LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Student Research Project

Becky Nelson
Dr. Craig White
LITR 5731
4 December 2001

Journal on the Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Imagery as Expressed Within the Minority Experience

I. Introduction

               Going into this research project, I had in mind the apocalyptic imagery I’d noticed in African-American and American Indian writing and the vague idea that "apocalyptic" meant some sort of incomprehensible imagery used by an oppressed group as a sort of code language. I knew this was a sadly inadequate definition, and I wanted to know more about the meaning of the words "apocalyptic" and "apocalypse." I also wanted to read about the different eschatological ideas that I imagined existed within various traditions, rather than simply the apocalyptic ideas prevalent in contemporary fundamentalist Christian rhetoric.

I found, while doing research for this journal, that if you ask someone to describe the words "apocalypse" or "apocalyptic," most of the time they begin to tell you about the currently popular Left Behind series written by Christian writers Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. When I told one of my friends about my project for this class, we began talking about the LaHaye/Jenkins series, and she said, "All the minorities get killed in those books." I thought that was interesting if true. I personally have not read this series, but would like to in order to see exactly what the books are about and whether or not my friend’s comment is correct.

My journal is divided into several sections. I have attempted to at least touch on the idea of apocalypse within all the minority groups we have studied this semester. You will find short reviews of books, websites, and articles. (When I review an article, book, or website, or briefly describe its relevance to my research, please note that I do not give the full bibliographic information until the Works Cited page at the end.) There is much information about this topic, and I’ve only barely begun to uncover the stories waiting to be told.

II. Defining the "Apocalypse" or "Apocalyptic" and Its Background

               In beginning this project, I decided that I had to define what the words "apocalyptic" and "apocalypse" mean. Besides looking up the words in the OED, I started by reading a book that I have at home on ancient apocalyptic texts. My brief review of that book follows.

Apocalyptic by Leon Morris

In this work Morris defines apocalyptic language by saying that it provides a "fresh" revelation (13), a revelation outside of the already written law. He says that it is language that "reveal[s] what has been hidden" (19). Apocalyptic language is, then, by definition, language that is outside the dominant social construct.

               Morris discusses three essential elements that bring about apocalyptic writing: 1) that a group of people think of themselves as a "righteous remnant" that will persevere till the end and still remain God’s chosen people, 2) that the "righteous remnant" are in subjection to those they consider evildoers, and 3) that there has been a general lack of direct communication with God or prophecy so that one of the group will finally attempt to explain the ways of God to man as best they can (23-25). Combine these elements with the circumstances of people who are living under "intolerable conditions" (28), and Morris says you have the makings of apocalypse.

               Morris also mentions some other basic components of apocalyptic language. One of those components is dualism: there is evil versus good, this age versus the future age, and the imperfect versus the perfect (47-50). Along with dualism, Morris also mentions that divine visitation is a part of apocalyptic imagery (49). This part of Morris’ text was particularly interesting to me because both dualism and divine visitation can be seen in the story of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Dualism is also present in some of Toni Morrison’s writing, Sula in particular, so this provides an interesting connection to writers from our course.

               Morris’ book, however, is unsatisfactory in that he wants the New Testament apocalyptic passages not to be "true" apocalyptic. He reasons that, while passages such as Mark 13 (considered by some to be the "little apocalypse") and the book of Revelation have their apocalyptic elements, they also bode evil for Israel, and that goes against a Jewish apocalyptic; therefore, according to Morris, they can’t be apocalyptic (76). Morris, however, fails to deal with the fact that, while New Testament books come out of Jewish tradition, their writers are now Christian, and Christian apocalyptic would, by definition, be attempting to overthrow the old world order.

For the most part, I found this book helpful in defining the tenets of ancient apocalyptic language; however, Morris holds, for some reason, to the idea that anything outside of Jewish writing cannot be apocalyptic, and I beg to differ.

