Apocalypticism is the religious belief that the end of the world is imminent, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic global event.
Apocalypticism is one aspect of eschatology in certain religions, the part of theology concerned with the final events of human history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity (societal collapse, human extinction, and so on).
Religious apocalypticism Religious views and movements often focus on cryptic revelations about a sudden, dramatic, and cataclysmic intervention of a god in human history; the judgment of humankind; the salvation of the faithful elect; and the eventual rule of the elect with the god in a heaven and/or upon a renewed Earth. Arising originally in Zoroastrianism, apocalypticism was developed more fully in the eschatological speculations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (the Abrahamic religions). Religious apocalypticism often involves themes such as God's judgment, salvation of the faithful, and the eventual establishment of a renewed world.
Esoteric aspects Apocalypticism is often conjoined with the belief that esoteric knowledge will likely be revealed in a major confrontation between good and evil forces, destined to change the course of history.Paul O. Ingram, Frederick John Streng. Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: Mutual Renewal and Transformation. University of Hawaii Press, 1986. pp. 148-149. Apocalypses can be viewed as good, evil, ambiguous or neutral, depending on the particular religion or belief system promoting them. However, it is not exclusively a religious idea and there are end times or transitional scenarios based in modern science, technology, political discourse, and conspiracy theories.
Abrahamic religions Christianity
Most scholars participating in the third quest for the historical Jesus believe that Jesus was an eschatological prophet who believed the coming arrival of the "Kingdom of God".Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition). Chapter 1. The quest of the historical Jesus. pp. 1–15.Ehrman, Bart D.. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford. 1999. p. 127. Simultaneously, some of these scholars tend to see Jesus's predictions as mistakenSanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. Penguin, 1993. Chapter 13, The Coming of the Kingdom. although many others view it from the perspective of the conditional nature of judgement prophecy.Christopher Hays. When the Son of Man Didn't Come. Fortress Press 2017.Mark Keown. "An Imminent Parousia and Christian Mission: Did the New Testament Writers Really Expect Jesus's Imminent Return?" in Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement, Brill 2017, pp. 242–263 Dale Allison draws parallels from the history of religions and the historical Jesus showing that contingent eschatology is often used as a dissonance reduction strategy when certain expectations or prophecies fail to materialize. Others have insisted on a "realized eschatology" that says Jesus' own ministry fulfilled prophetic hopes. Many conservative scholars argue the kingdom of god is both "present" and "still to come" in biblical passages. Such scholars take Jesus' statements of an imminent end as referring to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 541–543N.T. Wright Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay. Early Christianity 2018. Oft-cited are examples in the Old Testament where language of cosmic destruction is used for political catastrophes, such as in Ezek. 32:8; Amos 8:9; Zeph. 1:15.A number of interpretations of the term "Kingdom of God" have thus appeared in its eschatological context, e.g., apocalyptic, realized or inaugurated eschatologies, yet no consensus has emerged among scholars.Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth by Michael James McClymond (2004) pp. 77-79Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research by Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans (1998) pp. 255-257 The focus for Jesus's eschatological teachings is the Olivet Discourse in the gospel of Mark and the teachings in Matthew .John-Christian Eurell. "The Delay of the Parousia and the Changed Function of Eschatological Language". Journal of Early Christian History 2020. Many scholars point to Jesus' association with John the Baptist as confirmation for his apocalyptic intentions.According to Bart Ehrman, John's preparation for the end through baptismal forgiveness of sins is comparable to the sentiments of other apocalyptic movements of the late Second Temple period. Ehrman argues that in the synoptic Gospels, where Jesus is deliberate in beginning his preaching with John the Baptist, this is a reflection on the nature of his apocalyptic ministry.
