For more than half the year, Russians gave up many worldly things: they ate no meat, drank no milk, and abstained from sex. The debate over whether fasting was pleasing to God increasingly became a concern in Russia, too, where-as foreigners often noted-the fasting requirements were much stricter than in Western Europe. Drawing on the writings of Paul, the Reformers claimed that we do not find salvation through "works"-that is, prayer, fasting, or other forms of asceticism-but only through the grace of God. Zwingli argued that the Bible does not prescribe fasting and God does not care whether people eat meat or plants. In it Zwingli defended Christoph Froschauer, who had provided his workers with sausage during Lent to keep up their spirits while they hurried to complete a book. One could argue-albeit provocatively and not entirely accurately-that the Reformation in Western Europe was triggered by illicit consumption of sausage: in Switzerland the Reformation began in 1522 with Ulrich Zwingli's polemic "Vom Erkiesen und der Freyheit der Spysen" (On the Choice and Freedom of Foods). The result is a new understanding of the vital role played by the so-called Union within the wider millenarian and illuministic milieu at the close of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century.Food choice is a matter of dogmatic dispute-and not just in our era, in which dietary concepts like "just eat half," halal, low carb, and vegetarian are commonplace. They also examine the way in which the group reacted to and was impacted by the tumultuous events that rocked Europe during its twenty-eight years of existence. Using a chronological approach, the authors chart the machinations of the leading figures of the society (most notably the Polish gentleman Tadeusz Grabianka). Collis and Bayer demonstrate that the doctrine of premillennialism-belief in the imminent advent of Christ's reign on Earth-soon came to constitute the raison d'être of the society. The founding members of this society forged a unique group that incorporated distinct strands of Western esotericism (particularly alchemy and arithmancy) within an all-pervading millenarian worldview. Based on hitherto neglected archival material, this study provides a wealth of fresh insights into a group that included members of various Christian confessions from countries spanning the length and breadth of the Continent. In Initiating the Millennium, Robert Collis and Natalie Bayer fill a substantial lacuna in the study of an initiatic society-known variously as the Illuminés d'Avignon, the Avignon Society, the New Israel Society, and the Union-that flourished across Europe between 17.
0 kommentar(er)
