History of Philosophy VI, November 7th 2011
Joachim of Fiore
Born in 1135. His father was a notary, and he was supposed to also become one. Anyway, Joachim went to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, something happened, and he decided to live for the God. And so he became a hermit. Later, he was a wandering preacher. When he came back, his father disowned him and told him to go fuck himself. Eventually, he became an abbot in a monastery. He was very charismatic. After meeting the Pope Lucius III, he started to publish his writing consisting of his visions, encouraged by the Pope. He found his own monastery, and managed to gather a large group of followers, and people came to him to get advices.
He said that 2 revelations came to him. First was about the Holy Trinity – he saw a 10-string psaltry, and that’s ok.
He didn’t consider himself a prophet, but rather a hermeneutic [science of interpretation – from Hermes, the messenger of Greek gods] – he thought of his gift as an interpretive, not prophetic. [Exegesis – explaining the text]
At the [4 Sobór Laternański] the Pope said that Joachim’s teachings are the 4th pillar of faith.
Early Christians had this feeling of possible immediate 2nd coming of Christ [and the End of the World]. Also, 20% of Americans believe it’s gonna happen in their lifetime.
According to Joachim, Alegoria teaches us about the history of salvations – from slavery to freedom, gradual progress in this world. [Humans are progressing from slavery to freedom]. Concordia teaches us about a kind of concordance [relationship, agreement] between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian scriptures [Old + New Testament]. If we read it properly, it’ll show us the direction of our future.
The social movement inspired by Fiore fell apart after his death, but his works became famous.
His writings say of [IMPENDING CRISIS]. Also, he internalizes the apocalypse – it’ll happen to every single soul, not to a community of Christians as a whole, as it was said previously.
[3 AGES /states/ OF HISTORY]:
Time of the Father (the Old Testament) [from Adam to Jesus Christ] [social order – marriage]
Time of the Son [from King Josiah until today] [social order – clerics]
[from st. Benedict until the end of the world (possible age of new creation?)] [social order – monks]
[PROGRESSION FROM THE LIFE OF A FLESH TO THE SPIRIT]
[PROGRESSION FROM THE LITERAL THINKING TO CONTEMPLATION]
Church was a big fan, but also they were pretty scared of his writings. If everyone would sign up for becoming a priest or monk, they run out of money and Pope gets a pretty hard life, and they didn’t want this. Also, there would be no future Catholics because monks can’t reproduce.
Joachim never states that papacy will last.