Category Archives: September 11

Kirsch: Breaking Down the Revelation

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Some of this issues I brought up in the last response, for example the Revelation’s influence on today’s society, are addressed in the later chapters of Kirsch’s A History of the End of the World. The book focuses on the Revelation’s general influence on Western Civilization and highlights some of the apocalyptic writings that came before the Book of Revelation. Kirsch notes how many terms we use today that stemmed from the Book of Revelation – Satan, grapes of wrath, the grim reaper, the lake of fire, the battle of armageddon, and arguably the most famous, 666. This leads me to believe that the notion of the Apocalypse is in fact divinely inspired. Last week I questioned whether or not people would have believed in the end of the world if it wasn’t for the Book of Revelation. I think people may have ended up believing that the world would end, but not necessarily through God or Satan. However, considering how powerful the Revelation’s message is to this day, there is no doubt that this is one of the leading inspirations for “Armageddon”.
The most interesting aspect of The History of the End of the World to me was Kirsch’s seemingly legitimate criticism of the Book of Revelation’s credibility. He dismisses John of Patmos and I think it was implied that certain religious and political “leaders” may use the Revelation to attract religious followers (or in other words, voters). It is possible that people in power can exploit the hopes and fears of people who are faithful to religion;  if you’re going to talk about the end of the world, people are going to listen. Kirsch does a good job of explaining the Revelation and how it has been interpreted in a historical context, but in the end I didn’t appreciate his style of writing. I was more convinced in the first half of the book of what he believed, but in the end I found his ideas a little repetitive.

 

Response Chapters Readings 9-11-12

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I feel as though throughout the second half of the novel, Kirsch is trying to set up the fact that the Book of Revelation’s place in the biblical canon is very controversial because it has impacted the world from the time it was written to what it is now today. One key example of my reasoning is when Kirsch quotes Jesus stating that there will never be a person who can predict the end of the world, not even himself. He even uses the author “John” to show that it’s mainly because of the name that it’s actually in the Cannon. He parallels the Gnostic Gospels and the Shepherd of Hermas with the Book of Revelation by showing how the former two were rejected from the cannon because of the origin of the author. He states that the name John could’ve caused many to think that he was once of the original 12 disciples thus automatically earning Revelation a spot in the cannon.Nevertheless after he establishes the fact that the book’s place is questionable, he moves on to how it has affected history.

The following chapters after chapter 4 reference various figures in history and their interpretation of the Book of Revelation ranging from criticisms to the church or a semi literal metaphor for the end of the world. For instance, Hildegard of Bingen interpreted the book metaphorically and believed that the antichrist will arise from the church because she thought the woman in labor symbolized the church and the beast inside her symbolized the antichrist. Brother John on the other hand, was able to use the Book of Revelation in order to tell people of the sins of the church in part due to the fact that indulgences were rather popular at the time. Nevertheless as the world modernizes, the Book of Revelation is used less for religious critique and more for a literal end of the world for its readers.

(2) Acknowledging the Apocalypse

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(Side note: the song “Losing My Religion,” came on while I was preparing this post.)

One line that caught my attention in Kirsch’s book as we read from the second half was this line: “Apocalyptic fancies, no matter how weird or woozy, were capable of taking on the quality of revealed truth. . . . The sure and urgent expectation of the end-times was, quite literally, a fact of life in the middle ages” (Kirsch 157).  The thing that is most hard for me to grasp is what it is like to live in a world not where we are aware that some people think this is a real way the history of our world is going, but a general political belief held by society.

I can’t help but think of this sort of “group think” and be reminded of things like the current political state of America because there is the phenomenon of having the population (mostly) split itself into two like-minded camps of thought where religion plays different, and yet specific roles. I was reading a quote from Sandra Fluke who spoke at the Democratic National Convention and she said “Over the last six months, I’ve seen what these two futures look like. And six months from now, we’ll all be living in one, or the other. But only one.”  Now, full disclosure, I think that political elections are extremely important and take it seriously, but reading that statement, I actually found myself a tad bit anxious like the “fate of the world,” rested in my hands. It is really interesting to look at how political speak uses the idea of a future history, and of a sort of apocalypse not only in its speeches against other campaigns, but in general. I would need to do more research, but I am super curious to see how this past election utilizes religious talk, and apocalyptic talk, as part of its “language arsenal.”

Afraid of the Big Bag Whore?

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For the latter half of the book, I want to draw focus on something we talked about in class, the presentation of women in Revelation. Not only that but the perception that John of Patmos has of sex and anything remotely related to it. While Kirsch’s analysis of the historical impact that Revelation has had on western civilization is interesting, I want to move beyond that and try to get into John’s head. More than that, I think it might be more important to understand John’s perspective on certain behaviors in order to get the additional, possibly hidden, messages within Revelation he was trying to convey.

Continue reading →

Proselytizing the Apocalypse

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John lashes out at preachers and industrious, money oriented societies, but Book of Revelation is from its very beginning a sales pitch with “divine approval” in the form of letter to foreign churches. Jonathan Kirsh uses many words to discuss the hyposcrisy in this in order to show how universal and captivating the concepts behind John’s otherworldly vision were. They can warp to suit the people’s needs and ideals and thus are almost subject specific and relatable in spite of their abstraction. The theme of selling this cult of the future is continued over millennia as case after case of people living on muliple continents change their lives to accommodate the idea of the world’s end. Often they do so in order to convert people to their cause and understand their prespective. The effort to convert spurs media use and communication across large distances. It motivates some political action and explains or justifies others. It is not without entertainment value and has been a part of pop culure, ranging from medieval simplified illustrated versions to rock and roll to the Left Behind Series.  Is the media the message? Here the message seems to make the media. It seems as though the proselytizing tone behind apocalyptical messages amounts as much for its sucess as the merits of its narrative.

When people are sold on the concept of an end of days, they are forced to accept other concepts. In literal cases, this is that there is a god, a savoir, judgment and benefits received through adherence to religious code. In a secular sense, as shown in Colby’s advertisement, there is an acknowledgement of seduction, uncertainty and urgency related to our mortal existence.

Not bad for a limited time offer 2000 years in the making.

 

 

Weekly Response #2: Interpretations of the Book of Revelation

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One thing that struck me as surprising in the reading is the romanticism of the book of Revelation among women. Previously in class, we had discussed that there are only negative portrayals of women in the book of Revelation, so it was surprising to hear that many women read the book of Revelation for spiritual reasons or self-improvement. Despite the horrific images in the book of Revelation, it was interesting to hear that some women still found a romantic element to the text. Continue reading →

A History of the End of the World (2nd Half)

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One of the most important concepts in the second half of this book is interpretation. Kirsch shows numerous examples of people throughout history that argued over whether the Book of Revelations should be read “spiritually” or “carnally”. Whichever way one chooses to read it, however, the result will amount to an interpretation of the text. Continue reading →