Dread and Hope

Joshua Wise

doi:10.5771/9781978708174

Summary

Christianity was born in the midst of great expectation and fear about the world’s future. The existing Jewish paradigm of the coming Messiah, his antithesis, and the initiation of the coming age set the stage for Christian beliefs about the end of the current age. However, the unexpected death and resurrection of Jesus caused that paradigm to be reformed within the burgeoning Christian faith, reshaping hopes, and reworking old patterns.

Dread and Hope explores the ways in which those old paradigms were challenged by Jesus’s death and resurrection, how the resulting eschatological landscape was understood within Christianity, and how modern popular culture has consumed and modified various components of Christian Hope. Joshua Wise examines how the central Christian eschatological themes such as the Antichrist, the Great Persecution, Heaven, and Hell have both been transformed and preserved in novels, television, films, and video games. Drawing on works such as 1984, Diablo, The Stand, What Dreams May Come, and the Fallout series, Dread and Hope considers how the human fears and desires shaped by Christian beliefs are expressed in popular culture.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-9787-0816-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-9787-0817-4
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 164
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
1. The Setting of the Book of Daniel No access
2. The Beginnings of Christian Eschatological Inquiry No access
3. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Secular Collapse: Preliminary Discussion No access
3. Dystopia and Comedy No access
4. Two Readings of the Collapse No access
5. The Collapse Considered No access
6. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Biblical Sources of the Evil One No access
3. The Christian Acceptance of the Antichrist No access
4. The Antichrist in Church Tradition No access
5. Terminology No access
6. Popular Cultural Formulations of the Antichrist No access
7. The Antichrist Considered No access
8. Conclusion No access
9. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Second Coming in Church Tradition No access
3. The Second Coming in Popular Culture No access
4. The Second Coming Considered No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Jewish Sources of the Resurrection No access
3. The Resurrection in Christian Theology No access
4. The Resurrection in Popular Culture No access
5. The Resurrection Considered No access
6. Conclusion No access
7. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Biblical Sources of the Last Judgment No access
3. The Final Judgment in Church Tradition No access
4. The Final Judgment in Popular Culture No access
5. The Last Judgment Considered No access
6. Conclusion No access
7. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Hebrew Scriptures No access
3. Resituating the Eschatological Fire No access
4. Eschatological Fire in Church Tradition No access
5. Hell in Popular Culture No access
6. Hell Considered No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. The Origins of Heaven No access
3. Heaven in Church Tradition No access
4. Heaven in Popular Culture No access
5. Heaven Considered No access
6. Notes No access
1. Notes No access
1. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 151 - 158
Index No access Pages 159 - 162
About the Author No access Pages 163 - 164