Tuesday,
October 3 at 6:30 pm
Jonathan
Kirsch
History
of the End of the World
How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of
Western Civilization
Reading • Q&A • Signing
In his
latest book Jonathan Kirsch carries us on a far-ranging, entertaining,
and shocking history of the scandalous book which was nearly cut
from the Canon of the New Testament..
The Book of Revelation (or The Apocalypse) was intended by its
author to convey to fellow Christians what they could expect when
the end times approached. He was confident that the strange and
awful conflicts he envisioned would come to pass in his lifetime.
As history continued to real out past his lifetime though, the
images he created maintained a strong hold on people's imaginations
and started to shape the history itself.
Kirsch explores how such things as Armageddon, the Antichrist,
or the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse have become woven into the
fabric of our culture. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the
Black Death, the Inquisition to the Protestant Reformation, the
New World to the rise of the Religious Right, this chronicle of
the use and abuse of the Book of Revelation tells the tale of the
unfolding of history and the hopes, fears, dreams, and nightmares
of all humanity.
Jonathan
Kirsch is the author of ten books, including the national bestsellers
The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the
Bible, King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel, Moses:
A
Life, and his most recent work, God Against the Gods:
The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism. Kirsch is also a
book columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a broadcaster for NPR
affiliates KCRW-FM and KPCC-FM in Southern California, an Adjunct
Professor on the faculty of New York University, and an attorney
specializing in publishing law and intellectual property in Los
Angeles..
Photo by Marilyn Sanders