Jonathan Kirsch - A History of the End of the World

Parousia.Derived from the Greek word for “presence,” the term refers to the return (or “Second Coming”) of Jesus Christ to earth. According to Revelation, Jesus Christ will return to earth at some point in the future to reign over a kingdom of saints for a thousand years before the end of the world, the final judgment, and the creation of a “new heaven and a new earth” that will endure forever.

Postmillennialism.See Millennialism.

Premillennialism.See Dispensationalism and Millennialism.

Presentism.See Preterism.

Preterism.The belief that the prophecies in the book of Revelation have already been fulfilled. A “preterist” (or “historicist”) interpretation of Revelation focuses on what its imagery and symbolism meant to its original author and his readers and hearers. By contrast with a “preterist” (or “historicist”) reading of Revelation, a “futurist” reading focuses on the meaning of the text as a prophecy of events that will take place in the future, and a “presentist” reading holds that the prophecies are being fulfilled now.

Pseudepigrapha.A term used by modern scholars to describe various ancient writings on biblical themes, many of them Jewish in origin and others apparently composed or revised by Christians, all of which were excluded from the Bible in both Jewish and Christian tradition. “Pseudepigrapha” means “false writing” in Greek, and the term refers to the fact that the texts are generally ascribed to biblical figures rather than their actual authors. Among the Pseudepigrapha are early Jewish apocalyptic writings, including the various writings that make up the book of Enoch, and apocalypses attributed to Adam, Abraham, Elijah, and Daniel.

Rapture.The belief that faithful Christians who are worthy of salvation will be suddenly and miraculously removed from earth and lifted to heaven by God at some point during the end-times. The doctrine, which is based on the text of 1 Thess. 4:15–17 rather than the book of Revelation, achieved popularity in certain Protestant circles in the nineteenth century and still figures prominently in the apocalyptic doctrine known as “dispensationalism”—that is, the belief that faithful Christians will be “raptured” to heaven before the time of suffering known as the Tribulation. (See also Dispensationalism, Millennialism, and Tribulation. )

Revelation.See Apocalypse.

Second Coming.See Parousia.

Tribulation.A period of oppression and persecution under the sovereignty of the Antichrist, described in Revelation and other apocalyptic passages of the New Testament, that will supposedly precede the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Battle of Armageddon, and the establishment of the millennial kingdom on earth. (See also Millennialism. )

Akenson, Donald Harman. Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2001.

Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode, eds. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1987.

Armstrong, Karen. Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Augustine. The City of God . Trans. Marcus Dods, with an introduction by Thomas Merton. New York: Modern Library, 2000.

Baker, Peter, and Peter Slevin. “Bush Remarks on ‘Intelligent Design’ Theory Fuel Debate.” Washington Post, August 3, 2005, A01. http://www.washingtonpost. com/.

Barclay, William. Letters to the Seven Churches. New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957.

Barkun, Michael. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2003.

———. Disaster and the Millennium. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1974.

Barnwell, F. Aster. Meditations on the Apocalypse: A Psychospiritual Perspective on the Book of Revelation. Rockport, MA: Element, 1992.

Berrigan, Daniel. The Nightmare of God. Portland, OR: Sunburst Press, 1983.

BibleWorks 5: Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research. Norfolk, VA: Hermeneutika Bible Research, 2001.

Bloom, Harold, and David Rosenberg. The Book of J. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.

Blunt, Sheryl Henderson. “Bush Calls for ‘Culture Change.’” Christianity Today, August 28, 2004. http://www.christianitytoday.com/.

Boyer, Paul. When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1992.

Chafets, Zev. “The Rabbi Who Loved Evangelicals (and Vice Versa).” New York Times, July 24, 2005. New York Times Premium Archive.

Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. London: Paladin (Granada Publishing Limited), 1970.

Cohn-Sherbok, Dan, and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok. Jewish and Christian Mysticism: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, 1994.

Collins, John J. “Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre.” Semeia 14 (1979), 1–20.

———. “The Jewish Apocalypses.” Semeia 14 (1979), 21–59.

———, ed. The Origins of Apocalypticism in Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 1 of The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism. New York: Continuum, 2000.

Colwell, Ernest Cadman. The Study of the Bible. Rev. ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964. First published 1937.

Cornell University Library. Making of America. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/ moa/.

Cottle, Michelle. “Prayer Center.” New Republic, May 23, 2005, 21–25.

de la Bedoyere, Michael. The Meddlesome Friar and the Wayward Pope: The Story of the Conflict Between Savonarola and Alexander VI. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1958.

Dick, Philip K., and Roger Zelazny. Deus Irae. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1976.

Domb, I. The Transformation: The Case of the Neturei Karta. Brooklyn and Jerusalem: Hachomo, 1989.

Dowd, Maureen. “Rapture and Rupture.” New York Times, October 6, 2002. New York Times Premium Archive.

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George. Based on the novel Red Alert (a.k.a. Two Hours to Doom ), by Peter George. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1964.

Drane, John, ed. Revelation: The Apocalypse of St. John. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1977.

Dubnow, Simon. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland: From the Earliest Times Until the Present Day. Trans. I. Friedlaender. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1916.

———. A Short History of the Jewish People. Trans. D. Mowshowitch. London: M. L. Cailingold, 1936.

Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999.

Ellul, Jacques. Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation. Trans. George W. Schreiner. New York: Seabury Press, 1977.

Emmerson, Richard K., and Bernard McGinn, eds. The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1992.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium Ser vice. http://www.britannica.com/.

Encyclopedia Judaica. Corrected ed. 17 vols. Jerusalem: Keter, n.d.

Fallon, Francis T. “The Gnostic Apocalypses.” Semeia 14 (1979), 123–58.