation that makes axiomatic claims about the nature of time, space, and human existence. In the apocalyptic pattern of thought, time is linear and history is finite. Space consists of two realities, transcendent and mundane. The transcendent reality is traditionally equated with God or heaven. Mundane or everyday reality is shaped by the historic conflict between two irreducible and antagonistic forces, typically good and evil.

Revising the Revelation: Early Modern Appropriations of Medieval Apocalypticism

Brill Companion to Medieval Apocalypticism

by New England Congregationalist minister Michael Wigglesworth, a Calvinist representation of Judgment Day. First published in Boston in 1662, The Day of Doom went through multiple editions (the first two of which are extant only in fragments, described as being literally read to

The apocalyptic thought in the early Church as a response to the fears in the 21st century

Polonia Sacra, 2024

The apocalyptic thought in the early Church as a response to the fears in the 21st century This article concerns the Christian understanding of the concept of “apocalypse.” It presents an original way of renewing eschatological thought in the modern world. Current events, social movements and ideologies are often seen as apocalyptic phenomena, because they instill fear, hopelessness, and a false understanding of God. The focus is on the issue of the apocalyptic thought of the early Church, its essence being faith in the resurrection and second coming of Jesus Christ. Based on the theological analyses of the apocalyptic doctrine of the early Church and the Revelation (Apocalypse) of John, the author proposes a method to overcome the fears people are experiencing in the 21st century. The cure for all fears is hope, which is a constitutive element of the Christian apocalyptic thought.

Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages

Sixteenth Century Journal, 2000

Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages Eugen Weber Apocalyptic visions and prophecies from Zarathustra to yesterday form the luxuriant panorama in Eugen Weber's profound and elegant book. Beginning with the ancients of the West and the Orient and, especially, with those from whom we received our religions, the Jews and earliest Christians, Weber finds that an absolute belief in the end of time, when good would do final battle with evil, was omnipresent. Within centuries, apocalyptic beliefs inspired Crusades, scientific discoveries, works of art, voyages such as those of Columbus, rebellions and reforms. In the new world, American abolitionists, who were so critical to the movement to end slavery, believed in a final reckoning. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries' apocalyptic movements veered toward a lunatic fringe, and Weber rescues them from obloquy. From this more than two millennia history, he redresses the historical and religious amnesia that has consigned the study of apocalypses and millennial thought to the ash heap of thought and belief.

THE DEATH OF EVERYONE: ROBERT LIFTON, CHRIS TIAN THEOLOGY AND APOCALYPTIC IMAGERY

Horizons: Journal of the College Theology Society, 1986

This paper explores an issue raised by psychologist Robert Lifton in The Broken Connection. Lifton believes the present threat of total extinction through nuclear war has drastically affected humanity's ability to reconnect life and death, and to make individual death meaningful. The death of everyone-as an imaginable possibilitydefeats all expressions of "symbolic immortality," affirmations of continuity and hope. How has Christian theology met this predicament? Twentiethcentury history has been so menacing and overwhelming that some theologians have found in apocalyptic-eschatological imagery the most appropriate framework to encounter that history and discern its spiritual meaning. Yet this imagery, even when de-lit e rali zed, pro vides at best ambiguous answers. Early twentieth-century theology-Schweitzer, Case-recognized the importance of apocalyptic thought for the New Testament, but easily repudiated this for contemporary life. In contrast, later thinkers such as Cullman, Brunner, and Moltmann make extensive use of eschatological imag ery. However, they face the problem raised by Lifton: how to make "hope" vivid to readers already gripped by a future of possible uni versal catastrophe.