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Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
Introduction: Approaches to Medieval
Cultures of Eschatology
1. Medieval Apocalypticism and Eschatology
In all religions, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped and
made meaningful by beliefs and expectations related to the End Times. Such beliefs
in the Last Things, ta eschata, have been integral to Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism and Buddhism, especially in the pre-modern era,1and range from the fi-
nal battle between good and evil and the dawn of a new, divine order to death, di-
vine judgment and eternal afterlife. They also include the dreadful tribulations that
every human will supposedly have to face before salvation. In the medieval West as
in the East,2eschatology seems to have been part of the foundation upon which so-
cieties were built.3This period is often associated with anticipation of the Second
Coming of Christ (parousia) or the advent of messianic figures such as the Hindu
Open Access. © 2020 Veronika Wieser, Vincent Eltschinger, published by De Gruyter. This work is
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110597745-204
Note: The two Cultures of Eschatology volumes are part of the SFB Visions of Community. Compar-
ative Approaches to Ethnicity, Region and Empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism (400–1600
CE) or VISCOM, an interdisciplinary research cluster financed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF from
2011 to 2019. Publication has been funded by the FWF project F 42–G 18, copy-editing has been co-
funded by the FWF project Bible and Historiography in Transcultural Iberian Societies, 8th to 12th
Centuries (P 27804–G16).
1This is well exemplified in the range of contributions to Walls, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Escha-
tology, comprising articles about Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu eschatology.
2In spite of various efforts on the part of –mainly –Indian scholars to accommodate the notion of
“medieval”to South Asia, its relevance remains highly questionable, as is that of “Indian feudal-
ism”and many scholars’inclination to interpret, mostly for nationalistic reasons, Gupta India as a
golden age not unlike Greek and Latin Antiquity. The use of categories such as “(early) medieval
(India)”, though very often uncritical, is a matter of convention rather than conviction, and such it
should probably remain. On the presuppositions and dangers of the use of “(early) medieval”, see
Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, 28, and Wedemeyer, Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism,58–66.
Thus, we are aware that the concept “medieval”does not apply to all past communities under
scrutiny here. It is therefore rather understood as a loose technical term and rough historical peri-
odisation that can facilitate comparison; on trans-cultural comparison and comparative methodol-
ogy see Pohl, “Introduction: Meanings of Community in Medieval Eurasia,”and Pohl, Gingrich,
“Medieval Worlds.”
3For recent appraisals of the extent to which apocalyptic thinking was prevalent in the Middle
Ages see: Landes, Heaven on Earth; Bynum, Freedman, eds., Last Things; Fried, Aufstieg aus dem
Untergang; Palmer, The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages; Rubenstein, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream;
Ryan, ed., A Companion to the Pre-Modern Apocalypse; Lawson, The Quran, Epic and Apocalypse;
Donner, Muhammad and the Believers; Shoemaker, The Apocalypse of Empire.
Kalkin and the Buddhist Maitreya that could bring both hope and fear.4There was
also a strong concern with the dates and exact circumstances of these events. In Is-
lamic eschatology, stories about death, the afterlife, and the end of the world play a
vital role in the Qur’an and ḥadīth literature,5as almost “every sūrah refers to escha-
tology, particularly to the physical rewards and punishments of heaven and hell”6,
reminding believers that earthly deeds had an everlasting impact on the fate of the
soul. From an anthropological and phenomenological point of view at least, this be-
lief has much in common with Hindu and Buddhist conceptions about retribution
for actions and the type of punishment or reward one can expect to experience in
hell or in heaven.7Parallels to the Christian expectation of Christ’s Second Coming
can be found in the prediction that the community of Muḥammad would last for 167
years and thirty-one days after his death, creating a general atmosphere of ex-
pectancy or fear.8Quite similarly, Hindus and Buddhists throughout Asia engaged
in sophisticated calculations concerning the beginning and end of the kaliyuga, the
advent of Maitreya or the final demise of Buddhism.
In Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu theologies, ideas regarding
the end of the world and the advent of messianic figures developed alongside
chronological models, revelatory literature, apocalyptic imagery from holy texts and
the ongoing process of commenting on them, particularly in exegetical and historio-
graphical works.9These visions can not only be seen in a wide variety of theological
and historiographical sources but also in hagiography, sermons and poems, and
even in sources that we would nowadays group under the moniker of “pragmatic
texts”, such as charters and maps. In the Bible, the Books of Daniel and Ezekiel, the
2Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
4On the expectations of Christ’s return and the belief in the resurrection of all people, which are
well exemplified in 1 Corinthians 15:51–57, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 5:1–11, Matthew 24:42–44,
2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 3:3 and 16:15, see Walls, “Introduction,”3; Yarbro Collins, Apocalypticism
and Christian Origins; Bynum Walker, “Introduction;”Daley, The Hope of the Early Church. On the
advent of the Hindu and Buddhist messiahs see Deeg, “Das Ende des Dharma und die Ankunft des
Maitreya;”Zürcher, “Eschatology and Messianism in Early Chinese Buddhism,”and Zürcher,
“Prince Moonlight.”
5See Chittick, “Muslim Eschatology,”and the comprehensive collection on paradise in Islam in
Günther, Lawson, eds., Roads to Paradise, in particular, Günther, Lawson, “Introduction,”and Law-
son, “Paradise in the Quran and the Music of Apocalypse.”See further the studies by Lange, Par-
adise and Hell in Islamic Traditions, and Lange, “Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies.”
6Waldmann, “Eschatology: Islamic Eschatology.”See also Lawson, The Quran, Epic and Apoca-
lypse, and Sinai, “The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an.”
7Chappell, “Early Forebodings of the Death of Buddhism.”
8Cook, “The Apocalyptic Year 200/815–16;”Donner, Muhammad and the Believers.
9For a discussion of apocalyptic time, in particular on the apocalyptic significance of specific dates
in Western European history, see besides the works of Richard Landes and Johannes Fried: Brandes,
“Endzeiterwartung im Jahre 1009 A.D?,”(especially on the discussion about the importance of the
year 1000), and in general Pezzoli-Olgiati, “Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Weltende und Offen-
barung.”For a treatment of this topic in Islam see n. 8 and Hoyland, “Early Islam as a Late Antique
Religion,”and in Judaism see Novak, “Jewish Eschatology.”
