The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

Jesse A. Hoover

Oxford Early Christian Studies

Explores how the Donatist church, a schismatic movement that for a brief moment formed the majority church in Roman North Africa interpreted the apocalypse during the first two centuries of its existence (c. 300-500)
Uncovers a significant element within the dissident movement's self-perception that has so far gone unexamined
Argues that such eschatological expectations are not out of sync with the wider world of Latin Christianity in late antiquity, and that they functioned as an effective polemical strategy designed to counter their opponents' claim to be the true church in North Africa

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

Jesse A. Hoover

Oxford Early Christian Studies

Description

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age examines an apocalypse that never happened, seen through the eyes of a dissident church that no longer exists. Jesse A. Hoover considers Donatists, members of an ecclesiastical communion that for a brief moment formed the majority church in Roman North Africa--modern Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya--before fading away sometime between the fifth and seventh centuries. Hoover studies how Donatists perceived the end of the world to offer a glimpse into the inner life of the dissident communion: what it valued, whom it feared, and how it defined its place in history while on the cusp of history's end. By recovering these appeals to apocalyptic themes in surviving Donatist writings, this study uncovers a significant element within the dissident movement's self-perception that has so far gone unexamined. In contrast to previous assessments, it argues that such eschatological expectations are not out of sync with the wider world of Latin Christianity in late antiquity, and that they functioned as an effective polemical strategy designed to counter their opponents' claim to be the true church in North Africa.

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

Jesse A. Hoover

Oxford Early Christian Studies

Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Apocalypse that Never Was: External Impressions of Donatist Eschatology
2. "The World has Grown Old": The Roots of Donatist Eschatology
3. "Woe to You, World, for You are Perishing!" Early Donatists at the End of the Age
4. "God will Come from the Afric": Mainstream Donatism and Remnant Theology
5. "As We have Already Seen in Africa": The Tyconian Alternative
6. "His Name Means 'Ever-Increasing'": Donatist Eschatology after 411
Conclusion
Appendix A: Was Commodian a Donatist?
Appendix B: Were the Circumcellions a Millenarian Movement?
Bibliography

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

Jesse A. Hoover

Oxford Early Christian Studies

Author Information

Jesse A. Hoover is a Lecturer at Baylor University. He specializes in the development of early Latin Christianity with a particular emphasis on minority religious traditions.

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

Jesse A. Hoover

Oxford Early Christian Studies

Reviews and Awards

"commendable ... leaves the reader with an awareness of the complexity of the issue" -- Stanisław Adamiak, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum

"this volume deals carefully with the precise theological theme of apocalypticism and eschatology in Donatist sources ... Hoover deals admirably with the notorious difficulties surrounding access to Donatist texts" -- Joseph Grabau, Augustiniana

"The Donatist Church has set a new standard for the study of Donatist theology, which has been hemmed in for over a century by Augustine's ?fth-century agenda and by tired scholarly tropes such as 'Church of the Pure' and 'Church of the Martyrs'. By attending to the dissident voices preserved in Augustine's work and by utilising the witness of relatively new sources such as the Liber genealogus, the 'Donatist Dossier' and the Vienna Homilies, Hoover reconstructs a vibrant and viable strand of late ancient Christianity. His method of carefully analyaing these minor texts, if used to investigate other areas of Donatist theology, promises a still greater harvest." -- Alden Bass, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"Hoover has written an excellent book that treats Donatist apocalyptic themes from the beginning of their influence (Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius) up through the end of their literary existence in 427 CE." -- Ronald Burris, Associate Professor at the American Baptist Seminary of the West and a member of the core doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, Reading Religion