"Apocalypticism has been the source of hope and courage for the oppressed, but has also given rise, on many occasions, to fanaticism and intolerance. The essays in this volume seek neither to apologize for the extravagance of apocalyptic thinkers nor to excuse the perverse actions of some of their followers. Rather, they strive to understand a powerful, perhaps even indispensable, element in the history of Western religions that has been the source of both good and evil, and still is yet today."The Editors The Continuum History of Apocalypticism is a 1-volume, select edition of the 3-vol. Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism first published in 1998. The main historical surveys that provided the spine of the Encyclopedia have been retained, while essays of a thematic nature, and a few whose subject matter is not central to the historical development, have been omitted. The work begins with 8 articles on "The Origins of Apocalypticism in the Ancient World," extending from ancient Near Eastern myth through the Old Testament to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus, Paul, and the Book of Revelation. Next are 7 articles on "Apocalyptic Traditions from Late Antiquity to ca. 1800 C.E.," including early Christian theology, radical movements in the Middle Ages, and both Jewish and Islamic apocalypticism in the classic period. The final section, "Apocalypticism in the Modern Age," includes 10 articles on apocalypticism in the Americas, in Western and Eastern Europe, and, finally, in modern Judaism and modern Islam.

Volume 1 covers the beginnings of apocalypticism in the ancient Near East, moves through early Judaism, and ends at the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Volume 2 begins with the apocalypticism in early Christian theology (100 C.E.) and concludes with discussions of apocalyptic influences in medieval and renaissance literature (up to 1800 C.E.). Volume 3 brings the discussion into the 20th century and focuses on the influences of apocalypticism on modern popular culture, art, science, politics, and thought.

Apocalypticism arose in ancient Judaism in the last centuries BCE and played a crucial role in the rise of Christianity. It is not only of historical interest: there has been a growing awareness, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, of the prevalence of apocalyptic beliefs in the contemporary world. To understand these beliefs, it is necessary to appreciate their complex roots in the ancient world, and the multi-faceted character of the phenomenon of apocalypticism. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. The final chapters of the volume are devoted to the appropriation of apocalypticism in the modern world, reviewing the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Judaism and Christianity, and more broadly in popular culture, addressing the increasingly studied relation between apocalypticism and violence, and discussing the relationship between apocalypticism and trauma, which speaks to the underlying causes of the popularity of apocalyptic beliefs. This volume will further the understanding of a vital religious phenomenon too often dismissed as alien and irrational by secular western society.

This book explores the ideological origins of the Puritan migration to and experience in America.

By connecting Shakespeare's language to the stunning artwork that depicted the end of the world, this study provides not only provides a new reading of Shakespeare but illustrates how apocalyptic art continues to influence popular culture today. Drawing on extant examples of medieval imagery, Roger Christofides uses poststructuralist and psychoanalytic accounts of how language works to shed new light on our understanding of Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. He then links Shakespeare's dependence on his audience to appreciate the allusions made to the religious paintings to the present day. For instance, popular television series like Battlestar Galactica, seminal horror movies such as An American Werewolf in London and Carrie and recent novels like Cormac McCarthy's The Road. All draw on imagery that can be traced directly back to the depictions of the Doom, an indication of the cultural power these vivid imaginings of the end of the world have in Shakespeare's day and now.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

This book fills these gaps in a striking and original way by means of ten concise thematic chapters which explain the origins of these concepts from the book of Revelation in an accessible way. These explanations are augmented and developed via a carefully selected sample of the ways in which the concepts have been treated by artists through the centuries. The 120 visual examples are drawn from a wide range of time periods and media including the ninth-century Trier Apocalypse, thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Manuscripts such as the Lambeth and Trinity Apocalypses, the fourteenth-century Angers Apocalypse Tapestry, fifteenth-century Apocalypse altarpieces by Van Eyck and Memling, Dürer and Cranach's sixteenth-century Apocalypse woodcuts, and more recently a range of works by William Blake, J.M.W. Turner, Max Beckmann, as well as film posters and film stills, cartoons, and children's book illustrations.