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Rhetorical Violence, Fundamentalist Eschatology, And Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Masters Theses & Specialist Projects Graduate School 5-2015 Violence for a Peaceful End: Rhetorical Violence, Fundamentalist Eschatology, and the Interpretive Tradition of Revelation Tommi Karin Waters Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses Part of the Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Waters, Tommi Karin, "Violence for a Peaceful End: Rhetorical Violence, Fundamentalist Eschatology, and the Interpretive Tradition of Revelation" (2015). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 1500. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1500 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses & Specialist Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VIOLENCE FOR A PEACEFUL END: RHETORICAL VIOLENCE, FUNDAMENTALIST ESCHATOLOGY, AND THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION OF REVELATION A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Philosophy & Religion Department Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts By Tommi Karin Waters May 2015 To my family, for the inspiration To my professors, for the guidance To Amy, for the constant support, encouragement, and friendship ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first and foremost like to thank my mentor and thesis advisor, Dr. Nahed Zehr. Her guidance, support, and encouragement have been invaluable during my time in the graduate program at Western Kentucky University. She has been an incredible inspiration and role model as both a teacher and academic, and I feel very grateful for the opportunity to work with her over the past two years. I have never met a more dedicated instructor, and I greatly appreciate her willingness to meet with and provide guidance to me whenever it was needed. I would also like to thank my other committee members, Dr. Eric Bain-Selbo and Dr. Lawrence Snyder, for their instrumental role in the development of my thesis as well as in my graduate studies. I have been very fortunate to get to work with Dr. Bain-Selbo in every step of the progress of my thesis and appreciate his suggestions and critique during my researching and writing process. Studying with Dr. Snyder has been a fantastic experience during my time at WKU, and I greatly appreciate his enthusiasm for my project and endless research suggestions. I would like to thank Mr. Ryan Korstange for his selfless devotion to my education in biblical Greek. His assistance and instruction in translating the Book of Revelation and Hippolytus have been invaluable, as has his reassurance during the course of my work. I am very grateful for the opportunity to study with him and appreciate the time he has taken out of his busy schedule to guide me in my research. I would also like to thank Dr. Joseph Trafton who has been an extremely influential figure in piquing my interest in religious studies during my undergraduate career. Without studying New Testament and Second Temple Judaism material with iv him, I would not be working in this field, and I would like to express my gratitude for that beginning inspiration. I would like to thank the entirety of the WKU Department of Philosophy and Religion for their instruction, inspiration, and support during the course of my study; for introducing me to new areas of interest; and for refining my writing and researching skills. I would like to thank Paula Williams for the conversations, encouragement, and aid throughout my time in the program. I would also like to thank my colleagues Joshua Scott and Matthew Sheffield for their support and friendship over our time in the program together, as well as for their assistance in proofreading and editing. I have enjoyed our laughs and studies together. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends—in particular, Amy—for their support and encouragement over the past two years. They have had patience with me, even in the most trying times when writing kept me from spending as much time with them. I appreciate their commitment to me and for believing in me, even when I felt like giving up. I could not have done this without you. v PREFACE I first became interested in the topic of my thesis when studying religion and violence with Dr. Nahed Zehr. When reading for that class about groups who committed violent acts because of their religious convictions as well as groups who took a non- violent stance based on the same beliefs, I realized there were many Christian groups and individuals who were seemingly in a “middle-ground.” While they did not commit violent acts, they were also not preaching non-violence. Much of their discussions would be violent in rhetoric, such as targeting political figures as the Antichrist (and thus implying the figure’s eventual destruction) or creating insider/outsider relationships between “believers” and “non-believers.” These actions are not just problematic for cohesion in communities, but for the possible ends these might lead to. With more preliminary research, I found that many of these beliefs were a direct result of reading the Book of Revelation in a literal way—reading the Bible as the inerrant, unchanging, and direct word of God. I began to study how scholars traditionally interpret Revelation, as well as to explore when a “violent” reading of the text began arising. I was also given the opportunity in Dr. Jeffrey Samuels’ ethnography class to study two Baptist Bible study groups who were reading Revelation to see if they were teaching Revelation in a way that could lead to violent actions. Based on this, I became interested in studying how this interpretation began, and thus explored the beginnings and development of the interpretive tradition of Revelation and how it leads to what I have called “rhetorical violence” by groups and individuals in some Christian fundamentalist communities. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 – Scholarly Analysis of the Book of Revelation ............................................. 11 Chapter 2 – Patristic Interpretations of Revelation: A Gateway to Dispensationalism .. 26 Chapter 3 – Pathway to Christian Fundamentalism: Darby and Dispensationalism ...... 46 Chapter 4 – Christian Fundamentalism, Revelation, and Rhetorical Violence ............... 51 Chapter 5 – “A God Who Speaks”: A Case Study of Warren County Baptist Church .. 70 Chapter 6 –Conclusions ................................................................................................... 88 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 91 vii VIOLENCE FOR A PEACEFUL END: RHETORICAL VIOLENCE, FUNDAMENTALIST ESCHATOLOGY, AND THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION OF REVELATION Tommi Karin Waters May 2015 94 Pages Directed by: Nahed Zehr, Eric Bain-Selbo, and Lawrence Snyder Department of Philosophy and Religion Western Kentucky University With the rise of extremist fundamentalist groups, such as ISIS, it is important to note similar happenings in other traditions. This thesis traces the interpretive tradition of the Book of Revelation, from its composition in 90 C.E. through the dispensationalist usage of it by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century, and how its modern use by American Christian fundamentalist groups leads to rhetorical violence, including feelings of marginalization and societal targeting, and creation of insider/outsider dynamics with those outside the tradition. While rhetorical violence—language and behaviors that harm others and that occur so regularly that they often become routinized and habitual—does not directly involve killing and enacting of physical violence, it can lead to it. This thesis concludes that the instances of rhetorical violence occurring in mainstream American Christian fundamentalism, such as in Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind series and the author’s ethnographic case study of a church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, are problematic because of the possibility for physical violence. viii Introduction The end is near. Or, at least, that is a common conception among mainstream American Christian fundamentalists. Fundamentalist groups often promote their eschatological ideas about when the “end times” is/will be, who the Antichrist is/will be, and frequently discuss who will be taken up in the Rapture. As seen from these ideas, the end times could be now, impending, or in a distant future. Whenever this may occur, a consensus among many fundamentalists is that the Book of Revelation predicts what events will occur at the end times. However, Revelation not only provides eschatological ideas for the tradition (many of which are inconsistent with a historical reading of the text), but often also fodder for legitimation of rhetorical violence. This thesis will argue that some fundamentalist groups—including a specific Baptist community in the Bowling Green, KY area—rely on an interpretive tradition of Revelation for their eschatological views, many of which are inconsistent with a scholarly and historical reading of the text, and that these ideas are often used as a basis for rhetorical violence and may even lead into physical violence. Background and Terms The Book of Revelation is uncontestably violent in its imagery, from scenes of God “reaping”
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