Antichrist : two thousand years of the human fascination with evil

1 Perversion, blasphemy, and abomination: Jewish visions of God's enemies and the Last Days (c. 200 B.C.E.-50 C.E.). 2 Christ's alter ego: the second Adam and his opposite (50-100). 3 Persecution, heresy, and self-deceit: Antichrist in developing Christianity (100-500). 4 Antichrist established: the final enemy in the early Middle Ages (500-1100). 5 Church reform and Antichrst's imminence (1100-1200). 6 Counterfeit holiness: the Papal Antichrist (1200-1335). 7 Antichrist on the eve of the Reformation (1335-1500). 8 Antichrist divided: reformers, Catholics, and Puritans debate Antichrist (1500-1660). 9 Antichrist in decline (1660-1900). 10 Antichrist our contemporary. . .

'...historian and leading expert on apocalypticism Bernard McGinn traces the concept of Antichrist from its Judeo-Christian origins to the present day, alerting us to the potential for violence that often accompanies literal belief in an ultimate human evildoer....Rooted in Second Temple Judaism--a period of intense religious and political disruption--Antichrist developed out of the belief in malevolent angelic and human forces....'

Hardcover