Apocalyptic Spirituality

Apocalyptic Spirituality - Treatises and Letters of Lactantius, Adso of Montier-en-Der, Joachim of Fiore, the Spiritual Franciscans, Savonarola, translation and introduction by Bernard McGinn, preface by Marjorie Reeves "

Just as Jesus Christ came with true signs, but cloaked and hidden because of the likeness of sinful human nature so that he was hardly recognized as the Christ by even a few, so too the seventh king will come with false signs and will be hidden and cloaked because of his appearance of spiritual justice, so that only a few will be able to recognize that he is the appearance spirituality justice, so that only a few will be able to recognize that he is the Antichrist." Joachim of Fiore, 1135–1202

"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (Apoc. 22:20). The significance of these closing words of the New Testament for later Christian spirituality is the subject of this volume. 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. 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. †