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This book aims to examine several religious groups holding millenarian or apocalyptic ideologies that have been involved in violent incidents over the last twenty-five years: Peoples Temple, The Branch Davidians, The Order of the Solar Temple, Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. The work focuses particularly on their respective 'apocalyptic trajectories' - the key recurring issues and social processes that fostered the progressive acceptance of violence within each group's ideology, and ultimately helped to precipitate the use of force against the group's own members or against outsiders.
This book traces the use of apocalyptic images in contemporary Canadian fiction.
Preachers, teachers, and self-proclaimed prophets frequently claim that the end of the world is near, often based on their interpretation of Bible books such as Daniel and Revelation. Are these claims justified? Is there a valuable message in these books? In this masterful book, Dr. Herold Weiss applies a lifetime of study, teaching, and writing on the Bible to helping readers understand apocalyptic literature and symbolism. Avoiding the common error of simply finding something in recent history that can be tied to the text in some way, he seeks the purpose of each of the writers. Why, when expected events failed to take place as predicted, did the readers of these books still hold onto them as valuable? What is it that they communicated to those readers, and can we make use of it now. Dr. Weiss examines a number of apocalyptic sources, some of which you might not have regarded as apocalyptic. He finds, however, that these writers are thinking and writing in a world of apocalyptic imagery. From Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel in the Old Testament to the synoptic gospels, Paul’s letters, and the general epistles in the new, Weiss outlines how understanding the apocalyptic view of the universe can be critical in understanding the message presented. As with previous books by Dr. Weiss, such as Meditations on According to John and Meditations on the Letters of Paul, this book provides a practical view of biblical theology in action. He looks at both the broad overview of the message, giving a framework, and then fills in the details on a verse by verse, passage by passage basis, so the reader can see how individual statements and themes fit into a larger framework. He concludes by pointing out how by understanding the work of the apocalypticists, and following the examples of their readers, we can find spiritual value and encouragement in these books. This book is suitable as an introduction to apocalyptic literature or as a way of organizing one’s thinking after reading a number of these books. It would also be suitable for reading in an experienced small study group.
"Portraits of 'good battling evil' in the geography of Hell come in many forms in the Hispanic World. Apocalyptic nightmares, fearful images of life, chaos and death are inclusive and interdepEndent, yet simultaneously project an exceptional quality. Where images remain unfulfilled in narrow allegiances to a proscribed End, this investigation explores how narrative logic may challenge unified notions of finalities. Redeploying transglobal character and narrative potential, it distinguishes itself by training the lens on New Beginnings. Its analysis embeds resilient formulas for combating the End through resistance in Latin America and Spain revealed in gilded illustration, decolonizing drama, messianic chronicles and poetry, baroque letters, racially-motivated novels, sexuality-threatening films, and intimidating immigrant photos complete with destruction wreaked by climate change. Through chaos the resilient Apocalypse simultaneously performs as an internal defense (a vehicle for mourning) and a counter-discourse to power (a mechanism for resistance). Its strategy listens to and keeps the enemy 'in sight and in mind,' a formula for grappling with and engaging difference that analyzes the traces left on each other's cultural fabric in an open-Ended, communal struggle. This study argues for decolonizing the politics of the End and reformulating an incomplete, mythical, uncanny quality into a poetics of resistance garnering communal solutions and obligations. Here the Apocalypse is unremittingly sought after to redefine social justice, salvation and reality over time and past collateral damage, ironically providing future hope against itself, the crushing fear of the End. It crystalizes what had yet to be comprehensively explored: how rival traditions internalize competing apocalyptic worldviews to arrive at sustainable plans of action, time-tested, reputable cultural models to control dissension from within and without, and social goals supported by traces the other imprints on their cultural ethos. Bracketing the finality of the End and arguing the process from conflict archaeology toward New Beginnings, salvation, solace or hope, resolves an incomplete myth by negotiating the afterward. Revealing how plural, competing viewpoints of the End go a long way to legitimize each other, this theory of unfulfilled promise forever changes the way we engage the other and value the self"
In this book, the author argues that certain modern literary texts have apocalyptic futures. Rather than claim that great writers have clairvoyant powers, he examines the ways in which a text incorporates an apocalyptic event into its future reception. He is thus concerned with the way in which apocalyptic works solicit their future receptions. Apocalyptic Futures also sets out to articulate a new theory and textual practice of the relation between literary reception and embodiment. Deploying the double register of “marks” to show how a text both codes and targets mutilated bodies, the author focuses on how these bodies are incorporated into texts by Kafka, Conrad, Coetzee, and Spiegelman. Situating “In the Penal Colony” in relation to the Holocaust, Heart of Darkness to the Rwandan genocide, and Waiting for the Barbarians to the revelations of torture in apartheid South Africa and contemporary Iraq, the author argues for the ethical and political importance of reading these literary works’ “apocalyptic futures” in our own urgent and perilous situations. The book concludes with a reading of Spiegelman's Maus that offers a messianic counter-time to the law of apocalyptic incorporation.
