Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / The recognition of Rome in the ciphered images of Revelation 13 and 17–18 is a hallmark of historical criticism on the Revelation to John (John’s Apocalypse). This dissertation examines Revelation’s use of scripture to characterize the Roman Empire like the nations God has already defeated. The prophet-seer John spurred his audience, the churches of Asia Minor, to abandon pagan practices of eating meat sacrificed to idols and participation in emperor worship, practices seemingly tolerated by John’s opponents, Jezebel and the Nicolaitans. Unlike the majority of contemporary Jewish and Christian apocalypses, Revelation uses neither ex eventu prophecy nor pseudepigraphic narration to authorize its message to “come out” of Rome. Instead, Revelation alludes to scripture hundreds, if not a thousand, times. When describing Rome in Revelation 13 and 17–18, John alludes some six dozen times to the defeated Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the nations of Babylon, Tyre, Nineveh, and Edom, and the justly punished Judah and Samaria. God showed his servants the prophets the downfall of these powers, and they all fell. Likewise, he has shown John the vision of Rome’s desolation and the things which will happen to it soon. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Yeats and Eliot merit comparison because they wrote poetry that has been described as apocalyptic in the same historical period and in the same general geographic area but described entirely different visions. These particular works of Yeats and Eliot are appropriate because they represent two widely varying viewpoints on the causes, nature and desirability of what each author felt would be the coming apocalypse. Therefore, more can be learned by comparing the very different outlooks of the poems than by considering each poem separately. Yeats sees humanity as both the victim and the beneficiary of a series of inescapable historical cycles. He views the destructive pressures on civilization as coming from an outside agency. Yeats continues this theme in many of his poems, such as "Lapis Lazuli": "All things fall and are built again, / And those that build them again are gay," as well as other works (Yeats, Collected 291, l. 35-36). On the other hand, Eliot feels that the imminent apocalypse was a result of the decadence of civilization, a direct result of humankind's rejection of the God of the Anglican faith, a failure that implies a more personal responsibility. Since Eliot's view implies freedom of choice, he found that humanity held the ultimate responsibility for its own salvation or desolation. Eliot differs from Yeats in that he describes an entirely internal, spiritual destruction. In this paper, I examine Yeats' "The Second Coming" and Eliot's "The Hollow Men" as examples of completely different visions of the near future, demonstrating the need for a more adequate definition of the term "apocalyptic poetry." While two poems are much too small a sample for such a broadly based project, my study will point the way to a possible reassessment of the perhaps overly broad application of the term "apocalyptic poetry."

This is a creative thesis consisting of two short stories in the post-apocalyptic genre. A genre that highlights suffering, societal trauma, and the effects of trauma and loss on the human psyche. This genre asks the reader to be sympathetic to these extreme plights. Post-apocalyptic narratives also feature classic heroes who come out on top, despite the genre’s harrowing settings. The two stories featured in this creative thesis are an answer to my inquiry into the genre and seeks not only to show what makes post-apocalyptic literature entertaining but also worthy of literary merit. The two short stories that constitute this body of work are “A Muddled Canvas,” and “They Have No Ears to Hear My Pleas.” The first story, “A Muddled Canvas,” asks what responsibility God, the protagonist, has to those who remain after the apocalypse he created. The story follows God as he tries to come to terms with the effects his actions have on his creations. The other story, “They Have No Ears to Hear My Pleas,” follows the life of a therapist turned apathetic to his clients’ issues because of the apocalypse. After so much time spent helping others, he develops a bad case of compassion fatigue.

From what wells did the apocalyptic writers draw? What motivated them to write such bizarre and fantastic stories about the future end of history and battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil? The Book of Daniel is considered the first and only apocalypse of the Hebrew Bible, and it was the primary inspiration for much of the Book of Revelation, Apocalypse of John in the Christian New Testament. But well before Daniel, apocalyptic passages appeared in Jewish literature. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 came also the discovery of the oldest Jewish apocalypse, written in ancient Aramaic, and well-known in both ancient Judaism and early Christianity: a collection of books known as 1 Enoch. It was in these texts, especially the first and oldest one, the Book of Watchers, that apocalyptic imagery, including the Son of Man figure, first appeared in Jewish writing. Though scholars note developments from the Hebrew Prophets, particularly the Latter ones, a significant evolution took place. The question is why and when? My thesis is that the earliest Jewish apocalyptic writing, the Book of Watchers, 1 Enoch 1-36, was written as a result of Babylonian elements. With the help of scholars specializing in Jewish apocalyptic origins, I hope to show hoe the roots of this fascinating aspect of religion, which captivates and often frightens twenty-first century humans, took hold twenty-five hundred years ago in Mesopotamia.

Religion, many times, is one of the phenomena that is misunderstood and often rejected due to apprehension. There is an expected "norm" within our culture for religion and those that fall outside that "norm" are typically criticized for their beliefs. Within Christianity there are a number of extremist groups that follow millennial doctrines and believe they are living in the end times. These organizations tend to view the government as oppressive, disrespectful, immoral and corrupt. Because of this when an incident occurs with one of these millennial groups and the government steps in to control the situation, the way it responds is critical. This is an examination of three incidents with American radical religious groups and the formal reactions to them by the United States government. The three incidents I will analyze are the incident with the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, the incident with the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas, and the incident with the Montana Freemen at Justus Township, and how the government handled each of these interactions. I will evaluate Mark Juergensmeyer's theories and patterns of cosmic war and performance violence, and Catherine Wessinger's categories and guidelines for radical religious groups and how she claims the government and media should interact with them. The criteria I will use for evaluation will be how well their theories help us to understand the beliefs and actions of the group. Too often the government is unable to interact constructively with these groups because they do not understand their beliefs, and thereby provoke further violence. What is needed is a shift in attitude, a realization that the language of the groups is not "Bible Babble". Juergensmeyer and Wessinger have a unique perspective because they have directly interacted with radical religious groups and can provide the government with an insider understanding of the worldview of such religious groups, what it means to them through their eyes. I provide a list of guidelines derived from these two scholars, for the government and media to follow that will aid in constructive interaction with millennial groups and aid in peaceful negotiations in the future.

