Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought, 1650-1800 (review)

310 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 29:2 APRIL 1991 Richard H. Popkin, ed. Millenarianism and Messianisrain English Literature and Thought, z65o-x8oo. Clark Library Lectures 1981-1982. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988. Pp. vii + 21o. NP. One of the more significant factors in the creation of the modern world and its secular categories was--ironically--a deeply religious one: belief in the Judaeo-Christian apocalypse. Between 15oo and 18oo an extraordinary number of people from Scotland to the Levant, from Moscow to Mexico City, became persuaded that they were living in the "latter days" of the world. The expectations associated with this belief proved a crucial catalyst in shaping political thought, literature, philosophy, and even the program for science. Moreover, it also appears to have been central to European expansion, to the emergence of national cultures, to both modern philosemitism and modern antisemitism, to liberal democratic values in the anglophone context, and more generally to the modern personality. It influenced the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the English Revolution in the seventeenth century, and, to a considerable extent, the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century. So alien, and yet so decisive to what we are as modern people, the apocalypse's wide-ranging and deeply temporalizing effects on Western culture have attracted growing scholarly attention for the last three decades and will likely do so for some considerable time to come. This collection of essays, edited by Richard H. Popkin, contributes significandy to the discussion and to the exciting discoveries deriving from it. Thus Christopher Hill demonstrates the powerful preoccupation of seventeenth-century Englishmen (and Scots) with the Jews and their conversion. Although the expectation of aJewish conversion at the end of days had been a part of Christian scenarios since late antiquity, the event was traditionally conceived as a passive act which simply provided yet a further sign and vindication of the true faith. For Englishmen, however, the event not only appeared increasingly imminent but, more important, the Jews were seen as playing a decisive role in the historical redemption--a role which interacted with English identity and mission. If England was the latter-day Israel which would realize the promises of the Israel of Scripture, modern Jews did not become irrelevant as a result. Many Englishmen looked forward to a partnership with latter-day Jews and to a powerful Jewish-Christian State in the Middle East which would complement and confirm English destiny. It may well emerge that, ultimately, Zionism was a Christian invention. Patriotism bore a curious symbiosis with philosemitism, and expectations about the Jews became a flashpoint in the debate about the imminence and meanings of the apocalypse. For English-speakers, the more apocalyptic an individual's orientation-the more he anticipated the second coming or the millennium--the more likely he was to hold positive attitudes about the Jews. Conversely, the more hesitant about the apocalypse, the more "Anglo-Catholic" an individual, the more likely he was to hold antisemitic attitudes. There may well exist an antisemitic intellectual tradition running from William Laud to T. S. Eliot. In what is arguably the best essay of the collection, Steven Zwicker illustrates how the vision of England as an "elected" latter-day Israel came in the late seventeenth century to be displaced by a competing and more conservative Roman image of the BOOK REVIEWS 311 realm. After 169~ zeal and fervor became fanaticism and "enthusiasm," while "moderation ," classical virtue (with its neo-Stoic emphasis on duty and gratitude) more persuasively bore the burden of the national agenda. The image of the Jew suffered accordingly . John Dryden, a key figure in this process, receives masterly treatment, and the "georgic" revolution in poetry assumes new meanings and densities as a result. Unfortunately, by positing two self-contained archetypes--Israel and Rome-Zwicker sets up artificial polarities which conceal the richness and complexity of the period. The saint and the citizen were not mutually exclusive, but the one led easily to the other. Similarly, the apocalyptic impulse did not so much give way to more persuasive competitors as it was redirected into new formulations. Secularization, it is becoming increasingly clear, involved less the displacement or circumscription of...