Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the usefulness of the terms radical and radicalism together with the validity of a radical tradition. It explores the changing nature of radicalism together with the impact of the movement of people, ideas, images and texts across and within geographical boundaries, as well as over time. The book demonstrates that people were not always unfailingly radical: rather they could be radicalised or deradicalised by a combination of personal experience and wider political, social, economic, intellectual, cultural and religious factors. It examines how scholars have approached writing about people considered to be radicals or individuals who were radicalised at moments in their lives and, given its multifarious, context-specific manifestations, what might better be thought of as radicalisms rather than radicalism. Noam Flinker focuses on the poetics of biblical prophecy illustrates how a radical discourse' could be fashioned from Judaic materials.