Malherbe writes that Paul the Apostle includes himself among those who will live to see the parousia in 1 Thessalonians , although this is disputed by J. Andrew Doole.J Andrew Doole. "Did Paul Really Think He Wasn't Going to Die? Paul, the Parousia, and the First Person Plural in 1 Thess 4:13–18". Novum Testamentum 2020. In contrast, other passages in the Pauline epistles such as Philippians 4:5 are seen as describing the nearness of the parousia even if Paul himself will not live to see it. On the other hand, N.T. Wright observes that Paul's eschatology develops in his later epistles, after turbulent experiences in Ephesus, that he would probably not see the Second Coming in his lifetime. Wright argues that this shift was due to perspective and not belief.N.T. Wright (2018), Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay, page 58, University of St. Andrews
Most scholars of the mid-twentieth century and the third quest held to the view of a “consistent eschatology” where Jesus was an eschatological prophet who believed in a future coming of the “Kingdom of God".Ehrman, Bart. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford. 1999. p. 127. However, C. H. Dodd and others have insisted on a "realized eschatology", based on the belief that the ministry of Jesus had fulfilled prophetic hopes. Many conservative scholars have adopted the paradoxical position that the "Kingdom of God" describes a kingdom that is both "present" and "still to come", claiming Pauline eschatology as support.According to N.T. Wright, "the kingdom has already come with power, when Jesus was raised from the dead..." "The notion of God's already-launched kingdom appears explicitly in Rom 5:12-21, setting the tone for the whole of chapters 6, 7, and 8. The "reign" of death is contrasted in Rom 5:19 with the "reign" of "those who receive the abundance of grace;" and then, in v.21, with the reign of grace that has been inaugurated through Jesus." According to Wright, "these are clearly present realities with future consequences."N.T. Wright Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay. Early Christianity 2018 pp.59-60. While the notion of an apocalyptic Jesus remains a mainstream view among scholars, it has been challenged by proponents of other portraits. Scholars of the Jesus Seminar have rejected the historicity of Jesus' apocalyptic expectations, arguing that the evidence for it in the Gospels is largely tied to the discourses of Jesus on the "Son of Man", which they do not consider to be historical; they further attribute the apocalyptic expectations of the early Church as emerging from their belief in the resurrection of Jesus, where resurrection was tied to eschatological expectations in Jewish theology.John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991), 227–60.Marcus Borg, "A Temperate Case for a Non-eschatological Jesus," Forum, 2 (1986), pp. 81–102. Some argued that the earlier traditions in the Q Source and Gospel of Thomas showed that apocalyptic eschatology was not present in earlier layers of the Jesus tradition.Stephen J. Patterson, "The End of Apocalypse: Rethinking the Eschatological Jesus," Theology Today 52 (1995): 29–58 The approach by the Jesus Seminar is not short of many critics.Dale C. Allison, Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (London: SPCK, 2010), 116–136
Some scholars argue the apocalyptic ideas in the early Christian gospels are not to be viewed as a literal timetable or prediction of the end times, but as relating to the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE.N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), pp. 329–365Green, J.B., Brown, J., & Perrin, N. (2018). Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. IVP.Kinman, B. (1999). Parousia, Jesus "A-Triumphal" Entry, and the Fate of Jerusalem. Journal of Biblical Literature, 118(2), 279-294, They argue that for ancient Jews, the Temple was treated as a symbolic or even literal meeting point between Heaven and Earth, thereby its destruction would have wider cosmic consequences. Similarly, it is argued that apocalyptic language was used throughout the Hebrew Bible to describe political and historical catastrophes, and not the end of the world.J.E. Goldingay, Daniel (Dallas, Tex.: Word, 1989), 137-193J.J. Collins, Daniel, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 274-324N.T. Wright (2018), Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay, page 51-52, University of St. AndrewsJ. Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 111-144 Thus, scholars such as R.T. France and N.T. Wright argue that the Gospels use apocalyptic language borrowed from the Old Testament to describe the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, and passages such as Mark concerning the "coming" of the Son of Man (as described in Daniel 7) are not about the Second Coming, but rather about the vindication and enthronement of the Son of Man at the Right Hand of God, where he is bestowed new authority with the Temple's destruction.R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 498–543N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), pp. 329–365 Similarly, these and other scholars argue for a "now and not yet" approach to the Kingdom of God in the Gospels and Pauline epistles.N.T. Wright, Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay. Early Christianity 2018 pp.59-60.
Various Christian eschatological systems have developed among different Christian denominations throughout the history of Christianity, providing different frameworks for understanding the timing and nature of apocalyptic predictions.Goldsworthy, G. "The Gospel in Revelation – Gospel and Apocalypse" , Paternoster Press, 1994, . Some like dispensational premillennialism tend more toward an apocalyptic vision, while others like postmillennialism and amillennialism, while teaching that the end of the world could come at any moment, tend to focus on the present life and contend that one should not attempt to predict when the end should come, though there have been exceptions such as postmillennialist Jonathan Edwards, who estimated that the end times would occur around the year 2000.Tattersall, L. "Letters from heaven – Bible talks from the book of Revelation" , Perspective Vol. 10 No. 3&4, 2003.
Year 1000
There is no current consensus among historians about widespread apocalypticism in the year 1000. Richard Landes, Johannes Fried, and others think there were widespread expectations, both hopes and fears. The notion of a widespread expectation of the year 1000 first appeared during the Renaissance. Historians denounced it as a myth around 1900.