Besides Morris’ book, I also consulted the following text. I did not read the entire book, only portions that I thought were particularly relevant. The following is not a review, but rather a report on one of the sections I found most helpful.

Religion in America by Winthrop S. Hudson

               This book by Hudson is an overview of religious development in North America, specifically the United States. Hudson says that his book is more than just a "chronicle"; it is a picture of "the religious life of the American people as a whole in interaction with other dimensions of their experience" (Preface vii). For a fairly short work, Hudson is more informative than one would expect.

There was one particular part of this book that I found helpful in my attempts to find a definition for "apocalypse" or "apocalyptic" and in attempting to locate apocalyptic movements within minority groups: Hudson’s chapter on "Utopianism, Millennialism, and Humanitarianism." Hudson’s discussion of communal societies got me to thinking about the ways that those societies, while not necessarily focused entirely on the end of the world, are still apocalyptic.

Hudson says that there was a wave of religious revival sweeping the country in the beginning of the nineteenth century and that there are three ways that this revival moved people toward cults, sects, and utopian communities. The first is that, since revivalists placed an emphasis on direct contact with God, people were looking for some type of "vision or mystical illumination which could easily be interpreted as a new revelation" (173), and they often attached themselves to people espousing such revelations in order to make this contact with God. Secondly, Hudson says "revivalists placed increasing stress upon the possibility of perfect sanctification, thus arousing a hunger for holiness and a life free from sin" (173). These new communities and sects provided the guidelines within which the people could live sin free. They didn’t allow one the freedom to sin. Hudson’s final point is that revivalists "tended to dwell upon the ancient millennial expectation of a golden age to come" (173), and people could find security in putting by their hope in that. Normally, I would imagine, they felt little grounding in a society that was constantly changing and on the move, and these societies or religions must have provided some of the security they needed.

Hudson’s history was also helpful because he lists some of the cults, sects, and communities that were prominent during the nineteenth century. He mentions the Shakers, the Oneida Community, Brook Farm, the Mormons, the Millerites, and the Spiritualists. In the same chapter he also discusses the abolitionists. I found this helpful because it gives little bits of history that one can look up and use to make connections to other writings. For example, in my next section on the African-American apocalypse, I will be talking about the Millerites and their connection to abolitionism. Angelina Grimké was a Millerite and abolitionist, and in Hudson I found that her husband Theodore Dwight Weld was an active abolitionist as well. These pieces of information are helpful in constructing a picture of what was going on at the time.

III. The African-American Apocalypse

               As I was doing this research, I read some of the essays in The Apocalyptic Vision in America, and found the following essay preying on my mind because of its treatment of the Black apocalypse.

"Waiting for the End: The Social Context of American Apocalyptic Religion" by Charles Lippy.

In this essay, Lippy makes the comment that there is no "fervent apocalypticism" in African-American religious experience. He does concede, however, that there is "a lively futuristic impulse" (51). I kept thinking about Lippy’s comments as I searched for instances of apocalypse or apocalyptic imagery within African-American history. Even though Lippy does go on to say that there are apocalyptic elements within the African-American experience, it is as if he is saying that because those elements aren’t exactly the same as Judeo-Christian apocalypse, they aren’t "true" apocalyptic. It seems to me that this is the same problem I found with Morris’ discussion of Christian apocalyptic. I think that Lippy is missing the point. Apocalypse doesn’t have to be the end of the world in a religious sense. It can be an upheaval and change of social order as well.

               I’m wondering if the reason it is so hard for critics to accept these other versions of apocalyptic is that it is always difficult to accept change. When you are within a certain tradition, or are studying that tradition intensely, it is sometimes difficult to see other points of view. Also, Lippy did say that there wasn’t a "fervent apocalypticism" in the African-American religious experience. Perhaps the key word is "religious." Perhaps the African-American apocalypse is not a religious apocalypse, but a socio-political one. That is the viewpoint that Maxine Montgomery holds in her book reviewed below.

