Existential Threats: American Apocalyptic Beliefs in the Technological Era by Lisa Vox (review)

Existential Threats by Lisa Vox explores the history of apocalyptic belief in both Christian and secular America, especially relevant now as we confront climate crisis, the continuing threat of nuclear war, and—not least—a pandemic. Vox acquaints us with the fears and hopes of Americans who have contemplated the end of the world for over a century and a half, showing how closely these beliefs have been tied to ideas about religion, science, and technology.

Vox's basic thesis is that secular and religious thinking on the end of the world have much in common. Specifically, she claims that dispensational premillennialism—one of the forms of Christian fundamentalism in the United States—has had an outsized influence on not just religious thought, but on secular ideas as well.

Dispensational theology focuses on the book of Revelation and sees the second coming of Christ as a result of worldwide apocalypse. This implies that mankind is powerless to prevent the world's destruction, and we are wholly at God's mercy. There is a silver lining for Christians, however: true believers will be saved in the Millennium, the thousand-year rule of Christ that follows the apocalypse. It is a story of decline and ultimate redemption of those chosen by God.

Vox explains that America and Britain took very different paths in their beliefs about the fate of humanity. In Britain, those who contemplated the end of the world tended to be nihilistic: when the world ends and we with it, there's nothing left, no purpose or meaning. Americans, by contrast, have been more optimistic about end times, often finding a measure of redemption in which at least a few escape the final end. This is true even for secular Americans.

Of the many and diverse end times discussed, ranging from the rise of the robots to a fatal global pandemic, Vox focuses on two main threats: nuclear war and the environmental crisis, which she considers the dominant storylines interweaving science/technology and religion. Her concern is less about a particular method and more about how Americans have written and talked about it.

American historian Paul Boyer's When Time Shall Be No More (1992) ranks as a major work on the history of history of Christian end-time literature, and several more recent books similarly explore evangelical apocalyptic belief in America. Anthropologist/astronomer Anthony Aveni's Apocalyptic Anxiety (2016), looks beyond evangelicalism to the broader American cultural obsession with end time ideas. None of these books, however, has focused on technology and science and their interrelationship with religion that Vox so deftly discusses.

There is no question that these dispensational scenarios are widespread in America, but readers may be left wondering if dispensationalism is really the source of the American optimism that Vox has uncovered. Other American worldviews depict mankind very differently. Many evangelical Christians, for instance, have rejected premillennialism and believe that Christ's return is contingent upon a human-made peace. Likewise, liberal religionists and secularists have held strongly progressive ideas wherein Bible eschatology has no place whatsoever. In these alternative worldviews, hope in the future lies in human ingenuity, cooperation, and determination. Technology may be a cause of our downfall, but it is also frequently seen as our savior. These are definitely not premillennial ideas.

Despite these caveats, Vox's study shows extensive research, and she analyzes a huge collection of materials ranging over a century and a half, including fiction and non-fiction literature as well as movies and other media. The writing is a bit detail heavy in places, as if reportage alone can make her argument, but on the whole this is a very readable and informative book. Vox's treatment of the secular and the religious is especially welcome. Not only does she see both as crucially important elements in the American psyche, she demonstrates that they intersect in ways that are often not antagonistic. Vox has done a thorough...