Christ, Shepherd of the Nations: The Nations as Narrative Character and Audience in John's Apocalypse

In this book Jon Morales offers a fresh examination of the question of the nations in Revelation. This examination is carried out through employing narrative categories and asking four key research questions: What is John's story of the nations? How does he tell it? What is John's message to the nations? What is John's message to the church concerning the nations? Underpinning this analysis is the animating principle that character cannot be understood as an abstraction but must be rather discovered sequentially in the development of an entire narrative.

Within his analysis Morales considers the range of scholarly debate about the nations in Revelation and whether John envisions their salvation or destruction. Such views range from extreme (total destruction) to extreme (universal salvation), with some positions in between. Morales shows that previous studies have neglected to situate the nations within Revelation's larger plot, and in interaction with other narrative characters, and in so doing is able to conclude that John's purpose concerning the nations is, from beginning to end, to show that the nations belong to God and to his Christ.

• Table of contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Methodology
• 3. Authority over the Nations
• 4. The Nations: Benefit and Conflict
• 5. The Nations in Cosmic Conflict
• 6. Deception and Healing of the Nations
• 7. Synthesis and Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Indexes