Examines the readership of the contemporary best-selling series Left Behind, drawing on a qualitative study of readers. Rapture Culture asks what role an anti-worldly theory like dispensationalism ...plays in contemporary evangelicalism when evangelicals have gained increasing social and political power. The book argues that apocalyptic stories are a form of social relationship. They shape identity not only through agreement and a sense of belonging, but also through disagreement and dissent. The most urgent message of the rapture for readers of Left Behind is that the end of time could come soon, and therefore a decision about personal salvation is necessary. While it is true that the Left Behind series plays on readers’ fears, the primary fear is not so much a social or political fear as a personal one—a fear that the reader himself or herself might be left behind. The primary purpose of the Left Behind series is to promote evangelism. Readers feel convicted by the books of the need to tell their loved ones about Christ and to seek the conversion of others. In addition, the story of rapture and tribulation provides a lens through which readers can interpret the chaotic and sometimes disconcerting events of the world. The popularity of the Left Behind series and its diffusion into mainstream culture leads the book to conclude with the suggestion that evangelicalism is wrongly understood as a “subculture” and instead needs to be conceived as a broad and fluid part of dominant popular culture in the United States. Rapture Culture urges its readers to take seriously both the fears and the desires about social life present in the testimonies of Left Behind’s readership and to consider popular fiction reading as a complex and dynamic act of faith in American Protestantism.
The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic is a thematic examination of ancient apocalyptic literature and its analogues in modern times.
Apocalypticism first appears in Judaism in the Hellenistic period in ...the books of Daniel and Enoch. There is a distinctive genre “apocalypse” that describes the disclosure of a transcendent world, both spatial and temporal, to a human recipient, who is usually identified pseudonymously with a famous ancient figure. Apocalyptic themes, however, are also found more broadly in other genres, such as prophecy and wisdom. This volume explores the relationships between apocalypticism and several other genres, including prophecy, wisdom, dreams and visions, scriptural interpretation, and mysticism. It also explores the social function of apocalyptic literature and its use as resistance literature, both in ancient and in modern postcolonial perspective. Another section of the volume is devoted to apocalyptic rhetoric, in both Jewish and Christian contexts, and to the interpretive tradition that treats it as an allegory for political events. Several essays explore themes in apocalyptic theology, such as dualism and determinism. Essays in this section also explore its relation to the Torah in Jewish tradition, its role in Christian origins and its adaptation by Gnostics and Manichaeans. The final section of the volume considers the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Christianity and Judaism, especially its relevance to religious radicalism and violence, and also its role in popular culture.
Apocalyptic culture in contemporary American encompasses a wide range of ideologies and preoccupations, from UFOs and comets to messiahs, Marian cults, and Mayan calendars. The story of Jesus ...Christ’s return to earth, which is a part of Christianity, has been central to American apocalypticism. The most common form of Christian apocalypticism in contemporary America is “dispensational premillennialism.” This chapter examines apocalypticism in contemporary Christianity in America. It first discusses the concept of dispensational premillennialism before turning to apocalyptic determinism. It then considers the structure of an apocalyptic worldview, prophecy belief as a lens through which the world is read, the role of mass media in communicating and disseminating apocalypticism, the promotion and protection of the “interests of Israel” on the world stage, and the complexities of Christian Zionism’s orientation to Israel.
The image of upper-class women chaining themselves to the rails of 10 Downing Street, smashing windows of public buildings, and going on hunger strikes in the cause of "votes for women" has become ...lore among feminists, in effect separating women's fight for voting rights from contemporary issues in British political history and disconnecting their militancy from other forms of political militancy in Britain in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mayhall examines the strategies that suffragettes employed to challenge the definitions of citizenship in Britain, including the origins of resistance's origins within liberal political tradition, its emergence during Britain's involvement in the South African War, and its enactment as spectacle.
