In This New Interpretation of the "Book of Revelation", Jacques M. Chevalier examines the relationship between astromythology, the Text, and Western interpretation. While scholars have noted the influence of ancient astromythology in Revelation before, Chevalier shows how John's heavenly imagery is the key to a polemical dialogue between two modes of storytelling in Western history: astrology and eschatology, or naturalism and logocentrism. The book also explains how the 'genealogical' concerns of modern academia about the origins of natural and cultural history have supplanted the future-oriented visions of sidereal divination and Christian prophecy.
The first three chapters and Epilogue of the book situate Chevalier's biblical analysis in the context of broader interpretations of astrology and the apocalypse developed by Jung, Lawrence, Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Foucault, Cassirer, Adorno, Frye, Barthes, and Morin. They also provide the reader with a solid background in the history of astrological belief systems and exegetic readings of Revelation extending from antiquity to the late twentieth-century. The remaining chapters are devoted to two questions. First, what precise relationship does the imagery in Revelation entertain with expressions of astromythology? Second, how do twentieth-century readings of Revelation reflect a 'genealogical' perspective on notions of signs, textuality, and destiny?
A Postmodern Revelation is itself an 'apocalypse, ' a revelation to scholars interested in sign theory, eschatology, and the history of astrology. The book does far more than interpret the specific biblical text of John's Revelation: it plays with polemics and parallels in the history ofWestern thought, tracing the history of signs and their meaning from antiquity to a postmodern era that heralds the end of all myths of the End.
'Jacques Chevalier's (book) is a brilliant transdisciplinary interpretation of the Book of Revelation in the light of ancient astromythicism on one hand and contemporary semiotics on the other. It will be of serious interest to specialists and general readers alike who are interested in the New Testament, the history of religions, ancient and modern biblical studies, and the historical and sociological meaning of contemporary astrology.' -- Robert Polzin, School of Comparative Literature, Carleton University
This poststructural analysis shows that the use of ancient astromythological images in the Book of Revelation reflects a polemical dialogue between two modes of storytelling in Western history: astrology and eschatology, or naturalism and logocentrism. The book also explains how the 'genealogical' concerns of modern academia about the origins of natural and cultural history have supplanted the future-oriented visions of sidereal divination and Christian prophecy.
Chevalier (sociology and anthropology, Carlton U.) examines the Biblical Book of Revelation in the context of ancient astro-mythology, and finds in it the confrontation between and downfall of two modes of storytelling in western history: astrology and eschatology, and with them divination and proph