The Re-Enchantment of the West challenges those theories that predict widespread secularization beyond traditional institutional religiosity. Spiritualities are emerging that are not only quite different from the those forms of religion that are in decline, but are often defined over against them and articulated and passed on in ways quite different from those of traditional religion. In particular, it is argued that such contemporary Western spirituality is fed by a constantly replenished reservoir of ideas, practices, and methodologies, which is here termed 'occulture'. Moreover, such occultural ideas both feed into and are resourced by popular culture. Indeed, popular occulture is a key feature of the re-enchantment of the West. Demonstrating the significance and ubiquity of these ideas, this book examines, for example, healthcare and nursing, contemporary environmentalism, psychedelia and drug use, the Internet and cyberspirituality, belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, demonology and the contemporary fascination with the figure of Satan, the heavy metal subculture, popular apocalypticism, and millennial violence.
Apocalyptic scenarios remain prevalent and powerful in popular culture (in television, film, comic books, and popular fiction), in politics (in debates on climate change, environmentalism, Middle East policy, and military planning), and in various religious traditions. Academic interest in apocalypticism is flourishing; indeed, the study of both ancient and contemporary apocalyptic phenomena has long been a focus of attention in scholarly research and a ready way to engage the religious studies classroom. Apocalypses in Context is designed for just such a classroom, bringing together the insights of scholars in various fields and using different methods to discuss the manifestations of apocalyptic enthusiasm in different ages. This approach enables the instructor to make connections and students to recognize continuities and contrasts across history. Apocalypses in Context features illustrations, graphs, study questions, and suggestions for further reading after each chapter, as well as recommended media and artwork to support the college classroom.
In terms of public opinion, new religious movements are considered controversial for a variety of reasons. Their social organization often runs counter to popular expectations by experimenting with communal living, alternative leadership roles, unusual economic dispositions, and new political and ethical values. As a result the general public views new religions with a mixture of curiosity, amusement, and anxiety, sustained by lavish media emphasis on oddness and tragedy rather than familiarity and lived experience. This updated and revised second edition of Controversial New Religions offers a scholarly, dispassionate look at those groups that have generated the most attention, including some very well-known classical groups like The Family, Unification Church, Scientology, and Jim Jones's People's Temple; some relative newcomers such as the Kabbalah Centre, the Order of the Solar Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, and the Falun Gong; and some interesting cases like contemporary Satanism, the Raelians, Black nationalism, and various Pagan groups. Each essay combines an overview of the history and beliefs of each organization or movement with original and insightful analysis. By presenting decades of scholarly work on new religious movements written in an accessible form by established scholars as well as younger experts in the field, this book will be an invaluable resource for all those who seek a view of new religions that is deeper than what can be found in sensationalistic media stories.
The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide terrorism, or to historical incidents of mass suicide, such as the mass suicide of the ancient community of Masada. Organizationally and ideologically diverse, it turns out that the primary shared trait of these various groups is a common stereotype of religion as an irrational force that pushes fanatics to undertake acts of suicidal violence. Offering a valuable perspective on New Religious Movements and on religion and violence, Sacred Suicide brings together contributions from a diverse range of international scholars of sociology, religious studies and criminology.