Resumen de The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam by Stephen J. Shoemaker (review)
For while on the surface the book offers a case for the enduring power of eschatology to shape imperial dreams, in practice, its narrative looks always toward the rise of Islam and how preceding apocalyptic dialogues gave it shape. [...]Zoroastrian cosmology predicted that in the mid-seventh century, an Iranian “King of Kings” would establish a universal empire. [...]prophets everywhere, whatever their religion, saw themselves engaged in an apocalyptic, transformative struggle wherein the stakes of imperial rule and anagogical truth overlapped perfectly. Rather, as promised in the introduction, The Apocalypse of Empire surveys the important literature on apocalypticism in late antiquity and crafts from it a compelling account of political and religious movements in the eastern Mediterranean over a period of eight hundred years. Besides drawing together so many texts and traditions into a coherent story, the volume will serve at least two other important purposes— as a reminder of the frenetic and fantastical atmospheres out of which great religious movements are born and as a demonstration of the galvanizing power of apocalyptic emotions to shape the course of history and the fate of empires.
