Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary

Revelation is perhaps the most misunderstood book of the New Testament. The challenge of reading Revelation well lies largely in appreciating its literary form as an ‘apocalypse,’ a genre of writing full of bewildering imagery and complex structural features. The book’s visions and images are not a code to be deciphered but a means of transforming the Christian theological imagination, disclosing in many-layered ways the nature of the powers of evil in the world, God’s victory over them, and the church’s call to faithful witness in the present time. At the theological heart of the book, however, is God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ. Since Revelation’s literary form and its theological meaning are inseparable, this commentary approaches the challenge of interpretation by integrating these two horizons, reading Revelation both as a work of literature and a work of theology.