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Title: When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Studies in Cultural History) by Paul Boyer ISBN: 0-674-95129-8 Publisher: Belknap Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thorough Review of America's Infatuation with Prophecy
Comment: Boyer presents a comprehensive look at the development and continuing influence of end times prophecy, especially what has become dominant in American Christianity, premillenialism.
I think for premilleniaslism's attractiveness to American, it presents an over-arching scheme to world history, especially America's part in the great scheme of things.
With the downfall of utopian post-millenialism (see Tuveson's excellent work, "Redeemer Nation," Boyer shows historically how this system of Biblical interpretation has become increasingly popular among us.
He at points, e.g. pg. 310, suggests that premillenialism of our day is not intellectually valid, especially in its exegetical competence. I believe this unfair, given the caliber of individuals who study and believe in this eschatology, e.g. Ryrie, Chafer, etc. Although I personally do not buy into their eschatology nor hermeneutics, I cannot concur with Boyer by suggesting that only simple minded will buy into it.
Without this critique, this work would have been a five. It is a valuable, well-documented source for end times history and currents within popular American culture.
Rating: 4
Summary: Chronicle of end-times preoccupation
Comment: Anyone who reads this book would not be surprised at the runaway success of the "Left Behind" series, since it demonstrates that a preoccupation with Bible prophecy affects a much wider demographic than the fundamentalist subculture. Indeed, the impact of premillenial thought has extended all the way up to the Reagan White House. And, Christian or not, who hasn't heard of the term "Antichrist" or the significance of the number "666"? This book presents a fairly comprehensive survey of popular eschatology, including the role of Israel, Russia, the Arab countries, Europe, and the United States. It also shows how those beliefs have changed over the years (Turkey was considered Gog and Magog before Russia was, and the Pope was designated as the Antichrist for years before Hitler and Henry Kissinger came along). The final chapter, written at the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union, demonstrates how, once again, premillenial thought adjusts itself (or sometimes not) depending upon world conditions. This is a fair, even-handed treatment of a religious and cultural phenomenon.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Source Book for End Times Belief
Comment: Boyer's treatment of dispensationalism in its modern American populist form is encyclopedic and exceptionally fair-minded. His summary includes discussions of the thought (?) of every major player in the end times publishing field. Lindsay, LaHaye, van Impe -- they are all here and all represented quite fairly.
Boyer is not merely encyclopedic and thorough, but is also quite attuned to the subtleties of American prophecy belief. He discusses at length, for instance, the irony of how modern end times beliefs and left wing politics have generated very similar critiques of globalization and economic corporate homogenization.
One thing I did find missing here was a thorough analysis of the arguments that the end times writers use to defend their positions. I had hoped for some discussion on how they argue their positions and how scholars from other Christian traditions have interacted with those arguments. But such discussion was not Boyer's intent. Instead, he has given us more of a "source book" of modern end times beliefs. But, since this is probably the first serious scholarly foray of considerable length in this field, I guess I can't fault Boyer for not writing everything possible on the subject.
A good chunk of the book is devoted to presenting a history of prophecy belief -- from the days of the early church up to the present. This part of the book was actually secondary from Boyer's point of view but, if you're already familiar with modern end times beliefs as I (admittedly) am, you will probably find this the most educational part of the book.
In short, this book is not the place to go for an analysis of the strengths of end times thought (such as it is). But if you want to know how modern end times beliefs developed historically, or if you want an explanation of what it is all about from someone familiar with the end times subculture (but not a part of it) this book is the place to start.
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Title: Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George M. Marsden ISBN: 0802805396 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Revelation (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) by Eugene M. Boring ISBN: 0804231508 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Progressive Dispensationalism by Craig A. Blaising, Darrell L. Bock ISBN: 0801022436 Publisher: Baker Academic Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come, 2nd Edition by Norman Cohn ISBN: 0300090889 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs Through the Ages by Eugen Weber ISBN: 0674003950 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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