Early Byzantine apocalyptic discourses : coping with crises in the sixth and seventh centuries / by Ryan W. Strickler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strickler, Ryan W.

Series:

Brill's series on the Early Middle Ages, 1878-4879 ; volume 32

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apocalyptic literature--History and criticism.

Apocalyptic literature.

Byzantine Empire--History--527-1081.

Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Empire--Church history.

Physical Description:

viii, 228 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Brill, [2026]

Summary:

"The Byzantine Empire faced many threats, but few were as great as the events of the sixth and seventh centuries, when paranoia, plagues, and wars threatened to tear the empire apart. Like today, prophets predicted horrors to come while preachers called on their congregations to repent. This book considers how the Byzantines understood the crises of the period and their role in divine history by reframing their troubles through an apocalyptic lens. While most scholars have interpreted these messages as a prediction of the end, this book argues for a different reading, understanding them instead as messages of hope."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

1. Setting the scene

2. Methodology

3. Late-Antique and Seventh-Century literature

4. Apocalyptic literature and discourse

5. Scholarship on the apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius

6. Conclusion

2. Sixth-Century crises

2. The year 6000

3. Apocalyptic continuations

4. Disasters and riots

5. The plague of Justinian

6. Procopius and Justinian

7. Conclusion

3. The Emperor: Messianic hero or Antichrist?

2. Heroic emperors

2.1 Maurice's "martyrdom": prophecies in Theophylact Simocatta

2.2 Heraclius: the empire's new hope

2.3 The Eschatological emperor

3. The emperor as adversary

3.1 Phocas: destroyer of the empire

3.2 Heraclius: usher of the apocalypse?

3.3 Emperor and priest?

4. Conclusion

4. Remaining steadfast: apostasy and identity

2. Identity: a fraught subject

3. Narrativity and social identity

3.1 Emplotment

3.2 Apostasy

4. Sources

5. Adversus Judaeos literature

5.1 Papiscus and Philo

5.2 The Doctrina of Jacob the Newly Baptised

6. Apostasy in apocalyptic discourse

6.1 The life of Theodore of Sykeon

6.2 The life of George of Choziba

6.3 Fragment by Maximus the Confessor

6.4 The apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius

5. Monsters in our midst: dehumanising the enemy

2. Dehumanisation

3. Sources

4. Imperial Dehumanisation

4.1 Phocas

4.2 Heraclius or Armilos?

5. Dehumanisation of the Persians

6. Dehumanisation of Islamic invaders

6.1 Sophronius

6.2 Maximus the Confessor

6.3 Pseudo-Methodius

7. Gog and Magog

7.1 Syriac Alexander Legend

7.2 Pseudo-Methodius

8. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Thesis (doctoral)--Macquarie University.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-224) and index.

Other Format:

e-book version

ISBN:

9789004745858

9004745858

OCLC:

1559626105

Publisher Number:

9789004745858