Approaching the Apocalypse

John Court was Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies and Head of Department at the University of Kent at Canterbury. A former Editor of the prestigious Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, he is the author and editor of many books in his own right which include: The Penguin Dictionary of the Bible, The New Testament World, Reading the New Testament and The Book of Revelation and the Johannine Apocalyptic Tradition.

"'From the Book of Daniel to the Left Behind novels of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, John M Court's Approaching the Apocalypse offers a fascinating history of the startling idea of the end of days within western cultural history. Covering a wealth of different historical and textual material, and opening a window on to 2000 years of Christian eschatological thinking, this lively survey ought to be recommended reading for undergraduate and graduate courses in both apocalyptic ideas and millenarian movements.' - John Walliss, Director, Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies and Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Religion, Liverpool Hope University This wide-ranging and accessible study of millennial thought and its implications for Christian history is part of the necessary rehabilitation of a doctrine whose significance for the intellectual history of Christianity has too often been relegated to the margins of scholarly concern. John Court's broad knowledge and thorough treatment make a welcome contribution to a better appreciation of this important feature of Christian theology. His book spans two thousand years, and focuses on a number of the key issues, such as the biblical origins, Montanism, the significance of the marking of the first millennium, the impact of Joachite ideas and the millennial dynamic of North American Christianity. Christian theologians down the centuries may have liked to think that they had dispensed with the doctrine of the millennium by showing how it misrepresented the New Testament. The widespread influence of such ideas only demonstrates the impossibility of pinning down such an allusive apocalyptic image and the pervasiveness of themes with millennial import in the foundation texts of Christianity.' - Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford"