Kirsch notes that throughout the history of apocalyptic belief, the Book of Revelation has often been at the forefront of what he calls ‘culture wars.’ John, when he wrote the Book of Revelation, was himself embroiled in a cultural war against the Roman Empire as well as other Christians, who he believed were not properly devout. Later, the Book of Revelation was used by both reformers within the church to criticize the church bureaucracy and by the papacy to denounce and persecute its critics. Revelation was also used to justify actual wars, ranging from the Crusades to the Civil War to World War I and II. The culture war that energizes current apocalyptic belief is fought ‘between fundamentalism and the modern world’ (219), where Christian fundamentalists imagine themselves to be at odds with an increasingly godless world. For true believers today, everything from feminism to the Masons to the United Nations is seen as a tool of the Antichrist and a portent of the end of the world (220).
I believe that the Book of Revelation, and apocalyptic belief as a whole, is particularly appealing to those that believe that they are involved in a cultural war. For the talk show evangelists that rail against everything from gay marriage and abortion to Barack Obama and big government, the black and white morality of Revelation is a convenient way to demonize their enemies. For conservative Americans who believe that their way of life is increasingly threatened, the language of persecution that John employs makes the Book of Revelation an effective propaganda tool. And for all those that perceive themselves as the victims of a changing political and social order, the lurid revenge fantasies of Revelation assure them that they won’t have to suffer the affronts of the modern world for long.
The fear and anxiety about the changing world is not limited to religious zealots. Kirsch describes the proliferation of ‘godless apocalypses’ in recent years, where the end of the world is a product of human folly; those that believe in these apocalyptic scenarios must also seem themselves fighting a culture war against forces such as globalization and the spread of new technologies. While technology is regarded with great suspicion by the religiously devout (in one reinterpretation of the Book of Revelation, barcodes are depicted as the ‘mark of the beast’), it is also often depicted as the enemy in ‘godless apocalypses.’ In these scenarios, human beings struggle against the threat of nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, robots, and supercomputers. One of the key aspects of globalization is the transnational movement of information, goods, and people, but this same movement can also lead to a global pandemic, another deep-rooted fear in current apocalypse scenarios. Finally, a recent article in the New York Times Book Review entitled ‘The State of Zombie Literature – An Autopsy‘ explored the recent popularity of zombie fiction, proposing that is driven by a ‘general anxiety, particularly in the West, about the planet’s dwindling resources,’ leading to the disturbing conclusion that “these nonhuman creatures…might be serving as metaphors for actual people – undocumented immigrants…or the entire populations of developing nations.”
One of the questions that Kirsch raises in his book is why, after 2000 years of the world resolutely not ending, that apocalyptic belief continues to be so popular. I think it taps into fears that afflict both the religious and the general populace, and the imagery contained within the Book of Revelation, of war and chaos and a final battle followed by triumphant peace, has gained broad cultural approval.
I really enjoyed that NYT article – thanks for sharing! I think they may be onto something with their assessment of the sudden popularity of zombies tying into environmental/resource concerns (an environmental message popped up out of almost nowhere in the Season 1 finale of The Walking Dead). As for their skepticism about zombies in literature, I think they can be used as social commentary on a variety of issues. I recently read a zombie book called Zone One (I wouldn’t recommend it; it’s a bit plot-less, and depressing, though well-written and with a few interesting twists on the zombies themselves). Here the zombies were not metaphors for what we might think of as the other – undocumented workers, or foreigners as the NYT says – but the mindless drones of American capitalism. In this way, it actually reflected the anti-establishment message of the Book of Revelation, which is part of why it’s so useful in culture wars as you discussed. There’s also some interesting commentary on what humans are capable of in a certain environment, the postwar era knowledge of which has fueled the rise of the godless apocalypse.
Hi Aparna,
This is an astute discussion of Kirsch’s key argument. My question for you comes from this statement: “I think it taps into fears that afflict both the religious and the general populace.” In class, why don’t you engage us in a discussion about the source of such fears?
I think both you and Whitney have brought up a key idea in the survival of apocalyptic theory. Fear and anxiety. These two states of mind are the driving forces that have kept this idea alive for two thousand years. Even through failed prediction after failed prediction for the actual date of the apocalypse, a dreaded “What if?” always hangs in the back of our minds. But anxiety is often a useful tool in our lives. It gets us ready and prepared to take what comes next. Anxiety in this case leaves us with that hanging question, “What if the world ends tomorrow?” which often forces us to live life to the fullest while we still can. This then leads into the philosophical issue of the meaning of life, which Lee addressed in another post. Would there be a purpose to life on Earth if the afterlife did not exist?