The Year 1000: Religious and Social Response to the Turning of the First Millennium

by M. Frassetto

Overview

This collection of new essays examines the long-standing question of apocalyptic expectations around the turn of the first millennium. Including works by scholars of medieval history, literature, and religion, this book argues that apocalyptic expectations did exist around the year 1000. It provides a more balanced and nuanced approach to the issue than the traditional views that either identify a time of fear, the 'terrors of the year 1000', or deny that awareness of the millennium existed. This book, instead, recognizes that there were a variety of responses to the eschatological years 1000 and 1033 and that these responses contributed to the broader social and religious developments associated with the birth of European civilization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403960290
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	02/06/2003
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL FRASSETTO is the religion editor for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He earned his Ph.D. for the University of Delaware, where he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the German Democratic Republic. He is the editor, with David Blanks, of Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Perception of Other, and the author of numerous articles on medieval religion and society.

Table of Contents

Introduction; M.Frassetto Mutations, Adjustments, Terrors, Historians, and the Year One Thousand; E.Peters Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the Early Modern Ages; E.A.Matter Wulfstan and the Millennium; M.P.Richards Harrowing the Houses of the Holy: Images of Violation in Wulfstan's Homilies; N.E.Atkinson & D.E.Burton The Tau Cross in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes; D.F.Callahan Heretics, Antichrists, and the Year 1000: Apocalyptic Expectations in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes; M.Frassetto Thietmar of Merseburg: The Image of the Ottonian Bishop; D.A.Warner Otto III, Charlemagne, and Pentecost 1000 AD: A Reconsideration Using Diplomatic Evidence; M.Gabriele Apocalyptic Concerns and Mariological Tactics in 11th Century France; T.J.Wellman A New Fashion in Imitating Christ: Changing Spiritual Perspectives around the Year 1000; P.Jestice The Year 1000 and Those Who Labored; C.Taylor Early Medieval Women, Prophesy and Millennial Expectations; J.T.Schulenburg Islam and the West in the Age of the Pilgrim; D.Blanks

Editorial Reviews

'Scholarly wheat from among the chaff of research...' - Christopher M. Bellitto, History: Reviews of New Books

From the Publisher