Every generation of people think that their problems are the most important ever. As history flows without interruption and doomsday scenarios fail, the following generations focus on their own contemporary events, ignoring or underestimating the past. In this way people always see "signs" in their times and the end of the world is constantly a fresh subject.

This accessible and enlightening history provides insights into thefascinating genre of apocalyptic literature, showing how theapocalypse encompasses far more than popular views of the lastjudgment and violent end of the world might suggest. An accessible and enlightening history of the"apocalypses"--ancient Jewish and Christian works -- providingfresh insights into the fascinating genre of literature Shows how the apocalypses were concerned not only with popularviews of the last judgment and violent end of the world, but withreward and punishment after death, the heavenly temple, and therevelation of astronomical phenomena and other secrets ofnature Traces the tradition of apocalyptic writing through the MiddleAges, through to the modern era, when social movements stillprophesise the world’s imminent demise

"The ancient Egyptians would have known it as the sixth day of Pachon. The Mayans named it 4 Ahau 3 Kankin. To us it is 21 December, 2012. On this day, it is said, the world will come to an end. This is not the first time we've been told that our time is up. And - touch wood - it probably won't be the last. Religious and secular, past and present - Apocalypse covers each and every one of our prophesized dooms: featuring asteroids, Antichrists, solar flares, Singularities, Utopias, UFOs, Zoroastrians and Zapotecs, to mention but a small few. The result is a thorough history of one the most fascinating threads of our cultural existence: spanning from the first warnings of our ancient ancestors, to the contemporary (yet equally glum) forecasts for our future."--amazon.com

In the first comprehensive history of American evangelicalism to appear in a generation, Matthew Sutton shows how charismatic Protestant preachers, anticipating the end of the world, paradoxically transformed it. Narrating the story from the perspective of the faithful, he shows how apocalyptic thinking influences the American mainstream today.

How the political violence of modern jihad echoes the crises of western liberalism In this authoritative, accessible study, historian Suzanne Schneider examines the politics and ideology of the Islamic State (better known as ISIS). Schneider argues that today’s jihad is not the residue from a less enlightened time, nor does it have much in common with its classical or medieval form, but it does bear a striking resemblance to the reactionary political formations and acts of spectacular violence that are upending life in Western democracies. From authoritarian populism to mass shootings, xenophobic nationalism, and the allure of conspiratorial thinking, Schneider argues that modern jihad is not the antithesis to western neoliberalism, but rather a dark reflection of its inner logic. Written with the sensibility of a political theorist and based on extensive research into a wide range of sources, from Islamic jurisprudence to popular recruitment videos, contemporary apocalyptic literature and the Islamic State's Arabic-language publications, the book explores modern jihad as an image of a potential dark future already heralded by neoliberal modes of life. Surveying ideas of the state, violence, identity, and political community, Schneider argues that modern jihad and neoliberalism are two versions of a politics of failure: the inability to imagine a better life here on earth.

Religion. For thousands of years this thing has dictated which people should live and which people should die, what shape our buildings should have or what colors our garments should contain, what food people should eat or what words people should speak. If religion is the opium of the masses, then beliefs about the end of the world are like overdoses. People touched by such beliefs no longer rely on a hidden, personal and intimate god, contemplated upon from the safe distance of the beating human heart. They live with the promise of divine intervention at a grand scale on the current coordinates of space and time. This can be an exceptional motivator and a game changer in terms of civil obedience, both at an individual and collective level. In the name of an immediate and palpable deity people can commit shocking cruelties. However, such belief can also account for some of the most exceptional social developments in human history.

History as Apocalypse is a reenactment of the history of the Western consciousness from the Homeric and Biblica revolutions through Finnegans Wake. This occurs through a historical, literary, and theological analysis of the Christian epic tradition. While attention is focused primarily upon Dante, Milton, Blake, and Joyce, the Classical and Biblical foundations of the Christian epic are explored with the intention of discovering an organic unity in the evolution of the Western consciousness. Our primary epics are identified as revolutionary breakthroughs, not only as transformations of consciousness but also records of social revolutions. The Christian epic is both a consequence and a primary embodiment of the decisive historical revolutions, revolutions culminating with the ending of our historical evolution.