Revelation to John, and in the Qur’an, sura 18, 33, 41 and 81–84, which all mention
the Last Judgment and the Hour among other things, offered key tools to decode
God’s plan for the community of believers. This plan would be revealed at the end
of time, but would also be presaged on earth by signs and wonders. These texts pro-
vided central models for the medieval perception of the world and its peoples,10 for
the interpretation of socio-political changes, for the understanding of astronomical
and natural phenomena,11 and for the individual’s path to salvation.12 In much the
same way, narrative and/or normative Hindu literature such as the Manusmṛti, the
Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas record End-Time-related interpretations of the health
and morality of Brahmanical society, the legitimacy and relevance of royal policies,
taxes, life expectancy, and cosmic and military events etc. At the same time, these
bulky documents provided the Brahmanical elites with a rich repertoire of ready-to-
use images and symbols that could give meaning to people’s social, economic, polit-
ical and religious experiences.13 This also applies to Buddhist canonical literature,
which the Buddhist literati constantly resorted to in order to locate the present on
the “timetables of decline”14, to find criteria to estimate the degree of the commun-
ity’s degeneration and to develop potent rhetorical tools to enjoin its repristination.
Texts containing divine mysteries and knowledge that could only be obtained
and understood by true believers or insiders are central aspects of Jewish and Chris-
tian apocalypses, a Greek word referring to a divine secret (about the imminent end
of time and of history, and the fate of the dead) that has to be revealed.15 Thus, in
the context of Jewish and Christian apocalypses, the term “apocalypse”refers to
both a particular prophetic literary genre in the widest sense incorporating specific
textual phrases and motives, and a scenario that gradually unfolds at the end of
time.16 This concept of a divine truth that is revealed to a prophet can also be found
Introduction 3
10 See the contributions in Voß, Brandes, Schmieder, eds., Peoples of the Apocalypse, and in Seyed-
Gohrab, Doufikar-Aerts, McGlinn, eds., Gog and Magog.
11 Palmer, “Climates of Crisis;”Wieser, “The Chronicle of Hydatius of Chavez.”
12 See the contributions in Bynum, Freedman, eds., Last Things; for the role of eschatology in early
ascetic life see Moschos, Eschatologie im ägyptischen Mönchtum, and Brown, The Ransom of the
Soul.
13 Eltschinger, “Apocalypticism, Heresy and Philosophy,”29–85, and González-Reimann, The
Mahābhārata and the Yugas.
14 Nattier, “Buddhist Eschatology,”and Nattier, Once upon a Future Time.
15 See Collins, McGinn, and Stein, “General Introduction;”Webb, “Apocalyptic,”and the contribu-
tion of Heil in Cultures of Eschatology, vol. 1.
16 See the influential attempt to define apocalypse as a literary genre in Collins, “What is Apoca-
lyptic Literature?,”with a later reappraisal in Collins, The Dead Sea Scrolls, 150: “An apocalypse is a
supernatural revelation, which reveals secrets of the heavenly world, on the one hand, and of escha-
tological judgment on the other.”On the establishment of “apocalypse”as a narrative and literary
genre see besides the works of John J. Collins and Adela Yarbro Collins: Reeves, Trajectories in Near
Eastern Apocalyptic, and Frankfurter, “Early Christian Apocalypticism.”On the creation of the cor-
pus of apocalyptic literature and nineteenth-century efforts, see Collins, “What is Apocalyptic Lit-
erature;”Zolles, Zolles, Wieser, “Einleitung;”Donner, “Typology of Eschatological Concepts.”
in the Qur’an, and is known and referred to as The Revelation (al-tanzīl), God’s mes-
sage sent down to Muḥammad.17
In both Islamic and Christian theology, eschatology is bound up with a linear
understanding of time, colliding at the end of the world.18 Time, history and the
world itself, individuals and earthly powers, kingdoms and nations were thus sub-
ject to a divine plan. Eschatological ideas on temporal mutability, the transience of
the world and political communities were often used to explain periods of political
transition, scenarios of social decline or catastrophic events. To be sure, stories
about the rise and fall of any empire could be framed with dates and decisive
events, or according to the success or failure of its political and military leaders.
However, the same stories could also be told as part of an apocalyptic scenario, as
can be observed for the Late Roman Empire or in contemporary Byzantine commen-
taries on the expansion of Islam.19
The Christian centuries have seen many different ways of proclaiming that the
end was nigh, that the world was teetering on the brink of disaster or on the edge of
a new epoch. Declarations of this type were the subject of numerous controversies
over the course of medieval history, which connected religious authorities, theolo-
gians, ascetics, historians, radical thinkers, rulers, reformers or prophets of doom.
The calculation of the end of the world using passages from the Bible or the inter-
pretation of the Book of Revelation and its integration into the developing Christian
canon were –and would remain –highly controversial issues.20 Central to many of
these medieval debates was the question of whether apocalyptic visions or motifs
were to be interpreted in a literal or in a spiritual sense. The belief in the imminence
of the end of the world reverberated persistently throughout the Middle Ages and
found its most prominent expressions in the expectation of the real advent of a mes-
sianic age coinciding with the return of Christ and the establishment of a one-thou-
4Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
17 Although in recent scholarship the apocalyptic aspects of the Qur’an have been discussed more
prominently, the Qur’an and Islam have not, in general, received that much attention in the field of
apocalyptic scholarship; for a detailed discussion including the different approaches of modern
scholarship, see Lawson, “Paradise in the Quran and the Music of Apocalypse,”93–136; Shoemaker,
The Death of a Prophet, 118–136.
18 For an overview, see the contributions in Baumgarten, ed., Apocalyptic Time, analysing Jewish
and Christian apocalyptic calculations as well as apocalyptic concepts of time in Islam and in Bud-
dhism. See further Eco, “Die Zeit ist eine Erfindung des Christentums?,”241–245, and Sherwood,
“‘Napalm Falling like Prostitutes’,”esp. 39–44.
19 See for instance Brandes, “Gog, Magog und die Hunnen,”for the final years of the Western
Roman Empire; Meier, “Eschatologie und Kommunikation im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr.,”and Cameron,
“Late Antique Apocalyptic,”for Islam and the Byzantine Empire.
20 On the topic of calculating the end of the world, see Palmer, The Apocalypse in the Early Middle
Ages,1–24, 42–50; Palmer, “The Ordering of Time,”605–618; Landes, “Lest the Millennium Be Ful-
filled;”Landes, “Millenarismus absconditus;”Fried, “Endzeiterwartung um die Jahrtausend-
wende;”Fried, Dies irae,86–94.
sand-year-long saintly reign on earth,21 which, in Muslim belief, has its equivalent
in the appearance of the Mahdī22 and in the idea of paradise on earth.23 These con-
cepts encouraged the establishment of parallels between apocalyptic motifs, such
as the Antichrist/al-Masīḥal-Dajjāl24 and Gog and Magog, and real-world events or
peoples, creating an apocalyptic topography spanning from Jerusalem via Dabiq to
the Caspian Gates, where the various prophesied End-Time scenarios could eventu-
ally unfold.25 Much the same can be said of Indo-Tibetan ideas pertaining to the city
of Shambhala as it appears in Kālacakra literature. Here, the dominant apocalyptic
narrative, Kalkin’s destruction of Muslim troops in Mecca, could be interpreted exo-
terically as referring to future events in the macrocosm and esoterically as reflecting
processes at work at the level of the devotee’s subtle physiology. And although
apocalyptic ideas have often been held to convey dread and terror, destruction and
devastation, their use and interpretation in reference to contemporary circum-
stances was not merely a theological reaction to political events.26 Apocalyptic im-
agery also concerned the very souls of believers living through what was thought to
be the End Times and could be a driving force behind movements of reform as well
as of personal transformation.27
A question that occupied the minds of many medieval religious authorities was
how to integrate apocalyptic imagery into religious identity. This need not have
stemmed from a conscious decision on the part of the authorities to control “the”
apocalyptic discourse but rather from an awareness of potential spiritual challenges
Introduction 5
21 On millenarianism or millennialism as the umbrella term for various Christian beliefs, see the
contributions in Wessinger, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism; influential is the work of
Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium; a comprehensive overview and analysis is provided by Landes,
Heaven on Earth, and also McGinn, “Wrestling with the Millennium.”One of the most prominent
representatives of this belief in the Christian Middle Ages was Joachim of Fiore. On the role of mes-
sianic figures in Judaism and Christianity in general, see Ehrmann, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the
New Millennium, and Yarbro Collins, Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God.
22 Filiou, Apocalypse in Islam,30–65.
23 On the belief in Sunni Islam that the heavenly Jerusalem would be realised on earth, see Lange,
Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions, esp. 246–256.
24 See the contributions in Brandes, Schmieder, eds., Antichrist; McGinn, Antichrist, and Filiou,
Apocalypse in Islam, 104–121.
25 Lange, Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions, 245–266. On the role of peoples and otherness in
apocalyptic, political narratives see also the upcoming volume of the 2019-conference “Politics –
History –Eschatology. Functional, Inter(con)textual, Structural, and Comparative Approaches to
Gog and Magog,”organised by Georges Tamer, Lutz Greisiger, Julia Wannenmacher at the Univer-
sity of Erlangen-Nürnberg: https://www.zfl-berlin.org/veranstaltungen-detail/items/politics-his-
tory-eschatology-functional-intercontextual-structural-and-comparative-approaches-to-gog-and-
magog.html [last accessed 1 March, 2020].
26 Reeves, Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic, esp. 4–6, stresses the function of apocalypse as
a specific narrative and mindset.
27 Gabriele, Palmer, eds., Apocalypse and Reform; Brown, The Ransom of the Soul; Nattier, Once
Upon a Future Time; Baun, “Last Things.”
facing the community.28 In general, pondering the relevance of apocalyptic notions
to medieval societies belonged not only to intellectual controversies and doctrinal
disputes but was also a matter of establishing authority and orthodoxy (if not ortho-
praxy), of balancing political power and social cohesion.29 Apocalyptic literature
certainly contains a clear revolutionary potential, with its visions of the destruction
of earthly powers and its promise of divine justice and liberation from oppression
(Rev. 20; Dan. 2).30 These texts not only depicted scenarios of crisis and violence but
could also be used to instigate political action, social change or revolutionary vio-
lence in pursuit of the millennium.31 In medieval Christian and Islamic communi-
ties, conquest, mission and expansion would be grounded in eschatology, with the
crusades and jihādbeing the most prominent examples.32 On the other hand, apoca-
lyptic literature could also be used to express and overcome trauma, and to find re-
lief and consolation.33
Eschatology is often perceived as being inextricably connected to monotheistic
religions, especially to the revelatory religions of the Book and their linear concept
of time. However, eschatology and the drive to give history meaning by reference to
existing prophecies and scenarios of the end are also integral to Hinduism and Bud-
dhism, in spite of the fact that these religions operate with cyclic time. For, cyclic as
time may be, the periods in which it unfolds are so big that their repetition makes
no difference in terms of the devotee’s and the community’s conception of their
present-day experience: that Maitreya will discover and preach Buddhism anew in a
few billion years does not make the imminent loss of Buddhism less dramatic; that
a new kṛtayuga or “golden age”will rise at the consumption of the present kaliyuga
or “iron age”does only little to alleviate the miseries of those suffering from terrible
illnesses, the ferocity of soldiers, natural cataclysms and unrighteous kings. In other
6Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
28 Buc, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror, 140.
29 Pagels, Revelations, on the potential of the Revelation to John against opponents; Landes,
Heaven on Earth,37–88; Fried, Dies irae,148–155; Doniger O’Flaherty, “The Origin of Heresy in
Hindu Mythology.”
