On the Edge of Apocalypse: An Introduction Lynn R. Huber and Tom Mould Apocalypse. In popular culture in the U.S., the term typically evokes a terrifying moment of cataclysmic destruction. While a common subject for film, television, books, and music, this broad understanding of apocalypse belies the complexity of the ways of thinking, speaking, and being that can be described as “apocalyptic.” Although scholars across disciplines have mapped many of the characteristics and much of the content associated with “apocalyptic,” the category's meaning remains up for debate, and it continues to be used in new ways and toward new ends. In 2017, the symposium “On the Edge of Apocalypse,” sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society at Elon University, asked participants from a variety of academic disciplines to map the edges of apocalyptic, including its patterns, symbols, and rhetorics. The following essays, which we situate here within the context of the study of apocalyptic, emerged as part of the symposium and demonstrate some of the elasticity within this oft‐contested category. Scholarly attention to the apocalypse initially emerged within the context of the nineteenth‐century scientific study of religion and in conjunction with the study of sacred texts and traditions. German scholar Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke introduced the German term “Apokalyptik,” used as a noun, in an 1832 introduction to the biblical Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John. Lücke's use of the term in this context points to the close connection between “apocalyptic” and writings that were eventually characterized as “apocalypses.” Distinct from “an apocalypse” or “the apocalypse” as an event, “apocalypse” is a genre of revelatory literature that typically includes a visionary experience mediated by otherworldly figures and/or an otherworldly journey. “Apocalyptic literature,” on the other hand, is a more general category that includes apocalypses, but may describe literature that addresses themes often associated with an apocalypse, such as judgment or eschatology. Ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses, such as Revelation, 1 Enoch, and 4 Ezra, have provided the template for the topics traditionally associated with the category “apocalyptic,” including divine revelations, journeys to heavenly worlds, otherworldly mediators, battles between good and evil, and judgment. Concurrent with the emergence of the comparative study of religion in the nineteenth century, scholars began to move beyond these predominantly Jewish and Christian texts to consider their origins within “other” traditions, such as Zoroastrian dualism and “pagan” (i.e., neither Jewish nor Christian) combat myths from the Ancient Near East. While many turn of the century religious studies scholars focused on identifying ancient sources behind apocalyptic texts and traditions, interest in the political and sociological dimensions motivating apocalyptic movements increased. Apocalypticism, generally understood as a “belief that God has revealed the imminent end of the ongoing struggle between good and evil in history,” became a topic of study across academic disciplines. Historian Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium, first published in 1957, was a watershed moment in the study of apocalyptic movements, exploring how economic oppression and class conflict fueled apocalypticism among medieval millenarians (i.e., those who anticipate a thousand‐year reign of Christ). Cohn's work marked a shift in focus away from focusing primarily upon the mythic and textual traditions behind apocalypticism toward understanding how communities deployed these traditions as responses to lived realities. Cohn's focus on European apocalyptic movements has been picked up and expanded upon by a number of other scholars, especially by those within medieval studies. Cultural analyses of apocalyptic movements, particularly in the fields of anthropology and sociology, reveal that communities undergoing oppression do not possess a monopoly on apocalyptic worldviews. Studies of both ancient and modern communities reflect a variety of sociological factors behind apocalypticism. This was probably seen most notably in the numerous studies of Pacific Islander “cargo cults,” a problematic name, that began in the late 1950s. While scholars initially assumed that ritual practices around Western goods and supplies functioned primarily in response to crisis and deprivation, Worley and others recognized how these movements served to create political and social identities and networks. Scholars in the fields of biblical and early Christian studies have similarly challenged...
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Oct 1, 2024
Ron J Bigalke 
Open Access