Apocalypse, empire, and universal mission at the end of antiquity: world religions at the crossroads

Shaddel, M. (2024)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation is an attempt at interrogating the relationship between world empire and universal ideology in Late Antiquity. It argues that universalism is a recurring, and almost inevitable, condition of any aspiration for global domination, a pattern that emerged in early Christianity and still animates political ideologies of today such as liberal democracy and socialism. It also argues that the nature of such global ambitions requires the universal ideology they espouse to be supersessionist, which invariably results in an ideological, and occasionally physical, clash with other systems of thought. Furthermore, it posits that such beliefs most commonly manifest themselves in eschatological and apocalyptic thinking, for the obvious reason that in commenting about the end of the world and the fate of humanity, it is impossible to avoid talking about the other. As its case-studies, it deals with nascent Islam, its emergence as a non-supersessionist movement and its transition to supersessionism as an imperial religion, as well as apocalyptic Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

• Islam
• Judaism
• Christianity
• Imperial ideology
• Universal empire
• World religion
• Late Antiquity
• Apocalypticism
• Eschatology

• All authors: Shaddel, M.
• Supervisor: Jong, A. de
• Committee: Al-Jallad, A.; Himmelfarb, M.; Sijpesteijn, P.; Wood, P.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2024-09-10
• Sponsorship: NWO