The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction by Maxine Lavon Montgomery

               I found this to be the most helpful of all the texts on African-American apocalyptic that I read during my research. Montgomery’s book consists of a lengthy introduction in which she defines "apocalyptic" within the African-American experience. Montgomery suggests that African-Americans have their own concept of apocalypse; they don’t simply accept the apocalyptic construct of the dominant culture. She says that African-Americans have adapted a more non-western idea of apocalypse—one where an apocalyptic event that they can look to for an example has already happened in the past. They can look back to this example for hope that the same type of apocalypse can happen in the here and now. For example, Montgomery describes the Exodus story as providing a vision or example of people being led out of captivity, which became an important symbol in the slaves’ hope for freedom in their own immediate situation, and remained a source of hope for African-Americans attempting to effect social and political freedom after slavery as well.

               Besides defining a type of apocalypse that African-Americans utilize, Montgomery also discusses apocalyptic imagery within the Black experience. She shows the way that Bible images and texts are infused with African tradition and how that makes the African-American Biblical language different from that of the white culture. The African-American experience of slavery, too, would naturally give them a different interpretation of stories like the Exodus. Under this topic, Montgomery discusses the singing of spirituals and the sermon genre and says that they employ this sort of double language.

               After her introduction, Montgomery gives a literary criticism of seven different African-American writings and discusses the different authors’ employment of apocalyptic imagery. The seven novels she critiques are Charles Chestnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, LeRoi Jones or [Imamu Amiri Baraka]’s The System of Dante’s Hell, Toni Morrison’s Sula, and Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place. I focused my reading only on the two that discussed novels I had previously read—Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s Sula. The essays were interesting and held to the tenets that Montgomery set out in her introduction. They also opened these novels up to me, and now I’d like to re-read them with Montgomery’s critique in mind.

A Discussion of a Spiritual            

               I found Montgomery’s comments on the spiritual very interesting after having read Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. One of the spirituals mentioned in Incidents is quoted below:

Ole Satan thought he had a mighty aim;

He missed my soul, and caught my sins.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God!

He took my sins upon his back;

Went muttering and grumbling down to hell.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God!

Ole Satan’s church is here below.

Up to God’s free church I hope to go.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God! (400)

There are several instances of language with double meaning within this spiritual. First, the comment that Satan had "missed my soul and caught my sins" would have been controversial in that it was not acknowledged by most slave owners that Blacks had souls. They were considered property and treated like animals. Because this claim to a soul was couched in familiar Christian language and because music carries the hearer along, no matter what the words might say, the subversive nature of the words seems to have been lost on the white hearers. At least the full impact was lost, or they wouldn’t have allowed them to sing it.

Secondly, according to this spiritual, Satan represents the church in this world—the church in the here and now. This an extremely subversive thought since white slaveholders ran the church, and the church is represented as belonging to Satan. A Christian’s duty would be to overthrow Satan, so it would seem that the slaves are really singing about the overthrow of the slaveholders.

A Review of the PBS Website Africans in America

               I found this website easy to use and extremely helpful. From it I learned about Nat Turner’s Rebellion, and about David Walker’s Appeal, and gained many other interesting pieces of information that, for lack of space, aren’t included in my journal. The website is divided into chronological periods, and it also has a contents section that makes it easy to find what you are looking for. The site is very easy to navigate, and the information is trustworthy: http://pbs.org.aia/home/html.

               I found David Walker’s sermon in Part 4 of Africans in America. I was looking for this sermon because Montgomery mentions that the sermon genre is a form of apocalyptic within the African-American experience. This sermon does indeed rally the people to think about their situation and to revolt against it. It follows the tenets that Montgomery sets out for Black apocalypse in that it proposes a socio-political overthrow of power in the here and now rather than being a futuristic vision of spiritual freedom. The following line from the sermon certainly sounds apocalyptic: "[. . .] but I tell you Americans! That unless you speedily alter your course, you and your Country are gone! ! ! !" ("David Walker’s Appeal" 4).

