David Aune has argued that the heavenly court scene of Revelation 4-5 “bears such a striking resemblance to the ceremonial of the imperial court and cult that the latter can only be a parody of the former” (5). He proposes this against the main “major competing view” that “the heavenly liturgy of the Apocalypse is a projection of the liturgy of the Christian church on earth” (5). Aune offers various lines of evidence to support this interpretation. The scene of... Read more
In his Climax of Prophecy, Richard Bauckham’s devotes a long, complicated, fascinating chapter to an analysis of the phrase “tribes, tongues, nations, peoples” (and variations) in Revelation. The arrangement of the lists varies, but the variations are not random. They reinforce substantive connections between different parts of the book. Bauckham assigns numbers to each of the terms: 1 is tribe, 2 tongue, 3 people, and 4 nation. he then summarizes the different uses of the phrase using the numbers: Text in Revelation ... Read more
The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas has a clear surface structure. A first part, two parts of the second part, and a third part. But that obvious structure doesn’t tell the whole story. Thomas explains the structure of the treatise at the outset (1, 2): “Because the chief aim of sacred doctrine is to teach the knowledge of God, not only as He is in Himself, but also as He is the beginning of things and their last end, and... Read more
Drawing on the work of CS Peirce, Giovanni Maddalena (The Philosophy of Gesture) argues that pragmatism must be understood as more than an anti-Cartesian movement in philosophy. To the critique of Descartes, it adds a critique of Kant. He summarizes Peirce’s critique. Kant is a nominalist, which means here not the denial of universals as the elusiveness of universals: “Nominalism affirms an unbridgeable gap between reality and reason. In this view realism maintains that reason belongs to reality and in... Read more
Premillennialism – the view that Jesus returns to reign in person at the beginning of a literal one-thousand-year golden age – is often criticized these days for being defeatist, spiritualist, gnostic. It was not always so. As Martin Spence shows in his excellent Heaven on Earth, early critics of Evangelical premillennialism didn’t think it was otherworldly, but too worldly. Spence argues that Victorian Evangelicalism was surrounded, before and after, by more unworldly versions of Christianity. For early 19th century Evangelicals, time was... Read more
“‘Empire’ is a grand word,” write John Darwin at the beginning of his Unfinished Empire. On the ground, the reality of empire is “a mass of individuals, a network of lobbies, a mountain of hopes: for careers, fortunes, religious salvation or just physical safety. Empires were not made by faceless committees making grand calculations, nor by the ‘irresistible’ pressures of economics or ideology. They had to be made by men (and women) whose actions were shaped by motives and morals no... Read more
Joseph Mangina (Revelation, 248) summarizes David Barr’s (Tales of the End) analysis of the parallels between Revelation 22 and the Didache‘s depiction of early Christian Eucharist: “both Rev. 22 and the Didache (a) allude to Jesus’s descent from David, (b) draw a sharp distinction between those worthy to participate and outsiders, (c) refer to these outsiders as ‘dogs,’ (d) offer spiritual food and drink to the hearer, and (e) include the responses ‘Lord Jesus come!’ and “Amen!’” (fn 7). Mangina... Read more
When Dvorak’s New World Symphony debuted in New York, it was hailed as a masterpiece, the American symphony that American composers had tried, and failed, to produce. Which American composers would those be? Douglas Shadle’s Orchestrating the Nation answers the question. It’s a question contemporary symphony-goers need answered too. As the David Allen puts it in his NYTBR review, “Subscribers to major orchestras today could go a lifetime without hearing the hundred or so symphonies that Mr. Shadle tabulates were written by... Read more
Responding to Eugene McCarraher, John Milbank gives a brief overview of the complex interactions of European imperial powers, the church, and the colonized. Contrary to some popular opinion, “Missionaries were often opponents of military, economic and settler empire as has now been abundantly shown by historians. In a parallel fashion, traders (like the British East India Company) were often annoyed by attempts at religious conversion; free-traders were often opposed to political and settler empire, while wanting a more effective economic one; and... Read more
Four times in Revelation, John is directly told not to do something. When he falls at the feet of Jesus, Jesus touches him with his right hand and says, “Do not fear” (1:17; Gr. me phobou). When no one in heaven, earth, or under earth can be found to open the book, John begins to lament. One of the elders tells him, “Do not weep” (5:5; Gr. me klaie). When he sees the harlot riding on a beast, he marvels.... Read more
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