30 Schüssler-Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation.
31 Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 111–164; Wessinger, “Apocalypse and Violence;”Cohn, The
Pursuit of the Millennium. On the radical social aspects in apocalyptic traditions, see also Rowland,
Bradstock, “Christianity: Radical and Political;”Collins, “Radical Religion and Ethical Dilemmas of
Apocalyptic Millenarianism,”and Arjomand, “Messianism, Millennialism and Revolution in Early
Islamic History.”
32 For a reappraisal of the connection between apocalypse and violence, see Buc, Holy War, Mar-
tyrdom, and Terror; Rubenstein, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream; Whalen, Dominion of God; Cook, Under-
standing Jihad; Cook, “Muslim Apocalyptic and Jihād,”and Bashear, “Apocalyptic and Other Mate-
rials on Early Muslim-Byzantine Wars.”On the concept of jihādand its significance in medieval
society, see also the contributions by Buc, Christys and Shoemaker in Cultures of Eschatology, vol. 1.
33 On the question of trauma –both individual and collective –and prophecy in the Book of Rev-
elation, see Pagels, Revelations, and Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis,99–104; for the Book of
Ezekiel, see Poser, Das Ezechielbuch als Trauma-Literatur. On the social-psychological interpretation
of apocalyptic thought in general, see Wilson, “The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic.”
words, the cyclic time of dogmatic cosmologies is by no means incompatible with
the linear time of human experience.34 Buddhists reckon with cosmic eras or eons
organised into smaller periods, during which human life expectancy increases from
ten to 80,000 years, before decreasing back to ten. According to their dogmatics,
the final phase of a period of decrease is characterised by a set of five “degenera-
tions”or “corruptions”(kaṣāya), which operate at the level of cosmic conditions
(warfare, illnesses, famine), life-span, morality, wrong opinions and defilements.
Down to the present, these five kaṣāyas have been read as unmistakable signs of
the End whenever Buddhist communities going through times of crisis and hardship
thought that they perceived them in their immediate environment. Mutatis mutan-
dis, the same can be said of the imagery of the “demise of the good law (= Bud-
dhism)”(saddharmavipralopa in Sanskrit; 末法,mofa in Chinese and mappōin
Japanese), perhaps the most central motif of Buddhist apocalypticism, according to
which Buddhism, the very means of human salvation, is going to disappear after a
period of gradual decline of 500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 etc. years.35 Again, that a new
cycle will start, or that Buddhism will be “renovated”after a period of extinction,
does not make those events less dramatic and their experience less linear.36
Given this plethora of topics and different approaches, eschatology and apoca-
lypticism constitute a dynamic field of research and have received much scholarly
attention over the past forty years, especially from the beginning of the new millen-
nium onwards. The results of this renewed interest appear in a number of important
publications combining studies in the literary traditions of apocalypticism with re-
search on the social functions and cultural history of and the theological elabora-
tions on apocalyptic imagery. For example, the three volumes of The Encyclopedia
of Apocalypticism (1998), the Oxford Handbook of Eschatology (2007), the Oxford
Handbook of Millennialism (2011), the compendia Abendländische Apokalyptik (2013)
and Penser la fin du monde (2014), and the Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Litera-
ture (2014) offer systematic, encyclopedic treatments of eschatology and apocalypti-
cism from the ancient world up to the present day, from Jewish and Christian tradi-
tions to secular, post-apocalyptic appropriations. Building on the results of these
substantial studies, the present volumes aim to introduce new, pre-modern perspec-
tives to the field by comparatively addressing eschatology and apocalypticism in
Christian, Islamic and Buddhist communities.37 While many studies so far have fo-
cused primarily on Europe, Cultures of Eschatology actively engages in cross-cul-
Introduction 7
34 Nattier, Once upon a Future Time; von Stietencron, “Kalkulierter Religionsverfall.”
35 Eltschinger, “Apocalypticism, Heresy and Philosophy.”
36 Nattier, Once upon a Future Time; Seiwert, “End of Time and New Time in Medieval Chinese
Buddhism.”
37 See also the upcoming volume of the 2017-conference “End(s) of Time(s)”at the University of
Erlangen-Nürnberg, organised by Klaus Herbers, Christian Lackner, Hans-Christian Lehner with a
similarly comparative approach, including Christian, Islamic and Far Eastern traditions: https://
www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-7622 [last accessed 1 March, 2020].
tural comparison in order to shed light on specific literary, iconographic, intellec-
tual and religious traditions. Apocalyptic thought is analysed from a multi-disci-
plinary and “trans-areal”angle, including contributions from history, social anthro-
pology, religious studies, Christian theology, art history and philology. Through
expanding the geographical scope from medieval Europe to the Mediterranean
world, the Near East and Asia, including India, Tibet, China and Japan, the contri-
butions seek to come closer to an understanding of: how apocalyptic thought influ-
enced and factored into the political and religious perception and self-definition of
communities; what role it played in the construction of a community’s identity or in
the perception of an “other”; how eschatology contributed language, images,
metaphors and models for framing history; how it impacted on individual perspec-
tives on life, the world and the afterlife. Bringing together scholars with different
research backgrounds provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the various ways
in which divine presence was felt in the course of history.
The volumes Cultures of Eschatology paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time
scenarios in medieval communities. While providing their readers with a wealth of
information and a broad array of source material, these volumes also testify to the
scholars’ongoing efforts to address the theoretical, methodological and terminolog-
ical challenges of dealing with eschatology/apocalypticism. The terms “eschatol-
ogy”and “apocalypse”have been subject to many scholarly debates in the past,
and all attempts at providing them with generally applicable definitions remain
controversial and problematic.38 Furthermore, even if Christian eschatology is not
the primary focus of our volumes, we are aware that the terms and concepts we use
in order to describe apocalyptic traditions and phenomena, including non-Judeo-
Christian ones, are deeply rooted in Jewish and Christian cultures and scholarly tra-
ditions,39 as well as in the traditions of an “enlightened Bible”40. Therefore, it is im-
portant to emphasise that, in general, we are using eschatology and apocalypticism
as low-threshold terms in order to allow for a more pragmatic approach to compari-
son,41 even though some authors engage actively with the question “what is escha-
tology/apocalypse/apocalypticism?”from the perspective of their respective fields
of research (Appel, Bergmeier, Günther, Heil, Lobrichon, Shoemaker, Zolles).
