On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Bunbury wrote:
> Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 21:23:35 -0400
> From: Bunbury <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: RE: history and apocalyptic prophecy - was Book of Revelation topics
>
> At 12:19 PM 10/6/99 -0400, Michael F. Hynes wrote:
> >All we can do is have faith that at the
> >level of the transcendent our experiences do indeed have meaning. The locus
> >classicus of all this is R.A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the
> >Theology of St. Augustine (Cambridge, 1970). Augustine's views won out in
> >large measure because of the power and cogency of his argument.
>
> And perhaps in small measure because historicist apocalypticism no longer
> served an institutionalized church that enjoyed increasing social dominance?
>
> Tom Long
>
Since Augustine wrote the City of God while the Western Empire was
collapsing, and when the "barbarians at the gates" often were Arians, I
am not certain that this line of reasoning applies. One might expect
rather to see apocalypticism more prevalent in that period. Instead,
Augustine transfers the focus to a higher plane, away from the
sacralization of the imperial institutions failing to protect church and
populace.
Tom Izbicki
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