Imagining the End: Visions of

Cultures of Letters: Scenes of Reading and Writing

in Nineteenth-century America

 (Chicago, 



) and 

Hawthorne, Melville, and

the Novel

 (Chicago, 



).

Juan R. I. Cole

 is Professor of  History at the University of  Michigan, Ann

Arbor. A specialist on Modern Middle Eastern history, Dr Cole is the author

and editor of  a number of  books and articles including

 Modernity and the

Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth-century Middle

East 

(New York, 



) and

 Roots of North Indian Shi'ism in Iran and Iraq:

Religion and State in Awadh, 



–



 (Berkeley, CA, 



).

John J. Collins

 is Holmes Professor of  Old Testament Criticism and In-

terpretation, Yale University. The author of  twelve monographs, Dr Collins

has written extensively on apocalypticism in Ancient Judaism including 

The

Apocalyptic Imagination

 (New York, 



) and 

Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea

Scrolls

 (London: Routledge, 



).

Benjamin R. Foster

 is Professor of  Assyriology, Department of  Near Eastern

Languages and Civilizations, Yale University. Dr Foster is the author of  

Before

the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature 

(Bethesda, 



) and 

From

Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia

 (Bethesda,



).

Philip G. Kreyenbroek

 teaches at the University of  Gottingen in Germany.

His publications include

 Sraosa in the Zoroastrian Tradition

 (Leiden, 



)

and 

Yezidism – Its Background, Observances, and Textual Tradition

 (Lewiston,



).

Bernard McGinn

 is Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of  Historical

Theology and the History of  Christianity, University of  Chicago. Dr McGinn

has written extensively in the areas of  history of  Christian apocalyptic thought

and most recently in the areas of  spirituality and mysticism. Among his many

books on this subject are

 Apocalypticism in the Western Tradition 

(Aldershot,



) and 

Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages

 (New

York, 



).

R. I. Moore

 teaches medieval European history at the University of  Newcastle-

---

xi

Contributors

upon-Tyne. He has edited and authored a number of  books including 

The

First European Revolution, c. 



–



 (Oxford, 



) and 

The Origins of

European Dissent

 (London, 



).

David Ownby

 teaches at the Université de Montréal, where he specializes in

the history of  modern China. His publications include 

Brotherhoods and Secret

Societies in Early and Mid-qing China: The Formation of a Tradition 

(Stanford,



) and he is co-editor of