Apocalypse And Paradigm

1. The Revelation of John exerts an almost irresistible attraction to those who are intrigued by its intricate and complex structure (JPR, p. vi). 2. Despite its name, appears to cancel as much as it reveals, disclosing its mysteries only to those patient enough to pore diligently over its every word, its every peculiar turn of phrase (JPR, p. vi) 3. The Book of Revelation is written now, in our own history and in our own city, in our own lives and in the lives of our children and our descendants in the pervasive emotional shadow of our failed responsibility and in the dependency of the evil acting on our behalf. The time for the Book of Revelation is "always"; the site for it is "everywhere"; the understanding of it is "impossible"; the feelings are overwhelming (Introduction). 4. A conflicted world of realities and an allegorical world of mental fantasies, like a popular TV reality show, are offering a kaleidoscopic framework of paradoxes: Chaos and order, helplessness and hope, destruction and justice, war and peace, insane devilish actions and healthy, spiritual goodness, unbalanced lives of people with mental and physical disabilities and their care providers, and the expression and context of the devil and the good- all these are the text and context of the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse (Introduction) 5. The Book of Revelation, more than a strategy and form of communication, is a paradigm: It attends not only logical needs of comprehension but also structural human needs that are essential for interactions within a social and human context (p. 4). 6. The negative forces of the spirit fight against the positive forces within the same human individual in the struggle of eternal life. In fact, the earthly proximity of good and evil reverses the reality and frequently darkens the conscience and moral understanding. The essence of good is absurdly assaulted by the unscrupulous immoral acts of evil, an assault that leads our mind to the apocalyptical abysm of absolute failure and profound sickness, reflected in the confrontational experience of spiritual brightness versus material darkness, rational versus absurd behaviors, a natural saintly rapture of living versus a vulgarly immoral rupture of life, the functional beauty of sex versus the psychopathic abuse of lust. No religious institution and no sacred name is free of the human behaviors frequently possessed by the beast, such as within the Legionaries of Christ and the Holy See when both were profaned by the universal plague... pointing to... (the) spiritual massacre of many children through continual sexual abuse (p.14). 7. Evil reverses the world of reality, without reason and justice. Evil establishes an imaginary court with its own judgment and summary punishment in a realm of an obscure frame of racism and discrimination (p. 14) 8. The Apocalypse appears to be the framework of the paradoxical struggle between death and life, chaos and order, suffering and love, helplessness and hope. The transformative struggle is clearly illustrated in political history (15). 9. The consequences of this convoluted Johannine world... extends into the future (p.16). 10. The book is an attempt to connect in many trials humanity with God within a context of social, political, and cultural events in a history tinted with suffering and oppression. The scenes and motives complete the final step of the redemptive covenant and assure a human future that rewards the faithful worshippers of God with His heavenly presence (p.27).

The influence of scientific paradigms is much more widespread than usually realized. According to Harris, it permeates the whole of the culture of which science is an integral part. The paradigm of Newtonian science was essentially mechanistic and atomistic, and thinking in these terms not only penetrated philosophy, economics, morals and politics for the next three centuries, but remains latent in 20th century ways of thought. As Harris illustrates, the Newtonian paradigm is obsolete in confronting today's global problems. While Planck and Einstein introduced a new scientific revolution at the beginning of the century, it has yet to be reflected in common habits of thinking. It is now urgently necessary to adopt the new conceptual scheme in other fields as it has come to dominate science if global issues are to be resolved. A provocative analysis that will be of particular interest to students, teachers, and policymakers involved with public policy, the history of science and philosophy, and ethics.

This book traces the use of apocalyptic images in contemporary Canadian fiction.

Annotation Describes the therapist behaviors necessary for the effective application of progressive relaxation training.

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

This interdisciplinary collection of essays focuses on critical and theoretical responses to the apocalypse of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century cultural production. Examining the ways in which apocalyptic discourses have had an impact on how we read the world’s globalised space, the traumatic burden of history, and the mutual relationship between language and eschatological belief, fifteen original essays by a group of internationally established and emerging critics reflect on the apocalypse, its past tradition, pervasive present and future legacy. The collection seeks to offer a new reading of the apocalypse, understood as a complex – and, frequently, paradoxical – paradigm of (contemporary) Western culture. The majority of published collections on the subject have been published prior to the year 2000 and, in their majority of cases, locate the apocalypse in the future and envision it as something imminent. This collection offers a post-millennial perspective that perceives "the end" as immanent and, simultaneously, rooted in the past tradition.

A Companion to the Premodern Apocalypse offers a range of essays regarding apocalyptic expectations and apprehensions from antiquity to early modernity.

Apocalyptic Transformation explores how one the oldest sense-making paradigms, the apocalyptic myth, is altered when postmodern authors and filmmakers adopt it. It examines how postmodern writers adapt a fundamentally religious story for a secular audience and it proposes that even as these writers use the myth in traditional ways, they simultaneously undermine and criticize the grand narrative of apocalypse itself.