Rome's Propaganda Machine

Christianity has plenty to say about the future and what the end of the world might look like -- though some think it says a lot more than others.

Christians have, in fact, been accused of being obsessed with end times, so much so that they stop caring about the world they’re in right now. And sometimes that’s true. 

But apocalyptic Christians aren’t the only ones dwelling on all this. Plenty of us are more interested than ever - especially this year! - in how the world will end. The stories we tell ourselves in culture are becoming increasingly apocalyptic. 

Why is that? 

This episode is brought to you by our season sponsor Zondervan Academic, publishers of the Collected Essays of N.T. Wright.

LINKS

• Have a read through The Book of Revelation.
• Watch Australia’s Secretary for Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo’s, full speech on ‘Securing Australia’ here. 
• Get to know our guest, Alissa Wilkinson from Vox
  • And read Alissa’s book How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, Politics and the End of the World
  • Pssst… here’s an except of the book, a chapter on ‘The Myth of the Secular Apocalypse
• Get to know our guest, Professor Richard Bauckham, one of greatest living theologians.
  • Professor Bauckham has written many, many books. But since our discussion revolved around the Book of Revelation, you should check out his book on that subject, The Theology of the Book of Revelation 
• Here’s the 2010 New York Times article Alissa mentions by Chuck Klosterman, My Zombie, Myself: Why modern life feels rather undead.
• For a more in-your-face example of how pop culture continues to use biblical imagery from The Book of Revelation, just watch the trailer for the 2016 blockbuster, X-Men.
  • The film’s director Bryan Singer told the LA Times that Apocalypse - an immensely powerful and ancient mutant - views himself not as a mutant but as a god. Singer says, quote “For all intents and purposes, he is potentially the God of the Old Testament. After being buried for 4,000 years, he awakens to a society that has become interconnected and developed hubris. Humans have created nuclear weapons and assumed godlike proportions in the buildings they build and the things they create. So he sets about to eradicate those things and build what he considers a cleaner, purer world.”
• Check out Alissa’s Syllabus for the End of the World - her list of stories that tell us how to live during -and after - a pandemic.
• Here’s the Al Jazeera tape of Harold Camping’s apocalypse prediction in 2011
• Here’s the Left Behind book series… but John reckons you should skip it. Read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Series instead.
• More on the US National Evangelical Leaders survey of 2011, which found that 65 per cent of evangelical church leaders in the US identify with premillennial theology, which grounds this rapture idea.
• Watch REM’s Michael Stipe’s full Coronavirus message.
• More on the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of 2020, “Doomscrolling”
• John quotes from the pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) Psalms of Solomon in this episode’s 5 Minute Jesus. Read more about them here.

Movies and TV referenced in this episode

• Game of Thrones
• The Walking Dead
• Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, and the “very fine” movie.
• Wagner’s Ring Cycle
• The Hunger Games 

EXTRAS

Here’s John Dickson and Professor Bauckham’s discussion on ‘the Millennium’ in the Book of Revelation. Listen here. 

WIN! 

We’re giving away 20 copies of John's book, 666 And All That: The Truth about the End Times, which he co-wrote with Dr Greg Clarke. If you’d like to win a copy, you just need to be one of the first 20 new subscribers to the Undeceptions e-newsletter. So quick! Head to undeceptions.com, scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and subscribe now. We'll be in touch with the winners in the first week of January.