Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic

84 Pages·2009·36.4 MB·English

by  Cyril O’Regan

THE PERE MAR'Q.UE;rTE •
LECTURE IN THEOLOGY
ltc.·, 2009
THEOLOGY AND THE
SPACES OF APOCALYPTIC
,
CYRIL 0 REGAN
MARQUETTE
UNNERSITY
PRESS
FOREWORD
~~~~ CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA T
he 2009 Pere Marquette Lecture in Theo
O'Regan, Cyril, 1952-
logy is the fortieth in a series commemorat
Theology and the spaces of apocalyptic / Cyril O'Regan.
p. cm. -- (The Pere Marquette lecture in theology; 2009) ing the missions and explorations of Pere
Includes bibliographical references. Jacques Marquette, SJ (1637-75). This series oflec
ISBN-13: 978-0-87462-589-9 (clothbound: alk. paper)
tures was begun in 1969 under the auspices of the
ISBN-lO: 0-87462-589-0 (clothbound: alk. paper)
1. Apocalyptic literature--History and criticism. I. Tide. Marquette University Department of Theology.
BS646.0742009 The Joseph A. Auchter Family Endowment Fund
fA
220' .046--dc22
has endowed the lecture series. Joseph Auchter
2009003255
If·7 (1894-1986), a native of Milwaukee, was a banking
A ]]~2..
and paper industry executive and a long-time sup
porter of education. The fund was established by
©2009
Marquette University Press his children as a memorial to him.
Milwaukee WI 53201-3141
All rights reserved. CYRIL O'REGAN
Born in Ireland, Cyril O'Regan received his BA
Manufactured in the United States of America
Member, Association of American University Presses and MA degrees in Philosophy in the middle to late
1970s at University College Dublin. He studied
Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the De
8The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences partment of Religious Studies at Yale from which
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992.
institution he received his PhD in 1989. He has
rzD-o AssociatIon of American held academic positions at the School of Theol
U~_'"-LJ University Presses
ogy, Saint John's, Collegeville, as well as in the De
MARQUETrE UNIVERSITY PRESS partment of Religious Studies at Yale. For the past
M1I.WAlJKU!
ten years he has been on the faculty of Theology
at the University of Notre Dame, where currently
The AtUiOdalion of Jesuit Universily Presses
6 Cyril O'Regan, Theology 6-the Spaces ofA pocalyptic Robert M. Doran, 5], Foreword 7
he is the Huisking Professor of Theology. Profes Boehme's HauntedNarrative (SUNY, 2002). Trained
sor O'Regan identifies himself as a systematic theo originally as a philosopher, Professor O'Regan has
logian who is interested in a wide variety of topic done considerable work in continental philosophy.
areas and contemporary figures in theology, both He is the author of The Heterodox Hegel (SUNY,
Catholic and Protestant. He is especially interested 1994) as well as numerous other essays on Hegel.
in Trinitarian thought, eschatology, and the vari Another book on Hegel is well under way and is
ety of forms of postmodern theology, and has paid slated to be the third volume of the Gnosticism in
particular attention to modern theologians such as Modernity series. He has published on Heidegger,
Balthasar, Przywara, and de Lubac. He has pub Jean-Luc Marion, and Kant among others.
lished widely on Balthasar, and 2010 will see the Robert M. Doran, SJ
appearance of two large manuscripts on Balthasar's
relation to Hegel and Heidegger respectively. Two
more volumes on Balthasar are planned. In addi
tion, Professor O'Regan has deep historical inter
ests that extend from Newman and the Tiibingen
School in the nineteenth century through Aquinas,
Bonaventure, and Eckhart in the medieval period
to the patristic period. In the patristic period he has
done considerable work on Irenaeus and Augustine.
