The Reality of Apocalypse

Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation.

Symposium Series of the Society of Biblical Literature, 2006.

Editor: David L. Barr, Professor of Religion, Wright State University

Description of the book:

This book grows out of the Seminar on the Apocalypse that met within the SBL for more than ten years.  Thus the authors of these chapters are familiar with each other and the essays constitute part of an on-going scholarly discussion.  We have chosen to focus the volume around two themes: rhetoric and politics, both broadly conceived and interrelated.  Papers in the section on Rhetoric and Reality focus both on the general rhetorical strategies of the work, including its genre and intertextual relationships, and on its specific rhetorical tactics.  These essays also show how the rhetoric fits the situation in Roman Asia Minor and the struggle within the community of the Apocalypse.  Papers in the section on Politics and Reality pursue further the conflicts within the community and conflicts with the broader culture. These essays also show how myth, symbol, and liturgy all function as means of resistance in an imperial setting.

The book explores the lively interplay between imagination and history, between rhetoric and politics, between words and worlds.  Far from being a fantasy of what will never be, the Apocalypse represents a reality, creating a social world that provided both community and individual identity to its audience. 

This volume will be indispensable for anyone who wants to understand current scholarly analysis of the Book of Revelation.

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