Revelation The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ

by Kovacs, Judith; Rowland, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780631232148
• ISBN10: 0631232141
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This ground-breaking commentary reveals the far-reaching influence of the Apocalypse on society and culture, and the impact it has had on the Christian Church through the ages. Approaching the Apocalypse chapter by chapter, the authors consider its effects, not only on theologians from Origen and Augustine to late twentieth-century theologians of liberation, but also on writers, artists, musicians, political figures, visionaries and others, including Dante, Hildegard of Bingen, Milton, Newton, the English Civil War radicals, Durer, Turner, Blake, Handel and Franz Schmidt. They show that, despite the enormous range of interpretations, those who use the Apocalypse tend either to see it as a kind of sophisticated code to interpret history, or as a parable about the appropriate response to God in political, ecclesiastical, or personal life.

Author Biography

Judith Kovacs is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. She is the author of a forthcoming book on the church fathers’ interpretation of 1 Corinthians.

Christopher Rowland is Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. His previous publications include The Open Heaven (1982), The Book of Revelation (1998), Christian Origins (revised edition, 2002) and Radical Christian Writings: A Reader (Blackwell, 2002).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Series Editors' Preface	xi
Preface	xiii
List of Abbreviations	xvii
Introduction: The Apocalypse in History: The Place of the Book of Revelation in Christian Theology and Life	1	(1)
1 The Apocalypse in the Context of Jewish and Early Christian Literature	2	(5)
2 Differing Patterns in the Reception of the Apocalypse: A Summary	7	(4)
3 Point of View: Distinctive Emphases of this Commentary	11	(3)
4 The Reception of the Apocalypse: Survey of Important Interpretations and of Artistic Representations	14	(233)
Revelation 1	39	(13)
Revelation 2 and 3	52	(7)
Revelation 4	59	(10)
Revelation 5	69	(8)
Revelation 6	77	(21)
Revelation 7	98	(8)
Revelation 8	106	(7)
Revelation 9	113	(4)
Revelation 10	117	(5)
Revelation 11	122	(12)
Revelation 12	134	(13)
Revelation 13	147	(13)
Revelation 14	160	(8)
Revelation 15	168	(3)
Revelation 16	171	(6)
Revelation 17	177	(13)
Revelation 18	190	(4)
Revelation 19	194	(6)
Revelation 20	200	(20)
Revelation 21	220	(18)
Revelation 22	238	(9)
A Hermeneutical Postscript: Evaluating the Readings	247	(4)
Biographies and Glossary	251	(12)
Bibliography	263	(21)
Old Testament References Listed in the Margin of Nestle-Aland 26th Edition of the Greek New Testament Text of Revelation	284	(12)
Index of Biblical References	296	(7)
General Index	303