Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chances

by Catherine Keller

Drawing on John's prophetic Apocalypse, theologian Catherine Keller unveils a "dreamreading" of our current global crisis—particularly the threat of climate change and ecological devastation. She shows that John's gospel is not a foretelling of future events, but a parable of our present reality, which exposes the deep spiritual roots of these threats.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2021

About the author

Catherine Keller practices theology as a relation between ancient hints of ultimacy and current matters of urgency. As the George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, she teaches courses in process, political, and ecological theology. She has all along mobilized, within and beyond Christian conversation, the transdisciplinary potential of feminist, philosophical and pluralist intersections with religion.

Her most recent books invite at once contemplative and social embodiments of our entangled difference: Cloud of the Impossible: *Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement* (2014), *Intercarnations: On the Possibility of Theology* (2017), and *Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public* (2018).

Since the start of the millennium she has served as executive director of the annual Drew Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium. These events have yielded 12 anthologies, mostly published by Fordham University Press; they include *Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and the New Materialisms* (coedited with Mary Jane Rubenstein); *Polydoxy: Theology of Multiplicity and Relation* (coedited with Laurel Schneider); *Common Goods: Economy, Ecology, and Political Theology* (coedited with Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre and Elías Ortega-Aponte); and *Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discourse.*

Twitter: @Prof_Keller

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Keller’s Facing Apocalypse represents a deadly serious yet nonetheless methodically playful exercise in theology. She takes her readers through the biblical book of Revelation with a focus on injustice and climate change through a serious engagement with the symbols, images, and narrative of John’s Apocalypse by means of “dreamreading”. John of Patmos’ visions are dreamlike and without being too Jungian we modern folk do pay attention to dreams as well. Conversant with biblical and theological scholarship as well as a wide range of secular contemporary reflection, Keller leads her reader on a meditation on the biblical text that takes seriously our context of climate change. Her lively exercise in dreamreading works as much by associations with images rather than plodding logical argument. No fundamentalist, Keller engages the text and images with a sophisticated learning. Yet to the degree that the associations she draws on seem idiosyncratic rather than logical, Facing Apocalypse sacrifices some of its persuasiveness. Somewhat curiously, while empire receives attention the related concerns of politics and democracy receive scant discussion—given that democracy is in the subtitle that is particularly puzzling. (Thankfully her process theology commitments arise only in passing.) After her powerful dreamreadings, which do not see the future predicted with an evangelical’s unfailing certainty, her conclusion sees possibilities of different futures with brutal clarity yet with just a hint of hope at the end. Yes, we are left only with just a hint—even after the dream of a new Jerusalem. Is that truly enough when we are looking at an apocalypse?

[Josh Issa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some time in 2022-2023, a young theologian comes fresh out of his angst of deconstructing into the warm embrace of process theology via Mason Mennenga’s video on Piss Christ and his podcast A People’s Theology. If he had read this then, in the days when he downloaded it onto his newly rediscovered Kindle, he would’ve given it a full five stars saying it changed his life.

It’s cool that Catherine re-reads the Revelation through an ecofeminist lens despite the deeply violent and sexist language. She somehow both allows the text to scandalize while domesticating it for us who find resonances with ancient texts still.

