Arguing for Improvement: The Last Judgment, Time and the Future in Dhuoda’s Liber manualis

The role of eschatology and the Apocalypse as part of theological discourse in the Carolingian age (c. 750 – 950 CE), has been widely studied. Nevertheless, the complicated temporal structure of biblical revelation of which the Apocalypse is only one of many parts and its impact on the discourse of the Carolingian endeavor to correct Christian society has hardly been looked into. As a consequence, the development of ideas of futurity expressed in argumentative patterns associated with ideas of revelation and the Last Judgment, is rather underresearched. This oversight is a serious one, because it obscures a specific approach to time, as well as a conglomeration of ideas about the Christian way of life. This article explores the discursive techniques that formed an extensive matrix of moral norms connected to temporal patterns, rooted in the interpretation of the Bible. It focuses on Dhuoda ’ s Liber manualis as just one voice in a much broader and diverse Carolingian discourse. The centrality of an eschatological world-view in the Middle Ages and the influence of apocalyptic thought on medieval life have often been emphasised. 1 For the early Middle Ages, discussion has mainly revolved around the question of whether there was a heightened apocalyptic fear around 800 that drove society to look for signs of the apocalypse, and stimulated the development of computistic, astrological and cosmological ideas. 2 While these discussions have centred on the role of the Apocalypse as a driving force of change in matters of time measurement, James Palmer has recently argued that the Apocalypse was not central to innovations in that field. interpretation on just one in the broad diverse Carolingian taking s Liber manualis as an example of how argumentative patterns and exhortations be modelled on a time frame derived from exegesis. It looks closely at how admonitions associated with specific of relation about and Last