Paradise postponed : Johann Heinrich [Alsted] and the birth of Calvinist millenarianism / Howard Hotson.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-218) and index.

"This book provides a uniquely detailed case study of the origins of millenarianism within the vast opera of one of its earliest and most influential Calvinist exponents: the Herborn encyclopedist Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638). The young Alsted, it emerges, looked forward not to the millennium of Apocalypse 20 but to a brief, final period of enhanced illumination described in a poorly understood central European tradition of astrological, alchemical, spiritualist, and generally 'occult' prophetic speculation. It was the disasters following the Bohemian Revolt of 1618 which forced Alsted to recast these expectations as the more exclusively scriptural expectation of a literal millennium; and the material for this revision was found in a protracted dispute over the millennium between senior theologians in Herborn and Heidelberg and a little-known work on the conversion of the Jews by one of the figures most probably behind the composition of the Rosicrucian manifestos. Based on study of the full range of Alsted's works, his diverse sources, and widely dispersed manuscript material, the result is the first English book on 17th-century continental millenarianism and the first monograph in any language exclusively devoted to the origins of the doctrine within mainstream Protestantism."--Jacket.

Introduction : 1. Mede, Alsted and the birth of Calvinist millenarianism -- 2. The development of Alsted's apocalyptic expectations, 1610-30 -- 3. Leading questions and key sources.

I. Speculum mundi, sive harmonia trium voluminum: the hermetic pre-history of Alsted's millenarianism, 110-24 -- 2. Volumen historicum seu experimentalis: encyclopedic chronology -- 3. Volumen coelestis sive astrologicum: astrological history : Great conjunctions and new stars ; The annus magnus and circulus judiciorum Dei ; The sphere of heaven, the wheel of history, and the circle of learning -- 4. Volumen biblicus seu propheticus: prophetic numerology : The seals, trumpets and vials of Revelation ; The prophetic numbers of Daniel.

II. Diatribe de mille annis apocalypticis: the origins of Alsted's millenarianism, 1619-27 : 5. The Thirty Years War and Alsted's eschatological crisis, 1619-25 : 1619: rumors of war and initial doubts ; 1621-5: disaster and disillusionment -- 6. The sources of the Diatribe de mille annis apocalypticis : Herborn millenarianism: Johannes Piscator ; Heidelberg anti-millenarianism: David Pareus ; Further authorities: human and hermetic ; Tubingen hermeticism: Christoph Besold -- 7. Conclusions.