Satan and Apocalypse

Offers a profound vision of the Christian epic as the site of the modern apocalyptic reenactment of the original apocalypse.In this series of essays, Thomas J. J. Altizer explores the Christian epic as the site of modern revolutionary apocalyptic reenactments and renewals of the original apocalypse enacted by Jesus Christ and primitive Christianity. Beginning with the pivotal seventeenth-century figures Milton and Spinoza, Altizer analyzes the apocalyptic visions of key figures of modernity, including Blake, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Joyce, often juxtaposing them to surprising and illuminating effect. These revolutionary moments stand in opposition to what Altizer calls the pathological modern counterrevolution that dominates the world today, which is an effect of a new postmodernity and of a progressive dissolution of historical consciousness. Through his analysis of modern apocalyptic moments and thinkers, this book becomes an elegant and accessible guide to Altizer's own apocalyptic vision and his ultimate project of the total and comprehensive reconstruction of theology.Thomas J. J. Altizer is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. His many books include The Call to Radical Theology (edited by Lissa McCullough); Living the Death of God: A Theological Memoir; Godhead and the Nothing; The Contemporary Jesus; and History as Apocalypse, all published by SUNY Press.