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WES HOWARD BROOK and ANTHONY GWYTHER, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now (Bible and Liberation; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1999). Pp xxxi + 313. Paper $24.
Wes Howard-Brook, American, is Program Director for the Intercommunity Center in Seattle and conducts adult Bible study; Anthony Gwyther, Australian, is a graduate of Sydney College of Divinity. Both are active in the Catholic Worker movement. They have never met, yet, thanks to modern technology, have collaborated in a remarkable study of the Book of Revelation, one that speaks to us politically, spiritually, and personally. They combine scholarly investigation of Revelation with inquiry into the practical impact of the text on people who seek to follow Jesus on the way of discipleship. They do not essay a commentary. Their purpose is, in more general fashion, to recover the power of Revelation for today's Christian reader. They unveil not only the sinister face of empire but the disturbing relevance of a notoriously misunderstood text.
In the nine chapters they look in turn at: varied attempts to find a pattern in the chaos of human events; the roots of apocalyptic writings; imperial Rome and Christianity in the first century; Revelation's sense of time and space; language of violence and nonviolent discipleship; Babylon and the New Jerusalem as competing cities; liturgy and worship in Revelation; the war of myths between Babylon and Rome; global capital as the contemporary Babylon. There are reflection questions after each chapter and, throughout, a total of 22 tables.
Revelation is a prophetic, apocalyptic letter addressed to specific Christian communities in the Roman provinces...