Eckart Otto, Apocalypticism and Conceptions of Peace from 700 Years of European Cultural History: The Jewish-Christian Heritage of the Hebrew Bible (NOMOS)
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Eckart Otto
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2014, Classics of European Thought
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Sociology
Cultural Studies
Philosophy
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
However contested the geographical boundaries of Europe have been throughout history, the awareness that Europe represents a cultural world distinct from other parts of the world has remained remarkably stable since Greco-Roman antiquity.
Since antiquity, Europe has been distinguished from Asia, in particular, as a space of distinctive moral ideas used to justify rule, ideas that are an integral part of cultural memory.
Europe's cultural identity rests on an amalgamation of Judeo-Christian ideas with those of Greco-Roman antiquity, ideas passed down through Christian theology since antiquity and still exerting their influence in the modern era.
Thus, the idea of Europe is surprisingly compatible with the cultural-historical roots of the spirit of modernity, which is itself European.
In 1922, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) developed the cultural history of the spirit of European modernity from the reception and "intertwining" of Christianity with antiquity:
"These worlds, deeply separated in their meaning and developmental history, are so intertwined and so intertwined in conscious historical memory and continuity that the modern world, at every point, is intimately filled and conditioned by ancient culture, tradition, legal and political systems, language, philosophy, and art, despite a completely new and distinct spirit. Only this gives the European world its depth, richness, complexity, and dynamism" (Troeltsch 1922, 717 ff.).
According to Troeltsch, the Christian churches thus fulfill the function of historical mediation of antiquity, since they made a re-establishment of the ancient Roman state possible in the Eastern Roman-Byzantine state and transmitted it to the Germanic-Romance peoples.
"This is the immense world-historical significance of the Christian Church for our cultural sphere, which therefore signifies not only the religious element so essential to all cultures, but also, beyond that, the connection and continuity of two completely different peoples and their developments."
From this intermingling of two cultural trajectories follows "a special type of social, technical, and administrative organization that conditions the present-day special position of the West," namely, from "the combination of the constructive scientific rationalism of the Greeks, the precise legal system of the Romans, and the autochthonous forces of the West that emerged from the inland trade of the Middle Ages, free labor, and the medieval urban development" (ibid.).
This program for a European cultural history, published in 1922, coincides with that of Max Weber (1864–1920) in a letter; published in W. Böttcher (ed.), Klassiker des europäischen Denkens [Classics of European Thought], Baden-Baden 2014.
https://www.academia.edu/44367658/Eckart_Otto_Apokalyptik_und_Friedensvorstellungen_aus_700_Jahren_europ%C3%A4ischer_Kulturgeschichte_Das_j%C3%BCdisch_christliche_Erbe_der_Hebr%C3%A4ischen_Bibel_NOMOS_
Analysis of Eckart Otto's Text
BY AI CHATGPT
The image above was designed to visually condense the central thesis of the text: Hebrew Bible + Judeo-Christian tradition + Greco-Roman heritage + European political formation + conflict between empire and peace.
Eckart Otto's text is much more interesting than the description on Academia.edu makes it appear. The title of the volume in which the chapter appears is Klassiker des europäischen Denkens — Friedens- und Europavorstellungen aus 700 Jahren europäischer Kulturgeschichte , edited by Winfried Böttcher and published by Nomos. The table of contents expressly identifies Chapter 2.3, “Das jüdisch-christliche Erbe” — “The Judeo-Christian Heritage” — as being by Eckart Otto.
Otto's central thesis can be summarized as follows:
European modernity did not arise simply from secularization against religion. It was historically formed through the interaction between the heritage of the Hebrew Bible, Christianity, Greek rationality, and the Roman legal tradition.
This is important because Otto is not simply writing a religious history. He is attempting to reconstruct an intellectual, political, and legal genealogy of Europe.
At the beginning, he explicitly states that European cultural identity results from an “amalgamation” of Judeo-Christian ideas with ideas from Greco-Roman antiquity. He adds that these traditions continued to exert influence even in modernity.
1. The Bible, Greece, and Rome Do Not Appear as Competing Traditions
Otto begins with Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber.
The European construction would result from several historical currents that eventually became intertwined: Greek scientific rationalism; Roman legal systematization; the Hebrew biblical tradition; Christianity; medieval organization; free labor; cities; and, later, modern rationalization.