The areas of mystical theology and clarification of
orthodoxy and heterodoxy are of special interest. In
the area of mystical theology Professor O'Regan has
written on such figures as Maximus and Eckhart,
and is currently working on Ruysbroeck. The sec
ond-century figure Irenaeus is a foundation stone
for his exploration of the return of Gnosticism in
modernity. Two volumes of a planned seven volume
series have thus far appeared: Gnostic Return in Mo
dernity (SUNY, 2001) and Gnostic Apocalypse: Jacob
THEOLOGY AND THE
SPACES OF APOCALYPTIC
,
CYRIL 0 REGAN
HUISKING PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
W ile exceptions may be made for par
ticular brands of political theology, in
general the ascription of apocalyptic
to Christian theological production in the mod
ern and contemporary world is likely to be an
embarrassment for an institution anxious about
its disciplinary credentials and concerned about
its credibility and standing in the modern world.
Regarded as a phenomenon irredeemably past, and
thus anachronistic, when it does make its appear
ance, apocalyptic seems to be the prerogative of the
fringe whose vitriolic condemnation of the pres
ent structure of the world is matched only by the
hysteria announcing a new world order in which
the protagonists are as eloquent as they are vague
about the content of the new. At least as a social
phenomenon, the predilection to apocalyptic has
had more vitality in North America than in Eu-
10 Cyril O'Regan Theology 6-the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 11
rope; in addition to a significant minority being
Nag Hammadi, there is not only widespread skep
I
open to its message, it has found expression in cults
ticism in secular culture about the intelligibility of
and perhaps more innocuously in the literature of
apocalyptic modes, but also not a little question
rapture. Although a distinction between apocalyp
ing within the guild of biblical studies regarding its
ticism as psycho-social reality and apocalyptic as a
justification. Apocalyptic texts, especially ancient
literary discursive phenomenon can in principle be
apocalyptic texts, are curiosities, certainly engag
sustained, the fact of the matter is that apocalypti
ing, maybe even in some respects moving, but their
cism in Western culture is tied to the reading of the
ways of seeing are impossible to us now, and their
Bible, and often quite directly associated with the
prescriptions of practices and forms of life appear
reading of the apocalyptic books, with a focus on
to us ludicrous when not outrightly morally rep
apocalyptic motifs, and above all with a privileging
rehensible. Indeed the state of research on ancient
of the book of Revelation. Albeit marginal and/or
apocalyptic texts evinces an emerging preference
underground, apocalyptic stubbornly refuses to die for non-canonic apocalypses.2 While the reasons
the death that has been assigned it. Although it is
adduced for preference are usually more genetic
not difficult to point to its social location at a dis
than ethical-that is, non-canonic apocalypses give
tance from Christian high culture, still it continues
the interpreter purchase on canonic apocalypses in
to have a measure of vitality, with visions of a world
a way that study of canonic apocalypses alone do
of total corruption demanding radical change that
not - arguably such preference is fueled by the in
cannot but be catastrophic, a sense of being both
terest in getting as much distance as possible from
communally and individually on the razor's edge,
reception in fundamentalist circles of canonic bib
and an exigent sense of a demand for new practices
lical apocalyptic in general and Revelation (book
and forms of life.
of) in particular. This is a view, however, which
Even if apocalyptic is repressed rather than de
prima facie is shared in large part by the modern
feated, there is widespread agreement within the
theological guild as a whole. Here it is not difficult
broader culture as well as in the scholarship which
to espy an introjection of an essentially Enlighten
reflects on it, that a defensive posture is necessary.