Another example of socio-political apocalypse can be seen in the accounts of Nat Turner’s Rebellion. The following quote comes from Part 3 of Africans in America:

I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, or the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first…And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign…I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons. ("Nat Turner’s Rebellion" 1)

This language is obviously apocalyptic. Perhaps the reason this isn’t usually viewed as apocalyptic is that Nat Turner didn’t have a vision for heavenly relief in the future; he had a vision of relief in the here and now. For this to have become an apocalyptic future hope for African-Americans as a group, the slaves would have needed to be able to meet and to discuss these things in the same way other groups were able to do. It would have been impossible for Blacks to have had the opportunity to congregate long enough to discuss any apocalyptic visions they might have had, and they weren’t able to travel to visit Nat Turner as the Native Americans did to visit Wovoka. I find myself wondering how many other apocalyptic visions existed but did not come to light because of the inability of African-Americans to congregate and discuss them.

The Disappointed by Ronald Numbers

               This book contains information about the Millerites, a group of people led by a man named William Miller. The Millerites expected the second coming of Christ in around the year 1843 (the date was changed a couple of times). There were many people from all walks of life interested in and involved in the Millerite group. When I checked to see what connection the Millerites might have had with the abolitionists, I found that, according to Numbers, while there were ties between Millerites and abolitionism, "at the height of the movement, few Millerite leaders could be described as being abolitionists—at least not active ones" (143). Numbers says that Millerites weren’t active in social causes because they simply didn’t think it mattered, since the end of the world was at hand.

There were a couple of interesting ties to Millerism that I noticed during my research. One was Angelina Grimké, a Quaker, a preacher, a feminist, and an abolitionist. Her husband Theodore Weld was a very active abolitionist. Numbers states that a Grimké biography says she joined the Millerites to spite her husband (145); however, there seem to have been legitimate reasons why she was interested in Millerism. Numbers says that she believed strongly in the Bible’s prediction of a millennium, and that belief caused her to search her own soul to examine her relationship to God. After Christ did not return in 1844—the last date that Miller had given for the apocalypse--Grimké turned her view of the return of Christ inward. She believed that Christ had come within "the hearts of people" rather than in an outward show of power and in an end of the world scenario (147).

Another abolitionist turned Millerite was Henry Dana Ward—related to Julia Ward Howe, writer of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"—a work that I see as having apocalyptic overtones. You can find the words to the hymn at the following web address:http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/howjulial.html.

               Numbers’ book shows that Millerite doctrine, while obviously filling a need for a certain group of individuals, undermined antislavery work. Numbers tells about Joseph Bates who had preached to slaves and plantation owners in Maryland but left his abolitionist views behind as not important since Christ was coming and soon slavery would be abolished anyway (143).

IV. The American Indian Apocalypse

The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 by James Mooney

               My Father, have pity on me!

I have nothing to eat,

I am dying of thirst—

Everything is gone!

Arapaho Ghost Song (n.p.)

               Mooney’s book is a wealth of information. It includes, among other things, the stories of several American Indian prophets. The stories are apocalyptic in nature—the prophet appears to die, has a vision, comes back to life, tells the people they will perish if they don’t abstain from the things that the white man has brought to them, and finally tells them that if they do abstain that God will deliver them.

               One such prophet written about in Mooney’s account is Squ-sacht-un or John Slocum. He was of the Shaker religion and was from the Squaxin "tribe" located in the Puget Sound. Mooney says that Columbian "tribes" say that members of the Shaker group related to Squ-sacht-un traveled out as missionaries and came into contact with a man named Wovoka, the leader of the Ghost Dance Movement (763). Mooney isn’t sure if this is true or just a legend, but he relates it, and it is interesting information.

