The apocalyptic year 1000: religious expectation and social change, 950-1050

The chapters in this book challenge prevailing views on the way in which apocalyptic concerns contributed to larger processes of social change at the first millennium. Several basic questions unify the chapters: What chronological and theological assumptions underlay apocalyptic and millennial speculations around the Year 1000? How broadly disseminated were those speculations? Can we speak of a mentality of apocalyptic hopes and anxieties on the eve of the millennium? If so, how did authorities respond to or even contribute to the formation of this mentality? What were the social ramifications of apocalyptic hopes and anxieties, and of any efforts to suppress or redirect the more radical impulses that bred them? How did contemporaries conceptualize and then historicize the passing of the millennial date of 1000?

Contributors

Richard Landes

Johannes Fried

Guy Lobrichon

Daniel Verhelst

Steven Cartwright

Richard Newhauser

Umberto Eco

Yves Christe

Malcolm Godden

Daniel Callahan

Susan E. von Daum Tholl