Theological Sense Research Articles

Theology and Agency in Early Modern Literature. Timothy Rosendale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. vii+282.

But the main question is whether the history of theology, with its well-established figureheads and cruxes, looks the same to early modern English writers as it does to us. The answers might range from the relatively safe “well, no, not exactly” to the dangerous “not one bit.” Erasmus provides a vital example. From the abstract perspective of the history of theology represented here, Erasmus is a Catholic: after all, he defends the doctrine of works and free will against Luther. But, as Gregory Dodds has illustrated, from an English standpoint during much of this period, Erasmus was a vital part of the Reformation. His Paraphrases on the New Testament are mandated, exclusively with the vernacular Bible, to be in every Edwardian and Elizabethan church; Thomas Bodley included Erasmus in the Oxford library in friezes of great Reformation figures; Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, architect of the English Church, fondly marked his copy of Erasmus’s diatribe against Luther and listed Erasmus as the only early modern author requiring study in the Cathedral Library—and the list, defying modern theological sense, goes on. In short, early modern readers and writers saw very different polarities from those of modern historiography. To truly reconstruct their world, we must enter it without bearing verities about the past created in our own.

God’s spirit (of wisdom) has been sent into the world, not Covid-19: A contextual systematic-theological perspective

How are we to make theological sense of the Covid-19 pandemic? In response to the viewpoint of Wilhelm Jordaan as expressed in a popular newspaper that it is foolish to understand Covid-19 as God’s punishment or nature’s way for restoration, it is critically argued that Jordaan mostly helps us with what not to think, but not so much with what to think of the current situation from a Christian theological perspective. The theological perspective that is presented in response to Jordaan takes as the vantage point a different interpretative line of an image of God (as ‘regretting/sorrow God’) over against more popular and established lines of God images such as God the Almighty. It is argued that the different God image of a ‘silent God’ and the need for wisdom that is prompted by the image challenges us here and now with an invitation to take (self)responsibility for the Covid-19-pandemic before a silent (distanced) God.Contribution: This article represents original systematic-theological reflection on the doctrine of God and anthropology within contemporary theology-science discourses. It focuses on a Christian biblical neglected God image of a ‘regretting/sorrow God’ (Genesis) in relation to embodied personhood within the current Covid-19 pandemic. It proposes a newly formulated understanding of a ‘silent God’ on the one hand and human self-responsibility and the seeking of wisdom on the other hand.

Theological Objections to a Metaphysicalist Interpretation of Creation

ABSTRACT It has been argued that divine creation should be understood solely in a metaphysical and theological sense, and not within the context of modern cosmology and biology. In this way, any conflict between science and religion is totally avoided. William Carroll is a scholar of Aquinas who has justified this position, citing arguments made by Thomas, specifically that creation does not involve change. Here, I argue that this is a major distortion of Aquinas’ views and that the ontology of creation formulated is fundamentally incoherent.

Święta władza. Forma wewnętrzna pojęcia władzy w Kościele

The presented analyses rest on the idea that the authority obtained by the power of the Sacraments can assume the proper external form and, consequently, effectively serve the Ecclesial community, provided the appropriate internal form of the sacred authority is determined, based on systematic theology. It is also essential to consider the Christological dimension of the ecclesial authority as the latter is connected to Christ’s calling his chosen disciples to come after him; a disciple’s participation in the redemptive mission requires that the disciple imitates Christ. Thus the authority exercised in the Church consists, above all, in serving the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Christ. At the same time, the duties implied by the Sacrament of Holy Orders can be performed in an appropriate way provided the primacy of Christ is recognized unconditionally.The author emphasizes that, in the present situation of the Church, it is particularly important to have an adequate understanding of the relationship between the theological sense of authority in the Church and the external form in which Ecclesial authority is exercised. He also points to the need to overcome misleading conceptions regarding the issue in question, which tend to falsely juxtapose external form of authority and the freedom of exercising it. The author indicates that adopting a realistic approach and an objective attitude in theology will help prevent such tendencies.