ment diagnosis of Revelation as obscurantist and
In a time in which there is an explosion of scholar
fanatical and inclined to violence. Theologians who
ship on ancient apocalyptic, from the apocalypses
speak for the mainline churches do not appear to
of the Qumran community to the apocalypses of
have a wholly different affect than D.H. Lawrence,3
12 Cyril O'Regan Theology & the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 13
who inveighed against Revelation as the bloodiest is precisely calculated to excite suspicion about it
of bloody texts. In any event, the not so subtle mes self and Revelation as its Ur-text. The apocalyptic,
sage is that this strange text, which is a veritable or meta-apocalyptic of Joachim of Fiore (1135-
cornucopia of symbols, and the aggressive trans 1201),4 consists of symbols and proceeds by asso
formative orientation that it represents and recom- ciation and analogy; its code requires translation
mends, should be ignored. \ with no validation procedures available, and incites
One should avoid the implication, howevei;~that change in the political as well as the religious status
once again we are dealing solely with modernity's quo. An Aquinas committed to rational argument
sanitizing of religion and extrusion of otherness. and translucent explication of what have to be ac
A cowardly accommodation with modern culture, cepted as premises in the realms of both reason and
and an uncritical adoption of Enlightenment sup faith offers an influential critique of the apocalyp
positions and/or fears, is surely not the whole story. tic theology of Joachim. According to the Summa,
Throughout its long history, theology has developed Joachim's trinitarianism (1, qq. 39, 43) is as suspect
largely in non-apocalyptic directions that variously as his Christology (3, q. 104), and in granting the
feature doctrine, institution, spiritual and moral kind of autonomy he does to the Spirit, Joachim
disciplines and practices. Even with those inclined also deals a serious blow to the status of the church
to a dose of nostalgia for the early church, there is as representing Christ, and to the efficacy of the
a general recognition that the emergence of catho sacraments (3, qq. 103-106).5 And Bonaventure,6
lic Christianity seriously debilitated, even if it did who is more focused on the realization of the Chris
not sign the death warrant of, biblical apocalyptic, tian life, is similarly exercised by J oachimism, and
already riven by disappointment regarding the par believes that Joachim's departures from an Augus
ousia. This was not the only reason for reservation tinian view of history and eschatology spell disaster
with respect to Revelation in the ancient world, for Christian life as well as thought.
but it was an ingredient in it. Moreover, through The repression of apocalyptic, however, is not
out history, when faced with the prospect of an simply a Catholic phenomenon, as the sad case of
apocalyptically exercised Christian community, the the repression of Thomas Miintzer by followers of
spokespersons of the mainline theological tradition Luther in the sixteenth century eloquently testifies.
took exception to it. The Joachimism rendered so Later outbreaks of apocalyptic discourse in Luther
vibrant by Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose anism came in t?e form of the seventeenth-century
14 Cyril O'Regan Theology 6-the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 15
speculative thinker Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) epic and romance, but the very fact that apocalyp
and the eighteenth-century Pietists Johann Al tic is delegated to the imagination confirms rather
brecht Bengel and Friedrich Christoph Oetinger.? than falsifies the view that contemporary theology
Within the Protestant tradition, Kant famously seems to have build a cordon sanitaire around itself
wrote against enthusiasts,8 and one can read the to repel apocalyptic infection.
great biblical scholar Rudolph Bultmann as adopt
ing a neo-Kantian posture with respect to apoca THE APOCALYPTIC TURN
lyptic when he argues for demythologization. For
With respect to the assimilation of apocalyptic in
nowhere are myth and the cosmological hierarchy
theology, or even more, the construction of a genu
more evident than in apocalyptic texts, which pro
ine apocalyptic theology that continues to have
vide us with an unparalleled vision of divine action
association with high culture, the prospects, then,
in history and thus divine figuration. In the theo
look pretty bleak. There Seems to be a binary op
logical appropriation of Kant, an epistemic is added
position in the modern world between apocalyptic
to an ethical presumption that puts a theological
and the diScipline of theology. Moreover, the his
block on apocalyptic: apocalyptic is unratifiable as
tory of theology seems largely to be the history of
a discourse. Although this doubling is most typical
the marginalization of apocalyptic. On closer look,
of liberal Protestantism, it has by and large been ac
what have been functioning as major and minor
cepted also by Catholic theology. This is, arguably,
conclusions at the very least are in need of qualifi
true of the transcendental turn in Catholic theol
cation. I begin with some questioning of the view
ogy, whereas older, more formal styles of Catholic
that the mainline theological tradition is bereft of
theology exclude apocalyptic on doctrinal and/or
apocalyptic impulse.
