
Radical Prophet
The Mystics, Subversives and Visionaries Who Foretold the End of the World
Christopher Rowland(Author)
I.B. Tauris (Publisher)
Published on 1. September 2017
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-78453-265-9 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
8 bw integrated, 16 colour in 8pp plates
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
463 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78453-265-9 (9781784532659)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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Additional editions

Christopher Rowland
Radical Prophet
The Mystics, Subversives and Visionaries Who Foretold the End of the World
E-Book
08/2017
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€60.99
Available for download
Person
Christopher Rowland is Dean Ireland's Professor Emeritus of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford. His many books include Blake and the Bible, Revelation (with Judith Kovacs), The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology, Christian Origins: The Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism, and Radical Christian Writings: A Reader (with Andrew Bradstock).
Content
Part 1: The Roots of Christian Radicalism
Chapter 1: 'Would to God that all the Lords people were
Prophets'
Chapter 2: Heaven on Earth: The Roots of Christian
Radicalism in the New Testament
Part 2: Kairos: The Unique Moment and
Apocalyptic Discernment
Chapter 3: Human Actors in the Divine Drama
Chapter 4: Subversive Apocalypse
Part 3: Contrasting Radical Prophets:
Gerrard Winstanley and William Blake
Chapter 5: Gerrard Winstanley: Responding to a
Kairos Moment in English History
Chapter 6: 'From impulse not from rules': William Blake's
Apocalyptic Pedagogy
Part 4: Christian Radicalism in Modernity:
An Example and a Neglected Perspective
Chapter 7: Liberation Theology: How to Proclaim God in a
World that is Inhumane
Chapter 8: Apocalypticism and Millenarian Eschatology:
Recovering Neglected Strands
Epilogue: '... And here I end': Concluding Reflections
Chapter 1: 'Would to God that all the Lords people were
Prophets'
Chapter 2: Heaven on Earth: The Roots of Christian
Radicalism in the New Testament
Part 2: Kairos: The Unique Moment and
Apocalyptic Discernment
Chapter 3: Human Actors in the Divine Drama
Chapter 4: Subversive Apocalypse
Part 3: Contrasting Radical Prophets:
Gerrard Winstanley and William Blake
Chapter 5: Gerrard Winstanley: Responding to a
Kairos Moment in English History
Chapter 6: 'From impulse not from rules': William Blake's
Apocalyptic Pedagogy
Part 4: Christian Radicalism in Modernity:
An Example and a Neglected Perspective
Chapter 7: Liberation Theology: How to Proclaim God in a
World that is Inhumane
Chapter 8: Apocalypticism and Millenarian Eschatology:
Recovering Neglected Strands
Epilogue: '... And here I end': Concluding Reflections