7 - Antichrists – Papal, Philosophical, Imperial

Summary

In this chapter, the Antichrist and the book of Revelation are placed within the context of modernity, beginning with the attempts of the new science to square it with the book of Revelation. It deals with the beginnings of scepticism about the Antichrist and prophetic history among the London wits, and the beginnings of the separation between prophecy and history. That said, the chapter argues that the Antichrist was to remain on the Protestant agenda well into the nineteenth century. It also demonstrates how, with the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, the focus of theorising shifted from a papal to an imperial Antichrist. It also shows the transition from papal Antichrist to Adsonian Antichrist in the writings of John Henry Newman as he transitioned from Anglicanism to Catholicism. The chapter then argues that, with the rise of the historical critical approach to the Bible in the middle of the nineteenth century, prophetic history declined and the Antichrist became a free-floating signifier, available for use in many different contexts, both sacred and secular. Ironically, this enabled a proliferation of individual and collective Antichrist figures.