Customer Reviews

Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America

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Kudos to the editors for compiling such an impressive group of scholars. The individual contributors offer when read on their own standout scholarly papers that most importantly are also digestable for the interested layperson like myself. This is not to say it is a casual read and it is clearly academic in tone. Some sections and authors were more preferred than others but this may be due the collections admireable breadth of scope. There is however a nice uniformity of quality and purpose through out this collection in it's efforts to elucidate the "origins and the evolution of apocalyptic and millenial ideas and movements in the four major religious traditions... from the pre-modern Islamic era to modern times." Part 1 Origins, was of most interest personally. After finishing the introduction by Abbas Amanat I emerged as if mind on fire. It is clearly not meant to be read in one sitting, but after the intro if you have any passion for the material at all you will be moved to continue. While I was hooked in the intro and most enjoyed the Origins section I found for myself that the true rewards from this rare and comprehensive comparative collection is when taken as a whole. I can truly say this is a gem of a book in the fascinating and important study of Millenialism.