Apocalypse & the End of Time

Author(s): Richard Fenn

Source: Daedalus , Spring, 2003, Vol. 132, No. 2, On Time (Spring, 2003), pp. 108-112
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027845

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Richard Fenn
Apocalypse & the end of time
Jtveligious traditions seek to turn the
mere sequence of moments and events
into a significant past, present, and fu
ture. Christianity, like Judaism and Is
lam, has created a sacred history - an
account that binds together the mo
ments of life into a continuous narrative
with a beginning, middle, and end - of
which those who are included in the au
thorized version of such a myth may see
their own time on earth as a part. If indi
viduals live according to the prevailing
myth, they may pass the test of time -
and enjoy life eternal.
On the other hand, those who fail the
test must suffer the passage of time - a
world that is forever disappearing. Only
those who live in accordance with the
transcendent pattern revealed by the
larger story, who conform to its plan and
welcome the end, are fit to be relieved of
time and its burdens. All others will be
Richard Fenn, an ordained priest in the Episcopal
Church, is the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of
Christianity and Society at Princeton Theological
Seminary and editor of "Religion and Theology
in Interdisciplinary Perspective. " The author of
"The Return of the Primitive" (2001) and "The
End of Time" (1997), he is currently working to
develop the descent into hell into a spiritual disci
pline.
108 D dalus Spring 2003
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eliminated in cosmic battle, or con
signed to eternal punishment in the next
life, or relegated to the eternally recur
ring wheel of moments and events.
Biblical prophets speak of a day that
comes like a thief in the night, or with
the blast of a trumpet, suddenly and
with fateful consequences for all except
the superbly well prepared. Such visions
of the end conjure up some of the disad
vantages that inhere in the passage of
time : the surprise of the unprecedented,
the bewilderment that accompanies the
discovery of the unique. But they also
promise a partial immunity to the pas
sage of time : There will be a new Jerusa
lem to replace the old.
A here is a price to be paid, however, for
the apocalyptic triumph over time. The
self must be subdued, the soul fitted into
an authorized version of the sacred sto
ry. In some versions of Christian apoca
lypse, the individual is absorbed on the
final day into a collectivity engaged in
continual adoration of the only One who
has any remaining claim to uniqueness,
authority, and finality. That One alone
has a claim to being unprecedented, hav
ing been from the beginning : the only
One whose Word is final and whose acts
are irreversible. There is no higher sov
ereignty.
 Indeed, some Christian apocalyptic the individual the most radical forms of Apocalypse
scenarios view the end as a time in self-loss. Thus Sikh and Islamic terror- & the end
of time
which there will be no surviving rivals to ists immolate themselves in suicide at
one's own faith: no non-Christians, no tacks while imagining themselves as
infidels. Pat Robertson foresees a cosmic about to be transported into a world be
battle pitting "the people of the Babylo yond time, as the unfaithful are left to
nian humanistic and occultic traditions" behold their own time running out.
against "the people of the Abrahamic, It is no wonder that Muslims should
monotheistic tradition."1 When the bat hate the Christian West, exemplified in
tle is over, the only people left standing the power of the United States. No cul
will be those whose thoughts, words, ture appreciates having its own claims to
and deeds conform to what Robertson uniqueness and superiority challenged
has in mind when he speaks of the by a rival culture that makes similar
'Abrahamic' tradition. But even those claims. Thus Rome and Jerusalem hated
Jews who do survive Armageddon will each other, and the Nazi advocates of a
have to become Christians. Robertson's millennial Reich could stand no rival
God will be all in all. claim either from Jews or, in the end,
Because an apocalyptic vision like this Christians.
seeks to exorcise the complexities of the On the last day, however, all these ri
social order, the prospect of a soul freedvalries will be settled - such is the apoca
from oppressive spirits becomes a war lyptic promise. There will be no more
rant for Robertson's co-religionists to hatred, no more suffering; no more fail
impose their will on each individual's ure, defeat, rejection - only vindication.
psyche. Some religious traditions indeed But in their moment of triumph, caught
predicate apocalyptic hope on a lifetime up in awe, wonder, and praise, those
of self-abnegation and the renunciation saved must cast down their crowns
of all individual markers of significance around the glassy sea. There is no room
and distinction. in the end time for individual distinction
Even ostensibly secular societies have and self-assertion, but merely for adora
exploited the promise of such an apoca tion of someone far beyond the self.

