Apocalyptic Thinking in Antiquity
Panel host: Moritz F. Adam
The study of Jewish apocalyptic thinking, and especially the understanding of its historical antecedents, interlocutors, and contexts, is one of the primary keys to the cultural history of the past two millennia. At the same time, it is in itself a vital discourse in its historical context, within the wider theological, historical, and literary dynamics of antiquity.
The aim of this panel is to discuss three central current questions in the study of apocalypticism: Firstly, how are pertinent elements of apocalyptic thinking embedded in broader discourses which pervaded the history of ideas in Second Temple Judaism, within and beyond the corpus of literature which is commonly labelled apocalyptic? Secondly, how does this interrelationship speak to the rhetorical and social functions of apocalyptic thought? How does it problematise the characterisation of apocalypticism as esoteric, sectarian, or marginal? Thirdly, how are these dynamics in Jewish thought during the Second Temple Period comparable to discourses in surrounding cultures, such as Egypt, Persia, Greece or Rome? In which sense can such comparison attest to broader conceptual affinities or indeed to an intercultural dynamic by means of which Jewish discourses can be brought into conversation with its neighbouring contemporaries?
This array of questions sets out a Spannungsfeld of the multifaceted dimensions of the negotiation, critique, function, and place of apocalyptic thinking within Judaism and across ancient cultures, as well as its international impact. The underlying discussion of the entanglement of ideas across genres and linguistic registers can speak beyond the thematic field of apocalypticism and can be understood as a prism for the dynamics of the wider history of literature, politics and thought in antiquity. It is moreover crucially a critique of an often overly monolithic understanding of apocalypticism, and seeks to show how reflections on and negotiations of revelation, conceptions of time and space, the organisation of history and its end, or the relationship of transcendence and immanence manifested themselves in a nuanced system of movements and countermovements.
This panel invites contributions which focus on one or multiple of the above questions and propose engagements with them across sets of multiple texts either from within Second Temple Judaism – though perhaps beyond the set of texts commonly labelled apocalyptic – or in conversation with sources from other cultures of the wider Mediterranean and the Near East. In the interest of facilitating broad exchange, contributions from early career researchers, as well as established scholars, are encouraged.