Apocalypse and the End of Days

Catalog description

This course examines ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts and the ongoing influence of apocalyptic ideas in modern religious movements and contemporary culture. Jewish and Christian apocalypses express their authors’ most profound thoughts, anxieties, and hopes about the mysteries of the creation of the world, the relationship between God and humanity, the nature of evil, and, most prominently, expectations about the impending end of the world. This course explores the social and historical setting of these texts and provides students with the tools to decode the symbolic vocabulary of apocalypses. The modern fascination with apocalypse is discussed alongside modern religious movements and contemporary films that are heavily steeped in the vocabulary and theology of apocalypse.