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“Touch No Unclean Thing”: Apocalyptic Expressions of Ascetic Spirituality in the Early Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Douglas W. Lumsden
Douglas W. Lumsden
Affiliation:
lecturer at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, California
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Extract

The earliest Latin commentaries on the Apocalypse of John interpret this strange and powerful text as a revelation of the Christian community's drama as it fulfills the conditions leading to its glorious triumph in the final chapter of God's temporal plan. According to early Latin exegetes, one event—the opening of the seven seals, described in Apocalypse 6:1 through 8:1—represents a microcosm of the whole, revealing the entire purpose for the church's historical development. Throughout the first millennium of Christian history, biblical authorities analyzing the account of the seven seals for its underlying message concluded that God causes history to unfold and mature in order to allow the assembly of the elect to separate itself from its false brethren within the church. Processed and purified by history, the elect will exist in a state of readiness for their ascension into eternity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 240 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1997

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References

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