The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in 2015 by President Obama and began a political and religious battle that ensued for months in the United States Congress. Two of the main actors in the fight against JCPOA were Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a Christian-Zionist lobby[1], and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the most prominent pro-Israel lobbies founded and largely supported by Zionist-Jewish Americans[2]. Both organizations deployed tactics of religious and apocalyptic-religious rhetoric to encourage their large and influential constituencies to join them in the fight against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, motivating U.S. citizens otherwise unaware and uninvolved of nuclear proliferation policy to become heavily involved in the process of the political debates surrounding the deal. This paper will seek to answer the questions: How is apocalyptic rhetoric typically conveyed through religious outlets? What then, does the deployment of this tactic say about religion in America in the public sphere? [1] Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. The Politics of the Apocalypse. Oneworld Publications Ltd., Oxford. 2006, pp. 165-166. [2] Waxman, Dov. Trouble in the Tribe. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 2016, pp.4.

This study considers the way in which Margaret Atwood’s post-apocalyptic MaddAddam Trilogy functions as an environmental project. The main focus is on how the three novels, Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), simultaneously draw on and destabilise the apocalypticism inherent in so much environmental discourse, primarily through the use of satire. The trilogy is securely anchored in the concerns of contemporary readers, and transposition of the action to the near future is integral to Atwood’s environmental project: attention is focussed on the present causes of anticipated environmental catastrophe, which readers implicitly are implored to avoid. Atwood’s environmentalism is performed in the interplay between her literary stature, the equivocal content of her work, and the irreverence with which she metaleptically blurs distinctions between fact and fiction, art and commodity, and activism and aesthetics. Whereas the satiric mode serves as a way of avoiding some of the limitations of apocalyptic thinking by maintaining and even creating complexity, it also renders the entire project ambiguous. Uncertainty about the exact environmental injunction presented in the trilogy creates doubts about the degree to which Atwood’s extradiegetic environmental activism should be taken seriously, or conversely. Storytelling is foregrounded in all three novels, and through its concurrent critique of and reliance on market forces and the political potential of art, the MaddAddam Trilogy demonstrates that there is no external position from which the imagination can perform environmentalist miracles. As such, Atwood’s environmental project furthers a profoundly ecological understanding of the world. / Margaret Atwood routinely eludes her readers, and the MaddAddam Trilogy is no exception. These three novels, Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), are ostensibly written in the tradition of environmental apocalypse, yet they constantly undermine its conventions through satire. This study considers the trilogy as an environmental project, performed in the interplay between Atwood’s literary stature, the ambiguous content of her work, and the irreverence with which she blurs distinctions between fact and fiction, art and commodity, and activism and aesthetics. Atwood’s use of the MaddAddam Trilogy in her real-world environmental activism creates uncertainty about how seriously both her art and her activism should be taken. Her opinions on environmental matters are legitimised, but at the same time an urgent environmental ‘message’ is presented as entertainment. Atwood’s message often appears circular: her art carries no message, but Margaret Atwood the writer does have an important message, which she gets to deliver precisely because of her art. Storytelling is a central theme in all three novels, and through both critiquing and relying on commercialism, the MaddAddam Trilogy demonstrates that there is no external position from which the imagination can perform environmentalist miracles. As such, Atwood’s environmental project furthers a profoundly ecological understanding of the world.

Though discovered in 1945, the First Apocalypse of James from Nag Hammadi Codex V, 3 has received very little attention from the scholarly community. This is primarily due to the fragmentary condition of the text. Previous scholarly engagements with the text have led to the conclusion that the purpose of such a revelatory dialogue was to impart instructions for the ascent of the soul to one about to be martyred. The recent discovery of a second copy of the text simply titled “James” as part of the Tchacos Codex has led to not only a greater amount of scholarly interest, but also to different possible interpretations. From NHC V, 3 it was possible to ascertain a pre- and post- martyrdom revelation of Jesus to James, however, the text from Al Minya clearly shows a third revelatory section wherein the martyrdom of James is used as a means of revelation to Addai, the legendary founder of Eastern Syrian Christianity. Chapters one and two answer the question of why James was chosen as the protagonist of the narrative. In chapter one I look in detail at the literary construction of the martyrdom of James and problematize the development of the traditions. Chapter two then turns to a discussion of the figure of James as an authority in the developing Christian community. Chapters three and four are concerned with the literary classification of the text. Chapter three situates the First Apocalypse of James within the overarching genre of apocalyptic literature, and the specific sub-genre of gnostic apocalypses. Chapter four discusses how the text might be understood as a commission narrative while interrogating the lineage of descent beginning with the transmission of the revelation from James to Addai. Following this in chapter five I explore the cosmology of the text with particular attention to the ascent of the soul.

