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More Münster mess
I was born and raised in Münster and am fairly familiar with its history. Your photo on the "Lamberti Kirche" is either from before World War II or much later. I am not sure whether the present-day cages are replicas or the originals, since they might have been stashed away for historical reasons. I have, however, a very distinct memory of said church tower being hit one day during an air raid by a bomb exactly in the spot where the cages hung. This single bomb left a huge hole and the rest of the church was undamaged. Our Protestant pastor interpreted this as God's judgment—I could never figure out whether he meant judgment for the Anabaptists or the people who tortured them mercilessly.

Ursula L. Taylor
Millet, Alberta

Humbling lesson
Your treatment of eschatology clearly shows how the culture of an era has as much impact upon the "popular" end time theology of that era as the biblical text. The influence the immediate culture has upon Christian thought throughout history is one of the humbling lessons history teaches us! If any theological issue should be held to with a limited degree of certainty, it is eschatology—the unfinished theology. May we stay humble today knowing our immediate culture has great influence upon our understanding of our faith and end times.

Joe Feest
Union Grove, Wisconsin

One more view still
As a partial preterist (and partial amillenialist) I was disappointed that your issue on the End didn't discuss or even mention preterism. I believe it is the most biblical and logical of the various eschatological viewpoints.

John H. Belgrade
McKeesport, Pennsylvania

Preterists believe most or all eschatological events have already occurred. —MG

Postmillennial hope
Two articles maintained the commonly asserted belief that nineteenth-century postmillennialism was largely based on the era's optimism. In fact, the postmillennial thinking that became prevalent during the optimistic nineteenth century had its origin much earlier among Puritans of the seventeenth century—an era hardly conducive to optimistic thinking.

As a mild postmillennialist living in a crumbling Western civilization, [and] therefore constantly reminded that faith is "the evidence of things not seen," I can still point to current events that confirm my belief in the future growth of Christ's Kingdom. Nevertheless, I am postmillennial for one reason only: my understanding of Scripture compels it.

Don Plummer
Reynoldsburg, Ohio

The Third Coming
It might have been useful to look at those Christians (e.g. Bernard of Clairvaux) who regarded what we commonly call the Second Coming as the Third Coming, the Second being Christ's daily coming to us. It is far more important to be concerned about the presence of Christ with us here and now than to engage in idle, useless, destructive theorizing about how he will come in the future.

Steve Cartwright
Kalamazoo, Michigan

On further review

• A few people wrote arguing there was much more apocalyptic excitement around the year 1000 than we let on. We agree that there was some, but we remain unconvinced it was widespread.
  
  
• A couple of readers believed we implied that Adso introduced the idea of "The Last World Emperor" (p. 16). In fact, the idea occurs earlier in the Middle Ages, though Adso's work seems to have spread it much more widely.
  
  
• Bernard McGinn teaches at the University of Chicago, not Notre Dame (p. 45).
  
  

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