Samson Agonistes and the “Tragedy” of the Apocalypse

PMLA ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 85 (5) ◽  
pp. 1050-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara K. Lewalski
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
End Of History ◽  
God's People ◽  
The World ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Wrath Of God ◽  
Church Government

Milton's references in the preface to Samson Agonistes and in The Reason of Church Government to the Book of Revelation as tragedy have great significance for his drama. His cited authority, David Pareus, and several other Protestant commentators identified the Book of Revelation as tragedy on the basis of form (the alternation of dramatic episodes and Choruses) and subject—the spiritual combat of the Elect with Antichrist and their torment and suffering at his hands throughout all time, reversed only at the end of history when they share Christ's Apocalyptic victory over him. Protestant exegates often linked the Samson story typologically with the Book of Revelation, presenting Samson as type of the suffering Elect and the exercise of Samson's vocation as Judge (deliverer of God's people and executor of the wrath of God upon His enemies) as type of the Elect judging the world with Christ at the last day. This context assists the interpretation of Milton's Samson, bringing into focus its treatment of Samson's judgeship. The Samson Apocalypse link also brings a new perspective to certain moot questions: the date of the play, the interpretation of Samson's character, the presence of contemporary political reference, the nature of the drama's tragic effect.

scholarly journals Membangun Dialog Peradaban

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Zaprulkhan Zaprulkhan
Keyword(s):  
National Interest ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The West ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Francis Fukuyama ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
The World ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Clash Of Civilisations

Abstract: In 1989 Francis Fukuyama with his article The End of History? In the journal The National Interest revolves a speculative thesis that after the West conquered its ideological rival, hereditary monarchy, fascism and communism, the constellation of the world of international politics reached a remarkable consensus to liberal democracy. A few years later, Samuel P. Huntington came up with a more provocative thesis that ideological-based war would be a civilization-based war in his article, The Clash of Civilizations? In the journal Foreign Affairs. It reveals that in the future the world will be shaped by interactions among the seven or eight major civilizations of Western civilization: Confucius, Japan, Islam, Hinduism, Orthodox Slavs, Latin America and possibly Africa. Huntington directed the West to pay particular attention to Islam, for Islam is the only civilization with great potential to shake Western civilization. Departing from the above hypotheses, this paper will specifically discuss the bias of Fukuyama and Huntington's thesis on Islam, and how its solution to build a dialogue of civilization by taking the paradigm of dialogue from Ibn Rushd and Raghib As-Sirjani. Abstrak: Pada tahun 1989 Francis Fukuyama dengan artikelnya The End of History? Dalam jurnal The National Interest revolusioner tesis spekulatif bahwa setelah Barat telah menaklukkan lawan-lawan ideologisnya, monarki herediter, fasisme dan komunisme, konstelasi politik internasional mencapai konsensus yang luar biasa untuk demokrasi liberal. Beberapa tahun kemudian, Samuel P. Huntington muncul dengan tesis yang lebih provokatif bahwa perang berbasis ideologis akan menjadi perang berbasis peradaban dalam artikelnya, The Clash of Civilisations? Dalam jurnal Luar Negeri. Ini mengungkapkan bahwa di masa depan akan dibentuk oleh interaksi antara tujuh atau delapan peradaban utama peradaban Barat: Konfusius, Jepang, Islam, Hindu, Slavia Ortodoks, Amerika Latin dan mungkin Afrika. Perhatian Huntington pada Islam adalah potensi terpenting untuk mengguncang peradaban Barat. Berangkat dari hipotesis di atas, makalah ini akan secara khusus membahas bias tesis Fukuyama dan Huntington tentang Islam, dan bagaimana mereka akan mengambil paradigma dialog dari Ibn Rushd dan Raghib As-Sirjani.

The Necessity of Historicism

1961 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Tinder
Keyword(s):  
General View ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
End Of History ◽  
American Students ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Living Person

American students of society and politics for the most part view “historicism”—the ascription to history of an overall direction and goal—with attitudes ranging from skepticism to overt hostility. In the general view, no valid propositions can be framed concerning matters so shrouded in darkness as the course and the end of history. Indeed it may well be asked, when we use such terms, whether we are referring to realities or merely to inventions of the imagination. Historicist theories are also said to tend to undermine concern for the individual; the needs of the present, living person are likely to shrink into apparent insignificance before the imagined events of a future age. On the part of those who in recent years have seen the bloody trails left by pretended ministers of historical missions, such misgivings are understandable.Are social scientists and political thinkers at liberty, however, dogmatically to reject historicism? It is the purpose of this article to argue that they are not. For if history is without meaning, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that social and political affairs, which make up a large part of what we treat as history, are also without meaning. Why then should one study, or take part in, these affairs? What is at stake, in the last analysis, is our right—or duty—to regard the world we inhabit, not merely as alien material to be used or ignored as we please, but as a realm of being with which we are fundamentally united and in which, consequently, we are properly participants.