The thesis presents research on relationships in the context of the unfinalized lyric project Potopa (The Flood) of František Halas. Main points of analysis are questions of fragment, catastrophe and of (lyric) speaker or witness in the sense of specific speech formed by the traumatic event. A reading of the poems belonging to The Flood (as well as the question of the borders of the text and questions of the whole and possible shape of the piece in general) is founded mainly in the context of Christianity, thematic and compositional connections and with regard to the historical event. I'm not so concerned with the national accents of the works of Halas at that time (his engagement in the Czech resistance was interrupted after the arrest of Vladislav Vančura and others by Gestapo - for Halas it's also the time of the most intensive work on Potopa). The aim is rather to see The Flood as a poem witnessing the horror and the catastrophe of the second world war in general. After the opening analysis of characteristic traits of The Flood follows comparisons with selected works of czech literature, primarily with Znamení moci (The Sign of Power) of Jan Zahradníček, Básně z koncentračního tábora (Poems from the concentration camp) of Josef Čapek and Čas (Apokalypsa mixte) (Time) of Jiří Kolář. In concrete...

Sustainability has been on everyone's lips in the last decade. However, the fashion industry has been proved to be the second-largest contributor to environmental destruction being just behind the oil industry. As the fashion industry keeps growing, measures need to be taken to make it more sustainable. When shopping for fashion products the channel with the least environmental cost is using physical stores. However, physical stores are becoming less and less attractive and are losing their customers to e-commerce instead, a phenomenon that has been called the retail apocalypse. When comparing physical stores to e-commerce one clear advantage that the physical stores have is that they can take advantage of sensory cues to enhance the customer's shopping experience. This thesis wants to test if sensory touchpoints in a fashion retailing environment will affect customer decision-making. Ultimately contributing to the thin available research in the field on how to make physical retailing more attractive and counteract the ongoing retail apocalypse.  The empirical findings were obtained using a quantitative survey consisting of 32 questions sent out via social media to Swedish fashion customers and were analyzed through the theoretical concepts of evaluation of alternatives and purchase decision which are two of the steps in the customer decision-making process model. Concluding this thesis showed that all research questions surrounding sensorial touch points' impact on customers came back with positive outcomes.

Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav germánských studií Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften, Institut für Deutsche Philologie Abstract Dissertation / Disertační práce "Denn die Zeit ist nahe." Eschatologie in Grimmelshausens Simplicianischen Schriften: Zeit und Figuren der Offenbarung. "Čas je blízko." Eschatologie v Grimmelshausenově "Simpliciánských spisech": Čas a figury zjevení "Because the time is near." Eschatology in Grimmelshausen's "Simplicianische Schriften": The Time and Figures of Revelation Autor: PhDr. Jana Maroszová Studijní obor / Fach: Filologie, Germánské jazyky a literatury / Neuere Deutsche Literatur, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters Vedoucí / Betreuer: Doc. PhDr. Milan Tvrdík, CSc.; Prof. Dr. Friedrich Vollhardt LS 2011 / Sommersemester 2011 1 "Because the time is near." Eschatology in Grimmelshausen's "Simplicianische Schriften": The Time and Figures of Revelation Abstract This research study deals with Grimmelshausen's baroque novels known and designated by the author himself as "Simplicianische Schriften"1 (1668-1675). The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the way eschatology in these literary works is presented. This study is introduced with historical, cultural and religious background,...

