Weltende.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Review

Weltende. Edited by ADAM JONES. Beitrage zur Kultur--und Religionswissenschaft. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 1999. Pp. viii + 247. DM 58 (paper).

Growing out of a team-taught course at Leipzig University in 1996, this volume presents nine German essays on aspects of eschatology and apocalyptic, for the most part in cultures of particular concern to readers of this Journal: Christianity (U. Kuhn), tribal Brazil and Melanesia (B. Streck), Babylonia (C. Wilcke (1)), pharaonic Egypt (E. Blumenthal), ancient Israel (S. Wagner), medieval Islam (H. PreiBler), India (B. Kolver), medieval China (H. Seiwert), and colonial Africa (A. Jones).

Common to most of the religious systems discussed is a strain of deep dissatisfaction with the current state of things and the hope or conviction that a better existence will follow upon the destruction of this...