Description
Book SynopsisRevelation is resistance literature, written to instruct early Christians on how to live as followers of Jesus in the Roman Empire. The Nonviolent Apocalypse uses modern examples and scholarship on nonviolence to help illuminate Revelation’s resistance, arguing that Revelation’s famously violent visions are actually acts of nonviolent resistance to the Empire. The visions form part of Revelation’s proclamation of God’s way as a just and life-giving alternative to the system constructed by Rome. Revelation urges its readers to pursue this radical form of living, engaging in nonviolent resistance to all that stands in the way of God’s vision for the world.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Nonviolent Apocalypse
Part One: Revelation’s Use of Nonviolence
1. Revelation as Resistance Literature
2. Jesus and the Cross: Promoting a New Kind of Power
3. Worship and Song: Preparing for Resistance
4. Visions of Destruction: Imagining the End of Empire
5. The New Jerusalem: Envisioning Another Way
Part Two: Revelation’s Call for Nonviolent Resistance
6. How to Resist an Empire
7. Enduring Resistance: Living Faithfully
8. Noncooperation: Refusing to Conform
9. Witness: Proclaiming Opposition
Part Three: When Revelation Isn’t Nonviolent
10. Dreams of Death and Destruction: Violent Language
11. From Balaam to the Beast: Dehumanizing Opponents
Conclusion: Revelation and Resistance
