O’Leary's Theory of Apocalypticism O’Leary, Stephen D. (1994). Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory
of Millennial Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.
O’Leary points out “the study of apocalyptic argument leads to
the conclusion that its stratagems are endless, and not susceptible
to negation through rational criticism.” 221-222). He has constructed
a theory of how millennial rhetoric is used to manage concepts
of time, evil, and authority (20). Thus the:
“mythic narrative of Apocalypse can be used to justify the existence
of evil on a cosmic scale by pointing to the promised restoration
of an earthly Kingdom of God, while individual experience of evil
is itself [a sign and a] proof…that the cosmic drama of evil is
nearing its resolution. (42).
Apocalyptic beliefs that demonize, says O’Leary, come from a literal
interpretation of prophecy that sees a physical battle between good
and evil that functions on a societal level, along with a specific
timetable and geography for how God intervenes in earthly affairs
with a final judgment. (6-7, 218-220)
“The problem is not the mythological character of Revelation;
rather, it is that any interpretation of the [apocalyptic] myth
(whether by skeptics or by dogmatists) that reduces it to literal
and factual content inevitably distorts the deliberately metaphorical
language of prophecy.” (1994: 220). O’Leary calls this the
tragic interpretation of apocalyptic, and says only a sense of
comedic can compete by accepting the irony that God’s judgment
of good and evil has already occurred, is occurring even now, and
is always about to occur, thus making calendar dates and specific
timetables “indefinite and unknowable.” (84)
This is not a new view. Augustine argued that the signs of the
End Times were present throughout history, and thus should not
be interpreted as signals. O’Leary divides apocalypticism into
the tragic and comedic modes.
In the tragic periodization of history, calamities appear as part of a
predetermined sequence that will culminate in the reign of Antichrist, whose
final defeat will be followed by the millennial kingdom. In Augustines's provisionally
comic view of history…calamities become episodes, recurrent events that all human
communities must face without recourse to an apocalyptic understanding, while
the millennial kingdom becomes an obscure allegory of the church in the present
age. Augustine explicitly invokes the comic perspective when he cautions readers
to be skeptical in evaluating apocalyptic claims…[the] comic interpretation of
the Apocalypse thus neutralizes its predictive function. What remains is the
exhortation of the saintly life and the aesthetic functioning of the text experienced
as allegory (p. 75).
“While conspiracy strives to provide a spatial self-definition
of the true community as set apart from the evils” as seen in the
scapegoated “Other,” according to Stephen O’Leary, “apocalypse
locates the problem of evil in time and looks forward to its imminent
resolution” while warning that “evil must grow in power until the
appointed time.”(6)
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