Reading Revelation

The Book of Revelation can be read invarious ways. Where interpretation opts not to venture beyond Revelationor approach the book as a forecast of end-time events, it typically favourseither going behind the text, in search of a socio-historical contextof origin to which it might refer, or else standing in front of the textand investigating the book's reception history, or its present relevance andimpact. Comparatively little interpretative work has been undertaken insidethe text, exploring the mechanics of how Revelation 'works', still less how itscomplex parts might fit together into a meaningful whole. Gordon Campbell considers Revelation tobe a coherent narrative composition that draws its hearer or reader into itstext-world. In Reading Revelation: A Thematic Approach, Campbell givesan innovative account of Revelation's sophisticated thematic content. Mindfulof Revelation's narrative verve, or its architecture en mouvement (asJacques Ellul once put it), Campbell plots a series of thematic trajectoriesthrough the book. On this reading, parody and parallelism fundamentally shapethe whole narrative. As a first-ever integrated account of Revelation'smacro-themes, Reading Revelation makes an important contribution toRevelation scholarship. In its light, the book may justifiably be seen as the'crowning achievement' of the Scriptures.