Reformation Apocalypticism: Münster’s Monster or Christian Nationalism
To a large degree, historical forces determined the shape millennialism took in the Middle Ages. The early Middle Ages were not without chaos. But as long as Christendom remained a unity and the Catholic Church maintained a strong grip on society, the non-millenarian orthodoxy held sway. Fringe groups with their wild-eyed apocalyptic ideas were kept in check. Augustine’s non-millennialism remained the official position of the Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages. But the apocalyptic groups could no longer be corralled. Apocalypticism erupted with a vengeance. Joachim of Fiore’s ideas opened Pandora’s box. And millennial thinking has not been the same since. The critical events of the late Middle Ages—persecution, crop failures, the Black Death, social upheavals, and reform movements—all combined to produce a growing sense of apocalypticism in the late Middle Ages. ( Richard Kyle, Apocalyptic Fever: End-Time Prophecies in Modern America (Eugene, OR: Cascade...