Human Dimension of the Christian Liturgy

Human dimension of the liturgy can be understood only if we are able to grasp the essence of the Christian liturgy, its nature and theological sense and when we realize the criteria which allow us to distinguish “liturgy” from “non-liturgy”. The paper is an attempt to describe a human dimension of the liturgy understood mostly as an anamnesis, a real salvific presence of Christ’s Mystery; a real presence resulting from an objective fact that the liturgy is the performing of a priestly function of Christ by Him and the whole Mystical Body, the Church. The liturgical anamnesis is the acting of Christ as both God and Man. Thus, firstly, a human dimension of the liturgy is directly linked with the hypostatic union of two natures in Christ and results from the human nature of the Saviour. Secondly, the liturgy is the anamnesis of Christ’s Mystery for the sanctification and salvation of people. This fact should be viewed as a fundamental historico-salvific sense of the liturgy which is the final stage on earth in the history of salvation. Finally, the Christian liturgy due to a psychosomatic nature of man occurs at the present stage of the history of salvation under the cover of a visible earthly reality.

The Reform of the Church in Cusano and Rosmini

The contribution starts from the delineation of the concept of not as a revolutionary act of change but as a movement within the historical dynamism of the Church. The Church is the reality and the temporal figure of the eternal message, which is always the same in its essence. In this way the profoundly theological sense of the concept of reform takes on great importance. It is in fact a question of re-forming, or of rethinking the Church in its multiple directions - understanding it in its historical sense and, at the same time, in its theological foundation. Cusanus and Rosmini could not therefore avoid the question of the Church reform. Their thought, fully inscribed in the ontotheological and metaphysical matrix, has thus been translated into an ecclesiological reading - both faithful to the genuine Christian inspiration of their philosophizing.

A Truth That Can Save Us? On Critical Theory, Revelation, and Climate Change

In this article, I perform an experimental discussion of questions concerning revelation and truth in relation to the climate crisis. The concern is not revelation in any determinate theological sense but rather an attempt to reach for a perspective on truth that understands it as something that ruptures and disturbs the way we tend to think. I take my point of departure in a series of thinkers such as Horkheimer, Adorno, and Foucault. The key turn of the argument, however, is to confront the critical theoretical discourse of these thinkers with Schelling’s notion of positive philosophy, which offers an interesting alternative perspective on the question of existence and truth compared with standard forms of critical theory. In view of Schelling’s positive philosophy, I argue that his reflection on revelation is meaningful to revisit in relation to the climate threat, and I make some experimental connections between this idea of positive philosophy and recent discussions about the Anthropocene, asking for a more profoundly self-critical approach to question how we can approach the dire problems that we face as humanity. I end with an example of such reflection in the writings of the feminist materialist Nancy Tuana.

Rituals and a Need for Forgiveness: An Interview with Rajiv Joseph

Rajiv Joseph is often characterized in the media as being highly influenced by his own mixed-ethnic heritage—his mother is a French/German Euro-American and his father is from India—and creating deeply conflicted characters, as seen in such plays as the Pulitzer Prize finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (the eponymous feline was played on Broadway by Robin Williams), Guards of the Taj, All This Intimacy, Gruesome Playground Injuries, and The North Pool. In a 2015 interview, however, Joseph argued that a prominent influence on his writing is actually his Catholic background, as seen most recently in the play Mr. Wolf, in which he engages “the way people relate to their belief systems, whether it's an utter faith in God or atheism, and how those two sets of beliefs are at such odds with each other.”1 Joseph has said that his Catholic background has “figured prominently in his writing process.”2 His work is infused with Catholic theology, even when the subject matter is not Catholic and even when the setting exclusively involves other faith traditions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, which have all interested him since “an early age.”3 I have argued elsewhere “that all of [Joseph's plays] engage Joseph's own Catholic identity and present a sense of Catholic theology within his dramaturgy. In particular, Joseph seems interested in Catholic notions of sin, forgiveness and atonement, and suffering.”4 In short, Joseph is a playwright whose works are infused with a global spirituality rooted in his own sense of Catholic identity.Joseph grew up Catholic in Cleveland, Ohio. “In Southern India there is a large Catholic population and that's where my father was from,” he explains. “It's a huge part of who I am and how I approach writing.”5 He earned a BA in creative writing from Miami University and an MFA in playwriting from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He also served for three years in Senegal in the Peace Corps. It is his primary and secondary education, however, that interests us for the purposes of this survey. In 1987, at Gesu Catholic School in Cleveland, his eighth-grade classmates voted him “Most Likely to Become a Priest.”6 In an interview with Patrick Healy of the New York Times, Joseph observed, “As a writer I've come to think of myself, among other things, as a Catholic playwright because my plays really are informed by this love and connection to storytelling and ritual.”7In 2016, I sat down with Rajiv Joseph to discuss his theological dramaturgy, his dramatic theology, and why all of his plays seem heavily invested in ritual and a need for forgiveness.

