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Continuum History of Apocalypticism

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This book accurately treats the subject as a genre of revelatory literature within a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendant reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.

While dealing adequately with the Zoroastrian and eastern origins, The authors note that the first formal apocalyptic writings appeared during the Judeo-Christian period, beginning about 200 B.C. and flourishing through 350 A.D. The author and it's contributors convey the implications of the messages on each respective audience,e.g. the book of Revelation to the first century Christians living under Jewish and Roman persecution.

Most of all The Continuum History of Apocalypticism helps identify the highly symbolic nature of apocalyptic language as literary devices. I purchased this book in research of a Christian eschatological perspective called preterism, and found not all, but most of it's conclusions very consistent and helpful.