Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea.pdf: 2250624 bytes, checksum: 33dd44c7d63479272ceb3b537a60e4a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The belief in the rapture of the church is part of a fundamentalist eschatological system that is often called premillennial dispensationalism. Its appearance is noted to start in the XIX century through the teachings of Jonh Nelson Darby, a british evangelical preacher founder of the Plymouth Brethren. His teaching incompass the coming of Christ in two steps. One in secret for the church, taking it to heaven and saving it from seven years of tribulation that will follow, the second, a glorious return at the end of seven years for establishment the millennial kingdom on earth, the teaching of Darby were popularized in the footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible published in 1909 by Cyrus I. Scofield, and it is still set in the eschatological beliefs of the majority of the evangelical fundamentalist churches, both in the EUA and Brazil. In 2002, the film was produced: Left Behind for portraying this belief as well as its update to recent times. However, further study of this belief exposes its doctrinal construct character in which biblical texts from different perspectives of the old and New Testaments are united to form an eschatological framework about to be fulfilled.(AU) / A crença no arrebatamento da Igreja faz parte de um sistema escatológico fundamentalista que costuma ser chamado de dispensacionalismo pré-milenista. Seu surgimento se dá a partir do século XIX, pelo ensino de John Nelson Darby, um pregador evangélico britânico, fundador dos Irmãos de Plymouth. Seu ensino aguarda a vinda de Cristo em duas etapas: uma, em secreto para a Igreja, há de levá-la ao Céu e poupá-la dos sete anos de tribulação que se seguirão; e outra, num aparecimento glorioso, ao final dos sete anos há de instaurar o reino milenial sobre a terra. O ensino de Darby foi popularizado nas notas de rodapé da Bíblia de Referência Scofield, publicada em 1909 por Cyrus I. Scofield, e ainda hoje se configura na crença escatológica da maioria das igrejas evangélicas fundamentalistas, tanto nos EUA quanto no Brasil. Em 2002 foi produzido o filme: Deixados para Trás que retrata esta crença bem como sua atualização para épocas recentes. Contudo, um estudo mais aprofundado desta crença expõe seu caráter de construto doutrinário, em que textos bíblicos de perspectivas diferentes, do Antigo e do Novo Testamento, são unidos para formar um quadro escatológico em vias de se cumprir.(AU)

This thesis explores how the Rapture fiction and popular prophecy of modern American premillennial dispensationalism shapes the eschatological beliefs of its readership. This will be accomplished through a text-based critical analysis of the anxiety narratives of the Bible study and exegetical guides of the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Library, and its counterpart, the Left Behind fiction series. This thesis represents the first scholarly analysis of the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Library, and the first situation of Left Behind fiction within its theological context. It will be proposed that these two sets of texts shape the eschatological beliefs of their readers through a discursive ‘streamlining’ that is performed in several ways. Firstly, the historical development of the movement will be examined, exploring the evolution of a specific premillennial dispensationalist hermeneutic and its ‘channelling’ through particular cultural institutions. Secondly, an analysis of the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Library and Left Behind fiction will demonstrate that this premillennial dispensationalist hermeneutic is almost exclusively communicated through anxiety narratives which focus on expressions of horror, isolation, powerlessness and paranoia. It will be argued that these narratives serve to explore ‘abjective’ elements of premillennial dispensationalist belief, re-integrating them into the fabric of the faith. Particular attention will be paid to these abjective elements, which include the role of the eschatological body, the nature of individual salvation, and the perpetual deferment of the Rapture. As such, the popular media of premillennial dispensationalism serves as a further channel for the discursive streamlining of the movement’s prophetic scheme. Finally, this thesis proposes that the ‘deprivation’ theory of millennial appeal does not adequately explain the appeal and success of premillennial dispensationalism. As such, the following analysis will suggest that an alternate critical analysis of the movement, concentrating on its tropes of anxiety, serves to better explain the continued appeal of this ideology.