The End of the World in Medieval Thought and Spirituality

Description

This essay collection studies the Apocalypse and the end of the world, as these themes occupied the minds of biblical scholars, theologians, and ordinary people in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Early Modernity. It opens with an innovative series of studies on “Gendering the Apocalypse,” devoted to the texts and contexts of the apocalyptic through the lens of gender. A second section of essays studies the more traditional problem of “Apocalyptic Theory and Exegesis,” with a focus on authors such as Augustine of Hippo and Joachim of Fiore. A final series of essays extends the thematic scope to “The Eschaton in Political, Liturgical, and Literary Contexts.” In these essays, scholars of history, theology, and literature create a dialogue that considers how fear of the end of the world, among the most pervasive emotions in human experience, underlies a great part of Western cultural production. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Jessica A. Boon, Eric Knibbs)....Pages 1-14 Front Matter ....Pages 15-15 The Sobered Sibyl: Gender, Apocalypse, and Hair in Dio Chrysostom’s Discourse 1 and the Shepherd of Hermas (Mary R. D’Angelo)....Pages 17-40 The Marian Apocalyptic of a Visionary Preacher: The Conorte of Juana de la Cruz, 1481–1534 (Jessica A. Boon)....Pages 41-67 The City Coming Down Out of Heaven (Rev. 21:10): Bologna as Jerusalem (Gabriella Zarri)....Pages 69-89 Front Matter ....Pages 91-91 Risen to Judgment: What Augustine Saw (Francine Cardman)....Pages 93-133 Berengaudus on the Apocalypse (Eric Knibbs)....Pages 135-162 Apocalypticism and Mysticism in Joachim of Fiore’s Expositio in Apocalypsim (Bernard McGinn)....Pages 163-196 Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias’s Tratado dela verdadera y falsa prophecia (1588) and the Influence of Medieval Apocalyptic Traditions in Post-Tridentine Spain (James F. Melvin)....Pages 197-223 Front Matter ....Pages 225-225 The End of the World as They Knew It? Jews, Christians, Samaritans and End-Time Speculation in the Fifth Century (Ross S. Kraemer)....Pages 227-250 End Time at Hand: Innocent III, Joachim of Fiore, and the Fourth Crusade (Marcia L. Colish)....Pages 251-279 The End of a Single World: The Sacrament of Extreme Unction in Scholastic Thought (Lesley Smith)....Pages 281-313 Religious and Amorous “Apocalypses” in John Donne’s Metaphysical Imagination (Angela Locatelli)....Pages 315-338 Back Matter ....Pages 339-380