Political theology and sovereignty: Sayyid Qutb in our times

This article explores the political-theological nature of Sayyid Qutb’s theoretical design, specifically its relation to non-Western understandings of sovereignty, and its principal anomalies arising from the struggle of reconciling the notions of the modern state with undefined territorial imaginings of a religious community. Repudiating reformist variants of modernist Islam, Qutb’s writings afford an alternate reading of modern sovereignty as it is reconfigured in the language of hakimiyyah (God’s sovereignty). A political reading of sovereignty in Qutb complicates the assumed separation between political and non-political spheres. The argument recognizes a basic distinction between the idea of sovereignty in a theological sense and its political counterpart. In Qutb’s design, however, the absence of determinate lines between the theological and the political leaves few autonomous social spheres outside God’s law. While Qutb’s vision does not exhaust political Islam—a fairly heterodox field of diverse perspectives and commitments—the appeal of his writings remains forceful, especially under conditions of Islam’s perceived defensiveness in the face of secularist global modernity and its institutionalized forms. The article situates Qutb within the expanding repertoire of non-Western understandings of the political logic of International Relations.

Overcoming fear? A search for an empowering theological response to the fear of witchcraft among urban Zimbabwean Christians

How can we make theological sense of the resilience of the fear of witchcraft among indigenous Zimbabwean Christians? From the perspective of the transcendence and immanence of God, this article analyses the resilience of the fear of witchcraft among African Christians in Zimbabwe. The article uses results of a case study conducted in Zimbabwe in a congregation belonging to the Churches of Christ in Zimbabwe (COCZ) in the city of Bulawayo. Using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, the study affirms that many African Christians struggle to overcome the fear of witchcraft in their lives. Witchcraft is feared because it is primarily viewed as an evil power that destroys life. The article analyses the awareness of witchcraft, the experiences of witchcraft and the responses to witchcraft among Zimbabwean Christians. The article proposes that African Christians be grounded on the transcendence and immanence of God as a way of overcoming the enduring fear of witchcraft.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A meaningful response to the fear of witchcraft in Africa requires a multidisciplinary approach including phenomenology of religion, Christian doctrines and practical theology and pastoral care. The immanence and transcendency of God in a context of fear of witchcraft must be unpacked in the light of insights from phenomenology of religion, African traditional religions, discipleship and pastoral care.

A Contradiction in Terms? Assessing the Place and Importance of the English Parish Church Cathedrals

Of the 42 cathedrals in the Church of England, nineteen of them are parish church cathedrals, a significant proportion. It is surprising, then, that there does not appear to have been any sustained research or analysis done specifically on parish church cathedrals. Much of the thinking and writing about cathedrals going back to the Heritage and Renewal Report of 19941 only seems to make passing references to parish church cathedrals in the effort to make theological sense of cathedrals and their huge impact on church and society. For many, the title ‘parish church cathedral’ is one that should no longer be used.

ASMENS VIENTISUMO IR TAPATUMO PAIEŠKOS ŠIUOLAIKINĖJE VISUOMENĖJE

This paper analyses some of the most important features of postmodernism, determining the way of a modern person’s life, relationship with oneself and, ultimately, with transcendence. One of the main aspects of contemporary society is excessive consumption, in fact relativism, secularism and subjectivism. These phenomena, in their psychological and theological sense, promote the disintegration of the integrity of the human person. This phenomenon becomes very visible in cases of illness, suffering and death. The modern man has lost the harmony between the body, the spirit and the soul, and at the same time the right relationship with God. It does arise in human life between the various dimensions of life: personal self-awareness, family, work, business, work, and other fields. Without faith, postmodernism does not accept man’s inevitability of death, strives to ignore it, or simply flee from it. But this does not give peace to human. The search for the meaning of life and death is in the nature of man, so only believing in a supernatural world, the fostering of spiritual values gives real hope. KEY WORDS: Human Being, Postmodernism, Death, Faith, Hope.

