Apocalypse Now: Connected Histories of Eschatological Movements from Moscow to Cusco, 15th–18th Centuries

Description

Eschatology played a central role in both politics and society throughout the early modern period. It inspired people to strive for social and political change, including sometimes by violent means, and prompted in return strong reactions against their religious activism. From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, numerous apocalyptical and messianic movements came to the fore across Eurasia and North Africa, raising questions about possible interconnections. Why were eschatological movements so pervasive in early modern times? This volume provides some answers to this question by exploring the interconnected histories of confessions and religions from Moscow to Cusco. It offers a broad picture of Christian and, to a lesser extent, Jewish and Islamic eschatological movements from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, thereby bridging important and long-standing gaps in the historiography. Apocalypse Now will appeal to both researchers and students of the history of early modern religion and politics in the Christian, Jewish and Islamic worlds. By exploring connections between numerous eschatological movements, it gives a fresh insight into one of the most promising fields of European and global history. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface Introduction Eschatological Movements in Judaism and Christianity (Fifteenth–Eighteenth Centuries) A Shared Jewish-Christian History Fitting Islam into the Picture Character and Focus of the Book Notes Part I: Reformations Chapter 1: Táborite Revolutionary Apocalypticism: Mapping Influences and Divergences Background and Problems The Waldensians The Free Spirit Joachim of Fiore and Joachites John Wyclif and the Lollards Other Notable Sources The Place of Christian Platonism Conclusion Notes Chapter 2: Heretical Eschatology and Its Impact on Radical Reformation Movements: The Flagellants of Thuringia in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Thomas Müntzer, and the Anabaptists Konrad Schmid’s Vision of the End Times Fifteenth-Century Flagellant Apocalypticism The True and the False Church Müntzer’s Fight Against the Antichrist Anabaptist Apocalypticism in Thuringia after Müntzer A Connected History? Notes Chapter 3: Terror, War and Reformation: Ivan the Terrible in the Age of Apocalypticism Introduction Muscovy in the Age of Christian Religious Reforms Latter-Days Expectations and the War against “Heretics” The Fight Against the Antichrist and Terror Against Muscovite Subjects The Oprichnina and the Creation of the Latter-Days Zion Conclusion Notes Part II: Messianisms Chapter 4: A Messiah from the Left Side Shlomo Molcho, His Life and Education Christian Influences on Molcho’s Messianic Thought and Writings Molcho’s Use of Christian Sources Molcho and Paul Counter-Messianism Notes Chapter 5: Millenarian News and Connected Spaces in 17th-Century Europe Introduction Millenarianism as Veiled Critique of Government Rycaut the Englishman at Smyrna Paul Rycaut and Millenarianism Early Modern Millenarian Movements The Nuqtavi Sūfi Millenarian Movement in Persia The Fifth Monarchy Millenarian Movement in England and the English World The Millenarian Movement of Sabbatai Zevi in the Ottoman Empire and Europe Rycaut, Millenarian News, and Connected Spaces—Cambridge, London, Smyrna, and Beyond Conclusion: Millenarianism as Process, as Veiled Advice, and as “Cognitive Alternative” Notes Chapter 6: Carvajal and the Franciscans: Jewish-Christian Eschatological Expectations in a New World Setting Luis de Carvajal el Mozo and Sixteenth-Century Iberian Crypto-Judaism Luis de Carvajal’s Last Will America, the Last Days, and the Franciscan Friars Carvajal, the Franciscans, and Early American Imaginaries Conclusion Notes Chapter 7: Kabbalistic Influences on “Pietistic” Millenarian Expectations: Philipp Jakob Spener’s (1635–1705) Eschatological View Between Scripture and Christian Kabbalah Spener’s Eschatological View Spener’s Millenarianism and Christian Kabbalah Conclusion Notes Chapter 8: Everyday Apocalypse: Russian and Jewish “Sects” at the End of the Eighteenth Century Orthodoxy and Judaism Before the Fifteenth Century The Novgorod and Other Early Judaizers “Judaizers” as a Continuous or Invented Tradition? The Karaites The Molokans The Subbotniks Connected History of Everyday Apocalypse Notes Part III: Messianic Kings Chapter 9: Margins of the Encubierto : The Messianic Kings’ Tradition in the Iberian World (15th–17th Centuries) Comunidades and Germanías American Experiences Sebastianism and the Iberian World Sebastianism’s Wider Iberian Connections Conclusion Notes Chapter 10: Mirror Images: Imperial Eschatology and Interreligious Transfer in Seventeenth-Century Greek Orthodoxy Connected Traditions Reinterpreting Byzantine Oracles Interreligious Transfers Mutual Perceptions Shared Challenges Apocalypticism as a Self-Referential Discourse Conclusion Notes Chapter 11: Restorers of the Divine Law: Native American Revolts in the New World, Christianity, and the Quest for Purity in the Age of Revolution Juan Santos and Neolin: Two Nativist Leaders? Prophecy and Christian Innovation The Modernity of Amerindian Prophetic Movements Christianity as a Weapon Against Assimilation The Struggle for Purification of Society and Political Independence Revolutionary Religions Notes Index of Names