One route to fight climate change that is both a strategy in itself and a mediator to other interventions is climatechange communication. Currently, most climate change communication follows the assumption that conveyingthreat and urgency leads to attitude and behaviour change. A number of studies has shown that this type ofcommunication fails to evoke individual change, and instead leads to a phenomenon called ApocalypseFatigue: a numbness resulting from being confronted too many times with too much frightening information.As a result, the message is not implemented in one’s action, but instead rejected, denied and avoided. Thisstudy has investigated the effectiveness of message phrasing, specifically of messages that are phrasing climatechange as inevitable doom and the consequences as happening at a distance. Distance furthermore has fourspheres: geographical, temporal, social and hypothetical. Based on the literature of this study, it is suggestedthat the effect of threatening messages on the message receiver is mediated by the communication of distance:threatening messages are only perceived as threatening, when they are not phrased distant. The effect on thereceiver of the message was measured by assessing two types of responses. First, it was investigated whetherthey changed their climate change attitude after exposure to the message. Second, it was assessed how manymessage details they remembered. The results indicate different mechanisms of message phrasing on attitudechange and recall ability. In this study, doom and distance phrasing did not have an effect on attitude change,but the means and standard deviations indicate that there could be an effect in the proposed direction, namelythat it is beneficial for attitude change to phrase climate change as not threatening and not distant. Whether thiseffect is statistically significant has to be investigated in future studies. In contrast, there were statisticallysignificant effects on recall ability, but in the opposite direction: it is beneficial for recall ability to phraseclimate change as threatening and distant. Therefore, this thesis concludes that AF does not affect recall ability,and that further research is needed to investigate the effect of message phrasing on attitude change. Itconcludes on limitations and recommendations for climate practice and future research.

Adults who have not developed effective communication skills are at an increased risk of having unsuccessful relationships. Children of divorce are less likely to have communication behaviors modeled to them, resulting in undeveloped communication and therefore a higher likelihood to get divorced themselves. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to determine if there was an association between the successful transition to emerging adulthood and the development of communication behaviors among adults. The research question focused on whether successful transition through emerging adulthood positively discriminates communication patterns among adults, specifically using Gottman's framework of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse when controlling for gender and level of education. The sample consisted of 30 participants ages 25 to 30 years old, recruited from university participant pools. Arnett's definition of successful transition into adulthood (accepting responsibility for one's actions, independent beliefs, financial independence) was operationalized to collect data for the predictor variable. The Four Horsemen Questionnaire was used to garner data for the continuous dependent variable (maladaptive communication patterns). An analysis of variance indicated a significant relationship between maladaptive communication patterns and the transition into adulthood. Findings contribute to social change by helping emerging adults understand the impact of a successful transition into adulthood on communication behaviors. Using the developmental period of emerging adulthood to improve communication patterns may assist in mitigating divorce risk variables and relationship breakdowns.

This paper is used to study the implications that power has in a fictive story about the apocalypse. In the fictional novel, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, there are different positions that express power and by analyzing them different attitudes emerge. This study uses the narratological model by Mieke Bal, which is used to analyze the different aspects of a text by focusing on the different dimensions of structure in narratives. To interpret the results this study uses the power and knowledge theory developed by Michel Foucault by inserting it in an apocalyptic and eschatological context. By analyzing the material one should consider the modern approach to religious authority that exists in modern adaptation, such as popular culture. Therefore, including popular culture as a culture hostile to authority, the results show that the material criticizes traditional values and norms regulated by religious authorities in society. The thesis demonstrate that the novel by Pratchett and Gaiman can be defined as apocalyptic and eschatological literature and that it contains different connotations of power in an eschatological and apocalyptic context, such as God and fatalism and also the suspense between Heaven and Hell as well with individuals. The last result shows that different attitudes towards power are present in the novel, such as social justice, fairness and independent thinking. The final result is later used to discuss how the different attitudes can be used in popular culture to influence their readers. Finally the total sum is that the characters are used to bring forth a band of various criticisms against the power displays of religious authorities in society through a selective reading of the novel.

An interrogation of architecture's prevailing myths, and a practice for how to live and die well as an architect in the Anthropocene epoch.  It is an effort to combine joyful representation and speculation (because architecture is both too serious and not nearly serious enough), with philosophy, for still possible pasts, presents and futures. For this it leans mainly on the ideas of Donna Haraway, Gilles Delueze and Felix Guattari, to present a methodology called Nomad Storytelling. A methodology that aims to move between a multiplicity of adjacent sites as to care for them in appropriate ways, with the intention of contributing to the idea of relationally unmaking the environmental urgencies of the 21th century. It consists of 8 chapters dealing with juridical care, letting be as care, humour and shaming, fabulous speculation, non-quantifiable architecture as dissent and graphic design as a crucial part of remembering what the cost of architecture is beyond the monetary, in the end suggesting the idea of architect-as-worm and compost architecture. It’s about not telling another killer story, because they always end with apocalypse or dystopia, and instead tell stories of gathering and fabulous futures, as Ursula K. Le Guin called it. Because it matters which architectures architect architecture and which lines line lines.