BA Religions, Theology and Ethics

This course provides knowledge and analytical tools to understand and assess apocalyptic movements, the use of apocalyptic ideas and imagery in contemporary culture, and the effects of apocalyptic thought in politics and elsewhere. The course runs from examination of the biblical roots of much apocalyptic thought, via analysis of a range of historic apocalyptic groups, to present-day culture and politics.

• To explore and analyse texts and movements that focus beliefs or expression either on the end of the world or on other dramatic events conceptualised in end-of-the-world terms
• To analyse how movements, texts and uses are expressed in ‘apocalyptic’ vocabulary and imagery
• To explore and analyse cultural, social and political uses and effects of the above
• To provide an opportunity for researching and presenting on the above. 

By the end of this course unit you should normally be able to

• Discuss the term ‘apocalyptic’ and describe typical features of apocalyptic ideas, texts and images
• Describe a range of movements that have focused on end-of-the-world ideas or language
• Discuss and contextualise key apocalyptic texts from biblical and other sources
• Describe a range of historical or current uses or effects of apocalyptic ideas or imagery

• Analyse apocalyptic movements, especially through contextualising them and understanding patterns and sources of apocalyptic ideas and related practices
• Analyse use of apocalyptic ideas and imagery in cultural artefacts such as films and books
• Analyse biblical and other religious apocalyptic texts, especially by putting them in the context in which they were written

• Extract evidence of apocalyptic elements in cultural artefacts such as films or books
• Extract evidence of apocalyptic elements in reports of movements and groups
• Make clear presentations of results of research on apocalyptic movements or cultural artefacts

• Analyse films, reports and other sources
• Discuss in groups on controversial topics
• Engage empathetically with beliefs and actions of groups that are sharply different from mainstream society
• Engage empathetically with beliefs and actions of societies, or sections of societies, that proceed on assumptions sharply different from yours.

A wide range of online resources are available at the web-site of the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM): https://censamm.org/resources 

Colin McAllister, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature (Camb.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2020) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992980719952701631 

The Bible (preferably New Revised Standard Version, with Apocrypha [Oxford: OUP, 2006]) Available for use on the web via various religious web-sites such as: https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-Revised-Standard-Version-NRSV-Bible/ or https://www.biblestudytools.com/nrs/ 

Filiu, Jean-Pierre, Apocalypse in Islam, translated by M.B. DeBevoise (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013) online (1 hour use): https://archive.org/details/apocalypseinisla0000fili/page/n23/mode/2up print copy: https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma9933365954401631 

John Hall. Apocalypse: From Antiquity to the Empire of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2009) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992975951094301631 

Arthur H. Williamson. Apocalypse Then: Prophecy and the Making of the Modern World (Westport: Praeger, 2008) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992982180675001631 

Monica Germanà and Aristeidis Mousoutzanis, eds., Apocalyptic discourse in contemporary culture : post-millennial perspectives on the end of the world (New York: Routledge, 2014) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1rfd42k/cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9781315883861 

Anthony F. Aveni, Apocalyptic anxiety : religion, science and America's obsession with the end of the world (Boulder CO: University Press of Colorado, 2016) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992976654139301631 

Adele Reinhartz. Bible and Cinema: An Introduction (Routledge, 2013) https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992976146434901631 

Crawford Gribben. Writing the Rapture: Prophecy Fiction in Evangelical America. Oxford: OUP, 2009 https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/bofker/alma992975879560101631 

Walliss, Aston. “Doomsday America: The Pessimistic Turn of Post-9/11 Apocalyptic Cinema.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 23.1 (2011): 53–64. https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1rfd42k/cdi_proquest_journ

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