Making Ends Meet: Western Eschatologies, or the Future of a Society (9th–12th Centuries). Addition of Individual Projects, or Collective Construction of a Radiant Dawn?

Abstract

The religious and philosophical tradition of the West shows that eschatology provides the horizon necessary for all the promises of a better future. It sets forth more precisely the end of history. Eschatology and apocalypticism appear to be necessary, not just for social life but also at the very heart of notions of politics in medieval Christianity. But all the prophecies failed between the tenth and twelfth centuries: a “de-eschatologisation” was underway. A first generation of secular masters revolutionised the exegesis of the Apocalypse around the year 1100. Until the second third of the twelfth century, the enemy was outside. It then became interior. When the apocalyptic returned, it passed into the hands of some lonely and deviant figures.