ecclesial grounds. And it is no argument against the
A look throughout the centuries reveals that
exile of apocalyptic from current Catholic theol
apocalyptic discourse keeps on returning despite
ogy that the books of C.S. Lewis or Tolkein can
the numerous proclamations of its death and the
legitimately be read as examples of apocalyptic. For
stiff defenses erected against its appearance or re
while both Narnia and Lord of the Rings could be
appearance. I will want to argue that the 'reve
interpreted as improvisation on the book of Revel a
nance,' to use the French word which in modern
tion, not only is Revelation one influence among
discourse means return and haunting, does not
other influences coming from the entire history of
simply apply to the heterodox theological tradi-
16 Cyril O'Regan Theology 6-the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 17
tion, but also - although obviously in an entirely thinkers Bukarhev and the better known Soloviev,13
different way - to the more mainline theological which exercise a significant influence over Eastern
traditions. It is certainly true that apocalyptic finds Orthodox thought in the very different forms of
a number of outlets in high-culture discourses of apocalyptic thinking of Nicholas Berdyaev and Ser
14
heterodox vintage. The replete symbolic and in gei Bulgakov.
terpretive discourse of Joachim of Fiore, which What I have indicated above abbreviates consid
speaks to a new age and state of community, is not erably a very complex story, which has any number
a bad place to start. From there one could proceed of narrators, and two superb Catholic representa
to the manifold apocalyptic discourses of Puritan tives, who take responsibility for the medieval and
England, which find an outlet in Milton's Paradise modern forms of the story. We do not need the im
Lost.9 From there to the highly speculative forms of primatur of Hans Urs von Balthasar to judge that
Protestant apocalyptic instanced by Jacob Boehme one of Henri de Lubac's finest works is his genealo
(seventeenth century), and in the eighteenth cen gy ofJoachimism from the medieval to the modern
tury by Emmanuel Swedenborg, Albrecht Bengel period, La posterite spirituelle de Joachim de Fiore.ls
(1687-1752), and Friedrich Christoph Oetinger This is as comprehensive an account of the trajec
(1702-1782).10 Plausible nineteenth-century stops tory of Joachimism as is available, even if some of
in the heterodox apocalyptic itinerary would in the aspects have been covered by others. And in his
clude the discourses of Romanticism, especially magisterial Apokalypse der deutschen Seele (1937-
that of the visionary William Blake,l1 whose com 39) Balthasar himself adds depth to the apocalyp
mitment to the 'human form divine,'is intended as tic genealogy by characterizing most high-culture
a whole-scale revision of orthodox Christianity; the discourses from the eighteenth century on as being
discourses of German Idealism, that of Schelling as apocalyptic in basic figuration, with the interesting
well as that of Hegel, 12 and perhaps also the various exception of theology. 16 Since both of these afficio
brands of Hegelianism, most notably the apoca nados of the entire Catholica obviously have serious
lyptic allegiances of the Hegelian left, but not en problems with the forms of apocalyptic that they
tirely excepting the right-wing Hegelianism of, for render so well, this could easily give the impression
example, Ferdinand Christian Baur. This trajectory that they both ratify and embrace theology as a non
might be thought to have a possible terminus in apocalyptic discipline. It is, however, far from clear
the apocalyptic discourses of the Russian religious that the resistance to apocalyptic in their case or
18 Cyril O'Regan Theology & the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 19
another entails a commitment to a non-apocalyptic have it, is superbly the righteous and merciful
form of theology. Indeed, from a logical point of lord of history. Allowing for the interpretive and
view it is possible that theological discourses can be ecclesial shift, Balthasar suggests what others more
or even should be more rather than less apocalyptic nearly demonstrate, that Against Heresies is in ef
in order to function adequately as a diagnostic and fect Christian apocalyptic by other means, indeed,
refutation of apocalyptic forms of thought. More of a form that itself suffers significant marginalization
this later. in later centuries despite the importance ofIrenaeus
The question arises: is there only a heterodox tra both as a doctrinal theologian and as a theologian
dition of apocalyptic theology? An unequivocal af deeply committed to salvation history and a trini
firmative answer seems unwarranted. For example, tarian scoping of it. As is well-known, apocalyptic
it seems evident that one can make a case that Ire is not entirely unknown in subsequent centuries, as
naeus's Against Heresies is in some significant ways the case of Lactantius suggests.IB Lactantius seems
an apocalyptic text,17 with the Book of Revelation . to have in play many - if not most - of the features
playing an important role in defeating Valentinian that characterize biblical apocalyptic: vision of the
ism as a spurious form of apocalyptic. While the late pattern and meaning of history; sense ~f God as
second-century text Against Heresies lacks a typical sovereign judge, imminent expectation in terms of
feature of apocalyptic, the arrogation of authority the 'hour' and 'now' tradition of apocalyptic of the
to a 'seer,' in its interpretive rather than 'originary' Synoptic Gospels and the Pauline Writings (1 and
economy it articulates many of the most salient 2 Thessalonians inter alia), and the sense of the re
features of apocalyptic: a view of history in which quirements of radical decision with respect to prac
fundamental decision is called for by communi tice and form of life.
