Apocalyptic Spirituality

The Classics of Western Spirituality

by Bernard McGinn

This book makes available major texts in the Christian apocalyptic literature form the 4th to the 16th centuries. The apocalyptic tradition is that of traditional prophecy based on revelation and concerned with the end of the world. Even an age such as ours characterized by its scientific and rationalistic outlook has strong elements of literal apocalypticism found in fundamentalist and charismatic groups. The popular success of Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth is evidence of this. Also the present hunger for apocalypse has adopted a variety of secular disguises typified by Heilbroner's An Inquiry into the Human Prospect. Contemporary theologians like Kasemann, Pannenberg, Rahner, Moltmann and others have devoted much of their work to the meaning of apocalyptic thought. This is a collection which can show the traditional roots of this contemporary phenomenon.

Dr. Bernard McGinn says in his introduction, these treatises and letters have been chosen because of the way in which they manifest how beliefs about the imminent end affected the lives of their adherents..." Perhaps the task for us today is that by seeing how the lives of Lactantius, the monk Adso, Joachim of Fiore, The Spiritual Franciscans and Savonarola were affected by their apocalyptic vision we can recognize how our lives are being affected by the contemporary prophetic sense of the end of history.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Apocalyptic, Medieval, Mysticism, Theology, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Bernard McGinn, the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition. He has also written extensively on Jewish mysticism, the history of apocalyptic thought, and medieval Christianity.

A cum laude graduate of St. Joseph's Seminary and College in Yonkers, NY, he earned a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1963 and a PhD in history from Brandeis University in 1970. After teaching theology for a year at The Catholic University of America, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1969 as an instructor in theology and the history of Christianity and was appointed a full professor nine years later. Dr. McGinn was named to the Donnelley chair in 1992. He retired in 2003.

The recent recipient of a Mellon Foundation Emeritus Grant, he also has held a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship, an American Association of Theological Schools research award, two research fellowships for work at the Institute for Advanced Study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a research fellowship at the Institute for Ecumenical and Culture Research at St. John's University, and a Lily Foundation Senior Research Fellowship.

Dr. McGinn has delivered invited lectures at some one hundred colleges and universities in North America, Europe, and Israel. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Medieval Academy of America.  Past-president of the International Society for the Promotion of Eriugenean Studies, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association, he is member of the board of The Eckhart Society. He served as editor-in-chief of the Paulist Press series Classics of Western Spirituality and currently serves as a member of the editorial boards of Cistercian Publications, The Encyclopedia of World Spirituality, The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, and Spiritus.

Reviews

[Alan Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

McGinn takes a look at five apocalyptic interpreters, writers, or groups.

Lactantius - 3rd century
the monk Adso - 10th century
Joachim of Fiore - 12th century
The Spiritual Franciscans - 14th century
Savonarola - 15th century

Lactantius taught a message that had been foretold by the seers of all religions. However, the standards by which they were judged were the prophets of the holy scriptures. From Augustine (4th-5th century) forward the Apocalypse was given to an individualizing and moralizing approach. It was understood as the souls warfare against vice. This changed with Joachim of Fiore who associated identifiable historical events with the Apocalypse. That is an approach which is still popular today.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

IS "THE END" NEAR? IT'S BEEN PREDICTED FOR SOME TIME...

This very diverse 1979 volume contains [1] "The Blessed Life" by Lactantius (about 240-320) who was an advisor to the Roman emperor Constantine; [2] a letter on the "Origin and Time of the Antichrist" by Adso of Montier-en-Der (10th century, France); [3] several writings from Joachim of Fiore (12th century; who famously divided history into three epochs: the Age of the Father; Age of the Son; and Age of the Holy Spirit); [4] two Franciscans, Angelo of Clareno (1247-1337) and Peter John Olivi (1248-1298); and [5] the "visionary" Savonarola (1452-1498). Many of these texts were made available in English for the first time in this book.

Lactantius stated that "Those who say that the world always existed have one response from me: If the world always was, it can have no plan. (I omit the argument that nothing can exist without a beginning, a point them are unable to escape.)... God did not make the world for its own sake. Since it lacked sensation, it had no need for the sun's heat, the moon's light, the winds' breath, the moisture of showers, the nourishment of fruits." (Pg. 33)

Joachim suggested that "we will say what we can about these (future events) in their place. Expectation of future events may be made certain by the unfolding of the present." (Pg. 127) He explained, "the tempus of the first Testament began with Adam and continued even to Christ... The tempus of the New Testament began with Josiah, King of Judah, and will last until the consummation of the world, bearing fruit from Christ." (Pg. 127-128) He states solemnly, "At the end of the times and of the years 'Satan will be freed from his prison'... Then the commander of the army will be Gog, the final Antichrist... Among all the Antichrists who will appear in the world two are worse than the others..." (Pg. 140)

Savonarola observes that "My faithful listeners know how fittingly my expositions of the scriptures always agreed with the present times... In those first years I used to predict coming events only by means of scripture, rational arguments, and various parables... Then I began to hint that I had knowledge of future events... Finally, I began... making known the words divinely revealed to me frankly and exactly." (Pg. 197) Later, he added, "Whatever I have publicly preached about things to come has either already taken place or certainly will take place. Not one iota will fail. But note that when I spoke apart and privately... Perhaps I let slip something that was less true..." (Pg. 229)

This is a fascinating collection of writings; it sheds a great deal of light on the interpretation of biblical prophecies in the medieval period.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an edition: 4*
As a reading experience of spiritual classics: 2*

The scholarly introductions are very good and are the best part of this book.
I think the writings here are best treated as historical/theological curiosities, and I didn't find reading them particularly edifying. A reference book rather than a cover-to-cover read.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A minor complaint: I wish they would have included the apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, as the organizing principle of the book seems largely to be arranged around the pre- and posthistory of Joachim of Fiore's ideas. Thus, it would have been nice to see the origin of the "Last World Emperor" idea in Ps-Methodius that enters into Joachimite apocalyptics in the centuries between him and Savonarola.