At 08:19 PM 10/7/99 -0400, you wrote:
>At 12:50 PM 10/7/99 -0400, Tom Izbicki wrote:
>>The reason for the composition of Revelation might have gone away, but
>>Apocalypticism seems to find renewed strength in other adversities.
apocalypse will always return, no matter how badly it does (eg Millerite
farmers with no crops in 1844), because it appeals to our innate sense of
justice (God wdn't let the current inequities continue forever) and our innate
narcissism (God chose us -- me! -- to be present at, to participate in the
final resolution of the cosmic battle btwn good and evil). obviously such
sentiments are not appealing to everyone, but they are a great combination and
will always frind takers.
>So
>>the puzzle is why Augustine did not find that a recourse in his own age of
>>stress.
augustine was the great horned owl of his age, reacting to the almost universal
reaction of apocalyptic panic -- antichrist is here! -- after the gothic
seizure of rome in 410. augustine tried to hold the line. the amazing thing
is a) there were so few of the owls at this time, even in the church hierarchy,
and b) historians think of augustine as the "shepherd of his generation," when
the "victory" of his anti-apocalyptic views was clearly posthumous (ie after
the passage of time had proved him right). we historians repeatedly make the
error in apocalyptic matters of privileging those whom time proved right (and
whom the sources, written and preserved by those who knew this, privilege),
rather than think about who held sway in their day.
>I share your puzzlement to some degree. There's no question that "relative
>deprivation" prompts apocalyptic imaginings. (My neighbor Pat Robertson is
>one of Virginia's wealthiest and most influential citizens, yet apocalyptic
>logic makes sense for him because he reads the "signs of the times" as
>ominous.)
his apocalyptic reading of the times probably precedes his wealth, and his
current interest can be explained, at least partially, in the enthusiastic
audience that he gets and who donate so much to his cause. if he is really
apocalyptic, then we'll see him act in much stranger ways than we've seen so
far. my guess is that people like robertson will not want to rock so
successful a boat with genuine apocalyptic behavior.
>Might Alaric's raiding party have seemed less cataclysmic to the
>provincial Augustine than to Italians (or certainly Romans)?
it obviously hit the romans the worst -- esp the aristocratic romans who showed
up on the shores of n.africa with their bitter complaints about how it was all
the fault of the arrogant and theocratic xns. but jerome is speechless in
bethlehem and all over the roman xn world, the incident looks like the
fulfillment of the apoc prophecy that when rome falls the "obstacle" to
antichrist (II Thessalonians 2:4) will be released.
rlandes
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