Approaching the apocalypse : a short history of Christian millenarianism

248 Pages·2008·1.3 MB·English

by  Court

Approaching
the Apocalypse
About the Author
John M. Court was formerly Senior Lecturer in Theology and
Religious Studies and Head of Department at the University of Kent
at Canterbury. He is the author and editor of many books, which
include: The New Testament World, Reading the New Testament,The
Book of Revelation and the Johannine Apocalyptic Tradition and The
Penguin Dictionary of the Bible.
Approaching
the Apocalypse:
a short history of
christian millenarianism
John M. Court
Published in 2008 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright © John M. Court, 2008
The right of John M. Court to be identified as the author of this work has
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Biblical quotations in this volume have been taken from the New Revised
Standard Version.
This wide-ranging and accessible study of millennial thought and its im-
plications for Christian history is part of the necessary rehabilitation of a
doctrine whose significance for the intellectual history of Christianity has too
often been relegated to the margins of scholarly concern. John Court’s broad
knowledge and thorough treatment make a welcome contribution to a better
appreciation of this important feature of Christian theology. His book spans
two thousand years and focuses on a number of the key issues, such as the
biblical origins of millennialism, Montanism, the significance of the mark-
ing of the first millennium, the impact of Joachite ideas and the millennial
dynamic of North American Christianity. Christian theologians down the
centuries may have liked to think that they had dispensed with the doctrine
of the millennium by showing how it misrepresented the New Testament.
The widespread influence of such ideas only demonstrates the impossibility
of pinning down such an allusive apocalyptic image and the pervasiveness of
themes with millennial import in the foundation texts of Christianity.
Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture,
University of Oxford
From the book of Daniel to the Left Behind novels of Tim LaHaye and Jerry
Jenkins, John M. Court’s Approaching the Apocalypse offers a fascinating his-
tory of the startling idea of the end of days within Western cultural history.
Covering a wealth of different historical and textual material, and opening
a window onto 2000 years of Christian eschatological thinking, this lively
survey ought to be recommended reading for undergraduate and graduate
courses in both apocalyptic ideas and millenarian movements.
John Walliss, Director, Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies and Senior
Lecturer in the Sociology of Religion, Liverpool Hope University
With the modern-day interpreters of the book of Revelation that it generates,
the colourful language that it uses of Rapture and Armageddon and its pre-
occupation with the state of Israel, Christian millenarianism makes a major
impact on contemporary politics and religion. Millenarianism is as intriguing
to general readers as it is to students of the Bible and Christian history. This
short book usefully explains key elements of its discourse and the diversity of
ideas within it. John Court helps interested non-specialists, as well as under-
graduate students new to the field, to negotiate both the history of apocalyp-
tic expectation in the West and otherwise confusing terms such as pre- and
postmillenarian. Without overloading the reader with information, he has
succeeded in writing an accessible, compact introduction to selected millenar-
ian themes, personages and movements from the Bible to the present day.
Christine Trevett, Professor of Religious and Theological Studies, University of
Cardiff and author of Montanism: Gender, Authority and the New Prophecy

We are to remove mountains and bring the millennium, because
then we can have a quiet moment to discuss whether
the millennium is at all desirable.
G.K.Chesterton, Charles Dickens
I can’t see why there’s all this fuss about the human race
perhaps being wiped out in the near future.
It certainly deserves to be.
Attributed to Philip Larkin, at least by Kingsley Amis
When mankind’s number is up there may be some bangs, but for
all our artistically epic fantasies, we’ll shuffle off with a whimper.
Marina Hyde on Armageddon, Guardian, 13 December 2005
To those that teach a personall comming of Christ, and a
resurrection of the just, to live and raigne with Christ a thousand
yeares, before the resurrection of the uniust and end of the world.
Of which there bee severall sorts, who are commonly
called Millinaries.
Part of the title of a work by ‘I.E.’, London, 1641

Contents
Preface xiii
I Introduction 1
Definitions of the key terms, with a general outline of the
history of the idea of the Millennium and of millenarian
expectations.
II The Roots of the Idea 13
Broader considerations about future hopes and fears, as well as
the issues associated with the calculation of time.
III The Biblical Basis 25
Which are the primary texts? An examination of the Old
Testament context and the New Testament texts of Mark 13,
1 and 2 Thessalonians, and the book of Revelation.
IV The Return of Christ 41
Classifications of the Biblical expectations of the Parousia,
premillennial or postmillennial expectations and the Last
Judgement.
V Millenarians Among the Church Fathers 51
An examination of the challenge of Montanism and a glance at
Christian apologetics.
VI Apocalypse Then: The Year 1000 61
A survey of the contemporary evidence for ‘the terrors of the
year 1000’, associated with apocalyptic expectation of a literal
fulfilment of millennial Biblical prophecies, and also for the
highly dismissive ‘a year like any other’ view.
x Contents
VII Joachim of Fiore (C.1135–1202 CE) 71
A look at the figure who presented a highly sophisticated
example of the calendrical calculation of the world’s end: he
claimed prophetic inspiration in the form of a key to interpret
the Bible as a pattern of world history in three ages, presided
over by the Holy Trinity.
VIII The Black Death and Other Plagues 81
An examination of apocalyptic signs of the approaching End
ranging from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries,
including plagues, fire and earthquakes. A glance at the Black
Death, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe and the
Great Fire of London.
IX Apocalypse and Civil War
(1500 CE and after) 93
A consideration of evidence for the significance of the year
1500, including a look at Botticelli, Columbus, Dürer and
the reading of works of Dante. This is followed by a reflection
on sixteenth-century millennialism (including the work of
Mercator) and, subsequently, the politics of Oliver Cromwell
and the activities of the Levellers and Diggers.
X Edward Irving (1792–1834 CE) and the
Catholic Apostolic movement 111
A look at a Church of Scotland minister with a fashionable
middle-class London congregation who engrossed himself
in applying the prophecies of Revelation to the years that
followed the French Revolution, whose followers formed the
Catholic Apostolic Church.
XI Across the Pond 119
An investigation of the Millerites in America, beginning with the
calendrical calculations of William Miller (1782−1849 ce), moving
to the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
XII Joanna Southcott (1750–1814 CE) and 131
Her Followers
An exploration of an English prophetess of the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century who sealed up several of her
prophecies in a box that, she insisted, was to be opened in
a time of national crisis by a gathering of 24 bishops of the
Church of England.