The apocalyptic literature / Stephen L. Cook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cook, Stephen L., 1962-

Series:

Interpreting Biblical texts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apocalyptic literature.

Physical Description:

233 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Nashville : Abingdon Press, [2003]

Summary:

Biblical Texts create worlds of meaning and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help serious readers in their experience of reading and interpreting by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The focus of the series is not so much on the world behind the text as on the worlds created by the texts in their engagement with readers. Nowhere is the world of the biblical text stranger than in the apocalyptic literature of both the Old and New Testaments. In this volume, Stephen Cook makes the puzzling visions and symbols of the biblical apocalyptic literature intelligible to modern readers. He begins with definitions of apocalypticism and apocalyptic literature and introduces the various scholarly approaches to and issues for our understanding of the text. Cook introduces the reader to the social and historical worlds of the apocalyptic groups that give rise to such literature and leads the reader into a better appreciation and understanding of its theological import. He addresses both the best-known (the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation) and other important but lesser known examples.

Contents:

Encountering apocalyptic worlds

The danger of domesticating the apocalyptic texts

A new search for the literal sense of apocalyptic texts

The social worlds behind the apocalyptic literature

Early apocalyptic texts among the prophetic books

The Book of Daniel

Apocalypticism and the Jesus group

Apocalyptic worlds and the early Christian churches

The book of Revelation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 226-228) and index.

ISBN:

0687051967

OCLC:

51966117