Radical prophet : the mystics, subversives and visionaries who strove for heaven on Earth

Christianity Began With The Conviction That The Old Order Was Finished. The Mysterious, Elusive And Charismatic Figure Of Jesus Proclaimed That A New Era, The Kingdom Of God, Was Dawning. Yet Despite Its Success, And The Conversion Of The Empire Which Had Executed Its Founder, The Religion He Inspired Was Soon Domesticated, Its Counter-cultural Radicalism Tamed, As The Church Attempted To Control Both Its Doctrines And Its Followers. Christopher Rowland Here Shows That This Was Never The Whole Story. At The Margins, Around The Edges, Sometimes Off The Religious Map, The Apocalyptic Flame Of The New Testament Continued To Burn. In 1649 The Diggers Occupied St George's Hill To Put The Egalitarianism Of Christ Into Practice. 'you Must Break These Men Or They Will Break You', Oliver Cromwell Declared Of The 'lunaticks'. This Book Argues That Such Revolutionaries Had Divined The True Intent Of The Enigma Who Threw Over The Tables Of The Money-changers: To Summon A New Epoch - Strange, Iconoclastic, Uncomfortable And Otherworldly. It Gives Full Weight To A Remarkable Strain Of Radical Religion That Simply Refuses To Die--book Jacket. Christopher Rowland. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Front Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 12 Preface 14 Part 1 The Roots of Christian Radicalism 22 Chapter 1 ‘Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets’ 24 Chapter 2 Heaven on Earth The Roots of Christian Radicalismin the New Testament 38 Part 2 Kairos The Unique Moment and Apocalyptic Discernment 58 Chapter 3 Human Actors in the Divine Drama 60 Chapter 4 Subversive Apocalypse 78 Part 3 Contrasting Radical Prophets Gerrard Winstanley and William Blake 98 Chapter 5 Gerrard Winstanley Responding to a Kairos Moment in English History 100 Chapter 6 ‘From impulse not from rules’ William Blake’s Apocalyptic Pedagogy 120 Part 4 Christian Radicalism in Modernity An Example and a Neglected Perspective 150 Chapter 7 Liberation Theology How to Proclaim God in a World that is Inhumane 152 Chapter 8 Apocalypticism and Millenarian Eschatology Recovering Neglected Strands 174 Epilogue... ‘And here I end’ Concluding Reflections 188 Notes 194 Bibliography 218 General Index 236 Index of Hebrew Bible, Old Testament References and Other Ancient Jewish Sources 246 Index of New Testament References and Other Ancient Christian Sources 248 Back Cover 266 1 online resource (xix, 230 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) :