The Apocalyptic Imagination (1984 Collins), book

The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the Jewish Matrix of Christianity is a book by John J. Collins.

Abstract

An introduction to the major texts typically designated apocalypses proper as well as apocalyptic leaning texts such as oracles and testaments, this look at the apocalyptic genre seeks to understand each individual text on its own terms. Challenging several dominant trends in contemporary scholarship of the Jewish apocalypses, Collins maintains the importance of apocalyptic as genre, as a way of fostering discussion and understanding, over viewing the texts as part of a coherent “Apocalyptic Movement.” Against those scholars on a quest for the “origins of apocalyptic” Collins rejects any type of unilinear genetic relationship. Instead of viewing this group of texts as a child of prophecy or as a foreign adaptation of Persian dualism, Collins sees the matrix of Jewish apocalyptic in the general Hellenistic milieu, where Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Egyptian ideas circulated freely, and in the “Hellenistic Mood,” a general nostalgia for the past and a feeling of alienation from the present. These texts are sufficiently diverse that one cannot speak of a single apocalyptic social group. Each apocalypse may represent its own individual or group and the social settings must be sought for each individual text. It is in this sense, each text being dealt with on its own terms, where the importance of Collins' book lies. No longer could one speak of apocalypticism as a sort of monolith. Influences, social settings, historical circumstances all must be sought on a text by text basis. The second edition included thorough revisions and expansions (most notably in the sections on Qumran and Christianity) and updated footnotes and bibliography. – Jason Zurawski, University of Michigan

Editions and translations

Published in the United States (New York, NY: Crossroad, 1984). 2nd ed.: The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998)

Table of contents

• 1. The Apocalyptic Genre

• 2. The Early Enoch Literature

• 3. Daniel

• 4. Related Genres: Oracles and Testaments

• 5. Qumran

• 6. The Similitudes of Enoch

• 7. After the Fall: 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and the Apocalypse of Abraham

• 8. Apocalyptic Literature from the Diaspora in the Roman Period

• 9. Apocalypticism in Early Christianity