Chicken Soup for the Apocalypse

Picked up a wonderfully weird looking book at the library sale this week, called Apocalypses by Eugen Weber. I've read a few chapters so far and it is interesting. Weber is an historian, and the dust jacket says this:

"The distinguished historian Eugen Weber redresses the historical and religious amnesia that has consigned the study of apocalytpic and millenial thought to the lunatic fringe."

Which may be of comfort to some I guess. Weber does a good job of "redressing the balance" and examining both history and belief, even though some of the history of apocalyptic fervour is in fact the recurring appearance of the lunatic fringe. Yet Weber fits it into the thinking of the period, the current events that weighed on people's minds, the concepts of time, and the general religious emphasis and belief that prevailed.

One thing that is obviously going to come up in a book like this is the number of times the end of the world has been predicted. The poet William Yeats predicted a Celtic Armageddon in 1899 and the end of the Christian era in 2000 (I guess I missed it). Various predictions were made throughout the centuries, some with specific dates, some setting a time between dates (e.g. Gregory of Tours put it "between 799 and 806"), and some pointing to when the Antichrist would appear. If they were right you and I are living in the Matrix.

One of the most interesting things in reading this so far is how we humans tend to project what we see happening in the world now into our own interpretation of future spiritual events - we paint signs pointing to our own expectations. I can recall hearing a speaker who seriously proposed that Henry Kissinger was probably the Antichrist and the EEC (European Economic Community) was the Beast. As well as aspects of the world such as current wars, crime, plagues, and famine, there is a type of thinking that blames technology and innovation for hastening the demise of the planet and the end of the cosmos. Weber notes an example:

"But the bicycle, with its recently invented brakes and pneumatic tires, was seen by doomsdayers as just another nail in the coffin of civilization. Women were riding bicycles, contributing to the decline of morals and accelerating the collapse of social harmony. New-fangled sports, rambling, and cycling, threatened rank, order, and culture."

I think American football should be on the list. But that's just me from the heartland of rugby. And since I've often ridden a bicycle I may not be reliable on that point.

Looking at more recent times, Weber also picks up on what he calls "doomsday chic", which is the mass marketed flipside of the pessismistic view:

"Rapture wristwatches proclaim "one hour nearer to the Lord's return." Bumper stickers request "Beam me up, Lord." Dashboard signs warn, "If you hear a trumpet, grab the wheel." The Rapture Alert Newsletter published by Salem Kirban, whose Guide to Survival (1968) sold half a million copies, offers predictions of the end seasoned by recipes for Mrs. Kirban's chicken soup."

I don't know whether to be amused or embarrassed. I do like chicken soup but... From what I can tell Weber doesn't share my beliefs, and yet he takes the subject he discusses more seriously than some who claim to believe it. So far in the book he has shown a serious but not boring approach to the deeply held belief by many throughout human history that the world is eventually going to come to an end. I haven't read all of the chapter Apocalypse and Science in Weber's book yet but have seen that he observes that theology informed the direction of science throughout the centuries, and set the parameters for the quest to know more. I was thinking about this, because it's become a bit voguish with some media types here to label those with spiritual beliefs as "superstitious". I don't see why believing that the cosmos will not last forever would be considered superstitious. Scientists believe exactly the same thing, and have different theories. The slow burnout from continual expansion has been popular, but a great conflagration from compression is the view held by others. I see this issue as the other end of the spectrum from the one I discussed in Changing Opinions in Hawking's Brief History of time. As T.S. Eliot said, "In my end is my beginning". We come to the limits of science in determining why the universe originated, and the why of the beginning is the why of the end.

I'm thinking of reviewing the whole book when I'm finished. It's well written and thought provoking. A passage which comes close to my own thoughts is this:

"The world would end one day, but there was no knowing when. All people die, but all they can know or do about it is that they should live as if death could come at any moment."

There is a temptation to want to make literal and specific pronouncements about what current events mean spiritually and when exactly the cosmos will cease to exist. I think it comes from seeking a sense of security - a bowl of specific chicken soup. In reality, life is short compared to the aeons through which our universe has existed, and I have no idea when my own life will end. With that considered, every day is potentially the end of the world for me. I need to live my life and faith with that in mind.