About this title: Cohn explores the origins of the central conviction common to all apocalyptic beliefs--that the future will bring a final struggle between the forces of good and evil that will bring an end to conflict and allow the establishment of a new era of peace, prosperity, and happiness on earth. The author displays his usual mastery of the material and ...
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Description: Good. 0300055986 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1995-10-25
ISBN-13:9780300065510ISBN:0300065515
Description: Good. Sticker price on page 1. Pages have some dog ears. Sticker on cover. Crease on cover. Has some underlining. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. SAVE Money on S and Handling, buy more than one book from us as a time! Items are from a smoke free and air conditioned environment. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1993-12-29
ISBN-13:9780300055986ISBN:0300055986
Description: Good. Ex-Library copy with usual stamps, stickers and library-pocket. Interior pages clean with unmarked text. Bottom corner of page 269 clipped. Spine is sound. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780300055986ISBN:0300055986
Description: Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 0300055986. Hardcovers are clean, little to no wear. Interior in very good condition: crisp, clean and tight. Dustjacket little rubbed only.; 8vo 8"-9" tall. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Haven, CT, U.S.A. : Yale University Press, 1993
ISBN-13:9780300055986ISBN:0300055986
Description: Cloth-Blue. Very Good-/Near Fine. Book is tight & clean with less than 10 pages highlighted else NF-barely read, DJ is bright with NO priceclip, A nice copy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: "yale University Press (December 29, 1993) "
Date Published: 12/29/1993
ISBN-13:9780300055986ISBN:0300055986
Description: Very Good. 0300055986. This book is in very good condition; no remainder marks. Dustjacket does have some shelfwear. Inside pages are clean. read more
Edition: First edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Yale University Press, Yale
Date Published: 1993
Description: Near Fine in very good jacket. Yale University Press. 1993. First edition. Small 4vo (9 1/2" x 6 3/4"). Purple cloth covers. Pictorial dustwrapper. Printer's flaw: small 1/2" piece of front endpaper missing. Near Fine condition. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, U. S. A.
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780300065510ISBN:0300065515
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 271 pages with notes, index; some highlighting. read more
"Norman Cohn, Oxford historian and author of the fascinating In Pursuit of the Millenium, in this more recent book attempts to sort out the origins of the ideas behind apocalypse. In his words:
This book is concerned with a major turning-point in the history of human consciousness: it tries to describe how the destiny of the world and of human beings came to be imagined in a new way, and how these new expectations began to spread abroad.
He starts by examining the religious beliefs of the ancient world's earliest civilizations-Egyptian, Indo-European (Vedic) and Mesopotamian. These posited a troubled static universe, which went on forever without changing or passed through endless repetitive cycles, and in which the champions of order were always (and would forever be) at war with the forces of chaos. Cohn then addresses Zoroastrianism, which introduced a radically new view of the world, Judaism (especially the apocalyptic sects), and finally Christianity, which added a wrinkle of its own. Cohn sees Zoroaster as the most influential (and most grossly underappreciated) of religious innovators:
Some time between 1500 and 1200 BC Zoroaster broke out of that static yet anxious world-view. He did so by reinterpreting, radically, the Iranian version of the combat myth. In Zoroaster's view the world was not static, nor would it always be troubled. Even now the world was moving, through incessant conflict, towards a conflictless state. The time would come when, in a prodigious final battle, the supreme god and his supernatural allies would defeat the forces of chaos and their human allies and eliminate them once and for all. From then on the divinely appointed order would obtain absolutely: physical distress and want would be unknown, no enemy would threaten, within the community of the saved there would be absolute unanimity; in a word, the world would be for ever untroubled, totally secure.
It appears that Zoroaster invented the ideas of: one dominant god (Ahura Mazda); an adversary of almost equal power (Angra Mainyu); a battle on earth between the forces of good and evil, with human beings having to choose sides; a fixed period of time during which this struggle would go on; a final, great battle in which the good guys would (just barely) defeat the bad guys; a Saosyant (Messiah) who would appear in time to swing the battle; a Final Judgment, in which the good thoughts, words, and deeds of every angel and human would be weighed against the bad, and after which the good guys would be rewarded with happy immortality in paradise and the bad guys plunged into the Abyss, to be eternally punished for their transgressions. Sound familiar? Judaism introduced the importance of divine Law, including of course the commandments, and gave us the Jewish Bible. And perhaps more important, Judaism greatly strengthened the notion of The One and Only God-the "Yahweh only" tradition that pitted a jealous monotheism against the then-prevalent (and more tolerant) polytheism. The apocalyptic sects of Judaism (of which Christianity was only one of many) modified and refined many of Zoroaster's ideas. Early Christianity adopted and tailored almost all of these ideas-in the second century AD the Book of Revelation, which puts its own spin on much of Zoroaster, was more frequently cited than any other book of the New Testament. The early Christians did, however, add one big new idea: the unique notion of Christ dying for mankind-"That Jesus' death on the cross was a redemptive act, by which God offered mankind the possibility of salvation from the consequences of sin-this was something wholly new..."
The basic ideas in this book are extremely interesting. I came away with a new awareness of Zoroaster's genius, and a renewed awareness of the degree to which religions of the Near East pirated ideas from each other. Also Cohn describes the contexts, social and political, out of which these ideas grew: the common denominator seems to have been people compensating for their oppression and impotence by phantasizing dramatic rescues by patron gods who attack and utterly destroy their enemies. As for Cohn's writing, he has to justify his interpretations to other scholars, so some of the chapters are very detailed and even, at times, tedious, especially explanations of the myriad gods and their interrelationships. But people with a deep interest in the origin of current religious ideas will find the book fascinating."
"More accessible for me than his "Pursuit of the Millennium" Cohn here explores the connection between Zoroastrianism and the western concept of the End of the World, Judgment Day, etc. Sounds a little dry from my description but trust me, an excellent read from an author with deep knowledge of the subject and a talent for sharing it."
"I like Norman Cohn a lot (unfortunately he is no longer with us) - always excellent scholarship presented in an easily comprehensible, well structured way. This book was of course particularly relevant when we were waiting to ring in the new millennium, but it has not lost its value now that we are in it!"
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