Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literature by Charles R. Embry

Author:Charles R. Embry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Missouri Press

embraced a pre-millennialist interpretation of the prophetic books of the Bible, especially Daniel and Revelation. Drawing a correlation between the infidelity of the times and the biblical forecasts of the apocalypse, Irving concluded that in the 1820s the world had reached its last days and the return of Christ was thus imminent. The Second Coming would mean the destruction of the world in its present form and the inauguration of the thousand-year reign of Christ.42

Irving's is a case of modern Christian parousiasm. Albeit unorthodox, Irving's prophecy relies directly on a literalist interpretation of the prophetic books of the Bible. On the political plane, Irving's millennial anxiety occurred during the debates over the Test and Corporation Act, and the Catholic Emancipation Act, two (eventually successful) measures that offended conservative sensibilities and provoked concern among the Protestant faithful. The publication of his prophecies precipitated Irving's premature fall from celebrity; but perhaps more significant than this is the habit that some of Irving's parishioners had acquired of speaking in tongues. Irving himself never spoke in tongues, but neither did he counsel his flock against it.

Carlyle shared with Irving a prophetic sense that the “signs of the times” indicated spiritual decay. But Carlyle did not regard the enfranchisement of Catholics as a threat to spiritual or political order. “For [Carlyle] Irving and the millennialists represent precisely a political reaction to the ‘crisis’ of the day.”43

In “Signs of the Times,”44 Carlyle portrays both millennialism and secular “Benthamism” as two sides of the same coin. During a period of social crisis, Carlyle argues, it is no surprise “that the rage of prophecy should be more than usually excited. Accordingly, the Millenarians have come forth on the right hand, and the Millites on the left. The Fifth-monarchy men prophesy from the Bible and the Utilitarians from Bentham.”45

What is instructive here is that Carlyle treats the social phenomena of religion in the same way as he treats the individual's religion. In both cases, religion is not primarily a creed; instead, it is one's pragmatic convictions with respect to the relation of the seen world to the unseen. From this vantage, the self-consciously “religious” prophecy of the millenarians is not essentially different from the “secular” prophecy of the Millites. Both work to realize their visions of the ideal in the midst of the “actual” world; the millenarians have their Pentecostal voices, and the Millites their pan-optical visions, of the world-to-be.

John Ulrich suggests that Carlyle largely agrees with Irving's prophetic diagnosis of the social crisis as a manifestation of religious malaise. “The rise of mechanism, self-interest, and public opinion and the corresponding demise of spirituality, morality and the eternal” collectively characterize the emerging modern commercial and industrial order.46 Agreement at this deep level makes disagreement over particular statutory measures seem inconsequential. However, on the prescriptive side of prophecy, Carlyle's apocalyptic tendencies are postmillennial rather than premillennial. While Irving assumes a premillennial posture of rapt waiting for Christ's Second Coming, Carlyle shares with the “progressives” the notion that the age of

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