Revelation and the Politics of Apocalyptic Interpretation

1. What Has the Spirit Been Saying?: Theological and Hermeneutical Reflections on the Book of Revelation

11 i Michael J. Gorman 1 What Has the Spirit Been Saying? Theological and Hermeneutical Reflections on the Reception/Impact History of the Book of Revelation “if you’re going to marry the church, you ought to know who she’s been with over the years.” so begins the study of church history at st. Mary’s seminary, as my Catholic colleague addresses his first-year students, all would-be priests. one might well apply that advice to the study of revelation , whether or not one is fond enough of the book to marry it, à la luther and Galatians. if one is going to spend any time with the apocalypse , and especially if one thinks, as i do, that the church should embrace it enthusiastically,1 one ought to know something of its story. For some, revelation’s story, its history of interpretation, is part of the darker side of Christian history. G. K. Chesterton’s oft-quoted comment expresses this perspective well: “[t]hough st. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”2 so also luther’s remark, centuries earlier: “some have even brewed it [revelation] into many stupid things out of their own heads.”3 and more recently, Eugene Boring has said that “no other part of the Bible has provided such a happy hunting ground for all sorts of bizarre and dangerous interpretations,”4 while luke Johnson laments the book’s reception history at some length, saying: Few writings in all of literature have been so obsessively read with such generally disastrous results as the Book of revelation (= the apocalypse). its history of interpretation is largely a story of tragic misinterpretation, resulting from a fundamental misapprehension of the work’s literary form and purpose. insofar as its arcane symbols have fed the treasury of prayer and poetry, its influence has been benign. More often, these 12 Michael J. Gorman same symbols have nurtured delusionary systems, both private and public , to the destruction of their fashioners and to the discredit of the writing.5 or, in a nutshell: revelation is “arguably the most dangerous book in the history of Christendom.”6 not everyone shares this sentiment. Judith Kovacs, for instance, while acknowledging the problems with revelation and its interpretation , says that “[o]ver time, the book has provided a warrant for protest against oppressive political and religious systems, a guide for life in the present, and a resource for worship” and that its “reception history has some lessons to teach us” for our own day.7 i would especially emphasize that the history of interpreting revelation has not led only to dangerous and delusionary systems. it has also produced some of the most sublime music and some of the most penetrating visual art in human history. it has also expressed the quest for answers to some of humanity’s most profound questions about God, the future, and the nature of evil. Witness, for instance, Bernard McGinn’s riveting study Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil.8 My own fascination with revelation and its reception history began thirty years ago in studies with Bruce Metzger at Princeton. Metzger regularly included references to musical, artistic, political, and other interpretations of revelation over the centuries. When i began teaching revelation, first as Metzger’s assistant and then on my own, i did the same thing. For twenty years now, i have offered a course entitled “the Book of revelation and its interpreters.” over the years, my own reading, coupled with student presentations and papers, has spanned the interpretive gamut from the church fathers to medieval theologians to the salvation army to contemporary Christian music to graphic novels (what used to be called “comic books”)—and everything in between. in this essay i reflect theologically and hermeneutically on revelation ’s history of interpretation, which i will refer to as both reception history and impact history, with a slight preference for the latter. after some general comments about reception/impact history as a theological discipline, followed by some observations about the various kinds of interpretations of revelation and some suggestions about the reasons for that great variety, i will offer seven (naturally) theological and hermeneutical reflections on the reception/impact history of this last book of the Bible. What Has the Spirit Been Saying? 13 Reception/Impact History as Theological and Hermeneutical...