               Mooney’s collection contains pictures of Wovoka and other prophets, letters and statements by Native Americans who visited Wovoka as well as military officials who wrote about him. There is a chapter on the doctrine of the Ghost Dance; there are translations of the songs. The history also includes copies of treaties and many other interesting documents regarding the Ghost Dance. Mooney’s work was originally published in 1896 as the second part of the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93. This book contains 1136 pages, so I wasn’t able to read everything, but it would have been interesting to compare the description of the massacre from Black Elk Speaks to the one in this work—a future project perhaps.

V. The Gender Apocalypse

I wish I would have had the opportunity to research this particular section in more detail. I found the first chapter of the following criticism helpful in answering questions I had when reading The Best Little Boy in the World.

Review of the First Chapter of Apocalyptic Overtures by Richard Dellamora

               Dellamora begins the chapter by discussing apocalypse—how it is organized and what it means. Then he goes into discussion of "the gay lifestyle" and how that particular label attempts to define all gays for the dominant culture without taking into account the variability of the human experience. Dellamora discusses the avoidance of closure within gay apocalyptic imagery. There isn’t a new order replacing the old because that would continue to leave out the differences of people. Dellamora calls this avoidance of a new order, or avoidance of closure "anti-apocalyptic." It is an anti-apocalypse because it is at variance with the type of group identity that is necessary for a futuristic vision of apocalypse.

               I found this chapter really illuminating. I wish I had time and space to expound further on Dellamora’s book. It made sense of the things I’ve been thinking since reading The Best Little Boy in the World. As I read BLBITW, I was disturbed a bit by the focus on sexual experiences. I began to wonder if I was trying to force the BLBITW’s experience into the type of experience that is acceptable for heterosexuals. I kept thinking that he, not being a heterosexual, simply couldn’t fit into the boundaries I was setting. Because of that disturbance that I felt when reading, I found Dellamora’s naming of the anti-apocalypse an interesting idea.

Review of Chapter 1 of Catherine Keller’s Apocalypse Now and Then

               Keller’s first chapter is at times a funny, yet always serious explanation of how embedded apocalyptic ideas are in our culture. Keller brings up something I have noticed as I’ve been researching. Apocalypse is not just the tool of the oppressed, but is also the tool of the dominant culture. It is all around us. Keller puts it this way: Apocalypse "serves the crusading master scripts of public Christendom" yet it "tends to hide in those margins" as well (10). Keller talks about the idea that even if we don’t believe in the Apocalypse, we have apocalyptic thought imprinted in our subconscious. An example she gives is our fear of the destruction of the rain forests. I would add the fear of global warming or of other natural disasters—all can be apocalyptic.

Keller speaks of the way dualism within apocalyptic can disillusion us and keep from attempting to change things. For example, if "[w]e think we must ‘save the earth.’ Who can carry this? [. . .] We wish for messianic solutions and end up doing nothing" (14). If everything is an either/or proposition, we become overwhelmed.

Keller discusses anti-apocalyptic and says that, while she feels it is impossible to have an anti-apocalypse, she still feels that people who promote it are at least being "conscious and critical" (16), and that thinking about apocalypse’s role in our subconscious may open the way for some other type of discourse.

               Keller suggests a "counter-apocalypse" rather than anti-apocalypse (19). Keller means by this that her apocalypse would "avoid the closure of the world signified by a straightforward apocalypse, and it would avoid the closure of the text signified by an anti-apocalypse" (19). I have to admit here that I am getting lost and would need a lot more time to sort out her meanings. I get the feeling as I read, that this is a play on words: counter-apocalypse, anti-apocalypse, neoapocalypse, etc.—to me all seem the same, and I need to do more thinking on this. Keller’s book, however, does promise to open up new ways of thinking about apocalypse, and it is definitely worth more study.

