This accessible and enlightening history provides insights into the fascinating genre of apocalyptic literature, showing how the apocalypse encompasses far more than popular views of the last judgment and violent end of the world might suggest.

• An accessible and enlightening history of the "apocalypses"--ancient Jewish and Christian works -- providing fresh insights into the fascinating genre of literature
• Shows how the apocalypses were concerned not only with popular views of the last judgment and violent end of the world, but with reward and punishment after death, the heavenly temple, and the revelation of astronomical phenomena and other secrets of nature
• Traces the tradition of apocalyptic writing through the Middle Ages, through to the modern era, when social movements still prophesise the world's imminent demise

About the Author
Martha Himmelfarb is the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her work has focused on Judaism of the Second Temple period and apocalyptic literature in particular. She is the author of Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature (1985), Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (1993), and A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and Merit in Ancient Judaism (2006).

Reviews
"This is certainly a valuable addition. We look forward to those which are yet to come." (Theological Book Review, 2010)





Book Information
ISBN 9781405113472
Author Martha Himmelfarb
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 254g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 140mm * 16mm