Religions of Asia
- Key People:
- Melchior Hofmann
- Johannes Weiss
- Related Topics:
- millennialism
- theology
- history
- apocalypticism
- messianism
In the religions of South Asia, unlike the religions of the Western tradition, there is no historical eschatology, but there are both personal and universal eschatologies. The universal eschatology in Hinduism is best described as a mythical or “relative” eschatology and involves the Hindu creation myth and the myth of the eternal recurrence of the universe, a cosmic drama that, it is believed, can be reenacted or influenced by religious ritual. Although the Hindu eschatological tradition involves no final consummation, it is characterized by great cycles (kalpas) of rise and decline, creation and destruction. The kalpa comprises 2,000 mahayugas, which in turn are each made up of four ages, or yugas, of diminishing length. The current age is the fourth yuga, the kaliyuga, of a mahayuga and is to last 1,200 “cosmic” years (432,000 years). An age of strife and disorder, decadence, and degeneration, the kaliyuga will, according to Hinduism, be brought to a close in a great conflagration. The consummation of the age will be accomplished by Kalki, the final avatar, or incarnation, of Vishnu, and will be followed by the creation of a new age, the Krita yuga, a golden era of righteousness and peace. The yuga cycle of creation and destruction itself is part of a larger cycle involving Brahma (the personification of brahman, the Absolute reality and source of all things). This cycle, lasting the lifetime of Brahma (100 of his years), will end in an even greater conflagration that will destroy the cosmos, demons, gods, and Brahma himself. Universal destruction, however, will be followed by an age of chaos and then by the birth of a new Brahma and the creation of a new cycle of birth and death.
A cyclic view is also found in the personal or individual eschatology of Hinduism with its process of birth, death, and rebirth. Eschatological teachings concern the cycle itself and the attainment of moksha, or release from the cycle. The process is guided by karma (the doctrine that actions have consequences in this life and the next), which determines the fate of individual souls. After death, souls can be assigned to any of several heavens or hells, depending upon their accumulation of virtues and vices, before their transmigration into a new human, animal, insect, or plant body. Some souls, however, may be so irredeemably evil that they are assigned to eternal damnation; others may be assigned to redemption, or devayana (“god’s way”).
Redemption is popularly viewed as entrance into the highest heaven of the god worshiped, where the redeemed await a spiritual reflection of earthly joy. In modern Hinduism the soul that is identical with God is redeemed through a recognition of the organic wholeness that has vanished from consciousness because of the soul’s imprisonment in matter. Recognition of the true nature of one’s self (atman) then leads to identity with absolute being (brahman). Redemption lies in the accomplishment, or rather recognition, of the atman-brahman identity, for it already frees one from the chains of karma and samsara (cycle of rebirths).
Buddhism, which emerged first in India but had greater impact outside the subcontinent, is, in many ways, an ethical philosophy and a “salvationist” eschatology. Buddhist teachings are rooted in the notion that all is suffering and impermanence: the material world is nothing but illusion, and the pursuit of worldly gain will bring only suffering. These notions form the core of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, which include the truth of liberation from the sufferings of the world. To overcome suffering and the transitory nature of existence and gain liberation from it, the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, devised the Eightfold Path of ethical and purifying behavior. The purpose of these teachings is to lead the adherent to the state of nirvana (Sanskrit: “extinction,” or “blowing out”), the release from the sufferings of the world and, especially, release from the cycle of birth and rebirth. The Buddhist’s goal is, therefore, eschatological in the sense that it concerns the final destiny, or salvation, of the individual.
There are other manifestations of eschatological, even millennial thought in Buddhism. The bodhisattvas (who vow to follow the path to become a buddha) in Mahayana Buddhism are savior figures who postpone entrance to nirvana and return to help others attain that state. The Maitreya Buddha, the final Buddha, also is the focus of eschatological and millenarian thought. It is said that the Maitreya will eventually descend from his place in heaven to realize his full potential as a buddha and preside over a kingdom of peace and enlightenment. For more orthodox Buddhists, the Maitreya is a figure who can help them when the “true teaching” is fading. For others, especially those in China, where Buddhism mixed with Taoist millennial tendencies, the Maitreya is already present or will come soon. This belief led to the formation of secret societies that would challenge the established political order in China and elsewhere.
Religions of ancient civilizations
Time is understood as both irreversible and linear in Western religions, and therefore the End is thought to occur once and for all. Accordingly, it is believed the final judgment will be followed by the creation of a new and sacred world that is eternal. Ancient Egyptian texts such as the Shipwrecked Sailor and the Conversation Between Atum and Osiris contain the earliest expressions of this kind of eschatological thought and present a highly developed sense of the idea of the final judgment of the dead. Ancient Greek and Roman eschatological views depict a shadow life for the individual departed soul in Hades and also express the concept of the cyclic destruction and renewal of the world. (See Egyptian religion.)
