Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America [Hardcover]

Amy Johnson Frykholm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2004

In the "twinkling of an eye" Jesus secretly returns to earth and gathers to him all believers. As they are taken to heaven, the world they leave behind is plunged into chaos. Cars and airplanes crash and people search in vain for loved ones. Plagues, famine, and suffering follow. The antichrist emerges to rule the world and to destroy those who oppose him. Finally, Christ comes again in glory, defeats the antichrist and reigns over the earth. This apocalyptic scenario is anticipated by millions of Americans. These millions have made the Left Behind series--novels that depict the rapture and apocalypse--perennial bestsellers, with over 40 million copies now in print. In Rapture Culture, Amy Johnson Frykholm explores this remarkable phenomenon, seeking to understand why American evangelicals find the idea of the rapture so compelling. What is the secret behind the remarkable popularity of the apocalyptic genre? One answer, she argues, is that the books provide a sense of identification and communal belonging that counters the "social atomization" that characterizes modern life. This also helps explain why they appeal to female readers, despite the deeply patriarchal worldview they promote. Tracing the evolution of the genre of rapture fiction, Frykholm notes that at one time such narratives expressed a sense of alienation from modern life and protest against the loss of tradition and the marginalization of conservative religious views. Now, however, evangelicalism's renewed popular appeal has rendered such themes obsolete. Left Behind evinces a new embrace of technology and consumer goods as tools for God's work, while retaining a protest against modernity's transformation of traditional family life. Drawing on extensive interviews with readers of the novels, Rapture Culture sheds light on a mindset that is little understood and far more common than many of us suppose.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An informative, brightly written analysis of apocalyptic sentiment on the popular level. This is a most interesting book and an important contribution to the growing literature on evangelicalism.--Randall Balmer, author of Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America

Rapture Culture offers fresh and illuminating insights into one of the most significant cultural phenomena of our era, the explosion of interest in biblical prophecies of the end times. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Amy Johnson Frykholm shrewdly explores the popular reception of the bestselling Left Behind prophecy novels as readers share their responses in the context of family, church, and other social networks. This eminently readable book explores the interaction of contemporary American religion, cultural politics, gender issues, and the mass media. Highly recommended. --Paul S. Boyer, author of When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture

"This fascinating book is a one-of-a-kind look at how people read religious literature. Thoroughly engaging, it asks us to consider the importance of imagination in the construction of a spiritual life. The author gives us an inside view of often conflicting interpretations that Christians give of the drama of the End Times."---Colleen McDannell, author of Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America

About the Author

Amy Johnson Frykholm teaches Literature, Cultural Studies, and Religion at Colorado Mountain College.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (March 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195159837
• ISBN-13: 978-0195159837
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,084,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amy Frykholm is author of Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America and Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography. She works as a correspondent for the Christian Century and lives in Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rapture Culture Examined, June 21, 2004

By 

William Frank (Leadville, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America (Hardcover)

Rapture Culture by Amy Johnson Frykholm explores both the reactions of readers to the Left Behind series, and the historical and societal context of the readers and the authors of this series, which has sold so phenomenally. Amy Johnson Frykholm provides excellent background material on the roots and growth of the evangelical movement in American popular religion over the last 150 years. She also explains rapture belief and its historical development both in its predominant form of dispensational premillenialism and less common forms of dispensational belief.

Frykholm shows that belief in the secret rapture of true believers in Jesus Christ draws believers together not only into their church groups, but forms them into a distinct culture within the larger society. She explores the way this rapture culture affects the relationships of believers among themselves, with their families and with those outside the culture. She also shows how the rapture culture produces strongly homogeneous political convictions.

Frykholm explores the background and convictions of the authors of the Left Behind series, Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Much of the book is a fascinating and illuminating discussion of the varieties of reactions of readers to the books, drawn from a series of interviews by the author with a diverse cross-section of readers.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining insight into the large segment of evangelical Christianity which holds the doctrine of the secret rapture of Jesus Christ which sets these evangelicals apart from other evangelicals and mainline Protestant Christianity as well as from Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. While those who hold the rapture doctrine seem to rarely demonstrate willingness to examine their beliefs, those who do not hold this doctrine should find this an exceedingly helpful tool for understanding the rapture culture.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work in many regards, February 18, 2007

By 

Martin R. Stacy (Omaha, Ne USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America (Hardcover)

Ms Frykholm provides her informative analysis with sympathy toward the people/movement/phenomenon she observes. Her work neglected to note that the Scofield Bible which is held by many as the cornerstone of Rapture teaching was (if my information is correct) published originally by Oxford. She failed to compare evangelical Christian culture in America before and after the adoption of dispensational/rapture theology. She also presumes that someone converted by a book would have an interest in documentation. That is rarely the case. A couple of my friends became evangelical Christians after contact with the teaching of Hal Lindsey. And even though both are socially prominent in the community and unashemed of their faith, I don't believe they have ever publicly credited Hal's theology. While one can sympathize with Ms. Frykholm's desire, I have never seen people who get salvation from endtime theology highlight the book that caused them to become Christians. Rather they concentrate more on the Bible, their new social contacts in their church, and perhaps on more "prophecy" study. It would also have been nice contrast the endtimers' social networks with either some non-endtime evangelicals social networks or perhaps a non-evangelical's social network. Nonetheless, this book probably is one of the very few that treat a large part of Americans' beliefs/lifestyle seriously and ought to be read by every thinking evangelical and every non-evangelical that wants a better grasp of rapture culture.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but repetitive, August 6, 2011

By 

Pharaoh Hatshepsut (SF, Ca USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America (Kindle Edition)

Read for class, was okay. Not what I initially thought I was going to read, but author is thorough and makes the whole crazy rapture believer more human and a lot more similar to you than you might realize.