Thread by @dlature

OK, here's the Space I have scheduled for tomorrow at 10 am Central time.
Pay attention to my "ground rules" or my "guidance" I am going to post as reply to this post. I think it may well veer wildly off topic if I don't do this.
x.com/i/spaces/1LyxB…

Biblical Apocalypse has become associated with a lot of rather clueless theology concerning what Apocalypse actually is, or how it was intended to be used by the Biblical authors who employed it. It has ZERO to do with giving a "crystal ball" into events in the 20th-21st... 1/

...Centuries. Biblical authors employed the Apocalyptic genre in order to illuminate ("ie "unveil") what was behind what was happening for their audience, in THEIR contemporary setting. The "Left Behind" stuff is NONSENSE. "Apocalypse" literally means "to unveil". 2/

Given that, we are in dire need ("we" being the Christian community, worldwide) of a continued and current "unveiling" for our Ecological Crisis today. It is of the urgency and scope to REQUIRE a more specific "revelation" that more specifically identifies the..... 3/

Ecological threat as the existential threat that it is. Traditional Biblical authors, from our "existing canons" of Scripture, were NOT aware of a looming ecological crisis (since there were none of any semblance to what we have now, or could even be conceived by them). 4/

So I am going to employ a couple of Bill McKibben books as examples of what might be considered as a contemporary example of a relevant, currently helpful and instructive "Apocalyptic". 5/

I believe this is helpful because of the definition or concept of what is properly "Apocalyptic" in the sense that I define it with my particular "ecotheology" lens. Two attributes of Apocalyptic stand out for me: 6/

1: The literal meaning of the word "Apocalypse" is "to unveil". So the first purpose or stage of Apocalyptic verse is to identify what is behind a set of realities that are being presented or described. To identify the reason for it (usually infidelity or unfaithfulness of ...7/

...humankind. The new Apocalyptic will be a bit less "cryptic" and identify the evil of ecological damage, and the moral decay that motivates it. 8/

By the way, the only reason I see for why current "canonical" Apocalypse in the Bible is "cryptic" is precisely because we are reading it from the 21st century, and it's "contemporary" readers were much more cognizant of what was being referenced. 9/

2: The apocalyptic presentation proceeds to the envisioning of "what should be" or "what was meant to be". In other words, "The Kingdom of God" that is all about peace, health, love, plenty, and interdependence. The "City of God". "Streets of Gold" is an ancient vision...10/

(Despite how a certain one known widely as the "Orange One" apparently has a fetish for GOLD and such nonsense) 11/

So the "New Heaven and a New Earth" is the crowning finale of what is likely the most well known of the "Biblical Apocalypse" genre ("The Book of the Revelation to John", not "Revelations" as many use in reference to it) 12/

The contemporary ENVISIONING is the envisioning of "An Ecological Civilization" (a term I got from a John Cobb sponsored conference I attended in 2015). It is of the ilk of what theologian Walter Bruegemann called "Prophetic Imagination" 13/

So this is not a vision of "The End" as in the "where everybody dies" kind of "end", but rather, an "end" as in the goal, as in "means to a particular end" . As an Ecotheologian, the "end times" is now the task set before humanity to embody a "City on a Hill" that ....14/

...provides an incarnate example of what Climate justice (which I believe is synonymous with "God's justice" or "Creation justice"). It is the purpose of humanity now to work together to figure out what this looks like and then GET TO IT without delay. 15/

To "delay" on this is what @AlexSteffen refers to as "Predatory Delay", since the delay is instigated & backed by those who would PREY upon life on the earth for their own perceived profit. And I say "perceived" profit, because they will prove to be SO WRONG about "profit". /16

So there you have it. This is where we will begin. I will open with this when the space is "called to order" to focus on this and what it might look like incarnated in our world today, wherever we are. 17/

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