Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance
Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance

Author: C. Wess Daniels

Publisher: Barclay Press

Published: 2019-10-07

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9781594980633

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Revelation speaks to the reality that we are caught in the fray of cosmic conflict. We are guilty. We've already been contaminated. But it's not too late for us to exit empire and enter the kingdom. We are yet both victim and victimizer. We have healing work to do, and we must take responsibility for the ways in which we have benefited from and been complicit with the religion of empire. This is the truth of Revelation. God wants to liberate us in body, heart, soul, and mind.Revelation reveals how scapegoating functions within empire to define its own boundaries and contours as being over and against wicked others.Revelation critiques wealth and shows that even in the first century there was prophetic critique against an economic system that was based on abundance for some, while exploiting the rest.Revelation demonstrates the importance of liturgy as something that forms people into the likeness of either empire or the lamb.Revelation reveals an alternative social order which becomes the center of resistance rooted in a vision of what the book describes as "the multitude."

The Nonviolent Apocalypse
The Nonviolent Apocalypse

Author: Jeffrey D. Meyers

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-11-08

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1978708351

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Revelation is resistance literature, written to instruct early Christians on how to live as followers of Jesus in the Roman Empire. The Nonviolent Apocalypse uses modern examples and scholarship on nonviolence to help illuminate Revelation’s resistance, arguing that Revelation’s famously violent visions are actually acts of nonviolent resistance to the Empire. The visions form part of Revelation’s proclamation of God’s way as a just and life-giving alternative to the system constructed by Rome. Revelation urges its readers to pursue this radical form of living, engaging in nonviolent resistance to all that stands in the way of God’s vision for the world.

Apocalypse Against Empire
Apocalypse Against Empire

Author: Anathea Portier-Young

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2014-01-09

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 080287083X

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The year 167 B.C.E. marked the beginning of a period of intense persecution for the people of Judea, as Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted -- forcibly and brutally -- to eradicate traditional Jewish religious practices. In Apocalypse against Empire Anathea Portier-Young reconstructs the historical events and key players in this traumatic episode in Jewish history and provides a sophisticated treatment of resistance in early Judaism. Building on a solid contextual foundation, Portier-Young argues that the first Jewish apocalypses emerged as a literature of resistance to Hellenistic imperial rule. In particular, Portier-Young contends, the book of Daniel, the Apocalypse of Weeks, and the Book of Dreams were written to supply an oppressed people with a potent antidote to the destructive propaganda of the empire -- renewing their faith in the God of the covenant and answering state terror with radical visions of hope.

Visions of Resistance
Visions of Resistance

Author: Jeffrey D. Meyers

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13:

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Despite its violent language and imagery, the book of Revelation is an important text for the study of nonviolence in the New Testament. It both employs and advocates nonviolent methods to resist the evils and seductions of the Roman Empire. Revelation uses nonviolent counter discourse as a means of fostering opposition to the Roman Empire and encouraging nonviolent resistance in daily life. Central to this resistance are Revelation’s efforts to undermine perceptions of Roman power, redefine victory and how the world works, witness to the evils and seductions of the Roman Empire, and create a utopian vision of the world as it might be. These efforts can be described using nonviolence theory as four distinct forms of nonviolent counter discourse: 1) challenging perceptions of power, 2) nonviolent normative regulation, 3) symbolic moral witness, and 4) utopian discourse. Each of the first four chapters of the dissertation describes one of these forms of nonviolent counter discourse and analyzes examples of Revelation’s use of it. Examples of Revelation’s advocacy of nonviolent resistance, which extend beyond counter discourse to other forms of nonviolence, are also examined. A final chapter addresses the ways in which Revelation’s rhetoric violates the principles of nonviolence, particularly in its use of violent imagery and demonizing language.

The Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation

Author: Leonard L. Thompson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1997-02-13

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0195353919

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About seventy years after the death of Jesus, John of Patmos sent visionary messages to Christians in seven cities of western Asia Minor. These messages would eventually become part of the New Testament canon, as The Book of Revelation. What was John's message? What was its literary form? Did he write to a persecuted minority or to Christians enjoying the social and material benefits of the Roman Empire? In search of answers to these penetrating questions, Thompson critically examines the language, literature, history, and social setting of the Book of the Apocalypse. Following a discussion of the importance of the genre apocalypse, he closely analyzes the form and structure of the Revelation, its narrative and metaphoric unity, the world created through John's visions, and the social conditions of the empire in which John wrote. He offers an unprecedented interpretation of the role of boundaries in Revelation, a reassessment of the reign of the Emperor Domitian, and a view of tribulation that integrates the literary vision of Revelation with the reality of the lives of ordinary people in a Roman province. Throughout his study, Thompson argues that the language of Revelation joins the ordinary to the extra-ordinary, earth to heaven, and local conditions to supra-human processes.