"The Second Descent of the Spirit of Life from God": The Assumption of Jemima Wilkinson" by Sharon V. Betcher

               This was easily the most interesting to me of all the articles, websites, and books I reviewed for my journal. I find Jemima’s life fascinating. I had no idea that she existed before I read this article. She fits into apocalyptic research because she attempts to change the world into a place without hierarchies. Her ideas are a sort of anti-apocalypse, as Dellamora would define it.

According to Betcher, Wilkinson was the first American-born female utopian leader (1). She was raised a Quaker but after hearing one of George Whitefield’s sermons, she became interested in the spiritual awakening going on around her, and was converted in 1774 at a New Lights revival. She began immediately to preach, and began to separate herself from her old world. Her body became the host for the "Publik Universal Friend," the name of the spirit from God who was neither male nor female but was there for support to all who needed it. The "Friend," in Jemima’s body, accompanied the Indian Nations to the signing of treaties and cared for soldiers in the Revolutionary War.

               As the host for the "Friend," Jemima’s body became gender neutral. She wore both male and female attire, paid no attention to gender specific customs, and according to Betcher, "Even the Friend’s voice was said to have a ‘masculine-feminine’ quality" (3). The "Friend," in being neither male nor female was attempting to break down "the hierarchical ladder or [. . .] the chain of being and its consequent patterns of domination" (6). Besides taking on gender neutral physical characteristics, Jemima advocated being a "friend" to all. She did not believe in taking sides in anything. She also did not believe in private ownership—especially of land. There was fighting within her utopian community regarding land ownership, and her group ended up having to move because of it. Jemima lived until 1819 and managed to keep her bickering group together to the end.

"Women at the End of the World: Christian Fundamentalist Millenarianism as an Engendering Machine" by Brenda Brasher

               This article discusses the way in which Christian Fundamentalist Millenarianism, while seemingly giving power to women, maintains the current social order. Brasher says that, although women often do take leadership roles in millenarian movements when they don’t in everyday society, the movements do not really promote women’s power, since they oppose any change that doesn’t uphold the movement: "Millenarianism precludes the consciousness raising of individuals telling their stories by silencing all stories, all tales of otherness but one: a divine story that claims to represent real, ultimate truth and meaning" (4). I think of the Millerite movement of the nineteenth century as a prime example of this cessation of consciousness raising. Because the followers believed that the world would soon end, they stopped their involvement in causes such as abolition or women’s rights. (See my discussion of the The Disappointed above.)

               It also becomes clear from reading Brasher’s article that, although women are allowed to take leadership roles in these millennial movements, they do so only because the Father, the ultimate source of their power, has given them permission. Jemima Wilkinson, for example, only began to preach and lead after she had been filled with the spirit of the "Friend" who was considered a gift from God.

                This article is important in that it opens the type of discourse that Keller wants—the discourse in which we at least realize the ways that apocalypse works to maintain the order that millenarians expect will be broken down.

VI. The Chicana Apocalypse

Women Singing in the Snow: A Cultural Analysis of Chicana Literature by Tey Diana Rebolledo

I found this book informative, especially the information on the background of the Aztec deities with which La Virgen de Guadalupe was merged. Rebolledo discusses the Aztec goddesses Coatlicue, Tonantzín, and Tlazoteotl and what they represented. Tlazoteotl represented "filth" but also had the "power to forgive"; Tonantzín represented both "death and resurrection"; she was the "’filtheater’" (50); Coatlicue represented both a "goddess and a monster" (50). She is the decapitated figure from whom living things come. Rebolledo mentions that when she was decapitated, her body became fertile with leaves, grass, soil, water, etc. issuing forth from it. Rebolledo says that when the Virgin of Guadalupe became the new religious icon, she incorporated traits from all of these goddesses. However, Rebolledo points out that the powerful aspects of the goddesses, the "competent, wrathful, independent" aspects "were dropped" when this merger occurred (52). As Chicana writers attempt to uncover all aspects of the archetypes behind their culture’s thoughts of women, they tend to incorporate the aspects that were "dropped" back into their pictures of the Virgin. I thought this was really interesting and applicable to the idea of apocalyptic imagery because as women are adding these "dropped" images back into their writing, they are uncovering or revealing things that have been hidden—one of the definitions of "apocalyptic."