The tragedy and aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are reflected in American apocalyptic horror films that have been produced since 2001. Because the attacks have occurred only within the past ten years, not much research has been conducted on the effects the attacks have had on the narrative and technological aspects of apocalyptic horror. A survey of American apocalyptic horror will include a brief synopsis of the films, commentary on dominant visual allusions to the 9/11 attacks, and discussion of how the attacks have thematically influenced the genre. The resulting study shows that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have shaped American apocalyptic horror cinema as shown through imagery, characters, and thematic focus of the genre.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

My dissertation presents a new reading of a rarely-studied early Christian text, the First Apocalypse of James, and seeks to intervene in major scholarly debates concerning martyrdom, scriptural interpretation and sexual difference. I begin by showing how the text exhorts its readers and hearers toward martyrdom by narrating the progress of James, the brother of Jesus, in overcoming his fear and preparing for martyrdom. Here Jesus' revelation to James sets out a ritual of ascent that constitutes the martyr's confession of faith—a previously unattested form to articulate the meaning of dying for God. I use intertextual methods to identify an interpretation of the Gospel of John in which Jesus' statements of identity in John are read as descriptions of the true nature of the perfected martyr. This analysis locates scripturally-based debates about the nature of Christ within a context in which practices of preparation for martyrdom are being devised. 1ApocJas also reads Isaiah to identify female heroes whose example it exhorts James to follow. I use this reading of 1ApocJas to challenge the notion that a strict gendered hierarchy was reinscribed equally by Christian martyrdom texts. Through comparison to select examples of Valentinian theology, I establish that 1ApocJas envisions a productive tension in the divine realms between lower and higher female divine figures. By associating female martyrs with the higher female divinities and contrasting them to the lower female divinities, 1ApocJas valorizes martyrs as female and thus complicates any straightforward masculinization of the martyrs. My reading of 1ApocJas broadens our understanding of how Christians prepared themselves for martyrdom by interpreting scripture in innovative ways, devising new ritual practices, and developing distinctive articulations of human and divine sexual difference.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka de narratologiska drivkrafterna i de två postapokalyptiska verken The Stand av Stephen King och Girlfriend In a Coma av Douglas Coupland. Med frågor som: Vad är den narratologiska drivkraften? Med kulturkritisk infallsvinkel: vad för karaktärerna med sig in i den nya tiden? Genom närläsning kommer en undersökning ske, där de narratologiska drivkrafterna lyfts fram. Resultatet visar att författarna har använt sig av två olika tekniker. The Stand använder sig av motsatspar enligt A.J. Greimas aktantmodell medan Girlfriend In a Coma använder skiftande fokalisering och berättarröst som narratologisk drivkraft. Båda verken har en katastrof som gemensam faktor. Denna katastrof är den grundläggande narratologiska drivkraften i båda verken. Läsaren vet från början att det är två verk i genren postapokalyptisk skräck, därför läses verken med vetskapen om att vad som helst kan hända, när som helst. / The purpose of this project is to find out what makes the story unfold after the end of the world has taken place in Stephen King’s The Stand and Douglas Coupland’s Girlfriend In a Coma. The project has a cultural critical standpoint. After the apocalypse; what do the characters bring into the new world? The investigation is performed by using close reading. Elements essential to the narratological force are then lifted and presented. The result shows that the authors to the two works have used different techniques. The Stand uses opposites according to A.J. Greima’s actant model, whereas the narratological driving force in Girlfriend In a Coma is the use of shifting focalization. Both works have the same beneficial narratological driving force as back bone: the apocalypse. The reader knows what to expect from this genre, the post-apocalyptic horror genre. These works are read bearing in mind that anything can happen, at any time.

This study fills a gap in previous research concerning the portrayal of Peter in Matthew, especially the research of narrative-critical studies. Although narrative-critical studies generally recognize that Matthew has portrayed Peter and the disciples as recipients of revelation at points, they almost entirely neglect the apocalypses or apocalyptic literature more broadly as a potentially helpful background for this motif, nor does the motif itself figure significantly into their conclusions. Therefore, Part 1 of this study examines fourteen different Jewish and Christian apocalypses in order to determine generic aspects of how the apocalypses portray their seers, and to identify specific textual features that support these generic aspects of a seer’s portrayal. These specific textual features then provide the guiding coordinates for Part 2, which assesses the influence of the generic portrayal of apocalyptic seers on the portrayal of Peter and the disciples in Matthew’s Gospel and main source, Mark’s Gospel. Like the apocalypses, both Evangelists deploy the features of exclusionary statements, narrative isolation, dissemination details, and emphasis of cognitive humanity and emotional-physical humanity to portray Peter and the disciples as the exclusive recipients of revealed mysteries, and as humans who encounter the mysteries of the divine realm. This leads to the conclusion that both Evangelists envisaged Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers in some sense. However, Matthew’s redaction of Markan source material, incorporation of Q source material, and his own special material yield a more fully developed, or more explicit, portrayal of Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers than his Markan predecessor. The study concludes by focusing directly on Peter’s significance for Matthew and his earliest audience. The research suggests that Peter’s significance was, in part, as principal apocalyptic seer, which requires revision to the predominant scholarly conclusions about Peter in Matthew.