The use of apocalyptic and post apocalyptic narratives to interpret the risk of environmental degradation and climate change has been criticized for (1) too often making erroneous predictions on the basis of too little evidence, (2) being ineffective to motivate change, (3) leading to a discounting of present needs in the face of an exaggerated threat of impending catastrophe, and (4) relying on a premodern, Judeo-Christian mode of constructing reality. Nevertheless, "Apocalypse," whether understood in its technical sense as "revelation" or in its popular sense as "end of the world as we know it," remains a powerful way of creatively reimagining the world and of introducing questions of value and significance into discussions of climate change.
This article focuses on the interpretation of three texts-Romans 8, 2 Peter 3, and Revelation 21-22-to develop the exegetical basis for a distinctively Christian perspective of the future that has important implications for how we understand our task in and for the created world. I propose that the diverse ways in which the NT portrays the future of the earth, taken together, provide an indispensable resource for the development of a Christian environmental ethos. I argue that this resource is not rendered more valuable by well-intentioned attempts to collapse the different emphases that emerge from, say 2 Peter 3 and Romans 8, into one version or the other. Nonetheless, I also argue that the contradiction that is often felt to exist between these different portraits of creation's future is not so acute that we cannot identify vital strands of continuity between them; and, most importantly, that the ecological ethos that emerges from serious reflection on the implications of these visions is as radical as it is consistent with the OT prophets in their stern calls for righteousness and justice to be realised on earth.
There are striking thematic and verbal parallels between Isaiah 24-27 and Rom 8.18-30 that suggest that Isaiah 24-27 provides the primary source for Paul's description of the ruin and groaning of creation in Rom 8.19-22, a possibility that is strengthened by the fact that Paul elsewhere explicitly cites Isa 25.8. If Paul has used Isaiah 24-27 in this way, it helps to explain the emergence in Romans 8 of a cosmic theme in the context of resurrection hope; it also implies that a historic 'fall of nature' in the traditional sense is not strictly in view, but that Paul rather considers creation to be enslaved to the effects of ongoing human sin and divine judgment. This slavery itself can be considered the result of God's decision to link the fate of the natural world and humankind through what Isa 24.5 calls an 'eternal covenant'.
Th e enigmatic phrase in Rev 21:1, "the sea is no more", has yet to be adequately explained or related cogently to the rest of the book. In this article I categorise the multiple roles in which θάλασσα appears in Rev 4-20 and address the potential implications of each use of sea imagery for explaining its absence from John's vision of the new heaven and earth. Along the way, the various theories that have been proposed by other interpreters are assessed; this is followed by a brief consideration of the potential relevance of several parallels that have been suggested. On the basis of these investigations and an analysis of the context of Rev 21-22, it is proposed that the difficult phrase in 21:1c is best explained in terms of the use of a new-creation typology that serves to highlight the way in which this new creation differs from that described in Gen 1.
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