However, the heterogeneous understanding of “eschatology”and “apocalypse”
may reflect not only different scholarly traditions but also the polyvalent and poly-
semic character of apocalypticism/eschatology itself in its different historical con-
8Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
38 See Webb, “Apocalyptic;”Collins, “What is Apocalyptic Literature?,”and the contribution of
Heil to Cultures of Eschatology, vol. 1.
39 Nattier, “Buddhist Eschatology.”
40 On the establishment of an academic programme for interpreting and appropriating the Bible in
the 18th and 19th centuries, see Legaspi, The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies,28–
33.
41 See Gingrich, “Medieval Eurasian Communities by Comparison.”
texts.42 Our aim is thus not to generate new and disputable definitions or to advo-
cate hermeneutic unity but to provide concretised perspectives. We therefore focus
on five important features of pre-modern eschatology that could serve as vantage
points for comparison in all religions under scrutiny and that are reflected in the
individual sections of the volumes:43 first, collective eschatology provided medieval
societies with a hermeneutic tool for understanding and deciphering the past, the
present and the future, a universal and “divinely”foreordained framework for his-
tory and historiography, in which socio-political events were thought to unfold. Un-
ravelling the meaning of historical events, change and crises often involved bring-
ing the exegesis of holy scriptures, symbols and prophecies to ever deeper levels,
the revealed texts being in turn, as it were, validated by history. Second, and in
close connection to the above, eschatological scenarios tended to generate and to
structure conceptions of cosmological time, be it linear (with or without Final Judg-
ment and like events) or cyclic (often involving a degeneration process). Third, es-
chatology defined and transformed space, differentiating between otherworldly and
thisworldly dimensions and bringing together the universal/cosmic and the local.
This could comprise a cosmic as well as a concrete earthly dimension, as when cos-
mic entities such as angels or demons were believed to interfere in earthly events or
otherworldly, divine places were sought to be located or established on earth.
Fourth, eschatology had a strong bearing on the constitution and strengthening of
communities, providing them with powerful tools for identifying and fighting
against disruptive forces, threats and enemies and expressing their concerns about
their fate (salvation or restoration of a nation, a people or a group). Fifth, eschatol-
ogy is not only concerned with the fate of empires and nations but also of individu-
als. All religions provide scenarios and itineraries for the personal afterlife that are
mapped onto traditional, at times mystical cosmologies (certain areas of which can
be strongly debated, such as Purgatory or some “karmic”destinies) and are condi-
tioned by divine or purely mechanical retribution for individual deeds. Ideas of ret-
ribution and redemption combine the fear of death and salvation with ideas of judg-
ment, repentance, reward or punishment in the hereafter.
Keeping these intersections in mind, we are not looking for direct parallels and
prima facie similarities between Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist eschatol-
ogy. This is important insofar as the establishment of literary traditions, which
could flourish for centuries, and the (re-)use of similar apocalyptic motifs and lan-
guage over a longer period of time could result in longue-durée patterns of apoca-
lyptic thought emerging that might at the same time obscure changing underlying
concepts of time, identity and community at a specific point in history. Therefore,
Introduction 9
42 Zolles, Zolles, Wieser, “Einleitung,”and recently the overview in Donner, “A Typology of Escha-
tological Concepts.”
43 Sherwood, “‘Napalm Falling Like Prostitutes’,”39, provides a lucid summary of the concept of
apocalypse, which is reflected in our features for comparison.
our aim is to trace the social dynamics and discursive strategies behind phenomena
that either actually were or could be subsumed under the heading “apocalyptic”in
order to construe heuristic hypotheses regarding possibly overlapping/converging
scenarios, motifs and strategies.44
2. The Contents of the Volumes: An Overview
The present volumes explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and eschatological
visions intersected with the development of medieval political and religious com-
munities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual traditions.
The chronological range runs from the early Christian communities of the first cen-
tury through the times of the Islamic invasion and the Crusades and up to modern
receptions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The geographical focus spans
from Carolingian Spain to the Byzantine Empire and from South Yemen to the leg-
endary Caspian Gates, and also encompasses the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Bud-
dhism and Japanese Shintōculture. The contributions bring together topics that are
central to eschatology, such as death, resurrection and afterlife, the end of time and
musings about the transience of the world or of an empire, and consider them all as
elements integral to visions of the Last Things rather than as separate phenomena.
The case studies draw on material from various historical contexts. They in-
clude the results of new fieldwork carried out in Tibet, India, Italy, Greece and
Turkey (Bergmeier, Eltschinger, Gelle), as well as new findings from the study of
ancient and medieval manuscripts –such as translations of newly found or under-
appreciated sources as well as a first critical edition of one recension of a well-
known apocalyptic text –or of material culture (Chen, Däumer, Dunn, Grifoni/Gant-
ner, Heiss/Hovden, Kramer, Lobrichon, van Oort, Warntjes). While some contribu-
tions offer overarching perspectives on the different types of apocalyptic thinking in
different religions (Appel, Buc, Chen, Doufikar-Aerts, Dunn, Günther, Lobrichon,
Scheid, Tiefenauer, Zolles), others present in-depth case studies of a single source,
of an individual’s approach (Christys, Czock, Lucas, Sommer, Treml), of the use of a
particular apocalyptic motif (Afentoulidou, Gelle, Heiss, Tealdi, Tiefenauer, Tottoli)
or of a specific local context which helps to further elucidate the concept of escha-
tology/apocalypse at a specific point in history (Günther, Heil, Kramer, Palmer,
Shoemaker, Ward).
