Apocalyptic Transformation explores how one the oldest sense-making paradigms, the apocalyptic myth, is altered when postmodern authors and filmmakers adopt it. It examines how postmodern writers adapt a fundamentally religious story for a secular audience and it proposes that even as these writers use the myth in traditional ways, they simultaneously undermine and criticize the grand narrative of apocalypse itself.
The notion of apocalypse is an age-old concept which has gained renewed interest in popular and scholarly discourse. The book highlights the versatile explications of apocalypse today, demonstrating that apocalyptic transformations - the various encounters with anthropogenic climate change, nuclear violence, polarized politics, colonial assault, and capitalist extractivism - navigate a range of interdisciplinary views on the present moment. Moving from old worlds to new worlds, from world-ending experiences to apocalyptic imaginaries and, finally, from authoritarianism to activism and advocacy, the contributions begin to map the emerging field of Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies. Foregrounding the myriad ways in which collective imaginations of apocalypse underpin ethical, political, and, sometimes, individual experience, the authors provide key points of reference for understanding old and new predicaments that are transforming our many worlds.
Transcendence in general and transformation in particular have long been established as key motifs in apocalypses. The transformation of a seer during a heavenly journey is found commonly in such esoteric apocalypses as I Enoch. No heavenly journey occurs in the apocalypses treated here. Rather, symbolic women figures--"ladies" in the classical sense--who are associated with God's city or Tower, undergo transformation at key points in the action. The surface structures of Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse and The Shepherd of Hermas are traced, and the crucial transformation episodes are located within each structure. Transformation of figures which represent God's people points to the significance of identitiy within the apocalyptic perspective. Earlier analyses have demonstrated that the apocalyptic perspective urges the reader to consider life from a different stance in time and in space ("temporal" and "spatial" axes). The present analysis suggests that the apocalypse also charts its revelations along an "axis of identity" so that the reader is invited to become, as it were, someone more in tune with the mysteries he or she is viewing. Of special interest is the treatment of the increasingly well-known romance Joseph and Aseneth alongside apocalypses, a parallel which is fruitful because of the curious visionary sequence, closely related to apocalypse in content and form, which is found in the inner centre of that work.
Inca Apocalypse develops a new perspective on the European invasions of the Inca realm, and the way that the Spanish transformation of the Andes relates to broader changes occurring in the transition from medieval to early modern Europe. The book is structured to foreground some of theparallels in the imperial origins of the Incas and Spain, as well as some of the global processes affecting both societies during the first century of their interaction. The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire was more than a decisive victory at Cajamarca in 1532-it was an uneven process that failedto bring to pass the millenarian vision that set it in motion, yet it succeeded profoundly in some respects. The Incas and their Andean subjects were not passive victims of colonization, and indigenous complicity and resistance actively shaped Spanish colonial rule.As it describes the transformation of the Inca world, Inca Apocalypse attempts to build a more global context than previous accounts of the Spanish Conquest, and it seeks not to lose sight of the parallel changes occurring in Europe as Spain pursued state projects that complemented the colonialendeavors in the Americas. New archaeological and archival research makes it possible to frame a familiar story from a larger historical and geographical scale than has typically been considered. The new text will have solid scholarly foundations but a narrative intended to be accessible tonon-academic readers.
In the Revelation of St. John, spiritual worlds and spiritual entities appear both in images of the sensory world and in images of the mineral realm. This book disusses these two sides of world manifestation. It is often argued that the images of St. John's Revelations are intended in a purely symbolic way. If this is so, the mineral appears as a symbol for something of a soul-like and spiritual nature. The Revelator however, did not see symbols, but rather realities; even a symbol can be genuine only if something of the reality for which it stands shines through. It must, in a real way, be inwardly identical with what it intends, the essence from which it stems. Thus it must arise from the same reality; otherwise it contains no meaning. The images of the minerals in the Apocalypse are just as much reality as the minerals are on Earth. Neither is essential; both are simply manifestations of something essential. Hence, both are truly apocalyptic—the mineral we hold in our hand and the image we hold in our mind. They reveal themselves mutually. This book juxtaposes the objects of sensory appearance and natural-scientific research with sayings from the Revelation of St. John to express the joint background of the appearances. When we connect one with the other, it can lead to an encounter with the essence. This is an “esoteric mineralogy.” Friedrich Benesch enables a renewed encounter between the human being and mineral being, from which essence and future can then shine out. Anyone wanting to look more deeply into the Book of Revelations should read this beautifully illustrated, unique work on its meaning and its significance for both today and the future of humankind and the Earth.
Apocalyptic Projections have been pondered since Biblical times. Theories abounded in an attempt to prepare for calamity and plan for the future. Worldwide concern regarding a twenty-first century apocalypse, related to the 2012 Mayan Apocalyptic prediction, sparked renewed interest. Even though the concept of apocalypse evokes images of total oblivion, threads of possibility and redemption offer a potential fabric of hope. The majority of the papers included in Apocalyptic Projections were p ...
The Apocalyptic Paul is rapidly becoming one of the most influential contemporary approaches to the apostle's letters, and one which has generated its share of controversy. Critiques of the movement have come from all sides: Pauline specialists, scholars of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, and systematic theologians have all raised critical questions. Meanwhile, many have found it a hard conversation to enter, not least because of the contested nature of its key terms and convictions. Non-specialists can find it difficult to sift through these arguments and to become familiar with the history of this movement, its most important contemporary voices, and its key claims. In the first part of this book, New Testament scholar Jamie Davies offers a retrospective introduction to the conversation, charting its development from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, surveying the contemporary situation. In the second part, Davies explores a more prospective account of the challenges and questions that are likely to energize discussion in the future, before offering some contributions to the apocalyptic reading of Paul through an interdisciplinary conversation between the fields of New Testament scholarship, Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism, and Christian systematic theology.
The end of the world may be upon us, but it certainly is taking its sweet time playing out. The walkers on The Walking Dead have been "walking" for nearly a decade. There are now dozens of apocalyptic television shows and we use the "end times" to describe everything from domestic politics and international conflict, to the weather and our views of the future. This collection of new essays asks what it means to live in a world inundated with representations of the apocalypse. Focusing on such series as The Walking Dead, The Strain, Battlestar Galactica, Doomsday Preppers, Westworld, The Handmaid's Tale, they explore how the serialization of the end of the world allows for a closer examination of the disintegration of humanity--while it happens. Do these shows prepare us for what is to come? Do they spur us to action? Might they even be causing the apocalypse?
