Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of the World

Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of the World PDF

Author: Malcolm Bull

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 9780631190813

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In this volume, leading historians, critics and theorists review three thousand years of apocalyptic thought. Tracing the history of millenarianism from ancient times to the present day, they investigate the modern and postmodern debates in which apocalyptic themes are recirculated. From Zoroaster to Derrida, thinkers have used the dramatic language of apocalyptic to uncover the ends of the world - exploring the relationship between ends as purposes and ends as terminations, and the connections between religious and secular versions of apocalyptic theory. In the resulting interplay of closure and disclosure, they have sought to find purpose to life, and a conclusion to history. As the millennium draws to a close, questions about the end of the world seem increasingly urgent. This volume is a guide to these bewildering questions and discourses of the limit. It will be of interest to anyone participating in contemporary debates in cultural studies, religious studies, literary theory, postmodernist philosophy and history.

Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of the World

Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of the World PDF

Author: Malcolm Bull

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 9780631190820

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In this volume, leading historians, critics and theorists review 3,000 years of apocalyptic theory. Tracing the history of millenarianism, they investigate the modern and postmodern debates. (Philosophy)

Theory for the World to Come

Theory for the World to Come PDF

Author: Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 145296159X

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Can social theories forge new paths into an uncertain future? The future has become increasingly difficult to imagine. We might be able to predict a few events, but imagining how looming disasters will coincide is simultaneously necessary and impossible. Drawing on speculative fiction and social theory, Theory for the World to Come is the beginning of a conversation about theories that move beyond nihilistic conceptions of the capitalism-caused Anthropocene and toward generative bodies of thought that provoke creative ways of thinking about the world ahead. Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer draws on such authors as Kim Stanley Robinson and Octavia Butler, and engages with afrofuturism, indigenous speculative fiction, and films from the 1970s and ’80s to help think differently about the future and its possibilities. Forerunners: Ideas First Short books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

Postmodern Apocalypse

Postmodern Apocalypse PDF

Author: Richard Dellamora

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780812215588

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From accounts of the Holocaust, to representations of AIDS, to predictions of environmental disaster; from Hal Lindsey's fundamentalist 1970s bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth, to Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man in 1992, the sense of apocalypse is very much with us. In Postmodern Apocalypse, Richard Dellamora and his contributors examine apocalypse in works by late twentieth-century writers, filmmakers, and critics.

Arguing the Apocalypse

Arguing the Apocalypse PDF

Author: Stephen D. O'Leary

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998-08-20

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0195352963

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Apocalyptic expectations of Armageddon and a New Age have been a fixture of the American cultural landscape for centuries. With the approach of the year 2000, such millennial visions seem once again to be increasing in popularity. Stephen O'Leary sheds new light on the age-old phenomenon of the End of the Age by proposing a rhetorical explanation for the appeal of millennialism. Using examples of apocalyptic argument from ancient to modern times, O'Leary identifies the recurring patterns in apocalyptic texts and movements and shows how and why the Christian Apocalypse has been used to support a variety of political stances and programs. The book concludes with a critical review of the recent appearances of doomsday scenarios in our politics and culture, and a meditation on the significance of the Apocalypse in the nuclear age. Arguing the Apocalypse is the most thorough examination of its subject to date: a study of a neglected chapter of our religious and cultural history, a guide to the politics of Armageddon, and a map of millennial consciousness.

The Late Great Planet Earth

The Late Great Planet Earth PDF

Author: Hal Lindsey

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2016-10-11

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 0310531063

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The impact of The Late Great Planet Earth cannot be overstated. The New York Times called it the "no. 1 non-fiction bestseller of the decade." For Christians and non-Christians of the 1970s, Hal Lindsey's blockbuster served as a wake-up call on events soon to come and events already unfolding -- all leading up to the greatest event of all: the return of Jesus Christ. The years since have confirmed Lindsey's insights into what biblical prophecy says about the times we live in. Whether you're a church-going believer or someone who wouldn't darken the door of a Christian institution, the Bible has much to tell you about the imminent future of this planet. In the midst of an out-of-control generation, it reveals a grand design that's unfolding exactly according to plan. The rebirth of Israel. The threat of war in the Middle East. An increase in natural catastrophes. The revival of Satanism and witchcraft. These and other signs, foreseen by prophets from Moses to Jesus, portend the coming of an antichrist . . . of a war which will bring humanity to the brink of destruction . . . and of incredible deliverance for a desperate, dying planet.

Notes from an Apocalypse

Notes from an Apocalypse PDF

Author: Mark O'Connell

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0385543018

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AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • An absorbing, deeply felt book about our anxious present tense—and coming to grips with the future, by the author of the award-winning To Be a Machine. “Deeply funny and life-affirming, with a warm, generous outlook even on the most challenging of subjects.” —Esquire We’re alive in a time of worst-case scenarios: The weather has gone uncanny. A pandemic draws our global community to a halt. Everywhere you look there’s an omen, a joke whose punchline is the end of the world. How is a person supposed to live in the shadow of such a grim future? What might it be like to live through the worst? And what on earth is anybody doing about it? Dublin-based writer Mark O’Connell is consumed by these questions—and, as the father of two young children, he finds them increasingly urgent. In Notes from an Apocalypse, he crosses the globe in pursuit of answers. He tours survival bunkers in South Dakota. He ventures to New Zealand, a favored retreat of billionaires banking on civilization’s collapse. He engages with would-be Mars colonists, preppers, right-wing conspiracists. And he bears witness to places, like Chernobyl, that the future has already visited—real-life portraits of the end of the world as we know it. What emerges is an absorbing, funny, and deeply felt book about our anxious present tense—and coming to grips with what’s ahead.

The End of the World

The End of the World PDF

Author: Maria Manuel Lisboa

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1906924503

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Our fear of the world ending, like our fear of the dark, is ancient, deep-seated and perennial. It crosses boundaries of space and time, recurs in all human communities and finds expression in every aspect of cultural production - from pre-historic cave paintings to high-tech computer games. This volume examines historical and imaginary scenarios of apocalypse, the depiction of its likely triggers, and imagined landscapes in the aftermath of global destruction. Its discussion moves effortlessly from classic novels including Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, to blockbuster films such as Blade Runner, Armageddon and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Lisboa also takes into account religious doctrine, scientific research and the visual arts to create a penetrating, multi-disciplinary study that provides profound insight into one of Western culture's most fascinating and enduring preoccupations.

Apocalypse without God

Apocalypse without God PDF

Author: Ben Jones

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-04-21

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1316517055

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Explains why apocalyptic thought, despite often being dismissed as bizarre, has persistent appeal in political life.

A Brief History of the End of the World

A Brief History of the End of the World PDF

Author: Simon Pearson

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9781845291600

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Most people's concept of the 'end of the world' comes from the book of Revelation. Today, there are an estimated 25 million Christian fundamentalists in the US who believe it will come with the 'Rapture;' others point to an ecological catastrophe, the AIDS pandemic, nuclear and biological warfare. With the benefit of a vast historical canvas, Pearson examines both apocalyptic theory (biblical literature, art, and popular culture) and practice (politics, cults, war, and revolution), from its Biblical beginnings to the Branch Davidians, via the Vikings, the French Revolution, the Pilgrim Fathers, Hitler's Apocalyptic rhetoric, asteroids, Hollywood and suicide bombers. Pearson's illuminating study shows how our pictures of the end of the world have evoked and converged--and are still very much on the agenda.