In spite of all I read about the idea of a New Jerusalem and the strong understanding of how apocalyptic belief affects modern politics granted by my reform Jewish background, I expected a modern fundamentalist writing like “Glorious Appearing” to be an attack on cities and large groups of people gathering in urban spaces. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Glorious Appearing
The Fundamentalist Appearing
In LaHaye and Jenkin’s Glorious Appearing, I found the fundamentalist mindset quite noticeable and disturbing – even before I read the Strozier, which I finished after reading GA. As Colby mentioned, the ideas outlining fundamentalist mindsets – paranoia, dualistic thinking, and rage – are all very clear in Glorious Appearing.
What struck me most, in addition to the connection between Strozier’s essays and the book, was the way I found certain elements of apocalyptic gender roles manifest itself in Glorious Appearing. Most of the men, despite several having lost wives or loved ones, were single-mindedly focused on Jesus and God in a way that on some levels struck me as homo-erotic. I couldn’t help but think of the thousands of virgin men that would enter New Jerusalem and reflect on the characters in Glorious Appearing, who are mainly male. The few women, and the couple of Naomi and Chang, remain almost wholly devoid of any hints of sexuality, though they do seem to fulfill stereotypical gender roles – Leah, the caring female nurse; Rayford, the rippling, gun-slinging action hero – that I also found in line with the gender roles propagated in The Book of Revelation.
Glorious Appearing and The Fundamentalist Mindset
Reading Strozier and Boyd’s essays and following up with Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, I–like pretty much everyone else who posted prior to my writing this response–thought that the ideas and concepts about fundamentalism that Strozier and Boyd outlined can be clearly and easily observed in Glorious Appearing. Continue reading
Dualistic Violence in Glorious Appearing
Clearly, as it was intended to be, Glorious Appearing was the perfect counterpart to the Strozier’s essays on the fundamentalist mindset. It is almost as if LaHaye and Jenkins wrote the book to encapsulate every idea that Strozier links with a fundamentalist Apocalypse. It is hard to imagine that Glorious Appearing was written without thoughts of dualistic violence and an eagerness for the end of the world.