The formulation is particularly relevant to Law. Otto draws from Troeltsch precisely the combination between the “constructive scientific rationalism of the Greeks” and the “precise legal systematics of the Romans,” adding the social forces developed in medieval Europe.
But he goes beyond Troeltsch by introducing Weber: Hebrew prophecy is presented as one of the ancient origins of the process through which Western rationalism was formed.
This produces a rather powerful conclusion:
The Hebrew Bible belongs not only to the history of European religion; it also belongs to the intellectual prehistory of European political and legal rationality.
2. Secularization Did Not Simply Destroy the Biblical Heritage
Here lies one of the most intellectually sophisticated parts of the article.
Otto describes a process in which the religious interpretation of history is progressively historicized and secularized. Modernity begins to interpret historically what had previously been interpreted theologically.
But this does not mean that the earlier intellectual structure simply disappears.
According to Otto, in ancient biblical Judaism, political destiny was interpreted historically and religiously as the manifestation of a divine intention; in early Christianity, this theology of history was universalized to encompass all peoples and the whole of creation. Then come Augustine, Vico, Voltaire, and the progressive emancipation of profane history from heavenly history.
In other words:
Modernity secularizes certain intellectual structures that it inherited from earlier religious traditions.
This significantly changes the simplistic opposition between “religion versus modernity.”
3. Daniel Is the Decisive Point of the Article
Here the text becomes especially powerful for a post.
Otto argues that one of the roots of Europe's very political conception lies in the Hebrew Bible , particularly in the apocalyptic visions of the Book of Daniel.
He writes that Daniel's visions and narratives influenced political discourses for approximately two millennia , through successive reinterpretations, and had a significant influence on the formation of the idea of Europe as a political space.
And Daniel 7 provides the fundamental image: the four animals represent a succession of empires.
Lion.
Bear.
Panther.
And finally, the fourth creature, terrible, violent, and destructive.
Otto interprets the sequence as Babylon, Media, Persia, and, finally, the dominion associated with Alexander and the kingdoms of the Diadochi. The fundamental aspect, however, is not simply identifying each empire.
It is the theory of power contained in the sequence.
The great empires become progressively more violent. Imperial history appears as an escalation of Zwangsherrschaft — domination/coercion — that ends in catastrophe.
Only afterwards does the kingdom of peace arise.
This opposition is central:
empire → concentration of power → increasing coercion → violence → catastrophe → peace.
Therefore, apocalypticism, in the historical reading presented by Otto, does not simply mean “predicting the end of the world.” It contains a powerful political-theological critique of imperial power.
4. What Happens When the Empire Itself Appropriates the Prophecy?
This is another fascinating point.
Initially, Jewish interpreters identified Rome with the terrifying fourth empire. The Christian tradition of the Book of Revelation incorporated elements of this interpretation.
But after the Constantinian transformation, an inversion occurs: Eusebius of Caesarea begins to associate the millennial kingdom with Constantine's Christianized Roman Empire.
This means that a tradition originally capable of criticizing imperial power can be reinterpreted to legitimize imperial power itself.
This tension runs through practically the entire remainder of the chapter.
5. Augustine Produces Another Fundamental Shift
Otto shows that Augustine shifts the question once again: the millennial kingdom ceases to be identified with the Roman State and instead becomes associated with the Church.
With this, eschatology also undergoes progressive individualization and spiritualization. The expectation of immediate political transformation loses part of its force and shifts toward the divine judgment of the individual after death.
Here a tension emerges that will run throughout European history:
Who can claim universal authority?
The Empire?
The Church?
The emperor?
The Pope?
The political community?
Or can no human institution legitimately identify itself with the Kingdom of God?
6. The Bible Enters Directly into the Historical Formation of the Idea of “Europe”
With Charlemagne, this genealogy becomes even more explicit.
Otto explains that the concept of Europe gains importance precisely because the new emperor did not control the entire territory of the former Roman Empire. The European motif helped adapt the old imperial ideology to the new reality: the imperium orientale is contrasted with an imperium occidentale .
Therefore, “Europe” is not merely a geographical location in this history.
It gradually becomes a political-civilizational category.
