Mortal Remains
The Religion of Antichrist
by S. M. Hutchens
In the summer issue of 1990, Touchstone published a somewhat reduced version of Vladimir Solovyov’s “A Short Story of Antichrist,” which may be found in our online archive and elsewhere as part of a longer work. I am not sure what inspired this selection thirty years ago, which I had not encountered before and have referred to many times since, but I find it interesting and significant that at this early stage of the journal’s development, it took up this eschatological theme—and not from the environs of Left Behind (however despised by those who are above it all, a modern representative of something very old, in the tradition of the ludi Antichristi of the medieval marketplace) but from those of Eastern Christianity.
Those who study the history of apocalyptic literature will recognize that here Solovyov represents an ancient and pervasive Christian concern, which is not at all surprising given the importance of the theme in both Testaments. Stories of the Antichrist can be traced back at least to the tenth century, when the first of his biographies, De Ortu et Tempore Antichristi (Of the Rise and the Times of the Antichrist), was written at the request of the Queen of France by Adso, a learned monk of the Benedictine monastery at Montier-en-Der. In the September 19, 2019 online column Settimo Cielo, Sandro Magister, a long-time observer of Vatican affairs, upon which he is commenting, takes up the theme again, with reference to a writing by the theologian and cardinal Giacomo Biffi. I have decided to devote this Mortal Remains to an excerpt I think will be of interest to Touchstone readers, but is too long for a Quodlibet or Commonplaces entry. Magister writes,
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on theology from the online archives
33.2—March/April 2020
on How Bodily Resurrection Informs Social Justice by W. Ross Blackburn
31.6—November/December 2018
on Futility & the Open Door to Deliverance by Patrick Henry Reardon
31.4—July/August 2018
Life & Love Are Real Despite Theatrical Illusions by Anthony Esolen
more from the online archives
19.6—July/August 2006
The Three-Fold Cord of Imagination, Reason & Will in C. S. Lewis by Michael Ward
30.2—March/April 2017
The Education of Children Takes Generations of Fidelity by W. Ross Blackburn
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
Support Touchstone
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
