The Book of Revelation

October 15, 2018

The subtitle of this new work from Beal (Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, Case Western Reserve Univ.; The Rise and Fall of the Bible) hints at his approach to the very lively Book of Revelation. The author begins with the circumstances of the text's "birth," a collision between Hebrew and pagan imagery combined with an existential dilemma of Judaism and its small sect of Jesus followers against an aggressive empire. As Christianity moves from holding this book at arm's length to a full embrace, it attempts--in vain--to tame it. Partly because of crises that followed the first millennium and also owing to writers such as Hildegard of Bingen who were able to exploit its imagery into illustration, Revelation hits its stride, as seen in the pictorial representations in the first edition of Martin Luther's New Testament. VERDICT Beal offers a compelling history that might leave readers wondering whether Revelation is an autobiography of our own making.--James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
Though very dubious about Revelation, Luther ultimately included it in the first German Bible. Furthermore, he allowed Lucas Cranach to illustrate it with 21 plates that made the translation an even bigger hit, as finger smudges in extant copies attest. The visionary text's lurid imagery has always drawn inordinate attention to it at the same time that, because it's a tissue of symbols without referents, it has vexed scholars and theologians. In Beal's enlightening, engrossing, and entertaining history of the New Testament's finale, the chapters expand upon milestones. Besides Cranach's creepy pictures, those include the book's hazy origins and its influences on Augustine's thinking about resurrection in The City of God; the apocalyptic visions of Hildegard of Bingen; the depictions of non-Christian religions and religious rituals. There is also discussion of Revelation as a grand masterpiece of American folk art, and modern-day movies, TV shows, novels, and songs that are rooted in rapture theology. Before and after those chapters, Beal compellingly likens Revelation to Frankenstein as a font of monsters and horror that just won't run dry.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)