Drama, General & Miscellaneous Drama, Anthologies
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Overview
Vision and Violence argues that throughout Western history, the Apocalypse has changed nothing but its guise - from God, to Reason, to History and then Nature - all the while holding us rapt with its prophecy of universal devastation. While in Christianity and Judaism it inspires efforts to uplift societies spiritually, the apocalyptic fantasy serves in secular thought - as in today's environmental movement - to bring about much-needed policy reforms. Vision and Violence is Arthur P. Mendel's effort to come to terms with the prospect of apocalypse. The book represents a search for the roots of apocalyptic thinking, its various manifestations through time, and the ultimate meaning of this perceived historical tendency toward violence. Much of the book is devoted to an examination of the persistence of the apocalyptic heritage from ancient Greek and Hebrew civilizations, through the religious revivals of the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment belief in progress, to its importance in Hegelian and Bolshevik thought, and finally to its expression today in the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Mendel concludes his remarkable book with an appeal for the more modest and humane philosophy of the "repair of the world," which, he argues, is central to biblical teaching. He hopes that this gradualist approach to change might prove more feasible in the long run than either the escapist mentality of the 1960s counterculture or the apocalyptic rumblings of modern fundamentalism. Vision and Violence is a learned work with a deeply moral purpose, a search for wisdom as much as it is a search for knowledge.Book Details
Published
December 31, 1992
Publisher
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c1992.
Pages
360
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780472064069