Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

An associated reason was the arrival, and passing, of the millennium, the year AD 1000 in the chronology of the time. While there were those who, around 1000, still expected an apocalyptic change in the order of life on earth, as the eleventh century progressed, and nothing happened, a belief in the resurrection of the body could not be sustained for ever. As a result, mystical thought increased and there was a rise in so-called Jerusalem literature, mainly in the form of new hymns. This involved a change in the meaning of Jerusalem. The city was no longer expected to descend from heaven, to form paradise on earth–instead the aim was to reach the New Jerusalem in heaven. This was a major shift because it implied that not everyone would be saved, only those who earned it. In turn, this promoted the idea of individual salvation.54 These new ideas were reflected in an important change in the representation of the crucifix in art. In the early Middle Ages, there was a fairly standard iconography, in which the triumphant Christ is nailed to the cross, watched by Mary and John. The figure of Christ is alive and upright, feet side-by-side on a support. His eyes are open, his arms straight, he shows no sign of suffering. His face is often beardless and young. It is a remarkable fact that in the first thousand years of the church’s history, years in which death was all around and threatening to most people, the figure of the dead Christ was almost never depicted. ‘The crucifix was ...

Changes in christian thought at the first millennium