Bringing It All Back Home: Apocalypse, Colonialism, and The Study of Religion

Abstract

In the study of religion, it will not take long before students come across the term “apocalypse” or “apocalypticism.” The place that such terms have made in the study of religion suggests that they refer to very tangible aspects of religious traditions. Moreover, the vast majority of scholarship, by way of comparison, reinforces the idea that the category apocalypse and apocalypticism represent a genre of writing native to Christianity and Judaism. Thus, studies of so-called apocalyptic texts often engage in comparisons of other “apocalyptic” materials contained within the Judeo-Christian tradition. These studies often base their comparisons on literary themes, and in the process participate in the tacit reification of the sui generis category of apocalypse. In an attempt to approach apocalypticism and the category apocalypse in a different light, and using the Book of Revelation as a model, this study attempts to account for the social and historical roots of apocalyptic texts as they occur under conditions of foreign domination. Comprised essentially of two primary sections, this analysis begins by establishing the theoretical framework first by considering the context of colonialism as a discourse that defines the social and political environment in question, and second by establishing the intellectual framework of this analysis in postcolonial and performance theory. By utilizing these theoretical frameworks it is possible to analyze the complex sets of relationships that are active in the colonial frontier. The second half of this analysis is concerned exclusively with historical data. First, by describing the provincial territories under the Roman Empire, discussing first i how Rome represented itself as a legitimate form of rule for its subjects, and second how provincial cults interpreted their new political circumstances. As a final provocation this analysis will conclude with a selective comparison of the book of Revelation with the modern American political movement known as the Tea Party. In this analysis, we will look specifically at how the social and political concerns of both Revelation and the rhetoric and language of the Tea Party find similar expressions in their respective discourses. In addition to the similarities of the respective data, this thesis will also argue that categories such as “apocalypse” and “religion” mystify the data in question, placing it outside the confines of the intelligible, social world. ii