Hvem er befrieren? Idealisme og realisme – Perspektiver på Platons hulelignelse hos Løgstrup og Heidegger

WHO IS THE LIBERATOR? IDEALISM AND REALISM - PERSPECTIVES ON PLATO'S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE IN LØGSTRUP AND HEIDEGGERWhen Danish theologian and philosopher K E. Løgstrup (1905-81) followed Heidegger’s lectures On theEssence of Truth in 1933-34, he encountered an interpretation of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave that influenced his view on the dangers of idealism, thus shaping what became a central theme in his works, the importance of realism and to focus on what is concrete. This article explores two main areas: (1) Løgstrup’s concept of understanding and its relation to disclosure and revelation (both in a philosophical and theological sense), and (2) Heidegger’s interpretation of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave – as found in Løgstrup’s own notes in his posthumous manuscripts – and this interpretation’s link to Nazism. To Løgstrup, philosophy and theology must concern itself with life inside the cave, the reality of our human existence, because doctrines concerning life outside the cave lead to the dangers of idealism.

A School of Others: Jean-Nicholas Jager, Richard Hurrell Froude, Benjamin Harrison, and John Henry Newman's Turn to the Development of Doctrine

A School of Others:Jean-Nicholas Jager, Richard Hurrell Froude, Benjamin Harrison, and John Henry Newman's Turn to the Development of Doctrine Michael J. G. Pahls (bio) John henry newman penned his public Letter to the Duke of Norfolk on 27 December 1874 in response to Prime Minister William Gladstone's own published attacks regarding the doctrine of papal infallibility. Gladstone had argued that the newly defined doctrine would require a "renunciation of moral and mental freedom," provoking "civil disloyalty" among English Catholics.1 In response, Newman ventured a more winsome presentation for the new dogma, mitigating implications so as to allay fears that a foreign pope might subvert the English monarchy by infallible fiat. More intriguing in his defense, however, was Newman's appeal to the ongoing interpretive work of the Schola Theologorum—the "school of theologians." Considering that Gladstone had committed himself to "a representation of ecclesiastical documents which will not hold."2 Newman declared, "None but the Schola Theologorum is competent to determine the force of Papal and Synodal utterances, and the exact interpretation of them is a work of time."3 Shorn of [End Page 5] this necessary process of theological reception, Newman judged that Gladstone's reading was precipitous and at least potentially inaccurate. Gladstone's understanding of the dogma, like his understanding of the English Catholic faithful, was thereby "neither trustworthy nor charitable."4 While numerous treatments of the Catholic Newman's mature conception of the Schola Theologorum have appeared over the years, few have noticed how his regard for the ongoing, collaborative, and interpretive work of theologians finds an important, embodied precedent in the work of the Anglican Newman and in the Oxford Movement of which he was a principal figure.5 This article will explore a discrete period in that broader story wherein the failure of Newman's via media—a proposal constructed in the context of debate with the Catholic Abbé Jean-Nicholas Jager—was brought home to him under the sometimes-painful interrogations of fellow Oxford Movement collaborators, Hurrell Froude and Benjamin Harrison. I argue here that this ongoing theological reception of Anglican doctrine ultimately pressed Newman to acknowledge both the actuality and permissibility of doctrinal development and so anticipated what Newman envisioned for the Schola Theologorum in embodied practice. ENTANGLED IN CONTROVERSY WITH A FRENCH ABBÉ Since 1832, Newman had been at work as a Tractarian, working to buttress the Church of England's flagging high church hegemony in the face of Lord Charles Grey's Whig Government reforms.6 Fully expecting eventual [End Page 6] disestablishment, Newman sought to arm himself and his growing Association of Tory churchmen against the "systematic hatred … borne by Romanists, Sectarians, Liberals, and Infidels" by "poking into the Fathers with a hope of rummaging forth passages of history which may prepare the imaginations of men for a changed state of things, and also be precedents for our conduct in difficult circumstances."7 Those labors evolved into an effort to prioritize an older apostolicity over the Church of England's Elizabethan preoccupation with monarchical establishment. Resigned to life without royal preferment, Newman imagined that the national church's cause could be entrusted to the English faithful directly—"thrown on the people," as he put it, in both an economic and a theological sense.8 Here, the commonplaces of the Oxford Movement's popular Tracts for the Times—defending the apostolic succession of bishops, the liturgical stability of the Book of Common Prayer, the sacramental powers of the clergy, and the divinely established jurisdiction of the church—developed into Newman's more comprehensive via media theory of the English Church when a chance encounter grew into a fervid epistolary debate. It is well-known that the 1837 Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church represent Newman's attempt to realize an only-theoretical via media as the "very truth of the Apostles" amid the competing "real" religions of "Protestantism and Popery."9 This work grew out of his "lectures on Romanism," delivered orally [End Page 7] in Adam de Brome chapel of Saint Mary the Virgin in the summer of 1836, but those lectures were immediately preceded by a months-long correspondence...