Rapture—the prophetic belief that Christ will return to take believers to heaven—has played a significant role in American popular religion for a hundred and fifty years. In fiction and doctrine, ...public oration and private devotion, people have expressed longing, hope and fear through this story. I examine the rapture as a narrative of social alienation and social connection. Through close reading of rapture narratives and interviews with readers of the contemporary series Left Behind, I examine the role that the rapture plays in articulating social critique and establishing a sense of religious identity. I situate the rapture in American culture through its interactions with modernity, its articulation in evangelicalism and its formation in American apocalyptic culture. The rapture is best understood dialectically, as both a narrative that disciplines a reader inside community structures and that imagines the transformation or eclipse of these structures. By close analysis of rapture fiction, I argue that this narrative has a strong interest in consolidating power structures of the status quo, but that this interest changes in meaning over the twentieth century interacting with modernity and consumer culture in dynamic ways. In order to understand how the rapture takes on significance in the lives of readers, I look at the social networks in which such meanings are formed and how community is asserted against the atomization of consumer culture and yet in engagement with a pluralistic and diverse society. Finally, I examine how the rapture becomes “truth” for readers. The rapture gives adherents a coherent frame through which to interpret history and their place within it, securing community boundaries and yet sensing that they are always under threat. The narrative of the rapture and its interpretation in the lives of readers are instructive for their condemnation of the alienation and social isolation of contemporary life along with their desire for better, stronger forms of social connection. While the narrative of the rapture is a narrative of social hierarchy and rigid boundaries, it also expresses a utopian impulse toward re-creating the modern world into a place that can be called “home.”
Formerly gay? Frykholm, Amy Johnson
The Christian Century,
05/2007, Letnik:
124, Številka:
10
Book Review, Magazine Article
IN THE AFTERMATH of New Life Church pastor Ted Haggard's fall from grace amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, a subtle controversy emerged among conservative Christians. Essentially, ex-gay ...leaders argue that homosexuality is caused by a particular kind of home environment and that homosexuals can change their behavior with the help of therapy and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
8.
Breaking away Frykholm, Amy Johnson
The Christian Century,
05/2007, Letnik:
124, Številka:
9
Book Review, Magazine Article
CHRISTIAN fundamentalism continues to rest on an explicit gender hierarchy, and conservative Christians continue to worry about the feminization of Christianity and how to maintain male power in ...church settings. "Could it be that the church's literal interpretation of Genesis encouraged men to treat women with less respect and think of them only as a means of sexual fulfillment?" Cross does not explore this point in detail, but her question hints at the significance of a feminist critique of fundamentalism-not merely for Christianity itself, but for American culture with its constant sexual display of women.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Examines the history of the idea of the rapture in American Protestantism and argues that belief in the rapture, although it has fundamentalist origins, needs to be understood as a much broader ...social movement and a much more integrated part of American culture. Looks briefly at the apocalyptic context of American culture and then at the more specific history of rapture belief and dispensationalism in the United States. Argues that readers of the Left Behind series no longer see themselves as intimately connected to fundamentalist belief but instead seek to integrate the rapture into a broader religious context. Similarly, the texts of the novels themselves do not so much condemn and dismiss contemporary culture as they seek negotiation with it, particularly in the roles of technology, consumer culture, and gender in society. The formulation of evangelicalism represented in the books is a significant departure from previous religious apocalyptic fiction.
Making Prophecy Live Frykholm, Amy Johnson
Rapture Culture,
03/2004
Book Chapter
Focuses on ways that readers use the texts to make prophecy—what they saw as biblical truth—come alive for them. Readers repeatedly report that the novels make difficult or obscure biblical texts, ...especially those in Revelation, come alive through mental pictures or visual images. Fiction opens up a road into truth because it frees the imagination to participate in the creation of truth. Readers vary greatly in how much fiction they allow into their making of the “truth,” but nearly all see fiction as a potential, but not absolute, vehicle of truth. Oddly, however, this securing of biblical truth through fiction is combined with an anxiety about individual salvation and whether or not the reader will be left behind. The story of the rapture provides readers with both tools and fears they use to construct religious meaning.
