Apocalyptic Politics
Dateline: December 22, 1999
"APOCALYPTIC POLITICS" > Page 1 , 2 , 3, 4
Christian Beginnings
Christianity has been extremely fertile ground for millennial expectations. No one should be surprised, considering that such expectations have been integral since Christianity's earliest stages - it was born in an age and area where apocalyptic expectations had a lot of power. The Jews had long suffered under the Romans, who were not the first foreign conquerors in the region. There were many who did not believe that God would let them continue for much longer in such an intolerable situation, and so hoped for salvation from Rome and earthly suffering through a divine redeemer.
Nearly all of the Jewish literature of the time reflects this basic position, much in the form of apocalyptic predictions. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus describes an approaching apocalypse: angels are to come forth, separate out all of the wicked people from the just, and then cast the wicked down into the fires where they are to suffer.
Jesus makes it pretty clear that this end is to be expected shortly - some of those listening to him right there were not supposed to die before it occurs. Pretty much all of the Roman world was ready to hear such a message. First, they were accustomed to stories of a divinely appointed hero who endures trials and tribulations as part of a pre-ordained fate from heaven. Second, the concept of immortality was already a part of life, even though it was only the province of philosophers, gods and heroes rather than the common folk. Third, Jesus is portrayed as bringing this immortality along with perfect justice to downtrodden people who had neither but were willing to hope for both.
It is important to remember here that many of Jesus' harsher moral dictates really only make sense within the context of a quickly approaching apocalypse in which the contemporary corrupt powers would be replaced by a blessed age controlled by God. The character of Jesus promoted an ethical radicalism well suited to homeless, charismatic itinerants and those awaiting the end of the world.
Curiously, the sort of god necessarily portrayed by such apocalyptic millenarians is a contradiction. The idea of an apocalypse is to remove all of the evil here in the world and replace it with a perfectly just order in which there is no evil. Oddly enough, this is to be achieved through the evil means of great violence and suffering. Thus this god is not only barbaric for making use of a divine "ethnic cleansing" to achieve its ends, but it does so contrary to its ultimate goals of peace. It's bad enough when we try to do that, but we should be able to expect better of a divinity requiring our worship.
Institutionalization
That was how it began, but matters quickly changed. As time progressed, people began to notice that the promised apocalypse did not arrive. It is true that many continued to nurse the hope that it would appear, but others were more practically minded and so labored at building up religious institutions and, unsurprisingly, trying to develop new interpretations of Jesus' predictions. Since Jesus could not possibly be mistaken, he must have meant something entirely different.
As before, we are encountering a pattern which is constantly repeated in apocalyptic movements. Rational people might expect believers to abandon a belief when it has failed to materialize a promised prediction, but that is rarely the case. Some drift away, but most stick with the belief and make every possible effort to re-interpret things in a new manner. It happened at the birth of Christianity and rematerialized again and again in Christian history, for example with the Millerites in the 1840s and the Jehovah's Witnesses over and over.
Eventually, Christianity became an established secular and religious power, jealous of the authority it held. Governments and powerful institutions must learn to oppose if not actively fight against apocalyptic prophecies which promise that they will be swept aside, and Christianity was no different. The earthly order had become the Christian church's order!
Apocalyptic beliefs belong primarily to the poor, the downtrodden and those who have been denied their share of power. Christianity started out as a religion which was followed primarily by just such people - and the apocalyptic predictions of Jesus surely appealed to them. Eventually, though, Christianity had to move on and started to oppose the immediacy of such predictions.
So, church leaders and vaunted theologians like Augustine argued that the millennium was meant allegorically and was achieved spiritually by the Church at Pentacost, when the Holy Spirit appeared to the disciples shortly after the alleged resurrection of Jesus. This argument is based less on scriptural exegesis than on the very real demands of a powerful and conservative church seeking to preserve that power against the large numbers of followers trying to be faithful to the actual teachings of Jesus, especially the teaching that the world would end soon. Under the conditions created by such followers, society would not be able to survive for long.
The first strategy was to argue that the millennial apocalypse would still come, just somewhat later. The second strategy was to argue that the prophecy had come true, but in a spiritual or allegorical manner - like Augustine did. These same strategies have been followed by all religious groups when their apocalyptic predictions fail to materialize. Such strategies may have been satisfactory for church leaders, but it didn't satisfy the slaves and the poor in the increasingly Christian empire.
Middle Ages
The social situations in which outbreaks of millenarianism have occurred in Christianity bear remarkable resemblance to each other. The prophecies from the New Testament took on explosive force in areas of Europe which had experienced serious overpopulation and which were in the middle of rapid social or economic change. These conditions could be found first in one area, then later in another - with apocalyptic millenarian movements following right along.
Medieval Europe was certainly no picnic for the poor, but given the relative social stability and lack of significant change, it took a lot to get the peasants to embark on a pursuit of the Millennium. The mere fact that a society is oppressive is not enough to alienate people if there is a sufficiently stable social order, which was the case in medieval Europe. The most common causes of people feeling alienated enough to seek cataclysmic change were either that they got caught up in a large movement which had originated elsewhere, or because their traditional way of life had become totally impossible.
One way in which his happened was the expansion of social and economic horizons. As people began to learn that their own circumstances could be better, they were not quite so willing to accept abject poverty and dependence as their preordained lot in life. The acquisition of new wants which could not be satisfied simply lead to alienation and distrust. They entered a life of chaotic insecurity on the fringes of society with apocalyptic visions seemingly their only hope. This became even worse whenever some disturbing, exciting or generally frightening event occurred. Common examples of this were comets, revolts, wars, etc.
One way which people had to deal with such plights was to join a salvationist group under the leadership of a messianic leader. On the strength of visions, inspirations, or just scriptural interpretation, the leader would decree for his followers a mission of cosmic dimensions. Possession of such a mission and receiving a divine appointment in fulfilling God's Will provided the disoriented, the disenchanted and the confused with new bearings and new hope for the future.
The Reformation was itself partly a product of millenarian fervor. The most radical and destructive Reformationists were driven by apocalyptic expectations of an imminent end to the evils perpetrated by the Roman Church. It is only in this context that we can really hope to understand their willingness to die in militarily hopeless revolts - farmers armed with minimal farm implements against trained soldiers. At best, they hoped that God would use them to signal the apocalypse and give them victory. At worst, they had nothing to lose because the old world they knew would end soon anyway.
A good example of this was Thomas Müntzer, who proclaimed that people were living in the "end of all ages." He led peasants in Thuringen in a revolt in 1525 - most were killed while he was put on the rack. Martin Luther, however, was not nearly so radical. He generally supported earthly powers and so was horrified at the prospect of general anarchy in the expectation of the apocalypse. Modern Protestantism has continued in this dichotomy, with some supporting the existence of worldly institutions while others continue to believe that we are living in the final days of this world.
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