u?
lyptic purification. Certainly the millen
nial rhetoric of the Third Reich was in mder the auspices of the apocalyptic
formed by the legacy of the conquista imagination, a plague in Egypt becomes
dors in creating a Christian 'new world' the beginning of redemption for a peo
based on ethnic cleansing. In Hitler's ple, as their sacrifices ensure that the an
Germany, there were wholesale attempts gel of death will pass over them and slay
to remove those who might signify dif their Egyptian overlords. The murder of
ference, whether they were Jewish, Gyp an Egyptian taskmaster becomes the
sy, or otherwise marked with the signs of event that triggers the exodus of the
uniqueness. In the end, there would have same people from Egypt across the Red
been no Jew or Gentile, no Christian or Sea, into the wilderness on their way to a
non-Christian, but only the Aryan. better future. The death of a Jewish
Not surprisingly, the most narcissistic prophet on a cross becomes the begin
elements in apocalyptic belief require of ning of a new exodus from the slavery
that is imposed by law.
i Pat Robertson, The New World Order (Dallas, To depict such stories of restoration,
Tex. : Word Publishing, 1991), 258. reversal, and redemption is one function

D dalus Spring 2003 109

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Richard of the apocalyptic imagination : it en
on n
' sures that no event, no matter how in the young or to domesticate women,
time unique and devastating, is felt theto be irre
apocalyptic imagination reveals that
versible (in contravention of the
common-sense expectation that
flows in one direction only - from
to future).
Societies also have sacralized their his seems threatened with extinction, the
tories in order to create the illusion that apocalyptic imagination is liable to flare
they, too, can transcend the passage of
time. The young represent the irrevers
ibility of time ; they pose a standing
threat of innovation and change. There
fore most, perhaps all, social systems try
to initiate the young into a story that
spans the generations and incorporates
the living and the dead into a spiritual
community that transcends time.
In patriarchal societies, the authorized
version of sacred history typically re
gards women, the young, and those who
think for themselves as having energies
and commitments that flow outside the
authorized channels. In such societies,
danger to the social order is thought to
come from somewhere outside the sys
tem - from the bush or neighboring vil
lages, from distant city-states and for
eign empires, from infidels and alien re
ligious movements. Such societies may
therefore employ spies or a priesthood to
purify themselves of corrupting influ
ences. They keep a lookout for external
threats, for superhuman and subhuman
beings, and also for alien ideas, diseases,
foods, and suspicious strangers who are
diabolically difficult to distinguish from
the pure of heart.
At a time when churches in the United
States are having difficulty distinguish
ing good from bad priests, and the gov
ernment is on the lookout for 'sleeper
cells' of foreign terrorists, it is no acci
dent that the apocalyptic imagination
informs public entertainments and pop
ular books. Especially when sacrifices
fail to avert danger and death, or when
rituals fail to create faith and obedience
all of these dangers, internal and exter
nal, time
threaten the very survival of the
society.
past
At times of crisis, when a way of life
up with special force. In these circum
stances, predictions of an imminent end
take on new plausibility, and people may
prepare for a war to end all wars. The cri
sis may be abrupt and spectacularly de
structive, like the one that occurred in
the United States on September n, 2001.
Or the crisis may be more protracted and
hidden from view, as in the case of spiri
tual communities that feel themselves
besieged by outside influences.
For instance, the children of many
Christian fundamentalists in America
are exposed to the images, songs, and
symbols of an insidiously corrupting
popular culture - which leads some par
ents to long for the kind of Armageddon
foreseen by evangelical preachers like
Pat Robertson. The subjection of Sunni
Muslims in his native Saudi Arabia to
similar sorts of secular temptations has
provoked Osama bin Laden into attack
ing the West. Pundits who argue that the
cure for Islamic radicalism is more expo
sure in Islamic schools to the secular and
democratic ideals of the West are sug
gesting as a remedy what has in fact been
the source of Islamic despair that their
own communities are running out of
time.
In liturgy and spectacle, in epics and
entertainment, prophets and scribes
make the flow of time seem more con
tinuous, especially when it has been seri
ously broken by disaster. As with the
construction of a fictional narrative,
writers fit the pieces of time slowly back

