Naming the Antichrist

The History of an American Obsession

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7867786
AutoresThomas Robbins, R C Fuller (0000-0002-4146-0885)
Ano1995
Volume34
Fascículo4
Páginas535
Data de publicação1995-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-8294 • E-ISSN: 1468-5906
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1387356
OpenAlexW2323262872
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12

The Antichrist, though mentioned a mere four times in Bible, and then only obscurely, has exercised a tight hold on popular imagination throughout history. This has been particularly true in U.S., says author Robert C. Fuller, where Americans have tended to view our nation as uniquely blessed by God--a belief that leaves us especially prone to demonizing our enemies. In Naming Antichrist, Fuller takes us on a fascinating journey through dark side of American religious psyche, from earliest American colonists right up to contemporary fundamentalists such as Pat Robertson and Hal Lindsey. Fuller begins by offering a brief history of idea of Antichrist and its origins in apocalyptic thought in Judeo-Christian tradition, and traces eventual 71Gws how colonists saw Antichrist personified in native Americans and French Catholics, in Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and witches of Salem, in Church of England and King. He looks at Second Great Awakening in early nineteenth century, showing how such prominent Americans as Yale president Timothy Dwight and Reverend Jedidiah Morse (father of Samuel Morse) saw work of Antichrist in phenomena ranging from French Revolution to Masonry. In twentieth century, he finds a startling array of hate-mongers--from Gerald Winrod (who vilified Roosevelt as a pawn of Antichrist) to Ku Klux Klan--who drew on apocalyptic imagery in their attacks on Jews, Catholics, blacks, socialists, and others. Finally, Fuller considers contemporary fundamentalist writers such as Hal Lindsey (author of The Late Great Planet Earth, with some 19 million copies sold), Mary Stewart Relfe (whose candidates for Antichrist have included such figures as Henry Kissinger, Pope John Paul II, and Anwar Sadat), and a host of others who have found Antichrist in sinister guise of European Economic Community, National Council of Churches, feminism, New Age religions, and even supermarket barcodes and fibre optics (the latter functioning as the eye of Antichrist). Throughout, Fuller reveals in vivid detail how our unique American obsession with Antichrist reflects struggle to understand ourselves--and our enemies--within mythic context of battle of absolute good versus absolute evil. From Scofield Reference Bible (no other book had greater impact on American Antichrist tradition) to Scopes Monkey Trial, Fuller provides an informative and often startling look at a thread that weaves persistently throughout American religious and cultural life

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