While comparison is an important aspect of our analytical approach, it does not
play an equally important role in all contributions. In some, comparison is the cen-
tral starting point of the analysis, either cross-culturally or within a specific context
(Buc, Palmer, Ward). In other instances, comparison is carried out through examin-
10 Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
44 See Standen, “Introduction: Towards a Global Middle Ages,”on exploring medieval global phe-
nomena with a focus on social interactions.
ing how ideas of eschatology were introduced into different (religious) communities
(Chen, Dunn, Scheid), how apocalyptic images and texts travelled (Bergmeier,
Doufikar-Aerts, Grifoni/Gantner, van Oort) or how intertextual relations were estab-
lished (Däumer, Eltschinger, Heil, Sommer).
The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, starts by examining the for-
mation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions and considering how these were
embedded into religious communities and how they reacted to social developments
and political life. The section Literary and Visual Traditions brings together overar-
ching perspectives from medieval Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu communi-
ties. This first section starts with Guy Lobrichon’s chapter on the overall role and
pastoral function of the Church with regard to questions of the Last Judgment and
salvation. Taking a closer look at the reception of the Book of Revelation and its me-
dieval commentaries between the ninth and twelfth centuries, Lobrichon examines
the various possibilities for interpreting its apocalyptic message, either in a literal
or in a spiritual sense, which could in turn lead to the formation of radical ideas or
result in attempts by the church authorities to channel the apocalyptic discourse.
Lobrichon shows how, in the Carolingian era, Christian literary production, specifi-
cally of apocalyptic literature, became the task of ecclesiastical elites, while in later
centuries apocalyptic discourse coalesced with the writing of history, most promi-
nently in the works of Joachim of Fiore. Turning to Antiquity, Uta Heil argues in her
chapter that in early Christian communities apocalyptic writing, specifically apoc-
ryphal apocalyptic texts, was primarily part of a literary tradition rather than an ex-
pression of cultural-historical notions. These texts, which were still being produced
after the formation of the Biblical canon had been completed, did not deal with the
end of the world and with apocalypticism as a cultural phenomenon, but had, as for
instance the Didaskalia, a specific function in ecclesiastical practice and law.
Muslim apocalyptic literature, its rhetoric and imagery are analysed in Sebas-
tian Günther’s chapter. While the production or proliferation of apocalyptic texts is
often related to an atmosphere of crisis or an event perceived as a catastrophe, Gün-
ther shows that apocalyptic ideas were inextricably embedded in a broad medieval
Islamic discourse. This resulted in the development of a rich body of Arabic litera-
ture discussing topics that are central to eschatology.
Surprisingly, eschatological concepts entered the realm of visual arts relatively
late in the medieval West and Byzantium. The complex relationship between text
and image is addressed in Armin Bergmeier’s chapter, which shows that medieval
textual and visual discourse on the End Times did not develop synchronically.
While images referring to the Book of Revelation had been in use since Late Anti-
quity, it was not until the high Middle Ages that a distinctive eschatological visual
tradition emerged. Bergmeier discusses a rich corpus of Last Judgment iconography,
introduces new perspectives on its interpretation and offers insights on recent
scholarly debates on eschatology in art history. The development of Hindu and In-
dian Buddhist eschatological doctrines, literature and cosmologies is discussed in
Introduction 11
Vincent Eltschinger’s article. It deals with the most significant instances of the In-
dian Buddhist appropriation of the kaliyuga –a central aspect of orthodox Brah-
manical/Hindu apocalyptic prophecies –and engages in a detailed discussion of
the question of whether and in which circumstances buddhas appear in the End, be
it only of a single cycle.
Questions about the reinterpretation and recontextualisation of apocalyptic
texts from a philological perspective are brought to the fore in the cluster on Scrip-
tural Traditions and their Reinterpretations. This cluster deals with the question of
how apocalyptic texts were rewritten over the course of time, how they were intro-
duced into different communities and new contexts, how intertextual links to previ-
ous traditions were established and how new meanings were generated. The section
starts with Michael Sommer’s chapter, which analyses the intertexts in the Book of
Revelation. Introducing different scholarly approaches and readings, Sommer ex-
amines the issue of the text’s authorship and intended audience, and shows how
various scholarly prophetic traditions, debates over religious identity and the text’s
political dimension coalesced into a complex system of intertexts. Two centuries
later, in the third century, Jewish-Christian communities, especially the Elcesaites,
and their lively prophetic traditions provided a fertile ground for the development
of the gnostic movement of Manichaeism, centred on the eschatological prophet
Mani. Manichaean eschatological thinking spread from Mesopotamia as far as Ro-
man Africa and Spain in the West and China in the East. In his chapter, Johannes
van Oort argues that the newly discovered manuscripts of the Mani Codex demon-
strate that various religious traditions, Iranian as well as Jewish and Christian, in-
fluenced the features of Manichaean eschatology.
One of the most famous early medieval apocalyptic texts were the Revelationes
of Pseudo-Methodius, a world history that locates the events of the Islamic expan-
sion within the context of Christian salvation history. Originally composed in north-
ern Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the late seventh century, the text was quickly translated
from Syriac into Greek and Latin, and a high number of medieval Latin manuscripts
testify to its wide distribution and influence. One reason for its popularity was its
multifunctionality. Examining the different redactions of the Third Recension,
Cinzia Grifoni and Clemens Gantner show how the Revelationes could be easily ad-
justed to the interests of a Latin Western audience. A first critical edition of the
Third Recension, using a newly discovered witness, is included. Questions of tex-
tual authority and community are also addressed in Matthias Däumer’s analysis of
the apocryphal Book of Watchers, which traces its images and ideas –such as the
motifs of forbidden knowledge and forbidden gifts –from the Qumran fragments to
chronological religious works from the high Middle Ages. Focusing on textual tradi-
tions, Däumer argues that eschatological motifs drawn from apocryphal literature
could traverse different literary genres, such as the otherworldly journeys of Enoch
that were revived and integrated in the popular genre of Jenseitsreisen in the high
Middle Ages.