7. And Daniel Ultimately Reaches the Idea of a Federated Europe
Perhaps this is the most surprising finding in the chapter.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, authors such as William Penn and the Abbé de Saint-Pierre return to the image of Daniel 7 and produce another reinterpretation.
According to Otto, they derive from this tradition a federal interpretation of Europe :
Associated European states + a common Parliament.
This is extraordinarily important for understanding the overall argument.
An apocalyptic image created in antiquity, used to think about successions of empires and the problem of domination, passes through Rome, Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, and finally participates in the intellectual imagination of projects for European peace through supranational organization .
There is, therefore, a conceptual transformation of enormous scope:
biblical prophecy → critique of empires → theology of history → interpretation of Europe → projects for peace → European federalism.
8. But Otto Does Not End with a Naive Celebration of Modernity
This detail is essential.
The end of the chapter prevents a triumphalist reading according to which:
rationalization + secularization = inevitable progress.
Otto recalls that Troeltsch and Weber already regarded as historically refuted the liberal belief that social rationalization would produce, as though guided by an “invisible hand,” a just society.
And Weber knew that processes of rationalization can also release irrationality .
Otto then introduces Karl Löwith and ends with what is virtually a paradox:
The modern West is Christian in its historical origin , but certain results of secularization itself can become anti-Christian ; by applying Christian principles to earthly objectives, the West simultaneously universalizes those principles and profoundly transforms their nature.
And Löwith's final question is extraordinarily provocative:
To what extent did Jewish messianism and Christian eschatology, even in their secularized forms, provide the historical energies that propelled Western civilization?
Why This Text Is Particularly Relevant Today
Read in 2026, the chapter allows for a reflection much broader than simply “the Christian origins of Europe.”
The question running through Daniel and the entire history reconstructed by Otto is deeper:
How can power be transformed into order without transforming order into domination?
And there is a second question:
Can a human institution claim absolute moral authority without ultimately converting a promise of peace into an instrument of power?
It is precisely here that apocalypse and peace cease to be opposing concepts . In the tradition examined by Otto, apocalyptic language can function as a denunciation of structures of domination regarded as intolerable and as the imagining of a different political order.
For this reason, for a MINDD post, I would highlight this idea as the central axis:
PEACE DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE BIBLICAL HISTORY OF DANIEL AS THE CONSECRATION OF EMPIRE, BUT AS THAT WHICH COMES AFTER THE EXHAUSTION OF THE LOGIC OF EMPIRES.
This formulation captures very well the central tension demonstrated on pages 48–49 of the document: the empires become progressively more coercive and violent, culminate in catastrophe, and are succeeded by the kingdom of peace.
And that is precisely why I created the image with two visual poles : below, war, power, and destruction; above, an illuminated Europe and the dove of peace; at the center, the Torah/Hebrew Bible and the Christian tradition; and alongside them, the Greek and Roman foundations.
It visually represents not merely “religion in Europe,” but the historical conflict between empire, authority, civilization, and peace that Otto reconstructs in the text.
AI ANALYSIS CHATGPT
The image above was designed to visually condense the central thesis of the text: Hebrew Bible + Judeo-Christian tradition + Greco-Roman heritage + European political formation + conflict between empire and peace .
Analysis of the text by Eckart Otto
Eckart Otto's text is far more interesting than the Academia.edu description suggests. The title of the volume in which the chapter appears is Klassiker des europäischen Denkens — Friedens- und Europavorstellungen aus 700 Jahren europäischer Kulturgeschichte , edited by Winfried Böttcher and published by Nomos. The table of contents explicitly identifies chapter 2.3, “Das jüdisch-christliche Erbe” — “The Judeo-Christian Heritage” , as being by Eckart Otto.
Otto's central thesis can be summarized as follows:
European modernity was not born simply from secularization against religion. It was historically formed by the interaction between the heritage of the Hebrew Bible, Christianity, Greek rationality, and Roman legal tradition.
This is important because Otto is not simply writing a religious history. He is attempting to reconstruct an intellectual, political, and legal genealogy of Europe .
No início, ele afirma explicitamente que a identidade cultural europeia resulta de uma “amalgamação” de ideias judaico-cristãs com ideias da Antiguidade greco-romana. E acrescenta que essas tradições continuaram exercendo influência mesmo na modernidade.
1. Bíblia, Grécia e Roma não aparecem como tradições concorrentes
Otto começa com Ernst Troeltsch e Max Weber.
