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Apocalypse Now: The State of Apocalyptic Studies Near the End of the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2011

Adela Yarbro Collins
Adela Yarbro Collins*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

Apocalyptic studies flourished in the 1970s and early 1980s. This interest probably had something to do with the social and political upheavals of the 1960s and their effects, but I won't go into that issue today. In 1970, Klaus Koch's book Ratlos vor der Apokalyptik was published in Germany. In 1972 it appeared in English under a title more friendly to scholars: The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic. The subtitle, however, preserved the edginess of the original: A Polemical Work on a Neglected Area of Biblical Studies and Its Damaging Effects on Theology and Philosophy.1 My favorite chapter is the one entitled “The Agonized Attempt to Save Jesus from Apocalyptic.” The main title of the English version, as well as the title of the chapter I just mentioned, unfortunately converted a respectable German noun into the substantive use of an adjective with a vague referent.

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ARTICLES
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 104 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 447 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2011

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References

1 Koch, Klaus, The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic: A Polemical Work on a Neglected Area of Biblical Studies and Its Damaging Effects on Theology and Philosophy trans. Margaret Kohl; SBT 2.22; Naperville, Ill.: Alec R. Allenson, 1972Google Scholar); trans. of Ratlos vor der Apokalyptik. Eine Streitschrift über ein vernachlässigtes Gebiet der Bibelwissenschaft und die schädlichen Auswirkungen auf Theologie und Philosophie (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1970).

2 Hanson, Paul, “Apocalypticism,” The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Supplementary Volume ed. Crim, Keith; Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1976) 28–34Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., 29.

4 Ibid., 30.

5 Stone, Michael E., “Lists of Revealed Things in the Apocalyptic Literature,” in Magnalia Dei: The Mighty Acts of God; Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Memory of G. Ernest Wright ed. Moore Cross, Frank, Lemke, Werner E., and Miller, Patrick D.; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976) 414–52Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., 414.

7 John J. Collins, ed., “Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre,” Semeia 14 (1979) 1–217.

8 Ibid., 9.

9 Hellholm, David, ed., Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism, Uppsala, August 12–17, 1979 Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1983Google Scholar).

10 Jean Carmignac, “Description du phénomène de l'Apocalyptique dans l'Ancien Testament,” in Hellholm, Apocalypticism, 163–70, esp. 165.

11 E. P. Sanders, “The Genre of Palestinian Jewish Apocalypses,” in Hellholm, Apocalypticism, 447–59, esp. 458–59.

12 Lars Hartman, “Survey of the Problem of Apocalyptic Genre,” in Hellholm, Apocalypticism, 329–43, at 334.

13 Adela Yarbro Collins, ed., “Early Christian Apocalypticism: Genre and Social Setting,” Semeia 36 (1986) 1–180.

14 Aune, David E., “The Apocalypse of John and the Problem of Genre, Semeia 36 (1986) 13–96Google Scholar, esp. 87.

15 Himmelfarb, Martha, “The Experience of the Visionary and Genre in the Ascension of Isaiah 6–11 and the Apocalypse of Paul, Semeia 36 (1986) 97–111Google Scholar, esp. 97, 109.

16 Himmelfarb, Martha, Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983CrossRefGoogle Scholar); eadem, “The Experience of the Visionary,” Semeia 36 (1986) 97–111; eadem, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

17 Hellholm, David, “The Problem of Apocalyptic Genre and the Apocalypse of John, Semeia 36 (1986) 13–64Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., 27.

19 Yarbro Collins, Adela, “Introduction: Early Christian Apocalypticism, Semeia 36 (1986) 1–11Google Scholar, at 7.

20 Rowland, Christopher, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism and Early Christianity New York: Crossroad, 1982Google Scholar).

21 Ibid., 2.

22 Fletcher-Louis, Crispin, “Jewish Apocalypticism,” and “Jesus and Apocalypticism,” in Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus ed. Holmén, Tom and Porter, Stanley E.; 4 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 2009Google Scholar).

23 Crispin Fletcher-Louis, “Jewish Apocalypticism,” 1582.

24 “Prophecy” in Rev 1:3; 22:7, 10, 18, 19; “revelation” in 1:1.

25 Collins, John J., “Apocalyptic Eschatology as the Transcendence of Death, CBQ 36 (1974) 21–43Google Scholar.

26 Doty, William G., “The Concept of Genre in Literary Analysis,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1972 2 vols.; Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature, 1972) 2:413–48Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., 420.

28 Buss, Martin J., The Prophetic Word of Hosea: A Morphological Study Berlin: Töpelmann, 1969CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

29 Ibid.

30 Marincola, John, “Genre, Convention, and Innovation in Greco-Roman Historiography,” in The Limits of Historiography: Genre and Narrative in Ancient Historical Texts ed. Shuttleworth Kraus, Christina; Mnemosyne Supplementum 191; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 281–324Google Scholar.

31 Conte, Gian Biaggio, Genres and Readers: Lucretius, Love Elegy, Pliny's Encyclopedia trans. Glenn W. Most; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994Google Scholar).

32 Ibid., 282.

33 Christopher Pelling, “Epilogue,” in Kraus, Limits, 325–60, esp. 326 and n. 2.

34 Ibid., 328.

35 Ibid., 335.

36 Ibid.

37 Carey, Greg and Gregory Bloomquist, L., eds., Vision and Persuasion: Rhetorical Dimensions of Apocalyptic Discourse St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice, 1999Google Scholar).

38 Greg Carey, “Introduction: Apocalyptic Discourse, Apocalyptic Rhetoric,” in idem and Bloomquist, Vision and Persuasion, 1–17, esp. 2.

39 Ibid., 15.

40 L. Gregory Bloomquist, “Methodological Criteria for Apocalyptic Rhetoric: A Suggestion for the Expanded Use of Sociorhetorical Analysis,” in Carey and idem, Vision and Persuasion, 181–203.

41 Ibid., 183–88.

42 Ibid., 190.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., 202.

45 Newsom, Carol A., “Spying Out the Land: A Report from Genology,” in Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients: Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox ed. Troxel, Ronald L., Friebel, Kelvin G., and Magary, Dennis R.; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005) 437–50Google Scholar., esp. 438–39.

46 Ibid., 439.

47 Ibid. Emphasis added.

48 Ibid., 441. She cites Swales, John, Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) 51Google Scholar.

49 Ibid., 442–43.

50 Ibid., 443–44.

51 Ibid., 445.

52 Collins, Adela Yarbro, The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation HDR 9; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press for the Harvard Theological Studies, 1976Google Scholar).

53 White, Hayden, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century Europe Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973Google Scholar).

54 Collins, Adela Yarbro, Mark: A Commentary Hermeneia; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2007) 33–43Google Scholar.

55 The first volume in the series is Tim LaHaye and Jenkins, Jerry B., Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days Colorado Springs, Colo.: Alive, 1995Google Scholar). At least twelve more volumes have followed the first.