reading log: collins' apocalyptic imagination

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 ## 2026-04-24
 
+### @{apocalyptic-imagination}
+
+Reviews suggest that this book was been very influential since it was first
+published in 1984.
+
+Big takeaways:
+
+- John's Revelation innovatively identified Jesus with stock symbols from
+  apocalyptic and messianic traditions, and the symbols fought back...
+- Apocalyptic literature served diverse functions in diverse settings, John not
+  written in response to crisis but rather ideological conflict
+- Apocalyptic literature should be appreciated for multivocal, indeterminate use
+  of traditional mythological symbols
+- Apocalyptic literature generally serves to exhort and/or console by use of an
+  eschatological revelation mediated by an otherworldly being
+
+Apocalyptic literature may not all have a shared Sitz im Leben: coventicle and
+distress have been proposed, but the evidence is shaky. The notion that
+apocalyptic is written in response to crisis is shaky, too. Apocalypses have
+diverse goals in response to diverse problems. What they have in common is they
+respond to their diverse problems with a vision of another world, featuring
+judgement and eschatology. It's generally true that apocalyptic served to exhort
+and console, though this is very vague.
+
+John's Revelation was probably written to address an ideological conflict with
+Rome rather than a crisis of persecution.
+
+John's Revelation draws on apocalyptic precedents for these features:
+
+- Exhortation to martyrdom ethic (Dan)
+- Discourages militant action while envisioning final judgement (4 Ezra)
+- Affirms eschatological destruction of the wicked (4 Ezra)
+
+But what's weird is Jesus. Jesus accepts worship. Dan's Ancient of Days and Son
+of Man fused together in chp 1. Lion = lamb: fusion of messianic and sacrificial
+imagery. Reinterpretation of messianic tradition in light of Jesus' death.
+'Sword of his mouth' identifies Jesus who bore no sword with this standard
+messianic image, from Isa 11.
+
+In conclusion, John bends the apocalyptic genre to present Jesus as the Messiah.
+Meanwhile, the apocalyptic form bends John to present Jesus as a warrior and
+judge, in opposition to Jesus' irenic ethics. Hence the moral controversy over
+Revelation.
+
+This reading really helped me with the violence in Revelation. Perhaps part of
+the function of the violence in Revelation is to subversively identify Jesus
+with ancient Jewish hopes. Though am I being tempted to wash over the violence
+in the text?
+
+Collins also had a great discussion of dispensationalism vs ancient apocalyptic.
+He pointed out that dispensationalism swaps angst and martyr ethics for smug
+certainty of election, and swaps allusive mythological symbols for allegorical
+code. However, he admits that they share moral dualism, a sense of cosmic
+crisis, hope for divine intervention, and even 'decoding' has a long history.
+This motivates the view, which many scholars take, that apocalyptic is
+irredeemable.
+
+Lorenzo DiTommaso says it is an 'unhealthy worldview', immature, 'hostile to
+life on Earth.' I'd like to hear more about his views. David Frankfurter says it
+is a morally unacceptable apology for brutal violence.
+
+Collins thinks it is better to acknowledge both the violence and the justice/hope sides of the texts rather than try to deny the violence or ignore the justice/hope. He points out that apocalyptic symbols are not just used by dispensationalists, but also by novelists like Cormack McCarthy.
+
+Then there's some random handy observations on apocalyptic literature I picked
+up.
+
+He said that apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic social movements and
+ideologies, and apocalyptic eschatology, should all be distinguished, and never
+smudged together with a generic noun, 'apocalyptic'.
+
+He shed light on why scholars occasionally dispute the boundaries or existence
+of the genre, apocalypse. The word 'apocalypse' was first used to denote a genre
+from the late 1st century, after most of the core of the supposed genre was
+written. Semeia 14 set out to test whether 'apocalypse' was a real genre before
+that, and concluded, yes, the usual works do share features which distinguish it
+from other literature. Particularly revelation, mediated by an otherworldly
+authority, disclosing a transcendent reality, of eschatological salvation and/or
+another world. Other scholarly definitions are available.
+
+Collins noted two major types of apocalypse: historical vs cosmic journeys. Both
+interwoven in the Enochic literature. Striking lack of historical concern in
+Revelation.
+
+Collins notes that RH Charles in the age of Wellhausen, and HH Rowley and RS Russell in the mid-20C, set the tone before. They had a tendency to reduce mythological language to allegory for historical or theological propositional assertions, and were intolerant of what they saw as incoherence, and posited source relationships to 'explain' such features, as if they were necessarily written by neat-minded modern scholars like them. Nowadays, scholars believe that apocalypses were probably written like that originally, because their authors had different standards/priorities. Paul Ricoeur reckoned that symbols have multivocal, indeterminate meaning. Gunkel debunked textual 'seams' in apocalypses, encouraged appreciation of symbolic, traditional mythological language.
+
+Scholars spent much of the 20th century arguing over whether apocalypse came
+from prophecy or Persia, or even wisdom. Now scholars recognise it was
+influenced by all of those, and Hellenistic literature, but none of them can
+fully explain apocalypse independently. (The project to show where apocalypse
+came from often obscured hidden agendas to discredit apocalypse.)
+
+Apocalypse has suffered from scholarly prejudice, a morally inferior kind of
+literature, a corruption of late prophecy, distrust of millenarian movements.
+
 ### @{oxford-handbook-apocalyptic}
 
 A useful reference, worth coming back to if I want to investigate particular