Apocalypticism

* Article: Apocalypticism: A philosophy of history? By François Hartog. In Esprit Issue 6, 2014, pages 22 to 32

URL = https://www.cairn-int.info/revue-esprit-2014-6-page-22.htm?WT.mc_id=dossier36

Excerpt

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"While apocalypticism is part of—and inspired by—the prophetic genre, it also borrows from other traditions. Moreover, exegetes have remarked upon apocalyptic passages linked to certain major prophets (such as Isaiah and Ezekiel). The apocalypse is also set in motion by a crisis; more specifically, it unfolds around the aporia that it proclaims. The present is such that there is no longer any escape. Refusal, rebellion, or any other action is futile; the godless are bearing down on us, and we will be smothered. There is nothing to be done except watch as the end approaches, and prepare ourselves for the encounter. Today’s crisis has given rise to intense speculation, particularly when it comes to calculating the time we have left.

13Apocalypticians wield prophecies in a retrospective manner, reactivating (and reinterpreting) ancient prophecies by appealing to pseudepigrapha. They conjure the past to speak of the present; it is as if the present could be revealed in some moment of the distant past (through the eyes of Enoch, Moses, or Daniel, who was said to have found himself in Babylon). As the exegete André Lacocque observes, “the apocalypticians’ future is our present, because they cast back to a distant past, under assumed names, to speak of contemporary events.”