ABSTRACT
Dreams of apocalyptic glory assure a nation that it will triumph over all its enemies and that in the end all other peoples will either bow in submission and adoration or be eliminated once and for all. Apocalyptic literature is full of names of cities that have been destroyed: Megiddo and Jerusalem, Babylon and Athens. Thus the apocalyptic literature links the times, the present, with a catastrophic past and a cataclysmic future. Cataclysms are thus commemorated in apocalyptic visions of a millennial society in which there is no distinction between genders and classes; all share the common fate. Apocalyptic beliefs reflect the inability of societies to foresee, postpone, and avert disasters, and these beliefs also mirror the exposure of societies to internal sources of subversion. Christian, Jewish, and Islamic apocalypticism continues to project ancient conflicts between peoples and civilizations into a future day of judgment, when these conflicts will dissolve in a final exorcism of all social and cultural difference.
