Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse

This is a very good book that interprets Revelation in light of the "historical, political, economic, and social conditions of its time." I appreciate the availability of scholarly Biblical studies that are accessible to amateur theologians such as myself. The author concludes that the author was an itinerant Christian prophet who composed his book using some preexisting material, but who put his final product together around 95 AD. John wrote his book in response to severe conflict that Christian Jews had with non-Christian Jews and Gentiles, and Christian resentment of ill-gotten Roman wealth and power. John's goal with Revelation was to further isolate Christians from society because of the incompatibility of true Christianity with first-century culture. He structures his book with six series of sevens, which occur in the following order: seven messages to seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven visions, seven bowls, and seven more visions. Each of these sevens deals with the primary themes of the book, which are persecution of Christians, punishment of the persecutors, and salvation of the persecuted. John seeks to "overcome the intolerable tension between reality and hopeful faith" by assuring faithful Christians that God will eventually take vengeance on their persecutors; truth and justice will win in the end. In my opinion, the book falls short with its concluding remarks by attributing the message of Revelation entirely to human psychology. The author criticizes Revelation's "uncompromising opposition to Rome" as morally offensive - as an evangelical Christian, I would rather find a positive application of peaceful but uncompromising opposition to injustice and evil. The author criticizes Revelation's "desire for revenge and the ethical and theological problems thereby raised" - I would rather find a positive application of submission to God's law, the assurance of ultimate justice, and the need to leave justice in God's hands rather than taking it into our own hands. The author states that "Revelation works against the values of humanization and love insofar as the achievement of personal dignity involves the degradation of others" - I would rather see the violence and vengeance in Revelation as a confirmation that evil really does exist in the world, an uncomfortable but also undeniable fact. The author justifies her critique of Revelation by stating that a position "in which authority is conferred, not assumed, is surely the only possible stance a person can take who wishes truly to be critical." Of course, this raises the question of whether or not the critical approach is itself open to criticism, and the question of how to find truly objective grounds for conferring authority to the Biblical text. I would submit that the Bible must be our ultimate authority, although its authority needs to be interpreted within its historical context, and that efforts to confer authority to the Bible on the basis of the "reader's own critically interpreted experience" is ultimately a futile attempt to build castles in the sky - the caveat "critically interpreted" notwithstanding. Overall, I greatly appreciate the insight that the author brings to Revelation - I just think that she carries it a little too far for the Christian who seeks to be both critical and evangelical.

Professor Collins does a great job in interpreting the book of Revelation as modern scholars understand them today. It is pity that how often Revelation gets to be interpreted wrongly and many individuals pay the price for listening to misguided interpretations. (Just ask people who has read '88 reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988' or 'Late Great Planet Earth' or more recently those who listened to Family Radio that proclaimed that the world will end in May 21st, 2011.The idea that God is going to intervene in history and bring justice to this world is a powerful idea. However, to read the book of Revelation ethically, we have to consider the historical context that it was written in, and this book does a good job of providing that context, that Revelation was writing against Roman Empire in 1st century, and that the author too has thought that the world was going to end in his lifetime. I hope that those who seek the truth about the Bible will be able to know the truth about the Bible, and the truth will set them free.

Well written and researched book on the Book of Revelation. Helpful to my own research on that book. Easy to follow footnotes behind each chapter. Well-structured. Susan Lampe

For anyone interested in learning about the book of Revelation, this is one to read. Historical, theological, scholarly, and to the point.

*****"The disinclination to accept the apocalypse was due not mainly to doubts about the identity of the John who wrote it with John the apostle; it was due much more to the antipathy which was widely felt in the Greek world to its millenarianism." F. F. Bruce, The canon of scriptureBecause of its unusual symbolic language, the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, and for many faithful it seems alien to Christian teachings on love and forgiveness. Early Christians in the south and eastern Mediterranean cities, with a Jewish Diaspora, were more accustomed to the complex nature of the apocalyptic literature. Such conventions would have seemed less strange and cryptic, and they limited their expectations of the situation and the symbols that were used to portray it. So, for the original audience of the Revelation of John, all these strange scenes would have been tolerable.The Apocalypse of John was written about the end of the first century in Asia Minor. The author was from Ephesus Christian congregation identified as "John the Elder." According to the Book, he was 'exiled' on the island of Patmos, near the coast of Asia Minor, an allusion that he was a confessor of the Christian faith. The author then says a voice asked him to write what he was about to see, the revelatory vision that is at the center of the book. Ephesus was both the capital of the Roman province of Asia and an early center of Christianity. The book next contains seven short letters of exhortation to the Christian churches in the seven leading cities of Asia Minor, a key area for the expansion of Christianity into the western part of the Roman empire. This intersection created the problem for the community, as it called for Christians to regard the Roman administration as agent of the anti Christ.What the modern reader or biblical scholar has to try do when reading the text with an antiquity understanding, by learning the way old literature worked and the situation out of which it came. Martin Luther wrote, "As for Revelation, it 'lacks everything that I hold as apostolic or prophetic'." This has been the position of the Church of Alexandria since Papa Dionysius who blamed Napos of Arsenoi for literal interpretation of Revelation. Based on its theology, it was never included in the church lectionary, to this day, in all the orthodox churches who used to follow Alexandria. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria condemned the literal interpretation of the Apocalypse, and his church never accepted the millennium kingdom.Professor Adela Collins takes a psychological view of the purpose and outlook what the author of Revelation wrote in order to resolve this crisis by alienating them from the enticements of participation in pagan society and the imperial cult. That was the situation then threatening the Asia Minor Christians, triggered by the new emphasis on Domitian's imperial cult in Ephesus. She suggests that there was a threat of harsh punishment or even death for Christians who refused to take part in the cult's religious festivals. So she proposes there was an existential crisis facing these Christians, that was more of a crisis of faith precipitated by the contradiction of their faith and their social experience of alienation. She argues, then, that the work is even more metaphorical or symbolic in its approach; it offers a kind of drama of catharsis (or cleansing) that resolves the internal conflicts of the hearers. Yarbro Collins is perhaps more in agreement with how most modern Christians would appropriate their "faith struggle" of Revelation, recognizing this comes from understanding how to read this kind of apocalyptic literature.Professor Adela Y. Collins is an expert on Apocalyptic writings, between her other publications are Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism; The Apocalypse; and The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation. The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation

Good academically thorough study of historical interpretations of ecclesiastical-gothic-horror-literary fiction.