apocalyptic basics
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Basics of Apocalypticism
Introduction to Multimedia CompositionSpring 2011
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Origin
Genre of prophetic works written in early centuries after Jesus
A new kind of prophecy Classic example: Revelation, in the
Christian scriptures Predecessor in the Hebrew Bible: Daniel
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Definitions
The word "apocalypse" means revelation, or unveiling
Refers to the disclosure of a hidden order or plan
Often presented specially to the writer
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Classical
"A genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world" (J. Collins)
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Doomsday
The Christian apocalypse reveals catastrophes that will lead to the end of the world
Tribulations Armageddon The millennium
Our world ends in destruction It is replaced by a perfect, permanent one
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Pessimistic?
Written at desperate time Persecution and oppression for early Church
Suggests no hope for change in this world But to wait for salvation and endure suffering
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Optimistic?
The millennium is 1000 years of peace on Earth Unclear when it will occur, or if it already has
begun The world to come is perfect
But only for believers
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Narrative
In the Christian tradition, the hidden plan is historical
Thus the apocalypse becomes a narrative -- a story, a plot, or a sequence in time
About the future Adaptable
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Rhetoric
Revelation's influence has gone beyond literal interpretations of events
A widely used framework for speaking and writing
About present problems About the future
"A mode of thought and discourse that empowers its audience to live in a time of disorientation and disorder by revealing to them a fundamental plan" (Brummett)
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Conventional
"A kind of discourse having to do with the end of the world, with cataclysm and change, that both energizes audiences and is used by many people
"[About] the end, of final things ... [also about] the sense of disaster or crisis ... [and] the sense of a transition from this world, era, or state of being to another one" (Brummett)
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Secularization
Apocalypticism may underly non-religious ways of thinking about time, change, and conflict
Progress Revolution Absolutism
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The 20th Century
"World" wars: 1914-18, 1939-45 Cold War: 1945-1991
Nuclear arms race Environmental movement: since 1960s Progress?
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Today
Many real, serious threats to contemporary Western way of life
US in decline? Environment? Technology?