The hidden apocalypse: Richard of Saint-Vanne and the otherworld

At the centre of this article stands a letter written by Abbot Richard of Saint-Vanne sometime during the first quarter of the eleventh century. The letter describes two voyages to the otherworld taken by two monks at the abbey of Saint-Vaast in Arras in 1011 and 1012. A careful reading of the letter reveals that behind what appears to be a standard text, belonging to the very popular genre of otherworld journeys, hides an apocalyptic message of urgent warning that the world is about to reach its end. The letter thus serves as a prooftext for the existence of apocalyptic tension in the period between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1033, and as such contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the ‘terrors of the year 1000’.     

The writings of Ademar of Chabannes,the Peace of 994, and the ‘Terrors of the Year 1000’

The belief that apocalyptic expectations existed at the turn of the first millennium is no longer widely held, even though some recent scholars have suggested they did. This paper seeks to confirm the notion that, at least in the monastic milieu, belief that the Last Judgement was imminent did exist in the decades around the year 1000. To support this argument, this paper will examine the writings of the monk, Ademar of Chabannes. In his work of history and the sermons he wrote near the end of his life, Ademar reveals his own eschatological mentality. His history, it will be argued, contains numerous accounts of prodigies and signs that indicated Ademar and his contemporaries thought that they were living in the Last Days. Ademar's apocalypticism is revealed even more fully in his sermons, which were organised along the lines of salvation history. His account in the sermons of the Peace of God council of 994, which also appears in the history, clearly demonstrates his eschatological sensibility. His record of this council, written over 30 years after the event, it will be argued, is apocalyptic in both form and content. The structure of his account is arranged in the tradition of apocalyptic literature, and the events he records are described in language drawn from the Revelation of John and the book of Isaiah. Ademar also drew on the idea of the refreshment of the saints found in the writings of Jerome and of Bede in his explanation of the events of 994. Ademar's writings, therefore, reveal the existence of apocalyptic expectations at the turn of the first millennium.     

The Wrong King: Apocalypse and Transformation (or Not) in the White House

Abstract

Jonathan Z. Smith has argued that apocalyptic discourse grew out of a political desire to remove the "wrong" king from the throne. Later, though, the same discourse was used to prevent a "wrong" king from taking the throne. Thus apocalyptic discourse can either motivate or resist transformative change. In US political history it has served both purposes. This article focuses on the trend in presidential discourse, especially in foreign policy, since Franklin D. Roosevelt to use apocalyptic language to resist transformation. The electorate's desire to prevent substantive change was the determining factor in the presidential election of 2008. In Barack Obama's first year in office, though he seemed to promote transformation, his dominant message was a reassuring one: The threat of fundamental change would continue to be contained both at home and around the world. No "wrong" rulers would be allowed to disturb the security of America.     

Transcendence and Apocalyptic: A Reply to Barber

Abstract

This essay takes up Dan Barber's challenge to think Christian theology non-analogically. It does so by re-affirming and re-conceiving transcendence according to a kind of apocalyptic exigence. Apocalyptic transcendence, it is argued, occurs according to a mode of action that is irreducible either to the univocal production of pure immanence, or to the analogical mediation of transcendence within immanence. Rather, apocalyptic transcendence is operative as a mode of action by which immanence is suspended and the territorial conceptions of this-worldly sovereignty are denied. Through engagement with the work of John Howard Yoder, it is argued that apocalyptic thus gives way to doxology as that mode of engaged and embodied action that alone exceeds the presumed need for effective ontological production.     

Finding Antichrist: Apocalypticism in Nineteenth‐Century Catholic England and the Writings of Frederick Faber

The article discusses the apocalyptic beliefs of the nineteenth‐century English Oratorian and devotional writer, Frederick Faber, though initially providing a context among earlier and contemporary English Catholic apocalyptic writers. It proceeds, by means of a consideration of Faber's conscious de‐secularisation of language, to give an account of his identification of the elements of a transvalued contemporary popular concept of modernity as the signs of apocalyptic crisis. The article as a whole is intended to provide an aid to the perception and understanding of a pervasive apocalypticism in nineteenth‐century English‐speaking Catholicism.     