scholarly journals Scientific Realism and the Future Development of Science

Diametros ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Seungbae Park
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Future Development ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The World ◽  
Genetic Fallacy ◽  
The Future ◽  
The End Of History

Nickles raises many original objections against scientific realism. One of them holds that scientific realism originates from the end of history illusion. I reply that this objection is self-defeating and commits the genetic fallacy. Another objection is that it is unknowable whether our descendants will regard our current mature theories as true or false. I reply that this objection entails skepticism about induction, leading to skepticism about the world, which is inconsistent with the appeal to the end of history illusion. Finally, I argue that we have an inductive rationale for thinking that will lead our descendants to regard our current mature theories as true.

Moving in Circles: Kinetic Elite and Kinetic Proletariat in ‘End of the World’ Films

2018 ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Ewa Mazierska
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
End Times ◽  
Near Future

This chapter considers two science fiction films, Elysium (2013) by Neill Blomkamp and Snowpiercer (2013) by Joon-ho Bong, which  utilize the motif of journey and take us to the near future. What is specific about them is that the journeys take place on Earth or near the Earth. In the future they present there is no escape from our planet; the Earth appears to be a limit even for the privileged. They convey a sense of the end of history, when there is nothing new to discover or conquer and the conflict is around finding the best place within the existing economic and social structures.  This investigation draws on the concepts of the ‘end times’, and ‘fast and slow lanes of social life’ and ‘kinetic elite’ to examine how mobility reproduces and exacerbates social inequalities caused by the hegemony of neoliberalism.

Apocalyptic Conscience in Russian Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 84-89
Author(s):  
Fedor I. Girenok
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Pieter Bruegel

In the article the author compares S.H. Bulgakov’s idea of the last days of our world’s history and the apocalyptic frame of mind of the artist Nikolai Ge and Andrei Rublev. The author analyzes three paintings by Nikolai Ge: “Gospel Reading”, “The Last Supper” and “Conscience”. He comes to the conclusion that Christ’s human nature in Ge’s painting suffered the defeat when facing Judas. If in Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ Before the People” the story only starts, in Ge’s pictures, according to the article author, Christ is shown in the situation when everything has already happened to him and he is facing the night of the world. We find in the article the comparison of the Russian understanding of the end of history and the apocalyptic views of Pieter Bruegel and Heronymus Bosch.

HISTORY AND ITS ENDS IN CHARTIST EPIC

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela K. Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Long Poems

In the mid-1800s, two significant and widelyread Chartist poems appeared, both written in prison by Chartist organizers, and both using the epic form to interrogate the present, body forth a utopian future, and rewrite a history conceived both as broadly human and specifically national. These long poems, Thomas Cooper'sPurgatory of Suicides(1845) and Ernest Jones'sThe New World, first published in 1851 and then republished after 1857 as theRevolt of Hindostan, have much to tell us about how radicals envisioned the history of Britain, its relationship with empire, and the fulfillment of the ends of history. Cooper's poem proceeds in ten books, written in Spenserian stanzas, in which he dreams of visiting a purgatory of suicides: mythical and historical personages who have committed suicide debate the reasons for their condition and the condition of the world. Jones's poem was written in couplets, supposedly on the torn pages of a prayer book, in his own blood. The poem surveys the rise and fall of multiple empires, and also surveys recent political history closer to home. The two poems look to the past and the future, to universal history and its end. They thus participate in utopian political discourse, with its emphasis on the end of history, as well as the epic tradition. Both utopian and epic discourse in this period were affiliated with specifically national narratives, and the internationalist and universal elements of the poems sometimes inhabit these genres uneasily. Additionally, both poets attend to the religious tradition of eschatological discourse that underlies the secular notion of the end of history, and work to reconcile it with the political vision they are promoting. These writers use unique combinations of spatial and temporal frames to achieve the reconciliation of their diverse goals with the genres and discourses that they claim and transform.

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