Experiencing the Apocalypse at the Limits of Alterity

Leif Ilmari Hongisto received his PhD in New Testament Exegesis from Åbo Akademi University, Finland. He is a long-time educator and his research interest lies in the application of Cognitive Narratology to biblical texts. He is now President of Middle East University in Beirut, Lebanon.

• contentsIntroductionPart oneApocalypse , a text looking for a readingChapter OneCritical Orientation1.1 Questions and Method1.1.1 Focus and Boundaries 1.1.2 Task1.2 Some Definitions and Assumptions1.3 Modalities of Reading1.3.1 Realist and Non-realist Relation to the Other 1.3.2 A Virtual Text1.3.3 Shifts in Viewpoints1.3.4 Text and ‘Site’Chapter TwoReading the Form of the Apocalypse2.1 Defining the Form and Function of the Artefact 2.1.1 The Notion of a Setting2.2 Framing a Hybrid Text2.2.1 The Role of a Frame2.3 The Scripture Profile of the Apocalypse2.3.1 Literary Freedom2.4 The Apocalypse as Oral Performance2.4.1 Word-pictures2.5 Historical, Narrative and Imaginative Qualities2.6 The Trait of Construction2.6.1 The Necessity of Selectivity2.6.2 TransactionChapter ThreeApocalypticality: An Integrating Function3.1 Imagining the ‘Other’3.1.1 The Spectacular3.1.2 Sequels to Repeated Readings3.1.3 Staged ‘as if ’3.2 Prismatic Reflections3.2.1 Experience of Cognitive Dissonance3.3 From Plain Words to Powerful Metaphors3.3.1 Communal Cognitions3.3.2 Collective Experience3.4 Search for a Setting3.4.1 Exegetical Assumptions and Spiritual ExperiencePart twoTake up and readTake Up and ReadChapter FourNarrative Positioning – Aligning Experiences4.1 The Narrative Situation – the First Meeting with the ‘Other’4.2 Visions of Jesus: Experiencing the Known Anew4.2.1 Visionary Experiences of Jesus4.2.2 Corpus of Visionary Sayings4.3 The Medium of Sharing God’s Knowledge4.3.1 Deictic Expressions4.3.2 Gave ‘Him’4.3.3 ‘He’ Sent4.4 The Form of Visionary Appropriation4.4.1 John’s Own Vision4.4.2 As He Saw It4.5 The Sweet Bitterness of ReadingChapter FiveNarrator Perspectives – Affirming Narration5.1 The Narrator as the Experiencer5.2 Co-Narrator5.3 Alternating Between Narrator and Co-narratorChapter SixThe Narratee’s Experience – Connectedness of Life6.1 ‘You’ as Narrative Identity6.2 The Other as Oneself6.3 When Narrative Voices Clash6.4 The Art of SupplenessChapter SevenTowards an Anatomy of Apocalypticality7.1 Action Day7.1.1 Time of Action7.1.2 Secular and Sacred7.1.3 Sinners and Saints7.2 Conceptual Blends and Shifts7.2.1 Imagistic Cognitions7.2.2 Alterations7.2.3 Merging of Time and Eons7.3 Concentric SpacesConclusionPostscriptTwelve Storyboards of the ApocalypseBibliographyIndex