Le contexte culturel du continent africain est marqué par la prégnance des ancêtres. C’est pourquoi la théologie de l’inculturation de la foi a pensé devoir s’approprier la thématique de l’ancêtre afin de rapatrier sa signification symbolique au service de la foi chrétienne. Mais, par-delà une mise en rapport informelle entre le Christ et l’ancêtre, l’inculturation de la foi a évolué vers la formalité spéculative d’une ancestralisation du Christ. En cela, la théologie du Christ-Ancêtre nous place devant un procédé périlleux de subsomption logique qui introduit et risque d’absorber le Novum du Christ dans les catégories et genres antérieurs de la culture de réception. L’ancestralisme n’est pas une réalité simplement africaine ; il traverse la Bible et d’autres cultures comme celle de la Rome antique et de la Chine ancienne. Par-delà la causalité exemplaire de l’ancêtre que la mémoire du passé suffit à fonder métaphysiquement, la théologie chrétienne ne peut pas lui reconnaître une causalité efficiente. En juste foi chrétienne, c’est l’efficience du Ressuscité qui bouleverse tout le régime d’efficience salvifique antérieur à la nouveauté chrétienne. Le Christ n’est pas un Ancêtre, il est l’Eschaton. / The cultural context of the african continent is marked by the pregnancy of the ancestors.That is why the theology of the inculturation of the faith thought of having to appropriate the theme of the ancestor to repatriate its symbolic meaning in the service of the christian faith. But beyond an informal putting in report between the Christ and the ancestor, the inculturation of the faith evolved towards the speculative formality of an ancestralisation of the Christ. In that respect, the theology of Christ-Ancestor places us in front of a precarious process of logical subsumption which introduces and risks to absorb the Novum of Christ in the categories and the previous kinds of the culture of reception. The ancestralism is not only african reality; it crosses the Bible and the other cultures as that of ancient Rome and ancient China. Beyond the exemplary causality of the ancestor which the memory of past is enough to establish metaphysically, the christian theology cannot recognize it an efficient causality. In christian faith, it is the efficiency of the Resuscitated that upsets all the category of salvific efficiency previous to the Christian novelty. Christ is not an Ancestor, he is Eschaton.

Early modern English Catholic eschatology, the belief that the present was the last age and an associated concern with mankind’s destiny, has been overlooked in the historiography. Historians have established that early modern Protestants had an eschatological understanding of the present. This thesis seeks to balance the picture and the sources indicate that there was an early modern English Catholic counter narrative. This thesis suggests that the Catholic eschatological understanding of contemporary events affected political action. It investigates early modern English Catholic eschatology in the context of proscription and persecution of Catholicism between 1558 and 1603. Devotional eschatology was the corner stone of individual Catholic eschatology and placed earthly life in an apocalyptic time-frame. Catholic devotional works challenged the regime and questioned Protestantism. Devotional eschatology is suggestive of a worldview which expected an impending apocalypse but there was a reluctance to date the End. With an eschatological outlook normalised by daily devotional eschatology the Reformation and contemporary events were interpreted apocalyptically. An apocalyptic understanding of the break with Rome was not exclusively Protestant. Indeed, the identification of Antichrist was not just a Protestant concern but rather the linchpin of Reformation debates between Catholics and Protestants. Some identified Elizabeth as Jezebel, the Whore of Babylon. The Bull of Excommunication of 1570 and its language provided papal authority for identifications of Elizabeth as the Whore. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots was a flashpoint which enabled previously hidden ideas to burst into public discourse. This was dangerous as eschatology and apocalypticism was a language of political action. An eschatological understanding of contemporary events encouraged conspiracy. The divine plan required human agents. Catholic prophecy and conspiracy show that eschatology did not just affect how the future was thought about but also had implications for the present. This thesis raises questions about Catholic loyalism which other scholars have also begun to challenge. Yet attempts to depose or murder the monarch was not the only response which could be adopted. Belief that one was living in the End also supported what this thesis terms ‘militant passivity’. Martyrs understood their suffering as a form of eschatological agency which revealed and confirmed the identities of the Antichrist and the Whore. The Book of the Apocalypse promised that they would be rewarded at God’s approaching Judgement and the debates of the Reformation would be settled by the ultimate Judge. As martyrs came to symbolise the English Catholic community, it came to understand itself eschatologically. This thesis argues that acknowledging the eschatological dimensions of Catholic perception and action helps us to re-think the nature of early modern English Catholicism.

Throughout the seventeenth century, numerous Scots became convinced that the major political and religious upheavals of their age signified the fulfillment of, or further unfolding of, the vivid prophecies described in the Book of Revelation which foretell of the final consummation of all things. To date, however, an in-depth analysis of the evolution of Scottish apocalyptic belief during the seventeenth century has never been undertaken. This thesis utilizes a wide variety of source material to demonstrate the existence of a cohesive, persistent, and largely conservative tradition of apocalyptic thought in Scotland that spanned the years 1588 to 1688. Chapter One examines several influential commentaries on the Book of Revelation published by notable Scots during the decades either side of the Union of Crowns. These works reveal many of the principal characteristics that formed the basis of the Scottish apocalyptic tradition. The most important of these traits which became a consistent feature of the tradition was the rejection of millenarianism. In recent years, historians have exaggerated the influence of millenarian ideals in Scotland during the Covenanting movement which began in 1638. Chapter Two argues that Scottish Covenanters consistently denounced millenarianism as a dangerous, subversive doctrine that could lead to the religious radicalism espoused by sixteenth-century German Anabaptists. Chapter Three looks at political and religious factors which led to the general decline of apocalyptic expectancy in Scotland during the Interregnum. It also demonstrates how, despite this decline, Scottish apocalyptic thinkers continued to uphold the primary traits of the apocalyptic tradition which surfaced over the first half of the century. Lastly, Chapter Four explains how state-enforced religious persecution of Scottish Presbyterians during the Restoration period led to the radicalisation of the tradition and inspired the violent actions of Covenanter extremists who believed they had been chosen by God to act as instruments of his divine vengeance in the latter-days.