The Very Basics Pod

How to Read the Book of Revelation Without Getting Offended (for the most part)

Hatty Lee returns to chat with me about the book of Revelation. Beginning from our earliest memories of the end times sermons and movies we grew up with in the charismatic Christian communities in Ghana and Korea, respectively, we reflect on how the particulars of reading communities shape their interpretations of (ancient) texts. Then we pivot to the theme of world wars and the many battle scenes in Revelation, focusing partly on the Israeli-Hamas war since Oct 8 and the subsequent siege on Gaza. The episode wraps up with a question on the apocalypse as resistance. From the African American biblicists/theologians such as Brian Blount to academics interested in postcolonial studies. NB: Apologizes for mispronouncing Shanell Smith’s name Some works we cited listed below Blount, Brian K. Can I Get A Witness?: Reading Revelation through African American Culture. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. Collins, John J., “Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre.” Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre. Semeia 14 (Atlanta: SBL, 1979): 1–20. “Google Trends.” Accessed December 30, 2023. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0137f,end%20times,%2Fg%2F120j30mt,%2Fm%2F01dmz [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0137f,end%20times,%2Fg%2F120j30mt,%2Fm%2F01dmz]. Hidalgo, Jacqueline. “Children of the Apocalypses: Revelation and Coloniality in US Latine Literature of Environmental Crisis.” Lecture on 9 October, 2023. Yale Divinity School. Keller, Catherin. “Ms.Calculating the Endtimes: Additions and Conversations.” Pages 203–27 in A Feminist Companion to the Apocalypse of John. ed. Amy-Jill Levine. New York: T&T Clark, 2009. Liew, Tat-siong Benny. “Telling Times in (Asian) America.” Pages 134–46 in What Is Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics? Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008. Lindsey, Hal, and Carole C. Carlson. The Late Great Planet Earth. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1973. Maier, Harry O. “Post-Colonial Interpretation of the Book of Revelation.” Pages 499–516 in The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation. Edited by Craig R. Koester. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Moyise, Steve. “The Old Testament in the Book of Revelation.” Pages 84–100 in The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation. Pippin, Tina. “Mapping the End: On Monsters and Maps in the Book of Revelation.” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 74 (2020): 183–96. Reddish, Mitchell G. “The Genre of the Book of Revelation.” Pages 20–35 in The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation. Shah, Nayan. “Public Health, Race, and Citizenship.” Pages 1–16 in Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Smith, Shanell T. The Woman Babylon and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelations with A Postcolonial Womanist Hermeneutics of Ambiveilence. Baltimore: Project Muse, 2014.

Numbers 5:11-29: How to make sense of difficult Bible passages

My brilliant friend Cliel Shdaimah and I recorded this timely episode for all communities reading this unique text this week. We hope they you somewhere to begin to formulate your thoughts. Enjoy!

How to read the Bible without any faith commitment

The embodiment of all amazing-ness, Antonio Ortiz, did us the honors this month on such an important but rare topic. Let us know what you think. Enjoy!

What it means to be a Christian with an Islamic past

Afeez Sodeinde is a brilliant scientist and a Christian who grew up Muslim. I talked with him about what it means to have experienced two major religions and his advice for the world. Enjoy

The Bible and Archeology 101

Super excited to have had this chat with the amazing Claire Campbell on reading the bible with archeological lenses. Enjoy!