Artysta między godnością a zawstydzeniem. "Impresje" nie tylko o dokonaniach artystycznych

The achievements of each artist are connected to his craftsmanship, professionalism, and most importantly his vocation. His personal decisions regarding his art have a direct impact on it, as he can act in a positive and responsible way, or negative with destructive and demoralizing way. Often we hear of the “priesthood” of an artist and of his prophetic mission, which becomes an annunciation and a kind of epiphany of beauty. To that end, many say that artists through their work bring salvation to many. In many ways, art plays an essential part in fulfilling Theology by giving it a commentary. In a specific way it is connected to sacramental art, which has many layers. This sort of art should always be decent and respectful and at the same time make it easier for people to connect to God, during the liturgy, as well as during the personal prayer, meditation, contemplation and adoration. These pieces of art should always create a sense of unity and harmony. After all, we always look and search for a deeper meaning of art, not forgetting its iconological and theological sense. When we talk about art that is considered shameless, we also touch the artist’s lack of professionalism, inability to create high class art; its cheapness and plagiarism, but also it’s destructive, full of degradation and demoralizing context. In the context of the religious sacrum, those negative behaviors in art, together with its loss of prophetic and sacred meaning, often lead to: profanation, heresy, blasphemy, and idolatry. A great abuse of freedom of expression that cannot be tolerated is an absolute ignorance when it comes to God, dismissing God altogether while promoting self. At the same time, the recipient is ignored and disdained. Still just as valid today are the importance of dialogue and the cooperation of three different backgrounds: The artists, investors and consumers. The achievements of the artists should not only enhance the heritage of given generation, but most importantly lift up the spirit of believers and even making easier for them to reach salvation

The Life of Dr Thomas Hussey, 1746-1803. Bishop of Waterford and Lismore by Liam Murphy (review)

Book Reviews The Life of Dr Thomas Hussey, 1746-1803. Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Liam Murphy (Dublin: Kingdom Books, 2016), 175 pages. In current times, ecclesiastical matters might not enjoy widespread interest among the general public under forty years of age. Therefore, why publish an episcopal biography if the market is so small and is diminishing even further? To those who are intelligent and ambitious to progress in life, biographies of high achievers, regardless of their vocation or profession, hold important lessons. In the case of this biography, the subject, Thomas Hussey, was an exceptionally gifted player in politics and diplomacy in Irish, British, continental European and North American history, and in his case the word ‘bishop’ should not be associated with piosity, platitudes and mediocrity. The great French statesman and bishop Jean Armand du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, once quipped: ‘Never ordain a pious fool, otherwise he might lose his piety and much else’! The character that emerges from the pages of this biography was neither a pious simpleton nor an arrogant fool but a brilliant strategist in both secular and spiritual spheres. Anyone who enjoyed reading William M Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon, or watching Stanley Kubrick’s film version of it, will appreciate reading about this real-life figure, a worldly-wise priest who was effective in both his diplomatic skills and in his pastoral ministrations. He bequeathed a worthy legacy to the Irish Catholic community. Hussey circulated effortlessly and elegantly among the courts and chancelleries; salons and spas; great churches and clandestine chapels; and gracious squares and grimy backstreets of late eighteenth-century Europe. He was, above all, a gentleman. Well-educated in Seville his high culture, theological and spiritual moderation and affable disposition provided him with self-confidence and practical insight into the human condition that enabled him to be a good and effective pastor and diplomat. As principal chaplain at the Spanish embassy in London, Hussey helped successive ambassadors smooth the way for improving and maintaining better relations between Britain and Spain.Apart from spiritual duties, he was involved in negotiations concerning trade, Gibraltar and the fledgling USA. Studies • volume 106 • number 423 379 Autumn 2017: Book Reviews Through his charm, suavity and high intellect he established good personal relations with leading establishment figures such as Camden, Castlereagh, Cornwallis, Cloncurry, FitzWilliam, Portland and Westmoreland, and with great political personalities of the age such as Henry Grattan, theWhig Charles James Fox and the political philosopher Edmund Burke. Such friendships, as well as Hussey’s distinction in being the first Catholic priest to be elected to membership of the prestigious Royal Society, helped immensely in bringing about the Catholic ReliefActs, and the foundation of the Catholic seminary at Maynooth (of which he was the first president), with annual financial support from the officially Protestant state. Yet, Hussey’s social ecumenism did not compromise his sense of pastoral theology. His eloquent but robust challenge to the Protestant Church over its insistence on Catholics in the military participating in Protestant religious services, and the opprobrium of Dublin Castle that it earned him, did not equal or surpass the jealousy and back-stabbing of some of his ‘brother bishops’. The author deftly exposes a wider range of circumstances surrounding Hussey’s departure from the presidency of Maynooth than is traditionally admitted. Indeed, such was the esteem in which Hussey was held in society that, notwithstanding his aforementioned clash with the Protestant Church and the state, the authorities provided a military guard of honour at his episcopal consecration in the church of St Nicholas of Myra on Francis Street in Dublin. It was the first occasion that a ‘papist prelate’ was so honoured by the officially Protestant state. The quality of this study overwhelms the very few minor typographical errors. Occasionally in the text, the author refers to the ‘Department’ instead of the correct nomenclature of Congregation of Propaganda Fide (for example on p.95). Also footnote 101 on p.92 does not provide the complete source reference. However, this volume provides a very good companion study to that of another remarkable and noteworthy bishop of Waterford and Lismore by the late Patrick Fagan, An Irish bishop in penal times...