               This entire book, not just the section on La Virgen de Guadalupe, would be very helpful in gaining a better appreciation for Chicana literature, but it does not directly discuss apocalypse or the apocalyptic genre. In fact, I could not find much regarding this topic in relationship to Hispanic/Chicana(o)/Latina(o)/ Mexican-American experience. I was beginning to get discouraged about this and had decided that perhaps there wasn’t much apocalyptic going on within the Hispanic culture because many Hispanic people are Catholic, and traditionally Catholics have not been the ardent fans of the end times that Protestant religions have. Then, my husband suggested Liberation Theology and voila, I found something. I really don’t know anything about this topic, and since I found it too late to really research it, I’m not going to comment on it other than to say it is out there for further research.

VII. Conclusion

In my research on this topic, I’ve learned that "apocalypse" and "apocalyptic" mean many different things to many different people. I have learned that there is a lot of information out there and that I should have focused on one group, rather than attempting to touch on all the minority groups that we have discussed in our class. But, when I think about it, one of the goals I had in mind was to learn about as many different apocalyptic visions as I could. I think this topic is fascinating. Any group that is part of, or has come into contact with, our Western tradition in some way uses apocalyptic.

In my attempts to define the words "apocalyptic" and "apocalypse," I have also learned that apocalyptic language is more than just a language about the end of the world. It is more than simply pre-millennial Christian rhetoric. It is a language that expresses the wish for the end of a current world order/social construct and that attempts to bring about the beginning of a new order that encompasses the needs of the currently oppressed or marginalized, or at other times it simply gives hope by attempting to redefine without breaking down.

If I were going to pursue this topic further, I would probably focus on feminist apocalypse. It is within my own experience, and I wouldn’t be (I hope) offending anyone by trying to tell someone else’s story. In pursuing this topic further, I would need to think more deeply about what apocalypse does for minorities and how it maintains the status quo. I did find it disturbing that, often the idea of apocalypse has been used to silence those stories outside the story of the "righteous remnant," whomever they might be at the moment, and that often the story that gets told is still the one of the dominant social construct. St. John has said,

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself with be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Rev 21:3b-4)

Let’s all just hope we are within the new order.

Works Cited

Betcher, Sharon V. "‘The Second Descent of the Spirit of Life from God’: The Assumption of Jemima Wilkinson." Journal of Millennial Studies. Special Issue. (Summer 1999). Oct. 2001. http://www.mille.org/journal.html.

Brasher, Brenda. "Women at the End of the World: Christian Fundamentalist Millenarianism as an Engendering Machine." Journal of Millennial Studies. Special Issue. (Summer 1999). Oct. 2001. http://www.mille.org/journal.html.

Brent, Linda. (Harriet Jacobs). "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Mentor, 1987. 332-515.

Dellamora, Richard. Apocalyptic Overtures: Sexual Politics and the Sense of an Ending. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994.

The Holy Bible. New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978.

Hudson, Winthrop S. Religion in America. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Keller, Catherine. Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World. Boston: Beacon, 1996.

Lippy, Charles H. "Waiting for the End: The Social Context of American Apocalyptic Religion." The Apocalyptic Vision in America: Interdisciplinary Essays on Myth and Culture. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, 1982. 37-63.

Montgomery, Maxine Lavon. The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1996.

Mooney, James. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. 1896. Bison Book ed. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1991.

Morris, Leon. Apocalyptic. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.

Numbers, Ronald. The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century. Eds. Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987.

PBS Online. Africans in America. 1 Dec. 2001. http://www.pbs.org.aia/home/html.

Rebolledo, Tey Diana. Women Singing in the Snow: A Cultural Analysis of Chicana Literature. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1995.