Eschatology in religions of the West
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion with a highly developed eschatology: world history is a battlefield on which the forces of light and good fight the powers of darkness and evil. Along with this cosmic eschatological battle, Zoroastrianism developed messianic traditions focused on its founder, the Iranian prophet Zarathustra (often known by the Greek form of his name, Zoroaster), whose ministry (which some scholars date as late as the 6th century bce and others at least as early as c. 1500–1200 bce) is said to have opened the last of the history of the world’s four periods of 3,000 years each. He is followed, at intervals of 1,000 years, by three “saviors,” considered to be his sons. The last of these, the Saoshyans (or Saoshyant), will appear, according to Zoroastrianism, at the Endtime, and God will entrust to him the final rehabilitation of the world and the resurrection of the dead. Moreover, Zarathustra’s own writings, the Gathas, express many eschatological themes, including a radically egalitarian ethic and morality, respect for manual labor (e.g., the life of the herdsman), and disdain for the violence and self-aggrandizement of the powerful. As time passed and the Endtime did not materialize, Zoroastrianism developed into a dualistic faith that became the official religion of the Persian empire.
Islam
According to traditional historiography, Islam is not a messianic religion. Some scholars, however, have suggested that, like Christianity, Islam was intensely apocalyptic at its origins and that Muhammad was the herald of the “day of the Lord.” Certainly apocalyptic themes—the Day of Judgment (Yawm al-Dīn), the Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyāma), the return of Jesus and his fight against al-Dajjāl (the Antichrist), and the wars of Gog and Magog—appear throughout the Qurʾān. Although they are only now drawing scholarly attention, numerous apocalyptic hadith (major sources of Islamic law, based on the sayings or traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) have appeared throughout the history of Islam. Furthermore, Shīʾite teaching openly embraces an eschatology that is “this-worldly” (i.e., millennial and messianic), and, although Sunni theology tends to downplay millennialism, it does promote the notion of a line of messianic emperors.
Fairly early on—probably under Christian influence—the notion emerged of an eschatological restorer of the faith; identified as a descendant of the Prophet or as the returning ʿĪsa (Jesus), he is usually referred to as the mahdi (the "divinely guided one"). Muslims believe that after the appearance of ʿĪsa, the Last Judgment will occur: the good will enter paradise and the evil will fall into hell. The period before the End is regarded as a dark time when God himself will abandon the world. The Kaaba (the great pilgrimage sanctuary of the Muslim world) will vanish, the copies of the Qurʾān will become empty paper, and its words will disappear from memory. Then the End will draw near.
Although all orthodox Muslims believe in the coming of a final restorer of the faith, in Sunni Islam the mahdi is part of folklore rather than dogma. In times of crisis and of political or religious ferment, mahdistic expectations have increased and given rise to many self-styled mahdis. The best-known, Muḥammad Aḥmad (al-Mahdī), the mahdi of the Sudan, revolted against the Egyptian administration in 1881 and, after several spectacular victories, established the mahdist state that was defeated by the British military leader Horatio Herbert Kitchener at Omdurman (in Sudan) in 1898.
The doctrine of the mahdi is an essential part of the creed of Shiʿi Islam (which recognizes the transference of spiritual leadership through the family of ʿAlī, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law). The Twelvers (Ithnā ʿAshariyyah), the main Shiʿi group, identify 12 visible imams, descendants of ʿAlī who are the only legitimate rulers of the Muslim community; the last imam disappeared in 847 ce. The Twelvers believe the mahdi is that 12th imam, who will reappear from his place of occultation (or ghaybah, meaning “concealment by God”). Some mahdist movements began as Shiʿi movements but eventually broke away from Islam to form new religions. The Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Ḥākim, destroyed the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1009 ce (ah 400) and claimed to be the final prophet and the divine incarnation. After the caliph’s assassination (probably by one his many enemies), his most devoted followers formed the Druze religion, which teaches that he will return to establish his rule at the Endtime (1,000 years after his disappearance). Other messianic figures from the Islamic tradition include the founder of the Indian Aḥmadīyah sect, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who in the late 19th century declared himself to be the Christ and the mahdi, and the founder of the Bahāʾi faith, the Iranian Mirzā ʿAlī Moḥammad of Shīrāz, who proclaimed himself to be the Bāb ("Gate") in 1844 (ah 1260) on the 1,000th anniversary of the disappearance of the 12th imam.
As early as ah 200, belief emerged in another messianic figure, the mujaddid (a divinely inspired reformer who was to restore the Islamic community to its original purity). Unlike that of the mahdi, the return of the mujaddin was thought to be cyclic and was associated with the century’s end. Indeed, at the end of every century since ah 200, powerful religious movements with strong apocalyptic tendencies have emerged in the Islamic world. These cyclic apocalyptic episodes are now regarded as revitalization movements and as times of renewal of religious commitment and enthusiasm. But in every case where evidence of belief in the mujaddid exists (e.g., with al-Maʾmūn in ah 200, al-Ḥākim in 400, Akbar, the emperor of Mughal India, in 1000, and al-Mahdī in the Sudan in 1300), the millennial, messianic tendencies of the actors is clear.
