The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament, written around the end of the first century CE. It is a prophecy that predicts the intersection of heaven, earth, and hell in a final confrontation between the forces of good and evil. The book is one of the most controversial Biblical texts, and different scholars have very different interpretations of its meaning. The basic prophesy comes from God via angelic messenger to John of Patmos, who writes down predictions about a period of chaos on Earth, Christ’s second coming and thousand-year reign of peace, Satan’s imprisonment and destruction and the Last Judgment. According to John, a new heaven and a new earth will replace the old, and the faithful will live with God and Christ for eternity in a heavenly city called “New Jerusalem.” J.K. Rowling recognized that using the apocalyptic narrative to teach binary morality has been highly effective. I will explain how the Harry Potter series tells almost the exact same story but offers an alternative moral paradigm, and should be considered postmodern apocalyptic fiction.
The Book of Revelation provides much of the foundation of apocalyptic belief in the Western Christian world. The apocalyptic prophesy of the Book of Revelation is meant to convey a sense of cosmic order, a reassurance that God has a master plan and will eventually deliver humanity (or some chosen few) from suffering and chaos. The desire for order vs. chaos is a foundational principle of society that manifests in many ways. In the Book of Revelation, the binary nature of the myth (good vs. evil, the saved vs. the damned) establishes order by mandating the superiority of some types of people over others. There is nothing vague about John of Patmos’s vision (except, perhaps, when it will come to pass). No detail, from the grotesque punishments that will befall the damned, to the heavenly reward waiting for those who are saved, is spared.
In this sense, the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic narratives are stories designed to bolster the morale of persecuted groups “whose lives are, or who perceive their lives to be, overwhelmed by historical or social disruption” (Rosen xii). The text prompts a powerless group to seek deliverance in the promise of ultimate divine judgment against their perceived oppressors. At the same time, believing in apocalyptic prophesy like the Book of Revelation allows powerless communities to maintain their faith and tolerate living in times of crisis and chaos, since these ordeals are promised to be merely the temporary forerunners of an eternal, divine social order. Or, as Richard Bauckham, Professor of New Testament Studies at St. Mary’s College, writes in The Theology of the Book of Revelation, “It is not that the here-and-now are left behind in an escape into heaven or the eschatological future, but that the here-and-now look quite different when they are opened up to transcendence” (8).
Yet apocalyptic narratives are not simply comforting stories told by persecuted groups. Yes, the version of morality offered by the Book of Revelation assures the faithful they will be rewarded, but it also condemns sinners, “the other” of the believers, to eternal damnation and rejects any notion of a middle ground between these two extremes. Doing so would invite uncertainty and ambiguity, in a word, chaos. This rigidly dualistic morality creates a hierarchical value system that limits identities to classification in one of only two potential categories and then perpetually venerates one as the ideal and the other as inferior, if not downright abhorrent.
One specific example of this type of apocalyptically-based moral dualism can be found in the description of the two female archetypes in the Book of Revelation: Jezebel/the Whore of Babylon, and the Mother of Christ/Bride of Christ. The former is sinful and impure– she fornicates and “repented not” (Revelation 2:21). “God hath remembered her iniquities” and she is punished for her transgressions (Revelation 18:5). On the other hand, the latter is “a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). She is innocent and pure, fit to wear “fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8).
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