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85 i Joseph L. Mangina 5 God, Israel, and Ecclesia in the Apocalypse Introduction the apocalypse puzzles me. this strange work is “a cataract, a primeval forest, a demonic power, something directly down from Himalaya, absolutely Chinese, strange, mythological; i lack completely the means, the suction cups, even to assimilate this phenomenon, not to speak of presenting it adequately. What i receive is only a thin little stream and what i can then give out again is only a yet thinner extract of this little stream.”1 those words are not mine, but the young Karl Barth’s, and he was writing not about the apocalypse but about Calvin. yet his bafflement about the reformer matches mine about revelation—remarkably, the only book of the Bible on which Calvin never lectured. there is something else that puzzles me, however, and that is the church. the flaws of the church are all too clearly manifest. there is no need for me to rehearse them for you. and yet despite the church’s flaws, we confess our faith in her every time we recite the creed. the church (more precisely, Christ’s nuptial relation to the church) is what Paul in Ephesians calls a mega mysterion, a great mystery. the church is not simply an addendum to or consequence of the gospel. the church is itself a part of the gospel, and participates in the gospel’s character as a mysterion. that this should be true in Ephesians, or even, say, 1 Corinthians, with its high doctrine of the church as Christ’s body, does not surprise us. But is it the case for revelation? in this paper, i will argue that it is indeed the case. the mystery that is the apocalypsing of Jesus Christ includes the mystery of the church. in the victory of Jesus, the lamb, God is engaged in the apocalyptic 86 Joseph L. Mangina remaking of the world, and the ekklēsia is present at this new creation. she has her own distinctive role to play in the drama. and yet, curiously , it is not by inhabiting the role of “church” that she participates in it. rather, the church—in revelation, the churches—are drawn into their destiny by inhabiting the scriptural role of israel. apocalyptic reality is Jewish-messianic reality. as a consequence, those caught up in this reality cannot help but be Messiah’s people. therefore, i will try to set out some of the ways in which this is so, partly by exploring the theme of israel in particular passages of revelation , partly by offering a broader set of reflections on the relations among apocalypse, church, and history. Multiple questions present themselves. How can the apocalyptic church of John the seer’s time, expecting the imminent “end of the world,” be the same community as that which has lived and borne witness over two millennia? What relevance have John’s visions for a church that has a story, a past? More epigrammatically: what has apokalypsis to do with ekklēsia? While such questions cannot be resolved in a single essay, i hope that thinking of the church as israel may help us in framing them properly. My point of departure in developing this theme is a programmatic article written by George lindbeck in the late 1980s, simply “the Church.”2 this densely-argued piece pursues multiple agendas. it is a proposal about scriptural hermeneutics; it is a contribution to an ongoing research program on the role of narrative in theology; it seeks to advance the cause of Jewish-Christian dialogue. Most of all, however, it functions as a proposal in ecumenical theology, lindbeck’s particular vocation dating from his years as an official (lutheran) observer at the second vatican Council. at the heart of this essay is a lapidary and precisely worded definition of the church: “the messianic pilgrim people of God typologically shaped by israel’s story.”3 it will be worthwhile spending some time unpacking this definition. the phrase “pilgrim people” is a conscious echo of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the second vatican Council .4 in recent roman Catholic theology, it is frequently said that the idea of communion lies at the heart of the council’s understanding of the church.5 it was, however, the image of church as God’s pilgrim people that most impressed itself upon observers at the time. lindbeck’s essay is an attempt to give greater precision to this image—to...

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