12 Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
Apocalyptic texts such as the Revelationes, which emphasised and discussed
scenarios of threat and crisis, played an important role as vehicles for propaganda,
for defining a community’s religious and political enemies and for rallying people
behind a joint cause. The cluster Empires and Last Days 1 analyses the role of em-
pires in medieval apocalyptic literature and examines how musings about the sta-
bility or continuity of political communities, the perception of enemies, conflicts
over religious orthodoxy, or acts of violence could be connected to ideas of the im-
minence of the end. Philippe Buc offers a comparative analysis of the role of escha-
tology in provoking violence and martyrdom in medieval Japan, Catholic Europe
and the Islamic world. He shows how, during the First Crusade, biblical motifs of
martyrdom and divine revenge were enacted in armed violence and in the liturgy,
as people were convinced that they were living through the Last Days. The central
role of imminent eschatology in early Islam is examined more closely in Stephen
Shoemaker’s chapter, which anchors this notion in a broader trend in the Mediter-
ranean world of Late Antiquity, specifically in the political eschatology of the
Byzantine Christian communities. Imperial eschatology played a significant role in
the apocalyptic thinking of the time and finds an echo in Muḥammad’s teachings
and the beginnings of Islam. The Islamic conquests, in particular, were often con-
nected to eschatological hopes and ideas of inaugurating the events of the eschaton.
Ann Christys’chapter zooms in on the question of how the expansion of Islam and
the conquest of Spain were narrated in the works of the ninth-century Andalusi
scholar Ibn Ḥabīb. Christys shows that in his History, which ends with an account
of the rise of the Umayyads and a prediction of their downfall, apocalyptic ḥadīth
traditions are elements integral to the narration of historical events. Moral com-
mandments and warnings that sinful behaviour would bring about the Hour stand
at the centre of Ibn Ḥabīb’s eschatological approach towards history. A complemen-
tary perspective on events in medieval Spain from the Christian communities is pro-
vided in James T. Palmer’s chapter, which examines three different case studies
concerning Christian writers in Iberia and Francia in the eighth and ninth centuries:
the Adoptionist debate, the conflict over the martyrs of Córdoba and the Chronica
Prophetica of 883. Palmer shows how apocalyptic thought offered a conceptual yet
flexible repertoire to define Christian identity, to establish orthodoxy and to express
ideas of inclusion and alterity with regard to heretical beliefs.
The contributions in the last section, Apocalyptic Cosmologies and End Time Ac-
tors, examine the connection between cosmological concepts, natural phenomena
and political prophecy, and consider how they were embedded into apocalyptic dis-
course. In Tibetan Buddhist cosmology and eschatology, the tradition of treasure
texts (gter ma), their revelation and the prophecies of the Hidden Lands all played
an important role. Analysing the example of the Hidden Land of Yolmo, a moun-
tainous area in Nepal northeast of Kathmandu, Zsóka Gelle shows how warnings of
future decline, foreign invasion and catastrophes were interwoven with moral and
salvific guidelines and ideas of a safe haven for an idealised version of Tibetan soci-
Introduction 13
ety to create a complex eschatological tradition. Faustina Doufikar-Aerts then exam-
ines on a broad level the motif of the apocalyptic peoples of Gog and Magog, which
is central to medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic apocalyptic discourse. She in-
vestigates its development and dissemination in medieval literary sources and car-
tography as well as in religious traditions, and shows that it was not only restricted
to the medieval world but was also used in early modern times to signify struggle
against imperialism, colonialism and political injustice. The apocalyptic interpreta-
tion of natural phenomena in Islam is examined in the chapter of Johann Heiss and
Eirik Hovden, who analyse a story about a hailstorm hitting a village in the south-
west corner of the Arabian Peninsula with regard to its religious and political impli-
cations. They show how apocalyptic interpretations were instrumentalised by Zaydī
authorities in order to legitimate their war against the Muṭarrifiyya and to draw
boundaries of inclusion and exclusion within the community of believers. The close
reading of this case study allows us to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of a
specific branch of Islamic eschatology and cosmology that has yet to be studied
closely. In medieval apocalyptic literary traditions, not only Gog and Magog, un-
usual natural phenomena and the Antichrist have a prominent role but also the fig-
ure of the End Times emperor. The chapter of Elena Tealdi examines the depiction
of the latter in the prophetical commentaries and works of the Friar Minor John of
Rupescissa. Written against the background of the changing political landscape in
Western Europe, his comprehensive œuvre is characterised by a belief in the immi-
nence of a millennial reign of peace. Tealdi examines the development of Rupescis-
sa’s prophetic concept and its transformation over the course of time.
The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatol-
ogy: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. The first clus-
ter Death and Last Judgment starts with Roberto Tottoli’s discussion of eschatologi-
cal topics in ḥadīth literature and in the stories of the prophets, focusing on how
prophets were depicted facing death and reacting to the Angel of Death in Islam.
These episodes touch on important theological aspects in Islamic thinking, such as
the tension between confidence in God and fear of the Last Judgment. Tottoli’s anal-
ysis underlines the significance of eschatological and apocalyptic beliefs in early Is-
lam. While discussions of medieval apocalyptic thought often revolve around the
development of computistic, astrological and cosmological ideas, Pia Lucas shows
in her article that devotion and fear of God’s Judgment played a vital role and could
be factored into historiographical concepts. In the works of Gregory of Tours, writ-
ten in early medieval Francia, the cult of the saints and their relics served as a sort
of preview of the Last Things, making tangible fundamental Christian doctrines
such as the afterlife of the soul, the resurrection of the body and the Last Judgment.
By bringing the Last Things into the here and now, the cult of the saints reminded
believers of the imminence of the end.
In the Carolingian world, biblical exegesis on the Book of Revelation and a gen-
eral discussion of ideas about the future in times of political crisis could be con-
14 Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
nected to concerns about salvation and personal betterment. Miriam Czock’s case
study of Dhuoda’sLiber manualis and her exhortations to her son to lead a pious
Christian life examines the complicated nexus of temporal models, biblical revela-
tion and exegesis, and assesses its impact on the discourse of Carolingian correctio,
an issue neglected up to now. It shows how admonitions associated with specific
ideas about both the future within the world and the spiritual future were set out in
relation to ideas about redemption and the Last Judgment. In Japanese cultural his-
tory, fears and taboos related to death pollution are a pervasive motif. While Shintō
deals with life and the concerns of this world, Japanese Buddhism specialised in
religious services for the dead. In his chapter, which examines sources from the sev-
enth to tenth centuries, Bernhard Scheid shows how Buddhist clerics became spe-
cialists in dealing with death and the ensuing pollution.
