Introduction: Approaches to Medieval Cultures of Eschatology

Abstract

In all religions, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped and made meaningful by beliefs and expectations related to the End Times. Such beliefs in the Last Things, ta eschata, have been integral to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, especially in the pre-modern era,1 and range from the final battle between good and evil and the dawn of a new, divine order to death, divine judgment and eternal afterlife. They also include the dreadful tribulations that every human will supposedly have to face before salvation. In the medieval West as in the East,2 eschatology seems to have been part of the foundation upon which societies were built.3 This period is often associated with anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ (parousia) or the advent of messianic figures such as the Hindu