Roger Bacon and the rage of antichrist: The Apocalypse of a thirteenth century natural philosopher

This dissertation considers Roger Bacon's apocalyptic vision from the perspective of his scientific views. It argues that the nature and depth of Bacon's apocalyptic views have not been properly appreciated because scholarship has not applied his scientific theories to them. Once these two aspects of Bacon's thought are considered in tandem, his sweeping vision concerning the “physics” of the Apocalypse emerges.;Central to Bacon's apocalyptic vision was his belief that a secret science was divinely revealed to humanity during the antediluvian period. Due to human abuses it was retracted by God but would reappear in the last days. The apocalyptic dramatis personae, all humans, would utilize it to harness hidden natural forces and transform prophetic potentialities into physical realities. Bacon transformed all the figures of the Apocalypse into good or evil natural philosophers. The dissertation argues that the ancient science which all apocalyptic figures would use was a blending of astrology and alchemy that hat permitted its practitioners to “force nature to obey their will,” and that this science was a re-articulation of astral magic purged of demonic incantations.;The conclusion offers two arguments based on the evidence presented. First, it reassesses the question of whether or not Bacon was a Joachite and argues that he was. The reason why scholarship has had such difficulty in detecting Joachite doctrines in Bacon's work is because he described them through the lexicon of natural philosophy (e.g., the Joachite spiritual intelligence as the active intellect, the viri spirituales as natural philosophers illuminated by the Holy Spirit). Second, it argues that the scientific dualism inherent in Bacon's apocalyptic vision ultimately led him to conclude that science itself was morally neutral. Science could be used to perfect society or destroy it. Cold secondary causes had no ethical dimensions, nor did the sciences that harnessed them. Only individuals utilizing them could be called good or evil. Thus the dissertation concludes that within Bacon's apocalyptic vision we find the birth pangs of an incipient ethics of science in Western Europe.