The idea that the souls of the deceased would undertake a journey and had to
meet obstacles on their way was common to many religions and is examined in the
cluster Afterlife and Otherworld Empires. Studying textual and visual sources, Mari-
lyn Dunn examines the role of the belief in Last Judgment and an afterlife of souls
in the process of the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England and considers how
problems were addressed and adjustments made in order to accommodate eschato-
logical beliefs. In early medieval Anglo-Saxon society, the deposition of grave goods
with the bodies of recently baptised Christians shows how their previous belief in
funerary ritual as a rite of transition to a relatively undifferentiated afterlife re-
mained prevalent after their conversion to Christianity. The idea of “otherworld
passports”also existed in the Chinese Buddhist afterlife, which was created, as
Frederick Shih-Chung Chen argues, as a mirror-image of the living world, where the
otherworld authority is modelled on a pre-modern Chinese bureaucratic empire and
ruled by Indian Buddhist and local Chinese deities. Using mortuary texts and ar-
chaeological material, Chen shows that the adoption of imperial metaphors for the
otherworld went hand in hand with the unification of Chinese feudal states during
the Qin-Han period. Similarly, in Byzantine Christianity, the literary afterlife tradi-
tions and imagery reflected earthly political and administrative structures, as Eirini
Afentoulidou shows in her chapter. Adverse powers such as military opponents or
tollkeepers were part and parcel of these literary traditions, which were widespread
in the Byzantine Church. In India, the development of hell as a place of judgment
and torment went hand in hand with the emergence of ascetic religious movements
and an increase in the range of divinities that promised salvation to their devotees.
In his chapter, Marc Tiefenauer examines the development of the concept of hell in
Hindu literature which went hand in hand with the emergence of ascetic move-
ments, of Buddhism and Jainism, in the fifth century BCE. This concept can be
found in particular in the Purāṇas, which cover all cosmological topics.
The cluster Empires and Last Days 2 revisits the questions of the role of empires
in medieval apocalyptic literature. It starts with an in-depth case study of aspects of
the Gog and Magog story, which is analysed more broadly in the first cluster. Jo-
Introduction 15
hann Heiss’chapter examines how different literary traditions were generated at
certain points in the history of Arab peoples in northern as well as in southern Ara-
bia. Heiss analyses, for instance, the work of Ibn Khurradādhbih, which describes a
mission undertaken to the dam against Gog and Magog under the caliph al-Wāṯiq.
The other contributions in this cluster examine the nexus between the concept of
linear time, apocalyptic expectations of Christ’s Second Coming and the develop-
ment of chronographical models, and the influence of ecclesiastical elites. Immo
Warntjes’chapter on early medieval countdowns to the end of the sixth millennium
examines both the complex traditions of the early medieval calculation of the date
of Easter and the development of the incarnation era in the light of the religious,
moral, intellectual and political interests of a Christian elite. In the Carolingian
world, the eschatological understanding of empire played an important role in the
formation of Christian identity. In his chapter, Graeme Ward examines three differ-
ent Carolingian commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, paying special attention to
their use of the late antique historiographical work of Orosius, which was a valuable
source of information for the birth of Christ. The text’s focus on Roman imperial es-
chatology, advocating a succession of world empires, was transferred to the Church
in Carolingian exegetical works. Ward shows how the great temporal distance be-
tween the works and the profound political changes that had taken place in the
meantime led to different interpretations. Rutger Kramer then presents an in-depth
case study of the enigmatic Chronicle of Moissac and examines the issue of the Car-
olingian reinterpretation and adaptation of earlier historiographical works. The
composition of this text, which was based on a plethora of earlier works, reflects
the interest of Carolingian intellectuals in the Apocalypse and emphasises the inter-
dependence of Church and Empire at that time.
The final section, The Afterlife of Eschatology, examines modern readings and
interpretations of eschatology, focusing in particular on the eschatological concepts
of time, history and messianism in the works of three widely received and important
contemporary thinkers, Giorgio Agamben, Jacob Taubes and Michel Foucault. Kurt
Appel examines Agamben’s analysis of apocalyptic thought and the corresponding
concepts of time on the basis of his interpretation of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
and the Book of Revelation. He demonstrates Agamben’s influence on the genesis of
the essential Western concepts, categories and constellations of eschatology and
highlights their political and noetic significance for the present age. Appel considers
the development of current concepts of time and traces key categories of Agamben,
who responded to today’s virtualisations with the concept of messianity. Martin
Treml examines Jacob Taubes’eschatological thinking and political theology and
shows how his study of religious and biblical texts was interwoven with events in
politics and with ideas of salvation and redemption. On a political level, Treml high-
lights two strands of Western religious thought, which were still influential during
the Age of Enlightenment: revolution and its repression on the one hand, and the
apostle Paul as role model and guide to an eschatological Lebensform on the other.
16 Veronika Wieser and Vincent Eltschinger
Finally, Christian Zolles analyses the correspondences between Jacob Taubes’and
Michel Foucault’s respective theories about Jewish and Christian apocalypticism
and touches upon what could have been illuminating discussions between the two
on “the use and abuse of history”. After providing an overview of the apocalypse as
a historical concept, the common characteristics of Foucault’s theory of genealogy
and Taubes’conception of eschatology are outlined.
Most of the scholars involved in the making of these volumes, especially those
who took part in the three-day conference in Vienna, remember warm and fruitful
discussions between representatives of widely different disciplines and areas. In
one way or another, these exchanges helped to shape the final form of the essays
summarised above. Some of us also recall the medievalists’openness to enriching
their apocalyptic and eschatological repertoire with non-Western materials. We edi-
tors hope that the present two books have remained true to this original spirit and
that they will strengthen the belief of specialists in the strong heuristic value of the
comparative approach to the study of apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology.
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