HO D dalus Spring 2003

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together.2 Thus the scribes of the first
century c.E. took the anomalous and un precedent and prediction : for the mean- 0/iz-^T
finished life of Jesus and gave it prece
dents in Moses and Elijah, David and
Solomon, while projecting it into a glori
ous future of return, restoration, and re
venge. The scribal community similarly
took the destruction of Jerusalem and fit
it into the apocalyptic narrative of the
destruction and return of once and fu
ture cities.
At the same time, once a society begins
to live in the shadow of apocalyptic ex
pectation, prophets and scribes, com
mentators and pundits, begin to search
for latent or disguised signs that time is
running out. Some search for signs of
internal defection and subversion, oth
ers for the intrusion of alien ideas and
people, in order to issue warnings about
what is becoming imminent. They in
quire of ancient apocalyptic books and
oracles, of sibyls and divines, who re
membered the future and predicted it in
the past: an exercise in retroactive fore
sight.
Such defenses against the sheer force
of time allow a society to draw a line
between those in their midst who are
following the authorized version of the
sacred story, and those who are follow
ing alien sources of inspiration. It is
these latter, the apostates and the faith
less, or - in the lexicon of the Christian
Right - the secular humanists and the
Christians in liberal churches, who are a
sinister fifth column undermining the
foundations of society and preventing
the people of God from opposing the
work of Satan.
In the weeks after September n, a vari
ety of Christian commentators fulfilled
the traditional function of the scribal
2 Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending : Stud
ies in the Theory of Fiction (Oxford : Oxford Uni
versity Press, 2000), 17.1 am indebted to Mi
chael Wood for this reference.
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community by searching the past for Apocalypse
ing of signals and messages, of clues and
signs, that many had noticed but which
relatively few had explicitly understood
or announced. For some, America's war
against terrorism became part of the an
cient struggle between East and West,
Greece and Persia, the people of Babylon
and the people of Israel. There is no
place in such a story for the United
States to sacrifice its sovereignty to a col
lective body such as the UN : no reason
to consult with allies, to avoid the use of
nuclear arms, or to restrain from pre
emptive strikes. Here again is Pat Rob
ertson : " An independent America could
point out Satan's lies... if America goes
down, all hope is lost to the rest of the
world."3
With the end in sight, the old rules are
of little use, and it makes little difference
what Moses or any other traditional au
thority may have said. Even religious ob
servance offers no guarantee of final per
fection. Aliens may be friendly but dan
gerous, and evil mimics the good. When
it is hard to distinguish allies from foes, a
charismatic leader may well emerge, for
whom no customary title is sufficient,
and who calls on his or her followers to
undertake new duties, take on new risks,
and to make sacrifices without the guar
antee of immediate success or reward.
Charismatic leaders - like Robertson,
like bin Laden - offer their followers
new opportunities for self-denial and
self-immolation, while promising com
mensurate rewards at the end of time.
1 o live in the expectation that time will
end permits the expression of chronic,
anticipatory mourning for a world about
to be lost, and supports a keen public in
terest in the history and archaeology of
lost worlds. There is no way to know
3 Robertson, The New World Order, 256.
D dalus Spring 2003 111
Richard who is going to make the final cut in his apocalypse is expected finally to liberate
oennn tory, and who is going to be left behind people from the spirits that have pos
time once and for all. As Frank Kermode sug sessed their souls. But it also removes
gests, the apocalyptic notion of a critical
any basis for personal freedom : only the
period of transition has been changed orthodox and right-minded will survive.
into a sense of our own day as being "an It is not surprising that the radical reli
age of perpetual crisis in morals and pol gious Right in this country continues to
itics. And so, changed by our special beat its apocalyptic drums to mobilize
pressures, subdued by our skepticism, support for conflict in the Middle East.
the paradigms of apocalypse continue to What is surprising is the willingness
lie under our ways of making sense of even of liberal, mainline churches to
the world."4 continue to keep apocalyptic visions in
As the names of Jonestown, Waco, and their arsenal of belief. There has hardly
Heaven's Gate should remind us, apoca been a century in the last two millennia
lyptic demands for self-immolation have when these beliefs did not hearten the
been openly pursued by a not insignifi poor and the despairing - but they have
cant number of Americans. We need also encouraged the vicious and the vio
also to consider the increasing populari lent to believe that time is on their side.
ty of Eastern religious notions of a self These beliefs have done enough damage
eventually to be dissolved into the ocean in the last two thousand years to warrant
of the cosmos, finally to be relieved of fundamental rethinking on the part of
the burdens of time that accompany a the mainline churches.
separate existence. For those who find What might encourage the mainline
the present world either offering too lit churches to divest themselves of these
tle in the way of satisfaction or too much apocalyptic beliefs that have long en
in the way of uncertainty, apocalypses couraged ethnic and national hatreds?
satisfy the desire to wipe out the world It might help to recall that dreams of a
and, with it, the last vestiges of the sin pitched battle between East and West
gular self. were Hellenistic and Mesopotamian be
Thus the apocalyptic imagination not fore they were biblical. It might also help
only illustrates Marx's aphorisms about to recall that they were part of Virgil's
religion being "the sigh of the oppressed imperial myth of the Trojans who left
creature" and "the heart of a heartless the ashes of their own city and sailed for
world" ; it also legitimates an assault on the shores of Italy : apocalyptic visions of
the psyche. That assault is disguised, a Roman empire that would never run
however, as a last-ditch attempt to re out of space or time.
move an oppressive force that threatens There is nothing, in short, inherently
not only the society but the individual. Jewish or Christian or Muslim about
In this respect the apocalyptic vision apocalyptic imagery. And if our religious
follows the inner logic of rites of exor leaders want to defuse the potential for
cism, especially those that focus on murderous conflicts between rival cul
young women who refuse to be domesti tures, they would do well to uproot the
cated or on children who claim to have remnants of the apocalyptic imagination
their own sources of inspiration and au in their own traditions - and disavow the
thority. Like a collective exorcism, the fantasy that a final orgy of violence will
liberate the faithful, once and for all,
4 Kermode, The Sense of an Ending, 28. from the burdens of time.

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