By Danny Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — The term “armageddon” — the imagined ”final
battle” before the end opf the world — comes to us modern Jews from
a word found in the Christian Book of Revelation where the apostle
John writes about a monstrous war, noting “And they gathered them
together to the place that is called in Hebrew ‘Har Megiddo.”
Har Megiddo was not the name of the final battle, but the name of the
place where the battle was to occur, and there is still a town called
Megiddo in Israel, too. And so far, there has been no Har Megiddo
”armageddon”. Get it, the word we use in English, armagedoon, might
be taken, roughly, directly from Har Megiddo. The words sound similar,
and that’s proof. Say the two words quickly out loud: Har Megiddo,
Armegeddon. Touche!
But for Jews, and Christians, too, ”Armageddon” and the so-called
”Apolcalypse”, the real so-called ”End of the World” are not
things we worry about on a day to day basis. However, on the other
hand, some people do keep anticipating this end time that never
materializes. So what happens when nothing
happens?
My own personal research work since 2006, on the possible need for
so-called ”polar cities” for survivors of climate chaos in the
distant future is, in a sense, another example of apocalyptic
thinking, even though I am not into Armageddon or the Apocalypse. Or
am I?
A new video series produced in Canada and titled
“Apocalypse…When?” explores the
origins and psychology of doomsday
thinking, and it’s a useful series for both Jews and Christians.
To learn more about the series, I sought out a religion professor in
Canada who is one of the experts interviewed in the video series,
Lorenzo DiTommaso, and
he was gracious enough to agree to a short interview with the San
Diego Jewish World.
Chairman of the department of religion at Concordia University in
Canada, where he has taught courses on the
Hebrew Bible
and on issues of early Judaism and Christianity, DiTommaso specializes
in the study of global apocalypticism —
ancient, mediaeval, modern and contemporary — with a strong
overlapping interest in apocryphal literature.
And he’s no novice when it comes to researching and writing about the
so-called Apocalypse. His next book, “The Architecture of
Apocalypticism”, will be published later this year by Oxford University Press.
Which is why I am talking to him today in an email exchange from my
home in Taiwan to his office in Canada. I want to know more about his
role in the video series about how modern people view the concept of
“apocalypse.”
As both Jewish and Christian readers know, the
concept of Apocalypse from the New Testament’s ”Book of Revelation”
has become a major influence for religious practices and popular
culture around the world.
For example, some followers of Islam believe that Armageddon is
imminent; Hindus believe we are reaching the end of a dark cycle of
time and the start of a new golden age. Does the concept of doomsday
transcend cultures and spiritualities? Is it simply human nature to
want to know the shape of things to come, and embrace those who
provide possible answers? Do our apocalyptic visions indicate an end
of time or a chance for a new beginning?
I put these questions to Professor DiTommaso, all brief and to the
point, and he answered in the same spirit.
Why do some people keep anticipating the so-called ”End of the
World”, an end that never seems to materialize, at least not yet?
“[The anticipating] offers hope for a better future, in the conviction
that this time the end will be truly imminent,” he said.
What happens to those who ancitipate the ”end of the world” when
nothing happens?Are there any repercussions in society or in religion?
“Two things happen, usually,” Dr. DiTommaso said. “First,
disillusioned members leave the group. Second, they decide that the
prediction was correct, but the interpretation or calculations were
incorrect.”
When asked what some of the implications and psychology of doomsday
thinking are for both Jews and Christians, and followers pf other
religions as well, DiTommaso noted: “I can’t answer this, since I am
not a mental heath expert.
Professor DiTommaso explained that the term ”global apocalypticism”
means apocalypticism over history and across different cultures.
When asked if atheists or agnostics take part in apocalypic thinking,
and in what ways, he said that ”environmental apocalypticism” is
certainly one way.
The professor’s new book titled “The Architecture of Apocalypticism”
is to be part of a projected trilogy. When asked what the book is
about, what the term “architective of apocalpticism” means, he said :
“It is about global apocalypticism, the ‘architecture’ meaning how
it’s structured.”
I asked: Should we in the modern age be taking apocalyptic predictions
seriously, or with a grain of salt? Do you expect there to be many
more apocalyptic prophecies in the next part of the 21st century
leading up to 2100 A.D.?
“I suspect that there will be more,” Dr DiTommaso said.
DiTommaso once said: “I’ll make one prediction, it’s the only
prediction I ever make… “Every single apocalyptic prediction is
wrong, and will be wrong.
— forever.”
When I asked what he meant with that statement, he replied: “No
apocalyptic prediction has ever come to pass. The failure rate is 100
percent.”
So, in the end, will the world end, and soon? Not likely, to both questions.
But for Jews and Christians, and Moslems and Buddhists as well, and
even atheists and agnostics, the topic is something that is not going
to go away soon. As climate change and global warming news stories and
headlines fill the front pages of our newspapers and websites day by
day, apocalyptic thinking is very much in the tons of CO2 being
emitted into the atmosphere 24/7 — as the world turns.
Apocalypse when? Most likely never.
While the term ”Armageddon” takes its name from Har Megiddo in the
Holy Land, a mountain overlooking a valley where doomsayers believed
the ”final battle” would occur, we now know there’s nothing to be
afraid of. Or is there?
*
Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World and an inveterate web surfer. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com