The EconomistNovember 21st 2020 Books & arts 792 around the world. Rising sciences such as
geology and palaeontology had a similarly
broad scope. “Unlocking” the world, mean-
while, is a vivid metaphor, but it implies a
smooth, even inevitable process. In reality
the world’s doors were not just unlocked,
but often kicked down. Mr Darwin knows
this, and stresses the influence of geopoli-
tics and imperialism, not just free trade as
an abstract concept. But he might have de-
picted the bootprints more graphically.
Still, his book is an enjoyable synthesis
of a large body of scholarship. He closes by
remarking that today’s globalisation is not
simply a bigger, faster version of what hap-
pened in the steam age. As in the early-
modern period, Asia is once again the
workshop of the world. He wonders if there
is another parallel, however. In 1914 the
European-dominated global economic
system seemed irresistible. Then war in-
tervened. Will a systemic crisis break the
current cycle of globalisation, too? 7
I
tisafairbetthatmostreadersofThe
Economist will not have thought of the
Antichrist for a while. That does not mean,
however, that this figure has gone away.
Ever since early Christian thinkers decided
that the evil in the world needed a focus, a
project and a name, in order to be decisive-
ly defeated at the Second Coming, this
shape-shifting form has hovered around.
He was Rosemary’s baby in the film of
that name, engendered on Rosemary by Sa-
tan and with “his father’s eyes”. He was Da-
mien in the “Omen” movies, born of a fe-
male jackal and eventually American
ambassador to the Court of St James’s. In
the “Left Behind” books he is Nicolae Car-
pathia, secretary-general of the un-turned
commander of the One World Unity Army.
Depending on your politics, the ultimate
foe of QAnon may be the Antichrist, or Xi
Jinping may be, or the New York Times; for
institutions are fingered as the Antichrist
as often as men are. And since its appear-
ance signifies the end-times, when apoca-
lyptic events will be unloosed upon the
world and Christ will return to sort it all
out, it is all too plausibly the Antichrist’s
moment now, with wildfires, plague and
climate change all converging. It might be
good to know, one way or the other.
But as Philip Almond explains in thisentertaining romp through the subject,
that is just the problem. It is very difficult
to spot him, or it. Christians who felt duty-
bound to keep permanent watch—and they
included Isaac Newton and the young John
Henry Newman, as well as John Knox and
other usual suspects—squabbled among
themselves over whether the Antichrist
was an individual, in which case Nero, Si-
mon Magus and Napoleon were popular, or
a crowd, in which case the Turks were long-
time favourites, or simply the evil that bat-
tles good in the breast of every human be-
ing. The book of Revelation, which does
not mention the Antichrist by name, pro-
vided a whole menagerie of aliases and
clues, from the Whore of Babylon to the
seventh head of the dragon rising from the
sea. The number of the Beast, 666, could be
precisely found in the names of Popes In-
nocent IV and Benedict XI—and in the tim-
ing of Queen Victoria’s accession.
Amid all this, Martin Luther’s clear-
eyed certainty that the papacy was the Anti-
christ comes as a gale of fresh air. It was a
surprisingly old claim, first made in 1190 by
Joachim of Fiore, and taken up with in-
creasing enthusiasm as the Catholic
church embroiled itself in simony, sexual
deviance and the sale of indulgences. The
theory behind it was that the Antichrist
was not a tyrant skulking outside Christen-
dom, picking believers off, but a malign in-
fluence working within it, even right at the
heart and at the top. This was not a problem
for some future apocalyptic time (though
that time was exhaustively worried over, to
the very week and day), but an abomina-
tion that was here, and pressing.
The essence of this lurking Antichrist
was deception, especially of the faithful.
This explains why medieval paintings of-
ten show the Son of Perdition as a benevo-
lent prince, crowned and robed, or even as
a double for Jesus, bearded, thoughtful and
working miracles. Evil was ever-beguiling,
and drew plenty of willing followers. Thealternative—to make the Antichrist utterly
monstrous and vile, as on this book’s cover,
where William Blake makes a horned ca-
daver of him—puts the enemy in plain
sight, and lets Christians off too easily
from vetting their own behaviour.
The search for the Antichrist leads Mr
Almond down many obscure paths, peo-
pled by cobwebbed theologians such as Ire-
naeus and Hippolytus, and deep into the
weirdest thickets of medieval fantasy-
weaving. He has fun—“Sexy Beast” is his
heading on a section about the Antichrist
visions, peculiarly like ink blots, of Hilde-
gard of Bingen—but does not forget that a
modern reader also needs to know why the
Antichrist was important. The problem he,
or it, was invented to solve was that Christ
had promised to return to the world and es-
tablish his kingdom, but had not done so
yet. Christians needed to believe that a
great showdown between good and evil
was, however, coming. Satan himself had
already been sent to hell, but his thorough-
ly demonised spawn was working in the
world. The faithful had to be kept alert to
the dark deviousness around them.
Does the idea have any relevance now,
when the word seems merely quaint to
anyone outside the tradition of prophetic
Christianity? Mr Almond likes to think it
does. If the great eschatological conflict
and the triumph of good are dispensed
with, history and human existence may
seem to have no purpose. “Cosmic nihil-
ism” is all that is left. By contrast, the story
of the Antichrist encourages men and
women to give their own lives meaning, at
least: to be aware of the evil in themselves
and to cultivate the good.
To this reviewer, the whole strange
story cuts the other way. The usefulness of
the Antichrist today is surely as a swift and
comprehensive way to displace evil onto
others—when in reality, in the words of the
17th-century radical Ranter, Joseph Sal-
mon, “this great whore is in thee.” 7Evil incarnateSexy beast
The Antichrist.By Philip Almond.
Cambridge University Press; 354 pages;
$39.99 and £29.99The enemy within