Abstract

This article introduces to the different stages of the research on Apocalypticism, beginning with its first move at the beginning of the XIX century, until the last Italian publication on the subject (Arcari 2020). The author underlines how this research was born to better understand Biblical texts such as Daniel or Revelation, mainly working on the thesis of an apocalyptic theological school that gave birth to the apocalypses, identifying its origins either in the Biblical prophecy or in Babylonian and Persian influences. In the seventies and eighties of the XX century, the partial consensus that had been reached was questioned by a new focus put on the apocalypse as a literary genre (Collins), or on identifying in the "First Book of Enoch" a coherent theological system centered on the extra-human origin of Evil (Sacchi). More recently, a new interest was directed to the scribal milieu that originated the apocalypses (Horsley) or to the process itself of production and use of the apocalypses, beginning with the psychotropic experiences that originated the texts (Arcari).