The Book of Revelation Study Group
“When we come to read it critically and seriously, we realize that the Apocalypse reveals a profoundly important Christian doctrine which has in it none of the real Christ, none of the real Gospel, none of the creative breath of Christianity, and is nevertheless perhaps the most effectual doctrine in the Bible. That is, it has had a greater effect on second-rate people throughout the Christian ages, than any other book in the Bible. The Apocalypse of John is, as it stands, the work of a second-rate mind. It appeals intensely to second-rate minds in every country and every century. Strangely enough, unintelligible as it is, it has no doubt been the greatest source of inspiration of the vast mass of Christian minds — the vast mass being always second rate — since the first century, and we realize, to our horror, that this is what we are up against today; not Jesus nor Paul, but John of Patmos.” —D.H. Lawrence
“There are not many resemblances, perhaps, between Hitler and the Antichrist, but there is a great resemblance between the New Jerusalem and the future that we are now being promised, not only in science fiction but in the military-industrial plans of an absolute worldwide state. The Apocalypse is not a concentration camp (Antichrist); it is the great military, police, and civil security of the new State (the Heavenly Jerusalem).”—Gilles Deleuze, trans. D. Smith
In early 2025 we will meet three times online (via Zoom) to examine what D.H. Lawrence described as “an orgy of mystification”: the Book of Revelation.* Our meetings will involve close textual reading and analysis followed by discussion. Topics may include the following:
- hermeneutic theories and strategies;
- Roman, Greek, Jewish, and early Christian/Cult of Jesus cultural and theological perspectives;
- geographic and historical framing (the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE);
- prophetic precursors (the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, Babylonian captivity, and exilic prophesies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel);
- parallels with other religious traditions (for example, the eschatologies of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism);
- how Enūma Eliš (the Babylonian creation myth) informs John’s vision;
- the rhetorical strategies of anti-imperial propaganda and crisis mongering;
- artistic and literary engagements (especially by William Blake, Christina Rossetti, and D.H. Lawrence)
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Our reading will specifically and necessarily work against the inevitability of Christian triumphalism and instead seek to excavate from the text any relevancy for a progressive politics: the Book of Revelation as a treatise concerning climate catastrophe?, as a revolutionary denunciation of religious nationalism?
*I recommend the King James Version, though the New International Version would be suitable.
Schedule
February 8, 20:00 UTC, Saturday — Rev 1-7
February 22, 20:00 UTC, Saturday — Rev 8-16
March 8, 20:00 UTC, Saturday — Rev 17-22
(2pm CST | 8pm GMT | 3pm EST | 12noon PST | Sunday, 9am NZDT | Sunday, 7am AEDT)
