What is the best way to talk about the apocalypse, whether we are asking about the actual end of history or about the genre of biblical literature called apocalyptic like Daniel and Revelation? Elliott interacts with questions of historiography and also literature, especially in the thinking of Kurt Vonnegut.
“The rhetorical purpose of apocalyptic literature is comfort. Apocalyptic thrives during the darkest times of history. It’s literature of oppressed people.”
Dr. Elliott received his Ph.D. and M. Phil. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and is the lead professor of Hebrew for Concordia University Irvine's Christ College. Dr. Elliott published “The Israel of God in the Sermon: Connecting Old Testament Texts to New Testament People” in Feasting in a Famine of the Word in 2016 and is preparing a commentary on the prophet Habakkuk.
Topics Mentioned
Tiamat and Marduk
Chaos beasts
Biblical dragons
Kaiju movies
Solon the Great and Croesus
Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories