The Apocalyptic Imagination: Part 1 - Introduction and Key Terms

The following is background reading for session one of my current course being offered via Zoom: The Apocalyptic Imagination

The Apocalyptic Imagination - Introduction and Key Terms

What do we mean when we use the word “apocalyptic”?

The word “apocalyptic” may conjure up all sorts of images from zombies taking over the world, to nuclear wars, asteroids falling from the skies, alien invasions, or even the collapse of the environment from human exploitation.  The word seems to suggest something frightening, really frightening, but what does it mean?

It comes from the greek word “apocalypsis”, which simply means “revelation”.  Most simply, when we say something is apocalyptic it is means something is being revealed. In the case of Jewish and Christian theology, it denotes divine revelation.  In an important 1969 article, the great German biblical scholar, Ernst Kasemann commented that “Apocalyptic was the mother of all Christian theology”.  What did he man by this?  In this course we will be reading a selection of early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts in order to try and get at this question and understand the enduring influence of apocalyptic thinking on modern Christian thought.

If the word apocalypse simply means “revelation”, what revelation does it refer to?  Typically, apocalyptic literature seeks to unveil the God’s plan for the consummation of history by looking toward the end times and interpreting the present in light of God’s activity and purpose. In this sense it is eschatological, that is, concerned with the end-times. (Eschatology = the study of the end-times).

One of the major questions that apocalyptic texts seek to address is, “what time is it?” Are the end-times on the distant horizon? Are they just around the corner? Are we already experiencing it?

Apocalyptic literature also seeks to present the judgement and justice of God in the impending destruction of the wicked and vindication of the righteous. The intervention of God in history, and rehabilitation or recreation of heaven and earth are also key features.  However, Apocalyptic literature frequently looks back to the past, as well, and seeks to offer divine meaning to historical, political, and social events that have already taken place, or are currently taking place.  It is an attempt to theologize the entire trajectory of history - past, present, and future.  

Before we go too far, though, it would be good to talk about some semantic confusion that may occur when using the word “apocalypse”.  John J. Collins, in his book The Apocalyptic Imagination, to which I shall often refer makes the following semantic distinctions when with respect to terminology:

“Apocalypse” - a literary type, e.g.,  a text such as The Apocalypse of John (or the Revelation of John). In 1979, the Society of Biblical Literature proposed the following definition for an “Apocalypse”:

“A genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendental reality, which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.” Semeia 14 (1979)

“Apocalyptic” - a historical movement, e.g., The Apocalypse of John was the product of an apocalyptic community.  

“Apocalypticism” - A social ideology; a way of describing the mindset that shapes and defines a particular religious community.

“Apocalyptic eschatology” -a set of ideas and motifs that may also be found in other literary genres and social settings.  e.g., the gospels and the letters of Paul at time times demonstrate apocalyptic eschatology and feature apocalyptic themes.

Characteristics of Apocalyptic Eschatology and the Apocalyptic Genre:

The following is adapted from John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination

There are certain features that are common to apocalyptic literature and of apocalyptic eschatology. Not every apocalypse will contain all of these features, nor will they characterize every strand of apocalyptic eschatology.  

An apocalypse often contains a vision in which a human recipient of that vision is transported into another realm by a heavenly figure (often an angel) and shown how God has been (and continues to be) at work in history, and how God (and the righteous) will triumph at the end of time.  The righteous are typically rewarded and the wicked punished.  Thus, it is a document that presents a divine revelation about the culmination of history.  We can sense here a spiritualization of the Deuteronomistic doctrine of earthly reward/retribution for the righteous/wicked.

Often the visions are framed in some sort of historical narrative, as in the Book of Daniel.  Sometimes they contain other sub-genres, like discourses, parables, similitudes, letters, visions, hymns, and songs. Frequently, they deal with the problem of evil - where did evil originate in the world, and how it will be dealt with. 

 

Apocalypses, like the prophetic texts deal with the problem of suffering, but unlike the prophets, tend to see the resolution of suffering not in this world but in the world to come. Hence, we use the term “apocalyptic eschatology,” or a revelation of the end-times as a theological descriptor.

Importantly, divine revelation is not intelligible without supernatural aid.  There is almost always some kind of supernatural figure that serves as a guide either through the heavenly realms or as an interpreter of sacred history.  

Therefore, an apocalypse is a literary document that sees itself as revelatory of the intervention of God in history to bring about God’s culminating purpose at the end of days.  One can now easily understand why the New Testament scholar, Ernst Kasemann, called “apocalyptic” the “mother of all Christian theology.”  Christianity is about the radical intervention of God in history in Jesus Christ to bring about the redemption of the world, the restoration of creation, and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.  Christianity did not invent the apocalyptic imagination, but was rather influenced by it.  Christianity theology, though, is often in a tug of war between the already-and-not-yet.  Is the work of God in Christ accomplished or still to be accomplished? Is it begun but not completed? One of the questions we will be asking is what role do morality and virtue play in the apocalyptic mindset of a world that will someday wrap up? What are the alternatives to apocalyptic theology

How do we know we are reading an apocalyptic text? What are the features common to most apocalypses? What is characteristic of the apocalyptic mindset? The scholar, Klaus Koch, has suggested that apocalypticism, as an historical movement contains the following elements. These typically find their way into apocalyptic texts (note that not all of these are found in every apocalypse but are typical of the apocalyptic mindset):

1. Urgent expectation of the end of earthly conditions in the immediate future
2. The end as a cosmic catastrophe
3. Periodization and determinism (history is guided by God and has “ages”)
4. Characterized by the activity of angels and demons
5. Salvation will be paradisal in character
6. The manifestation of the Kingdom of God
7. There are mediators with royal functions.
8. God’s “glory” (a common catchword) is revealed

While the apocalyptic mindset and the associated literary genre of “apocalypse” may appear frightening, those who are sociologically “on the inside” (i.e., those who are  amongst God’s righteous or elect) will find that apocalyptic eschatology might be considered comforting. For example, those enslaved often find great solace in apocalyptic texts because they reveal a reversal of the current, untenable, unjust historical circumstances and inject theological meaning into present-day suffering.  On the other hand, those who are sociologically “on the outside” ought to have serious cause for concern! Thus, an apocalypse can be at once both a text of warning and of consolation. 

Implications:

Do what degree might the apocalyptic texts we studying be relevant to us today? On the one hand, the symbolic world of the ancient apocalypses we shall be reading seems light-years away from our world, so influenced by the rationalism of the enlightenment.  And yet we are continually drawn to modern-day apocalypses, such as zombie apocalypses, utopian and dystopian fiction; even modern superhero movies are often apocalyptic in form.  Every generation seems to have the sense that it teeters on the brink of destruction and wonders if there is any meaning to it.  The Apocalypse is one way of addressing this existential question and the apocalyptic mindset has a language and a grammar that that explores that existential angst.  Every generation creates its own apocalypses, whether they contain angels and demons or flying saucers and nuclear holocausts. The symbols may be different from age to age, but the existential impulses are the same.  For us as Christians, we still find ourselves asking the age old questions such as “where is God in this crazy world?” Or, more poignantly, “is there a God?”   And why is this world such a mess?  Will God do anything about it?  Can we do anything about it?  These are the questions we shall continue to address as we begin our journey into the early apocalyptic imagination.