In the Shadow of Empire
In the Shadow of Empire

Author: Richard A. Horsley

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0664232329

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The Bible tells the stories of many empires, and many are still considered some of the largest of the ancient and classical world: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. In this provocative book, nine experts bring a critical analysis of these world empires in the background of the Old and New Testaments. As they explain, the Bible developedagainstthe context of these empires, providing concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of Jews and Christians that their God was the true King, the real Emperor. Each chapter describes how to read the Bible as a reaction to empire and points to how to respond to the biblical message to resist imperial powers in every age.

Resisting Empire
Resisting Empire

Author: Jason A. Whitlark

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-07-31

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0567008266

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This book offers a fresh reading about the purpose for which Hebrews was written. In this book Whitlark argues that Hebrews engages both the negative pressures (persecution) and positive attractions (honor/prosperity) of its audience's Roman imperial context. Consequently, the audience of Hebrews appears to be in danger of defecting to the pagan imperial context. Due to the imperial nature of these pressures, Hebrews obliquely critiques the imperial script according to the rhetorical expectations in the first-century Mediterranean world-namely, through the use of figured speech. This critique is the primary focus of Whitlark's project. Whitlark examines Hebrews's figured response to the imperial hopes boasted by Rome along with Rome's claim to eternal rule, to the power of life and death, and to be led by the true, victorious ruler. Whitlark also makes a case for discerning Hebrews's response to the challenges of Flavian triumph. Whitlark concludes his study by suggesting that Hebrews functions much like Revelation, that is, to resist the draw of the Christians' Roman imperial context. This is done, in part, by providing a covert opposition to Roman imperial discourse. He also offers evaluation of relapse theories for Hebrews, of Hebrews's place among early Christian martyrdom, and of the nature of the resistance that Hebrews promotes.

Revelation for the Rest of Us
Revelation for the Rest of Us

Author: Scot McKnight

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2023-02-28

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0310135796

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See how the Book of Revelation can be read as a book of discipleship, challenging Christ-followers everywhere to live as hopeful agents of resistance and transformation. The last book of the Bible frustrates and frightens many people with its imagery and apocalyptic tone. Popular interpretations rely on fear and politicization and often lead to pride and alienation of others. Is this really how we were intended to read John’s Revelation? In Revelation for the Rest of Us, Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett explore the key message of Revelation and how it: Calls us to be faithful and hopeful witnesses to Jesus. Stimulates our imagination to see the world through the eyes of God and excite our faith. Challenges us to stand against the militarism, economic exploitation, oppression, and injustice of worldly authorities. McKnight addresses the popular misconceptions about the book, explaining what John means in his use of the images of dragons, lambs, and beasts; and how the symbolism of Revelation spoke in the days of Rome and still speaks powerfully to the present day—though not in the way most people think. You’ll learn to see the Book of Revelation in a fresh and hopeful new way. Drawing from the latest scholarship, the authors present an understanding of Revelation for anyone interested in deepening their personal study of the Bible and strengthening their faith as dissident disciples who can discern the presence of "Babylon" in our world and learn to speak up, speak out, and walk in the way of the Lamb.

Scripture and Resistance
Scripture and Resistance

Author: Jione Havea

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-04-29

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1978703589

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Resistance against unjust (wicked) cultures and imperial powers is at the heart of scripture. In many cases, the resistance is waged against external systems or the misappropriation of scriptural texts and traditions. In some cases, however, scripture resists oppressive cultures and powers that it also requires, certifies and protects. At other times, and in different settings, the minders of scripture speak against the abusive cultures and power systems that they inherited and whose benefits they milk. Scripture and Resistance contains reflections by authors from East, West, South, and North — on resistance and the Christian scriptures regarding a rainbow of concerns: the colonial legacies of the Bible; the people (especially native and indigenous people) who were subjugated and minoritized for the sake of the Bible; the courage for resistance among ordinary and normal people, and the opportunities that arise from their realities and struggles; the imperializing tendencies that lurk behind so-called traditional biblical scholarship; the strategies of and energies in post- and de-colonial criticisms; the Bible as a profitable product, and a site of struggle; and the multiple views or perspectives in the Bible about empire and resistance. In other words, the contributors, as a collective, affirm that the Bible contains (pun intended) resistance.