TS-75-03 Apocalypse Then
and Now:
Frivolity
at the World's End by Alan Jacobs
One of the chief features
of the "apocalyptic imagination" in literature and film over the last half-century is the transformation
of the Apocalypse into something minor, comical, or even inconsequential. Both Christian and
thoroughly un-Christian models of the end have suffered from this malady. Some works are unintentionally
comic or trivial, while others consciously explore the comic possibilities of the end of the
world. But all alike betray the routinization of the apocalyptic, its conscription into the
everyday world. One wonders, surveying this territory, how it might be possible for contemporary
minds to rediscover the true profundities of this world's end.
TS-75-04 Rewriting the
Future:
A
New Catholic Scenario for the End Times by Sandra Miesel
Over the past half-century,
a new scenario for the End Times has emerged among Catholics. Driven by private "revelations,"
ideas inherited from the Middle Ages have been replaced by a sequence of Warning-Miracle-Chastisement
culminating in the Three Days of Darkness, followed by a fresh start for a purified world before
the final End. These expectations are mirror images of Evangelical millennialist notions of
the Rapture and have also become entangled in conservative political concerns and conspiracy
theories. Many devout Catholics are drawn to the new scenario because they no longer trust the
institutional Church. This unhealthy situation needs critical attention to avoid disillusionment
when the promised signs and wonders fail to materialize.
TS 75-05 His Coming in
Consuming Glory:
The
Apocalypse in Orthodox Tradition by Vigen Guroian
Dr. Guroian's principle
concern was to emphasize and explore in some depth the Eastern Church's liturgical and eschatological
interpretation of Christ's coming again in glory and the in-breaking of the Kingdom of Heaven,
which is at the heart of New Testament apocalypticism. In the Orthodox tradition, the kenotic
Incarnation of the Son of God is symbolically correlated with his glorious coming again at the
end of this age. The Gospels and other New Testament sources testify that, even in the course
of the Son of God's kenotic first coming, his divine glory was manifested, such as by his Baptism,
Transfiguration, Resurrection, and Ascension. Looking backward, these events are connected with
the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2, 19:18) and the pillar of cloud (Exodus 14:19, 19:19), and looking
forward, to the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory (Mark 13: 26). Likewise,
the Orthodox tradition interprets 2 Peter's imagery of a consuming fire in strict relation to
the flames of Pentecost, as sign and signification of the hallowing action of the Holy Spirit
in the Parousia event.
TS-75-06 The American
Evangelical Apocalypse:
Premillennialism
& Literal Biblical Interpretations by Craig Blaising
In this paper, Dr. Blaising
presented an overview and commentary on past and present American Evangelical views on the Apocalypse.
He focused especially on the project of maintaining consistently literal interpretations of
various biblical texts dealing with the Second Coming, the Antichrist, and the Rapture from
a premillennialist perspective.
TS-75-07 The Spirit of
Antichrist:
The
Coming Universal Spiritual Order by James Hitchcock
Traditional
ideas of the Antichrist often portray him not as the overt enemy of the faith but as so seductive
as to delude believers into taking him as a new messiah. Thus the Antichrist will not be openly
anti-Christian but will claim to bring about the fulfillment of existing faiths. Throughout
history Christians have differed as to whether the Antichrist will be a person or some kind
of institution. Speculation about the identity of the Antichrist is fruitless, perhaps even
sinful, in accordance with Jesus' warning.
But at the present juncture
of history it seems possible to identify certain forces which in effect work to undermine Christianity
in the name of a higher and more authentic spiritual truth and which are not embodied in one
man but in certain institutions and movements and the men who control them. One of the major
challenges that Christians now face is to maintain the integrity of their beliefs in the teeth
of immense pressures to become part of an emergent world religion of secular humanitarianism,
which will supposedly incorporate the best elements of traditional faiths.
TS-75-08 The Book of Revelation
as Liturgical Prophecy:
The
Apocalypse in Biblical Perspective by Patrick Henry Reardon
In
this talk, the Book of Revelation is treated as a work of liturgical prophecy. Accordingly there
were two parts. First, the book was compared with other prophetic works of Holy Scripture, in
order to determine how it should be interpreted. Second, the book was set within the liturgical
life of the first-century Christians.
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