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Title: Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelations
Author: Elaine Pagels
Genre: Biblical history
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: An examination of the political climate that resulted first in the writing of John's Revelations, then in its adoption into the official canon.
Thoughts: I suspect a hardcore "everything in the Bible is literally true and divinely related" Christian would consider pretty much everything in this book to be heresy. If you've got a somewhat more open mindset regarding the political jostling that created the modern Bible, this is a fascinating read.
Pagels goes into depth on what we know about the historical period in which Revelations was written, and points out the parallels that make a lot of the bizarre imagery from the book make a great deal more sense as political allegory. She then discusses how the interpretation changed as it became clear that the book's prophesies could not literally come true. (After all, if Rome is the dragon and not only does Rome stubbornly refuse to disintegrate in fire and blood but instead becomes the very seat of Christianity, things need to be reinterpreted.) Pagels is fascinated by the transformation of Christianity from a messianic religion promising the end of the world within a generation into something that had to account for the passage of first decades and then centuries. Many of her works chronicle the resulting contortions.
But John is not the only one declaring revelations. Pagels then examines the politics of how and why this particular book gets added as the capstone to official canon while others are discarded as heretical. In doing so, she charts the political infighting as the religion matures from the oppressed to the dominant.
If taken seriously, it's the kind of thing to make any believer a little bit cynical. Or a lot cynical. So many of the decisions that define the tenets of the faith appear to have been made entire to cement one person or another's grip on power or to castigate the people someone powerful didn't like. But it's really fascinating, and in a way, kind of heartening, to remember that today's ideological infighting is nothing at all new.
Author: Elaine Pagels
Genre: Biblical history
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: An examination of the political climate that resulted first in the writing of John's Revelations, then in its adoption into the official canon.
Thoughts: I suspect a hardcore "everything in the Bible is literally true and divinely related" Christian would consider pretty much everything in this book to be heresy. If you've got a somewhat more open mindset regarding the political jostling that created the modern Bible, this is a fascinating read.
Pagels goes into depth on what we know about the historical period in which Revelations was written, and points out the parallels that make a lot of the bizarre imagery from the book make a great deal more sense as political allegory. She then discusses how the interpretation changed as it became clear that the book's prophesies could not literally come true. (After all, if Rome is the dragon and not only does Rome stubbornly refuse to disintegrate in fire and blood but instead becomes the very seat of Christianity, things need to be reinterpreted.) Pagels is fascinated by the transformation of Christianity from a messianic religion promising the end of the world within a generation into something that had to account for the passage of first decades and then centuries. Many of her works chronicle the resulting contortions.
But John is not the only one declaring revelations. Pagels then examines the politics of how and why this particular book gets added as the capstone to official canon while others are discarded as heretical. In doing so, she charts the political infighting as the religion matures from the oppressed to the dominant.
If taken seriously, it's the kind of thing to make any believer a little bit cynical. Or a lot cynical. So many of the decisions that define the tenets of the faith appear to have been made entire to cement one person or another's grip on power or to castigate the people someone powerful didn't like. But it's really fascinating, and in a way, kind of heartening, to remember that today's ideological infighting is nothing at all new.
