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Religion History

The Apocalyptic Year 1000

Religious Expectaton and Social Change, 950-1050

edited by Richard Landes, Andrew Gow & David Van Meter

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2004
Category
History
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780195111910
    Publish Date
    Jan 2004
    List Price
    $64.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780195161625
    Publish Date
    May 2003
    List Price
    $83.00

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Description

The essays 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 essays: 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? Including the work of British, French, German, Dutch, and American scholars, this book will be the definitive resource on this fascinating topic, and should at the same time provoke new interest in and debate on the nature and causes of social change in early medieval Europe.

About the authors

Richard Landes' profile page

Andrew Gow is Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. He is a cultural and intellectual historian with a special interest in literary, social, and cultural theory.

Andrew Gow's profile page

David Van Meter's profile page