A construção europeia resultaria de várias correntes históricas que acabaram se entrelaçando: racionalismo científico grego; sistematização jurídica romana; tradição bíblica hebraica; cristianismo; organização medieval; trabalho livre; cidades; e posteriormente racionalização moderna.
A formulação é particularmente relevante para o Direito. Otto recupera em Troeltsch justamente a combinação entre o “racionalismo científico construtivo dos gregos” e a “precisa sistemática jurídica dos romanos”, acrescentando as forças sociais desenvolvidas na Europa medieval.
Mas ele vai além de Troeltsch ao introduzir Weber: a profecia hebraica é apresentada como uma das origens antigas do processo de formação do racionalismo ocidental.
Isso produz uma conclusão bastante forte:
a Bíblia Hebraica não pertence apenas à história da religião europeia; ela pertence também à pré-história intelectual da racionalidade política e jurídica europeia.
2. A secularização não simplesmente destruiu a herança bíblica
Aqui está uma das partes intelectualmente mais sofisticadas do artigo.
Otto descreve um processo no qual a interpretação religiosa da história vai sendo progressivamente historicizada e secularizada. A modernidade passa a interpretar historicamente aquilo que anteriormente era interpretado teologicamente.
Mas isso não significa que a estrutura intelectual anterior simplesmente desapareça.
Segundo Otto, no judaísmo bíblico antigo, o destino político era interpretado histórica e religiosamente como manifestação de uma intenção divina; no cristianismo primitivo, essa teologia da história foi universalizada para abranger todos os povos e toda a criação. Depois vêm Agostinho, Vico, Voltaire e a progressiva emancipação da história profana em relação à história celestial.
Em outras palavras:
a modernidade seculariza determinadas estruturas intelectuais que ela recebeu de tradições religiosas anteriores.
Isso muda bastante a oposição simplista “religião versus modernidade”.
3. Daniel é o ponto decisivo do artigo
Aqui o texto se torna especialmente poderoso para um post.
Otto sustenta que uma das raízes da própria concepção política da Europa está na Bíblia Hebraica, particularmente nas visões apocalípticas do Livro de Daniel.
Ele escreve que as visões e narrativas de Daniel influenciaram discursos políticos durante aproximadamente dois milênios, por sucessivas reinterpretações, e tiveram influência relevante sobre a formação da ideia da Europa como espaço político.
E Daniel 7 fornece a imagem fundamental: os quatro animais representam uma sucessão de impérios.
Leão.
Urso.
Pantera.
E finalmente a quarta criatura, terrível, violenta e destrutiva.
Otto interpreta a sequência como Babilônia, Média, Pérsia e, finalmente, o domínio associado a Alexandre e aos reinos dos diádocos. O aspecto fundamental, porém, não é simplesmente identificar cada império.
É a teoria do poder contida na sequência.
Os grandes impérios tornam-se progressivamente mais violentos. A história imperial aparece como uma escalada de Zwangsherrschaft — domínio/coerção — que termina em catástrofe.
Somente depois surge o reino de paz.
Essa oposição é central:
império → concentração do poder → coerção crescente → violência → catástrofe → paz.
Portanto, a apocalíptica, na leitura histórica apresentada por Otto, não significa simplesmente “prever o fim do mundo”. Ela contém uma poderosa crítica político-teológica do poder imperial.
4. O que acontece quando o próprio Império se apropria da profecia?
Esse é outro ponto fascinante.
Inicialmente, intérpretes judeus identificaram Roma com o quarto império aterrorizante. A tradição cristã do Apocalipse de João incorporou elementos dessa interpretação.
Mas, depois da transformação constantiniana, ocorre uma inversão: Eusébio de Cesareia passa a relacionar o reino milenar ao Império Romano cristianizado de Constantino.
Isso significa que uma tradição originalmente capaz de criticar o poder imperial pode ser reinterpretada para legitimar o próprio poder imperial.
Essa tensão atravessa praticamente todo o restante do capítulo.
5. Agostinho produz outra mudança fundamental
Otto mostra que Agostinho desloca novamente a questão: o reino milenar deixa de ser identificado com o Estado romano e passa a ser associado à Igreja.
