Joachim of floris new interpretation

A new era begins with him, not only in prophetic interpretation, but in a much wider sense—in the whole religious and philosophical outlook of Europe. To evaluate Joachim correctly, one must understand the medieval Catholic philosophy of life and of history, a philosophy that was formulated by Augustine, and that exerted a controlling influence over the centuries following.

Augustine, of course, had lived in the atmosphere of the declining Roman paganism, with its many cults and theories of life. At the same time the still young Christianity was struggling to find the satisfactory formulas for expressing its own set of beliefs. It was defining its aims, rejecting false claims, and setting up barriers to protect itself from the onrush of detrimental foreign ideas and isms which ever sought entrance into the church under the garb of respectability.

The end of the world

PFF1 Augustine, having himself gone through that welter of divergent philosophies, realized at the time of his conversion that the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the central theme and cardinal doctrine of Christianity. The life and sacrifice of Christ, not as a mere historical event but as a metaphysical reality, meant to him that it stands outside of any historical continuity.

The life problem of each individual is, as it were, put vertically between heaven and hell, not horizontally between past, present, and future. That naturally leads to the idea that it is completely irrelevant to consider what will happen in history, as in fact, nothing essentially new can happen, because this truth salvation through Christ—is the last and final revelation before the ushering in of eternity.

It is easy to understand how this intriguing concept, even if not originally intended to be so, laid a sure foundation for the church, giving her finality and sovereignty. There can be no higher authority than the church, for she alone deals with eternal values, and the only fact that matters-the salvation of the soul.