[Christina Dongowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in an omnibus review on recent literature on the apocalypse and apocalyptical discourse in a German sociological review, and I was intrigued that it was by a theologian. (I didn't knew than that Keller is a very eminent theologian ;) I assumed this would be the standard eco-writing fare on climate change, but informed by theological view and religious history. Surprise, surprise: This is not such a book. It's very personal and very based in Keller's own faith, but on the other side very knowledgable and informative. I really learned a lot about the history of the Book of Revelations, its oddness in relation to the other parts of the New Testament, its Jewishness, the historical context it reacts to. But all this as an integral part of something Keller calls dreamreading: She makes clear that the Book of Revelations is not a book of prediction, that John of Patmos is not a diviner, but a prophet and a visionary. The things he sees and writes down are not code for a future that will happen no matter what (as is the fundamentalist Evangelical reading), they're more like lucid dreams and metaphorizations of his experiences, his hopes, his fears and his anger and fury as a follower of Jesus, a jew and a member of a colonialized community in an Empire that seems economically and politically at its peak, unbeatable, unstoppable, inescapable. What Keller is interested in, is the enormous imaginative and emotional energy of the text, that has inspired people to hope, to imagine and to fight (even literally) for a better future, for the Coming of the Lord. Her dreamreading is trying to get at this energy, to make use of it for our present predicament, but without loosing sight of the nightmarish qualities of the book, John's very real hate, his bloody, fiery, tortuous revenge phantasies.
So if you're simultaneously enraged and depressed by the stupidness and cruelness of the way politics and society treat the world and the climate catastrophe we are heading for, this could be a book for you. Even if you have no interest in christianity.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word apocalypse can be frightening. It conjures in the minds of many a sense of destruction and doom. You can think of Armageddon here and the end of the world. The word apocalypse comes from the Greek for revelation. Thus, we have the Book of Revelation, a book of the apocalypse. Apocalyptic elements can be found throughout the New Testament. Paul has an apocalyptic worldview, believing that the new creation was about to break through bringing an end to the old world. Jesus is pictured as an apocalyptic figure. Nevertheless, when we think of apocalypses it is the Book of Revelation that most often comes to mind. Alas, it has been read in such a way that it gives support to visions of destruction. But is there more here than meets the eye?

It was with my current interest in eschatology that I agreed to review Catherine Keller's book "Facing Apocalypse." Keller teaches at Drew University in the area of constructive theology. She brings an eco-feminist-process perspective to a reading of the Book of Revelation. This is not a commentary per see, but a theological interpretation of the Book of Revelation, seeking to apply its visions to our current situation. What you find here is very different from what a Tim LaHaye or Hal Lindsey would envision. She's not celebrating the destruction of the earth but seeks to read the Book of Revelation as a warning to modern folks about our own responsibility for the world we live in.

Keller uses the concept of "dreamreading" to describe what John is up to. It is a dream, a vision, not to be taken literally, but is to be taken very seriously. She insists, rightfully, that the text of Revelation speaks to its own time and is not to be taken in a predictive sense. However, "it discerns certain patterns in its own world deep enough to persist, dangerously, and perhaps disclosively, into our own. To mind those patterns without literalizing them means to dreamread collective crisis now, by way of the metaphors --the metaforce -- of the Apocalypse then.

So, we travel through the Book of Revelation, moving back and forth between the past and the present, though always with the present foremost in mind. Revelation offers the lens through which we can envision what is happening in our world, from ecological crises to economic ones. As she looks back at the story told in Revelation she notes that "any honest apocalypse faces the future. It does not close it down -- it pries it open. But what is thereby disclosed? I have been at pains to insisted with old John and without him, that the future does not already exist; it cannot, therefore, be faced as though it were a fact" (p. 195). What we can do, and she does, is look for patterns, which John reveals and that can be spotted in our world, like the damage done by climate change. This is all in line with her Process orientation, which conceives of an open future.

it is difficult to fully explain what one will find here. She is an intriguing theologian who brings a vast understanding of the world and of the Christian faith together to explore the relationship between an apocalyptic vision and our world. At the same time, the book can be frustrating due to the word usage. This is true of much Process-oriented theology. It has its own vocabulary that has to be learned before one can truly understand. As I am not as well-versed in the Process language as some of her readers, so at points, I struggled to stay with her. Nevertheless, if one is willing to persist with the book there is much to be gained. She offers us a way into this rather cryptic book of the Bible that is easily misread and misused. That has led many progressive Christians to write it off, but with her as a guide, one may find a helpful lens to view the world in which we live and find ways of making a difference in this world so that the destructive side of things does not take place. After all, prophecy isn't prediction, it's warning.

[Steve Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so, so good. Like all of Keller's writing, it's a little genre bending.

-It is a commentary on the book of Revelation?
-Is it a work of constructive, applied theology, engaging the Christian texts and witness for our times?
-Is it a collection of theopoetic musings, in gorgeously creative prose?
-Is it a call to global renewal in the interest of human and planetary survival and flourishing?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes!

Read this book to think Christianly in dialogue with science, history, and human and religious diversity.