ON FUTURES AND ENDINGS: NARRATOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF CRISES*

The article examines the changing relationship of the present to the future from a narratological perspective. It argues that three dominant narrative schemas structure the contemporary experiences of temporality in the Western social imaginary: the modern crisis narrative, the apocalyptic narrative, and the chronic crisis narrative. In its first part, the article shows how the modern sense of crisis, which emerged in the late eighteenth century, sedimented into a powerful narrative template by knitting together the past, the present, and the future into a unified plot. The second part focuses on the resurgence of apocalyptic stories in the Western social imaginary and humanities discourse. The final part highlights the special contribution of aesthetics of precariousness to the Western imaginary of time and temporality. It argues that the “chronic crisis narrative” deflates the teleological narrative arc of the modern crisis paradigm while also shunning the end-time discourse of the apocalyptic narrative.     

The exorcist? John Gray,apocalyptic religion and the return to realism in world politics

This review article discusses John Gray's new book, Black mass: apocalyptic religion and the death of utopia, against the background of the evolution of Gray's thought and in the context of contemporary world politics. In particular, it examines his account of the role of apocalyptic religion in world politics and his claim that to manage this we need to revert to the insights of political realism in international affairs.     

The past in the middle ages

In spite of the great variety of historical writing in the middle ages it has often been maintained that certain attitudes to the past were held in common between 500 and 1500 A.D. A sort of medieval vision of the past has been conjured up which is alleged to have been providential, if not apocalyptic, universalizing, Christocentric and strongly periodized. Medieval ideas about the past, as expressed in a handful of well-known writers, including Bede, Caffaro, Otto of Freising, Matthew Paris and Ranulph Higden, are considered here particularly with reference to the structure of the past, namely how, if at all, it was thought of as divided into periods, and its content. God's role in human history, it is argued, was neglected in practice; it was not the Christian Church which provided the medieval ‘universal’ historian with his main subject matter, but classical Rome; it was Rome, too, which was his inspiration and supplied his models.     

Ceramic production in ancient Nasca: provenance analysis of pottery from the Early Nasca and Tiza cultures through INAA

We report the results of an instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) undertaken on a regional sample of pottery from the Southern Nasca Region. The samples included specimens primarily from the Early Nasca (ca. A.D. 1–450) and Tiza (ca. A.D. 1000–1476) cultures from a total of 16 different prehispanic sites. The results of the analysis demonstrate centralized production of Early Nasca polychromes and decentralized production of pottery from the Tiza culture. The results of this analysis confirm previous conclusions about the organization of these two indigenous cultures of the south coast of Peru and support the hypothesis of an excess production of polychromes at the ceremonial center Cahuachi for Early Nasca, and multiple centers of production for the Tiza culture.     

Antichrist's Revolution: Some Anglican Apocalypticists in the Age of the French Wars

The article deals with the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century development of early modern English apocalyptic thought which permitted the identification of the Enlightenment and its political manifestations in Revolutionary France with the prophesied Antichrist. The importance of this phenomenon is discussed and a framework for further discussion of it, taken from general theories of apocalyptic, is provided. However, the article is chiefly concerned to go beyond existing, inadequate explanations of the phenomenon, which advert merely to the French wars and certain contemporary conspiracy theories, and seeks its origins and relationships in wider currents of British thought in the period and before. Notably, reference is made to the concern of the insular Counter-Enlightenment with rationalist christological heresy, the continuing vigour of the English tradition of apocalyptic exegesis and to contemporary renewed theological and pastoral emphasis on supernatural and dogmatic religion. However, popular thought is also adverted to and the phenomenon is situated within the history of the ideology of the British ancien régime. Throughout, the normality and acceptability of this apocalyptic thought in its contemporary setting is emphasized, implicitly suggesting a need to restrain historiographical emphasis on modernizing patterns of thought in treatments of the period.     

Something Borrowed,Something New? Reflections on Apocalypticism and Prophecy in the Old Testament

This article approaches the ongoing scholarly debate as to what constitutes apocalypticism in ancient Judaism, and, in particular, if and how apocalyptic texts stand out as different from prophetic texts in the Old Testament. Some examples from the history of scholarship illustrate how the dichotomy between prophecy and apocalypticism has been perceived, and the underlying presuppositions are discussed critically. A case is made for assuming a fundamental continuity between so-called prophetic and apocalyptic writings as developments of the same literary tradition. Against this background is discussed how differences and nuances between texts within this continuity can be fruitfully acknowledged. Three tendencies that appear to be reinforced in so-called apocalyptic texts in the Old Testament are pointed out: The extensive use of literary loans from older texts, the development of visually suggestive, yet elusive imagery, and the combination of different literary forms and genres. Finally, some selected texts from Old Testament prophetic books (Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, and Isaiah) serve as test cases for the first of these aspects.     