ties and individuals; a view of the church as both Lactantius, however, is an interesting, but at best
persecuted but also subject to intellectual seduc somewhat marginal figure, and does not really help
tion by narrative-speculative counterfeits that ei to make the case that apocalyptic has a reserve in
ther dissolve traditional Christian practices (prayer, the mainline theological tradition as such. Now
hospitality, table fellowship) or metaphorize others while ultimate characterization of Augustine's the
The
(baptism) and rule out specifically Christian forms ology as a whole, and even of City o/God alone,
of life (e.g., martyrdom); a figuration of God, who may prove elusive, one might do well to avoid the
far from 'lying against time,' as the Gnostics would stereotype that this text more nearly represents the
20 Cyril O'Regan Theology 6-the Spaces ofA pocalyptic 21
overcoming of apocalyptic than a highly significant instructive, in the theological tradition, Augustin
improvisation.19 It is true that Augustine's great ian theology possessed the negative capability of
text puts an exclamation point to the relenting of continuing apocalyptic within the mainline theo
expectation of an imminent end. It is equally true logical tradition. Very much under the influence of
that when Augustine is deployed by both Aquinas de Lubac, Pope Benedict XVI is very interesting in
and Bonaventure to cull the chiliastic apocalyptic this respect. His early work on the eschatology of
ofJoachim, he tends to get constructed anachronis Bonaventure allows for two competing interpreta
tically not only as an ecclesial theologian (which all tions:20 the first, that Bonaventure represents a for
apocalyptic theologians are), but as an ecclesiastical mally correct antidote to Joachimite apocalyptic,
theologian. Yet, it is not evident that the criterion and the second, that bathing in the same apocalyp
used to forbid Augustine 'apocalyptic' ascription is tic waters as Joachim, Bonaventure's thought repre
decisive, since it is not clear that the presence or sents a visionary and thus apocalyptic answer from
absence of this feature of expectation of imminent within the magisterial tradition. However, even
end trumps all the other features that are generally if the first option was the one that on exegetical
found in apocalyptic texts. Most often the case for grounds best conformed to Bonaventure's texts, one
a non-apocalyptic reading is not explicitly argued, can certainly see in the late medieval period other
and may, indeed, be unarguable. In The City ofG od kinds of replies to Joachim and Joachimism that
Augustine clearly puts himself in the situation of a have significant Bonaventurean coloration. Here I
reader of the signs of the times, who is obedient to am thinking especially of the Divina Commedia.21
the words of scripture (apocalyptic in the herme For this to be plausibly true, one would have to
neutic mode), who not only speaks against perse read Dante's great text both (i) from the point of
cution and expresses the hope for peace, but also view of the Paradiso, in which genuine community
speaks out against the parade of the similitudes of is figured as normative precisely because it is escha
truth in history. That one can reasonably read the tological, and (ii) with the view that the temporal
text, then, as something like an application ofReve ization into 'before' and 'after' of pre- and post-es
lation is most evident in Books 20-22 in which Au chatological cannot be firm, since one of the effects
gustine attempts a hermeneutic of Revelation with of the Commedia is a radical transformation of our
a focus on the end. One can argue that to the extent behavior in the here and now before a God who, if
to which this text was productive, and not simply ineluctably merciful, is also just.