Where does the discussion among modern historians begin as they seek out the question, what is messianism?
Mentioned earlier was the great 19th century Jewish historian, Heinrich Graetz, who among volumes wrote an article titled ‘The Stages in the Evolution of the Messianic Belief’.
Another good place to start is the famous book of articles by Gershom Scholem. This is where much of the discussion by academics traces to, it is somewhat of a point of reference.
The book is called “The Messianic Idea in Judaism: and Other Essays”. In this book and in some of his other materials, namely his grand book on Shabbtai Zvi, Gershom Scholem deals with messianism. I will present some of Scholem’s theories re messianism.
His ideas are important because of his influence and because somehow scholars dealing with messianism always find a way to refer to him and this book.
Forces 3+2
One of his well known points, in his article ‘Towards an Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism’, is that along the history of Rabbinic Judaism there are principles or “forces”, undertones of sorts, operating dynamically:
conservative, represented mainly by the halakhic institutions, which were originally and structurally preserving the religious system, and are oft resistant to change.
Then there is the restorative, which has a nostalgic component, such as dreaming of the nation and kingdom and iconic leadership there once was - and messianism may utilize this force. Another is utopian, imagining and praying or operating towards an ideal, or grand redemption.
The conservative is not necessarily against the other 2 forces, but they are often inclined to seek to revise reality and circumstances. Messianism plays off of both these 2 forces together - restoring what was, the iconic legacy of David for example, and utopianism creating or bringing a world of peace and faith.
Messianism has another layer of 2 additional principles, which are apocalyptic and catastrophic. Apocalyptic here means the opposite of prophets speaking of a future far away, but rather the voice of preaching a new reality at hand, revealed or divulging.
Contrary to some voices that seek rationally, progressively, and slowly to build or lead into a more ideal era or kingdom - catastrophic means that you cannot make the redemption happen, it is determined by God, He is the redeemer, and the messianic redemption comes through or after great catastrophe, as part and parcel of messianism.
Scholem’s article speaking of these forces is intriguing and insightful. But we will see that they do not tell the whole story, and if we want to tell the whole story we have to sit down and go through all the texts. We will find that these are prominent dynamics in messianism over Jewish history. These are ideas worth keeping in mind.
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