Jesus and Apocalypticism

Abstract

This chapter highlights that the work of John J. Collins and other North American scholars attempt a more nuanced analysis of apocalyptic literature that tries to separate out literary genre, apocalyptic eschatology, worldview and social setting. By contrast, Christopher Rowland has championed an approach which marginalises the role of a particular eschatology in apocalyptic literature whilst drawing attention to the role of religious experience in the central claim for the disclosure of heavenly secrets. The former approach stands in considerable continuity with the older view that apocalypticism is a dualistic theology quite different from biblical religion, whilst Rowland's work reflects a British aversion to the idea that the apocalypses manifest a new worldview in the history of Israelite thought. Schweitzer made the future Son of Man sayings central to his argument that Jesus expected an imminent glorious and utterly transcendent divine intervention. Keywords:apocalypticism; biblical; Christopher Rowland; dualistic theology; eschatological Jesus; Israel; John J. Collins; Schweitzer; Son of Man