The Apocalypse: A Brief History (Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion)

Description

This accessible and enlightening history provides insights into the fascinating genre of apocalyptic literature, showing how the apocalypse encompasses far more than popular views of the last judgment and violent end of the world might suggest. An accessible and enlightening history of the "apocalypses"--ancient Jewish and Christian works -- providing fresh insights into the fascinating genre of literature Shows how the apocalypses were concerned not only with popular views of the last judgment and violent end of the world, but with reward and punishment after death, the heavenly temple, and the revelation of astronomical phenomena and other secrets of nature Traces the tradition of apocalyptic writing through the Middle Ages, through to the modern era, when social movements still prophesise the world’s imminent demise The Apocalypse......Page 5 Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Chronology......Page 11 1 Revelation in the Age of the Torah......Page 13 2 The Book of the Watchers and Ascent to Heaven......Page 27 3 The Book of Daniel and the Kingdom of the Holy Ones......Page 43 4 The Heavenly Messiah......Page 61 5 The Heavenly Temple, the Fate of Souls after Death, and Cosmology......Page 87 6 Tours of Paradise and Hell and the Hekhalot Texts......Page 109 7 Eschatology in the Byzantine Empire......Page 129 8 Apocalyptic Movements in the Modern Era......Page 149 Further Reading......Page 173 Index......Page 179