Read this book for eye-opening critical engagement with the book of Revelation.

Read this book for hope and courage to participate in human and planetary survival and renewal.

Read this book for its power and beauty.

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process is easily one of my top 3 favorite theological texts, so I was eager to read another from Keller when starting this. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if this format/approach was for me. This is, to borrow her language, a "dreamreading" of Revelation; not necessarily a biblical commentary but something similar and more spacious. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the "signs" of the final installment of the New Testament, and considers them in John of Patmos' context alongside our present one, with particular attention to the escalating global climate crisis and the threat of apocalypse (though she, of course, unpacks the true meaning of the term and how it differs from how we use it) it poses. This is scaffolded by insights and anecdotes from the interlocking realms of science, art, pop culture, politics, and history. Keller is rightfully insistent (adamantly so) that while Revelation functions prophetically as a Roman critique, it is not prophesying a future foretold and yet (near) to come. Still, she argues that this isn't grounds for dismissing the text altogether, but rather "minding" it, or exploring the perhaps surprising and evocative ways it continues to echo out. I appreciated her creative engagement with the various figures of Revelation, and the ways she attended to their affective, intuitive meanings...I just wished she'd developed them a bit more cogently.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that this book is style over substance, but it comes close at times. It's written in an almost stream-of-consciousness voice that is overflowing with pithy wordplay that, while consistently clever and even often enriching of the point being made, gets to be a bit much. I know it's characteristic of Keller's writing and I don't think anyone does it better than her, but I felt that it flowed so well that not enough actually stuck. At least for me. Perhaps this is a unique user-error!

That said, I found myself really enjoying and getting a lot from the final two chapters, "Weaponizing the Word: A Tale of Two Suppers" and "Down to Earth: City, Tree Water." There was a throughline of divine immanence and presence across these chapters in particular, and I really appreciated Keller's wrestling with the tensions between Jesus's peaceful message of enemy-love and the violent vengeance celebrated in Revelation, as well as that of believers holding out a hope that has been delayed for centuries. Flipping through, there really are a lot of underlined sections, impactful insights, and zingers galore; for some reason my reading experience just felt more arduous than energizing. In a way, this reminds me of Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, both because they are sort of innovative biblical commentaries and so rich in their language that reading straight through can quickly feel overwhelming. I'm taking a class on Revelation in the fall and I'll be glad to have this to look back on in shorter bites.

[Bryan Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this was a very good book. I appreciated its candor and its mixture of a realistic, depressing assessment of the climate crisis with an openness to the "possibilities" that humanity has for avoiding the worse of the climate crisis. I also appreciated how Keller wrote the book for those "[w]ith or without religious beliefs, therefore, with or without curiosity about John's Apocalypse," (Keller, xiv) even though it is still a theological analysis of the book of Revelation. I think that anyone can derive a lot of value from this book regardless of their spiritual orientation.

[Adam Curfman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, scary, inspiring, fascinating read and at times, I almost felt like I was reading poetry. The book is a dream reading/reinterpretation of the book of Revelation and amazingly is able to pull out ecological, anti-empire, pro-justice, egalitarian themes.

In the end it is a hopeful look at the possibilities of our future here on earth, calling humanity to strive towards one where we live in harmony with each other and the planet.

[Marco Ambriz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most forthtelling, convicting and hopeful commentaries on the book of Revelation I've ever read. Scholarly, poetic, culturally contextual, biblically and historically insightful yet unashamed to criticize Christian nationalism and fundamentalism. For those of us who have been brought up with the dispensationalist "Left Behind" rapture mentality, this book will be a breath of fresh air and it may even make you want to plant more trees!

[Aaron Shileny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catherine Keller is unquestionably one of the world’s greatest living theologians. In her latest book, she offers a brilliant reading of John’s Apocalypse (The Book of Revelation) through the lens of our current climate crisis.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Keller examines the book of Revelation, as many Biblical scholars do, as a symbolic indictment of the Roman Empire, and Imperialism in general. She further expands her interpretation of this book as a warning about climate change, and failure to take stewardship of this planet.

[Jessica Hollister]

I read this for class. It was pretty scary to start but Revelations seemed empowering by the end.