The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature

Colin McAllister

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108534222
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Jewish and Christian apocalypses have captivated theologians, writers, artists, and the general public for centuries, and have had a profound influence on world history from their initial production by persecuted Jews during the second century BCE, to the birth of Christianity - through the demise of the Western Roman Empire and the medieval period, and continuing into modernity. Far from being an outlier concern, or an academic one that may be relegated to the dustbin of history, apocalyptic thinking is ubiquitous and continues to inform nearly all aspects of modern-day life. It addresses universal human concerns: the search for identity and belonging, speculation about the future, and (for some) a blueprint that provides meaning and structure to a seemingly chaotic world. The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature brings together a field of leading experts to provide a comprehensive overview of the subject.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Through a Glass Darkly: Time, the End, and the Essence of Apocalyptica
• 2 Apocalypticism as a Worldview in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
• 3 Introduction to the Book of Revelation
• 4 The Gnostic Apocalypses
• 5 Exegeting the Apocalypse with the Donatist Communion
• 6 Tests of Faith, Rebirth out of Corruption, or Endless Cycles of Regeneration: Experiments in the Restoration of the Late Roman Empire
• 7 Latin Reception of the Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages
• 8 Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the Tenth Century
• 9 The End of the World at the Ends of the Earth: Apocalyptic Thought in Medieval Ireland
• 10 Byzantine Apocalyptic Literature
• 11 Joachim of Fiore and the Apocalyptic Revival of the Twelfth Century
• 12 Apocalyptic Sensibility in Renaissance Europe
• 13 ''Pride & Vanity of the Imagination, That Disdains to Follow This World's Fashion'': Apocalypticism in the Age of Reason
• 14 The Formation of Antichrist in Medieval Western Christian Thought
• 15 From Dabiq to Jerusalem: Trajectories of Contemporary Salafi-jihadi Apocalypticism
• 16 American Evangelicals and the Apocalypse
• 17 Apocalypticism in the Contemporary World
• Appendix: Early Medieval Commentaries on the Apocalypse
• Index