`…and if not now, when?’ A Sociology of the Future in Micah 4.1

All prophets, in some way, speak of events that are going to happen. Arguably the best known of all such statements about the future is the ‘swords into ploughshares’ passage in Micah 4:1–5. The multitude of diverse opinions about this text are often closely related to each scholar’s understanding of the significance of the chronologically significant phrase with which it begins—‘In days to come …’ Some take this as a reference to a distant apocalyptic future or a utopian ideal of an ultimate universalism, mysterious and mythical. Others see it as an eminently feasible vision for a better world, able to be imagined without requiring particularly unusual miracles. Sociologists, anthropologists, and social psychologists have written about conceptions of the future, and their observations call into question the presuppositions which often underlie the exegesis of biblical scholars. In order to understand better Micah’s sociology of the future, his historical context is particularly relevant, as regards both the pronounced violence in his era and the typically hyperbolic (but no less serious) rhetoric of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It seems that modern doubts about a world without weapons have determined whether we believe that an ancient Israelite author could possibly have thought such a future was real. Sociological approaches require us to treat these visions as historically and temporally situated assertions of political agency, and motivational statements intended to influence action in the present—utopian perhaps, but by no means unrealistic.