Apocalypse Now!

In my Religion 121 class, "God and the Bible,"  we have just finished reading the Apocalypse of John, aka Revelation.   Then, as it is our habit to do in the class, we read an essay which gave a perspective on the particular bible reading.  Our essay was Tina Pippen's, "Apocalyptic Horror,"  in which she explained the book of Revelation as a precursor to the horror genre.   She also goes on to explain the sort of repulsive attraction of horror, and how this plays into the popularity of apocalypse stories.   I could not help but be reminded of Amy Frykholm's essay on Rapture Culture.   I recall the essay discussing the popular appeal of the apocalypse story as it relates to fundamentalist Christians and the Left Behind series.  And (I apologize for the fragmented nature of this post)  our class discussions on the Second Great Awakening and the changes this made on American Democracy.  It is interesting for me to think about how what Pippen describes as a horror story could have made an impact upon American Democracy, which seeks to avoid horror!   I guess my main point is that I was happy to have found another connection to Amcon, as well as to have found a bit of irony to savor on this stormy evening.