Transforming Work: Early Modern Pastoral and Late Medieval Poetry. Katherine C. Little. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Pp. vii+256.

<i>Transforming Work: Early Modern Pastoral and Late Medieval Poetry</i>. Katherine C. Little. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Pp. vii+256.

Plurality of Self: Buddhist Anthropology and the Two Natures of Christ

AbstractThe union of divine and human in Jesus Christ was codified at the Council of Chalcedon. However, while this position makes good theological sense, in terms of soteriology, it remains a conceptual problem. How do two distinct entities combine into a single entity without the loss of their respective distinctiveness? This article recommends a move from a Greek metaphysic of “substance” to a Buddhist understanding of selfhood as emptiness. By understanding the self as an interweaving of multiple energies, rather than a fixed substance, Chalcedonian Christology can retain its soteriological integrity with a more helpful conceptual understanding of how two may become one.

Hateful Hills and Joyful Dread: Emotive “Filler Words” in the Old English Metrical Psalms

ABSTRACTThe poet-translator of the Old English Metrical Psalms is widely censured for (among other things) his allegedly mechanical use of filler-words to complete the metre in his lines. This article argues for a more positive purpose for many of these additions, especially those drawn from the semantic field of emotion. Additions to the poet's Latin source can function to reinforce for his Anglo-Saxon audience the theological sense of the psalms he translates, to add a degree of exegesis, and even (at times) to create a moment of poetic intensity. Such possibilities do not entirely acquit the poet of the charge of pedestrian verse production, but they do suggest that he has not always been given enough credit for his achievements. Within the context of his general approach to translation—which is sometimes thoughtful and always orthodox—this poet’s deployment of so-called filler words may frequently be defended as apt and occasionally as successful in its ambition.

Left Behind or Left Below? Parodies of Christian End‐Times Fiction in American Popular Culture

Christian dispensational ?end times? fiction has found particular pop culture currency through the success of the Left Behind series of post-rapture novels in the 1990s and early 2000s. This has led to a number of parodic re-readings of the novels in contemporary entertainment media. This article examines several recent parodies of Christian ?end times? fiction in American popular culture, including episodes of The Simpsons and American Dad, 2013 movie This is the End, graphic novels such as The Chronicles of Wormwood and Sword of My Mouth and Tom Perotta?s 2011 novel The Leftovers. These works critique ?end times? fiction, but do not abandon its central apocalyptic form. Their parody works as a theological critique of the tradition in three ways: through reimagining the role of clergy and media in a post-apocalyptic world, debating the hermeneutical position of dispensationalists, and commenting upon the role of popular culture in influencing contemporary apocalyptic thought. While the parodies are designed to entertain, each is also ?apocalyptic? in a theological sense, in that they claim to offer clear revelations of the true nature of the world.