Apocalyptic Fever: End-Time Prophecies in Modern America
Overview
Doomsday ideas in Western history have been both persistent and diverse. Public opinion polls indicate that a substantial number of Americans anticipate the return of Christ or some catastrophic event. In Apocalyptic Fever, Richard Kyle shows how dispensational premillennialism has been the driving force behind doomsday ideas. While several chapters are devoted to this topic, Kyle also surveys end-time views in modern America from a wide range of perspectives: traditional denominations, fringe religions, Islam’s Mahdi, science, fiction, Y2K, politics, the Mayan calendar, and more.
For traditional interpretations of eschatology, check out Four Views on the Book of Revelation.
Key Features
- Examines apocalyptic ideas within the American social and cultural framework
- Offers dispensational premillennialism as the driving force behind doomsday ideas
- Addresses a wide range of end-time views
Contents
- Approaching Doomsday
- Western Countours of Doomsday
- The Millennial Nation
- The End Takes Shape
- Apocalypse Loud and Clear
- Millennial Anxieties
- From 9/11 to 666
- Imaging the Apocalypse
- The Politics of Armageddon
- Messiahs, Prophets, and End-Time Visions
- The Godless Apocalypse
- An Eschatological Hodgepodge
- The Next Great Turning Point?
- Why Do We Love Doomsday?
Top Highlights
“In both religion and politics, America is deeply populist, meaning that the wisdom of the common person is superior to that of the so-called experts.” (Page 19)
“First, the historic Christian faith teaches that Jesus Christ will return to Earth personally and visibly” (Page 13)
“In Disaster and the Millennium, political scientist Michael Barkun argues that disasters are the chief factor in producing apocalyptic millennial movements.” (Page 16)
“for the most part, they begin with current events and interpret biblical verses in the light of their beliefs” (Page 5)
“For the first two hundred years or so, Christians intensely expected Christ to return and usher in a golden age. Over the next two hundred years a transition took place. The intense expectancy regarding Christ’s return waned, and Christians began to make peace with the world.” (Pages 21–22)
Praise for the Print Edition
We are indebted to Kyle for his outstanding survey of the end times. These concepts have developed over many centuries, but they have found fertile soil in our own land. Kyle deals with an astonishingly wide range of ideas with insightful and broad knowledge of the historical, religious, and contemporary contexts. This is by far the best guide to the fascinating and intricate world of the end times.
—Robert G. Clouse, senior research scholar in Liberal Arts, Indiana State University
Apocalyptic enthusiasm rarely receives calm and thoughtful consideration. Kyle is a most welcome exception. His book is careful, nuanced, insightful, and charitable toward a subject that is usually treated as incredible, unbelievable, mad, or deadly certain. Apocalyptic Fever takes the temperature of a serious disease and provides just the right calming prescription for bringing the fever under control.
—Mark Noll, professor of history, University of Notre Dame
Apocalyptic Fever is one of those must-read books. Kyle, a veteran observer of radical evangelical and conservative religion in America, addresses the wide variety of end-time preachers, writers, and movements in the contemporary world . . . Such an explanatory work is sorely needed in an age where polemical treatises richly abound.
—Richard V. Pierard, professor emeritus of history, Indiana State University
- Title: Apocalyptic Fever: End-Time Prophecies in Modern America
- Author: Richard Kyle
- Publisher: Cascade
- Print Publication Date: 2012
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Pages: 388
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Millennialism › United States--History; Eschatology; End of the world; Popular culture › United States
- ISBNs: 9781610976978, 1610976975
- Resource ID: LLS:POCALYPTICFEVER
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:17:17Z
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
0 ratings
John J. Yeo
1/9/2021
To Blake Widmer: Zechariah 14 is not about the tearing of the veil in the Holy of Holies when Jesus died on the cross, but when Jesus returns and touches His feet upon the Mount of Olives just as He ascended. You are eisegeting into the biblical text what is not there. If you read Zechariah 14 within its context, it's clearly addressing Christ's second coming. The rule of the Messianic Age will begin and Jesus will reign for 1000 years from Jerusalem. Therefore, this chapter is about the Messiah's return to earth and the setting up of His millennial kingdom.
Fred Myers
10/21/2015
God tells us in the Bible there is an end to sin, that end is eminent (which means any time and suddenly). Testified to by Jesus and all the writers of the NT. We, are told, to be ready. Dispensational premillennialism is not responsible for anything...sin is. If God, Christ, and every writer warns be ready, live as if it is the next second, then who are you blaming?
Jim Julian
10/15/2015
Even without reading this book, the premise of most Americans agree about the return of Christ or some big catastrophic event would be true as many Bible believing Americans think it will be soon. In studying eschatology one needs to note that America does not have a part in the final happenings.
