Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance

by C. Wess Daniels

Revelation speaks to the reality that we are caught in the fray of cosmic conflict. We are guilty. We’ve already been contaminated. But it’s not too late for us to exit empire and enter the kingdom. We are yet both victim and victimizer. We have healing work to do, and we must take responsibility for the ways in which we have benefited from and been complicit with the religion of empire. This is the truth of Revelation. God wants to liberate us in body, heart, soul, and mind. We need rescue, and the way we read Revelation determines how we define ourselves and our communities in relation to empire and in resistance to it. Reading Revelation as Western Christians have over the past 150 years, as a book predicting the end of the world, leads us away from the book’s original intention. Let’s start 1. Revelation reveals how scapegoating functions within empire to define its own boundaries and contours as being over and against wicked others. 2. Revelation critiques wealth and shows that even in the first century there was prophetic critique against an economic system that was based on abundance for some, while exploiting the rest. 3. Revelation demonstrates the importance of liturgy as something that forms people into the likeness of either empire or the lamb. 4. And finally, Revelation reveals an alternative social order which becomes the center of resistance rooted in a vision of what the book describes as “the multitude,” a community without antagonism. May your hearts and imaginations be revived, made more resilient and ever more focused on the needs of the world that surrounds us. Let us stop at nothing to make space for others and amplify the voices of those who the powers and principalities wish to silence. And in the end, may you find that you have already, always, been on the inside of the multitude, surrounding the lamb of God.

Genres: Theology, Religion

80 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2019

About the author

C. Wess Daniels is the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center & Quaker Studies at Guilford College. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife, Emily and their three children and three chickens. Wess is interested in strategizing better human interactions, spiritual development, and revitalization of tradition and community. Prior to teaching at Guilford, Wess was a “released minister” at Camas Friends Church in Washington. He is the author of, “A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing The Quaker Tradition in Participatory Culture” (2015). Identifying as a “convergent Friend,” Wess is a bridge-builder and boundary-crosser when it comes to our various Quaker branches and is passionate about renewing the Quaker tradition.

Reviews

[Carl Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always a bit of two minds when I read the Gospels and the Hebrew testament. One one hand the metaphors and the images inspire and challenge me and on the other hand they are what has traditionally supported patriarchy, and slavery, and oppression of the poor by the rich (I know, right?). One of the most challenging for me has been the Book of Revelations, which to be honest I've mostly ignored. But I like to be challenged, and I live to find a path of better understanding and Wess Daniels offers just that.

"...when we don't know the story behind the story, we begin to read our own prejudices and assumptions into the text; this can skew or reading and understanding of Scripture." (p 105)

And so it is. This discussion of Revelations offered me some new understanding--not of a dire bloody future of a vengeful God, but of the juxtaposition between a loving giving people and Empire that sucks your soul to feed itself. Good stuff, well written.

[Joann Neuroth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a reader, much less a fan, of the book of Revelation in the Bible -- too much effort to predict who "wins" and gets taken up in the Rapture and who loses and gets left behind. And since nobody really knows what all the esoteric symbols mean, that turns into self-serving predictions about how "my people" are the ones who'll be saved. This guy offers a stunning alternative framing: it's not about the end of the world at all. By encouraging us to read not with the eyes of privilege as many of us do, but instead to read with the eyes of the marginalized faith communities addressed by the imprisoned/exiled author, he proposes a completely different interpretation. Instead of a prediction, it's a manual for how communities of marginalized people can survive and resist while under occupation by a Domination System intent on obliterating them. I found it compelling and have ordered other books by his sources/mentors to keep exploring it. Intriguing and powerful stuff.

[Kayellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who doesn’t want to believe that the Book of Revelation is about the End Times, I was amazed that C. Wess Daniels had a different way to think about the Book of Revelation. I like how Wess calls us to think and to live what we believe. I am going to share this book with a lot of peole, but will start with my sister and brother-in-law because I know they will be glad to get a new look at the Book of Revelation. I have new hope!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A accessible and exciting way in to the Book of Revelation, particularly for those for who have some familiarity with the text and long to find something life-affirming in it. I particularly appreciated the chapter on the 'multitude'.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to work through this book with the author in an online class, which was a gift.

[Zana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad I chose this for our Friendly Bible Study. There wasn't another way I was going to get through the Book of Revelation!

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing and thout provoking!