从泰山到东海抑或是从东海到地下——关于北宋中期以前买地券中一类常见用语的讨论

在讨论中国东南地域之江西地区(兼及湖北部分地区)墓葬出土的北宋中期以前买地券中"东海"、"水中鱼"、"高山鹿"等常见用语的含义以及唐宋时期"张坚固"、"李定度"身份之变化的基础上,可以初步得出这样的推论:如果说从前秦到唐初的数百年里在新疆吐鲁番地区还有可能存在着"东海"信仰的话,那么在两宋时期的江西、湖北地区,昔日有关"东海"的观念和记忆正在逐渐消退,到了南宋,已基本消失于人们的脑海中,连同隐没的还有这一观念可能代表的某种有关死后世界的信仰,与它们一起湮灭的还有水中鱼、高山鹿和天上鹤这些居住于东海边的神灵;张坚固、李定度的新身份或许意味着一种新的冥世信仰。     

Evidence for inter-island transport of heirlooms: luminescence dating and petrographic analysis of ceramic inhaling bowls from Carriacou,West Indies

Ceramic snuffing tubes and inhaling bowls used for ingesting hallucinogenic substances are known from several islands in the West Indies, but their chronological distribution is often vague. A partial inhaling bowl found at the site of Grand Bay on Carriacou in deposits dating between ca. A.D. 1000–1200, along with two other unprovenienced specimens from the local museum, were dated using luminescence (TL and OSL) to determine their antiquity. Surprisingly, the dates had a weighted average of 400 ± 189 B.C., making them several hundred years older than all ¹⁴C assays from the island; however, they do overlap in age with similar artifacts found on Puerto Rico and Vieques Island over 750 km away. Additional luminescence dating of two stylistically distinct Suazan ceramic sherds excavated from stratified deposits at Grand Bay fall within the expected ceramic and radiocarbon chronology. These data, coupled with petrographic analysis of the specimens, suggests that they were not made using local materials. Instead, they appear to have been transported to the island, possibly hundreds of years later, as heirlooms. This may be the first evidence for inter-island transport of drug paraphernalia in the Caribbean.     

Stable isotope chemistry,population histories and Late Prehistoric subsistence change in the Aleutian Islands

Aleut population history has been a topic of debate since the earliest archaeological investigations in the region. In this paper, we use stable isotope chemistry to evaluate the hypothesis that two distinct groups of people, Paleo- and Neo-Aleut, occupied the eastern Aleutians after 1000 BP. This study focuses on 80 sets of directly dated eastern Aleutian burial assemblages from Chaluka midden, Shiprock Island and Kagamil Island. We use a linear mixing model informed by isotopic analysis of two large Aleut faunal assemblages to address temporal and spatial variation in human carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from these sites. The patterning we report addresses both Aleut demographic and economic prehistory, illustrating a transition in both at ca. 1000 BP. Our results suggests that the Chaluka diet, dominated by Paleo-Aleut inhumations, differed in both trophic level and foraging location from the other two sites for much of the past 4000 years. Trends in our data also suggest that individuals from Shiprock and Kagamil burial caves, primarily Neo-Aleuts, had enough access to higher trophic level foods to differentiate their bone chemistries from those buried in Chaluka midden. These trends in diet, recently reported genetic differences, as well as the introduction of novel mortuary practices at ca. 1000 BP, suggest that Neo-Aleuts do represent a population new to the eastern Aleutians.     

《三国志》注译匡误一则

本研讨的是东汉末年东郡太守臧洪给当时豪陈琳一封复信中的几句话。献帝兴平二年(公元195年)十二月至次年建安元年夏,臧洪被大军阀袁绍围困于郡治东武阳。绍令洪邑人陈琳写信劝洪投降,洪不从。复信说明与绍友好初衷是共尊王室,今日对立是绍不尊王室,其中有些重要的话被今人误注误译。追根溯源,多少与史家陈寿、范晔的误解有关。甚至《资治通鉴》等大部头作也沿袭了这些误解。故从复信主旨着眼,依据史实和词义匡正这些错误。     

The evolution of threat narratives in the age of terror: understanding terrorist threats in Britain

This article examines the evolution of threat narratives in the age of terror, focusing on the United Kingdom. The analysis is broken down into two sections. The first part of the article presents four distinct and yet overlapping notions of the threats which have influenced both the West, and more specifically the UK, in debates about counterterrorism since 9/11. The four threat narratives—Al‐Qaeda as a central organization; decentralized terror networks; home grown; and finally apocalyptic threats—have all been used to inform counter terror measures in the West. The second section of the article argues that terrorism has evolved strategically, and is hybridized owing to the security environment—interpenetrated by globalization, digital media and information communication technologies—in which it occurs. The article concludes with a preliminary discussion of some strategic and operational themes which have influenced the form and character of terrorism and insurgency, exploring how they impact on the ways in which threats are constituted and countered, illustrating that what is new maybe the nature of our own fears.     

'[…;] all poetry is difficult […]: the limitations of Seferis' modernist poetics

Abstract

In Greece, as in several other countries in the period between the two World Wars, one of the serious charges frequently made against Modernism was that it was impossibly bad mannered towards the reader – that it made no effort at all to communicate and that modernist poetry was ‘difficult’ or ‘obscure’. For example, as early as 1931, Kostis Palamas – the poet who had had an enormous impact on Greek literary affairs in the first half of this century – in a charming if not somewhat condescending letter addressed to George Seferis, noted that the poems of <inline-graphic href="splitsection4_in1.tif"/>were ‘cryptographic’ and stated that he was personally unable to find the ‘key’ that was needed for deciphering such difficult poetry (Palamas 1931). A few years earlier, Seferis himself had noted in his journals that whenever he tried to read Valery's poems to Palamas and his circle, they had reacted by saying that they did not have time to solve ‘puzzles’ (1975: 62).     

A Door of Hope Re‐opened: The Fifth Monarchy,King Charles and King Jesus

A Door of Hope was the manifesto of the Fifth Monarchists’ desperate uprising in London in January 1661, a few months after the Restoration of Charles II. While the rising itself is well known, its manifesto has never been examined in detail. Probably based on a sermon to Venner's congregation, it displays a defiant conviction that the Restoration could be understood as part of God's providential plan, the next step towards the imminent kingdom of Christ on earth. But it also reaches out to a much wider constituency, all the supporters of the “Good Old Cause,” offering a programme that might appeal to many radicals. And the author draws on secular, republican discourse to buttress his apocalyptic claims, revealing close links between even the most extreme Fifth Monarchists and wider currents of interregnum radicalism.     

The Correspondence of Regional Patterns and Local Strategies in Formative to Classic Period West Mexico

Archaeological research in West Mexico has tended to emphasize two widely distributed and interlocking sets of archaeological remains—the shaft tombs associated with funerary ritual in the Formative/Early Classic periods (1500 B.C.–400+ A.D.) and the Teuchitlan tradition public architecture of the Late Formative/Classic (300 B.C.–900 A.D.) periods. Each is found across a wide area, and each has been used by archaeologists of different persuasions to define West Mexico as a cultural region. This paper contrasts the shaft tomb phenomena with the Teuchitlan Tradition and concludes that their core–periphery patterns are the result of two different kinds of elite–elite relationships. These, in turn, appear to be distinct local level strategies by elites to develop a following and to establish pools of available labor.     

The Rise of the Safavids According to their Old Veterans: Amini Haravi's Futuhat-e Shahi

This article studies an early Safavid chronicle, Futuhat-e Shahi by Amini Haravi. In 1521, the founder of the Safavid state, Shah Isma‘il, provided Haravi with a number of veterans from the early days of the Safavid uprising as informants. Their narrative presents an alternative view on the early career of the shah that differs from the dominant version current in modern scholarship. From the perspective of the Futuhat, the rise of the Safavids did not occur as a wild apocalyptic explosion, but was a carefully planned and cautious campaign run by experienced commanders who kept a tight rein on the teenage Shah Isma‘il.