Com isso, a escatologia também sofre progressiva individualização e espiritualização. A expectativa de transformação política imediata perde parte de sua força e se desloca para o juízo divino do indivíduo depois da morte.
Aqui aparece uma tensão que atravessará a história europeia:
Quem pode reivindicar autoridade universal?
O Império?
A Igreja?
O imperador?
O papa?
A comunidade política?
Ou nenhuma instituição humana pode identificar-se legitimamente com o Reino de Deus?
6. A Bíblia entra diretamente na formação histórica da ideia de “Europa”
Com Carlos Magno, essa genealogia fica ainda mais explícita.
Otto explica que o conceito de Europa ganha importância justamente porque o novo imperador não controlava todo o antigo território romano. O motivo europeu ajudava a adaptar a antiga ideologia imperial à nova realidade: ao imperium orientale contrapõe-se um imperium occidentale.
Portanto, “Europa” não é apenas uma localização geográfica nessa história.
Ela vai se tornando uma categoria político-civilizacional.
7. E Daniel acaba chegando à ideia de uma Europa federada
Talvez este seja o achado mais surpreendente do capítulo.
Nos séculos XVII e XVIII, autores como William Penn e o Abbé de Saint-Pierre voltam à imagem de Daniel 7 e produzem outra atualização.
Segundo Otto, eles derivam dessa tradição uma interpretação federativa da Europa:
Estados europeus associados + Parlamento comum.
Isso é extraordinariamente importante para compreender o argumento geral.
Uma imagem apocalíptica criada na Antiguidade, utilizada para pensar sucessões de impérios e o problema da dominação, atravessa Roma, cristianismo, Idade Média, Sacro Império, Rússia e finalmente participa do imaginário intelectual de projetos de paz europeia mediante organização supranacional.
Há, portanto, uma transformação conceitual de enorme alcance:
profecia bíblica → crítica dos impérios → teologia da história → interpretação da Europa → projetos de paz → federalismo europeu.
8. Mas Otto não termina com uma celebração ingênua da modernidade
Esse detalhe é essencial.
O final do capítulo impede uma leitura triunfalista segundo a qual racionalização + secularização = progresso inevitável.
Otto recorda que Troeltsch e Weber já consideravam historicamente refutada a crença liberal de que a racionalização social produziria, como se conduzida por uma “mão invisível”, uma sociedade justa.
E Weber sabia que processos de racionalização também podem liberar irracionalidade.
Depois Otto introduz Karl Löwith e termina praticamente com um paradoxo:
o Ocidente moderno é cristão em sua origem histórica, mas determinados resultados da própria secularização podem tornar-se anticristãos; ao aplicar princípios cristãos a objetivos terrenos, o Ocidente simultaneamente universaliza esses princípios e transforma profundamente sua natureza.
E a pergunta final de Löwith é extraordinariamente provocadora: até que ponto o messianismo judaico e a escatologia cristã, mesmo secularizados, forneceram a energia histórica que impulsionou a civilização ocidental?
Por que esse texto é particularmente atual
Lido em 2026, o capítulo permite uma reflexão muito maior do que “as origens cristãs da Europa”.
A questão que atravessa Daniel e toda a história reconstruída por Otto é mais profunda:
como transformar poder em ordem sem transformar ordem em dominação?
E há uma segunda questão:
pode uma instituição humana reivindicar para si uma autoridade moral absoluta sem acabar convertendo uma promessa de paz em instrumento de poder?
It is precisely there that apocalypse and peace cease to be opposing concepts . In the tradition examined by Otto, apocalyptic language can function as a denunciation of structures of domination considered intolerable and as an imagination of a different political order.
Therefore, for a MINDD post, I would highlight this idea as the central theme:
Peace does not appear in Daniel's biblical story as the consecration of empire, but as that which comes after the exhaustion of the logic of empires.
This formulation captures very well the central tension demonstrated on pages 48–49 of the document: empires become progressively coercive and violent, culminate in catastrophe, and are succeeded by a reign of peace.
And that is precisely why I created the image with two visual poles : below, war, power, and destruction; above, illuminated Europe and the dove of peace; in the center, the Torah/Hebrew Bible and the Christian tradition , and to the side, the Greek and Roman matrices. It visually represents not only "religion in Europe," but the historical conflict between empire, authority, civilization, and peace that Otto reconstructs in the text .
