ABSTRACT
The classic definitions of apocalyptic stress dualism as a main feature of the genre, with the radical struggle between the divine beings and the demoniac ones. Nevertheless, if we read close their visionary and oneiric-like accounts, we find subtle but persistent connections among humans and more-than-human beings, like rocks, plants, rivers, seas, stars, abyss, animals, monsters, demons, angels, and God. They transform themselves from one form to the other or combine into hybrid beings. All human beings and more-than-human beings are agents and are interrelated in the causes of evil and suffering. They will also be beneficiaries of salvation. We suggest that in the apocalyptic literature we have, on one side, dualistic narrative plots and, on the other side, connective ontologies, full of metamorphoses and liminal beings. Research has given almost no attention to this last aspect. We intend to put the discussion about the ontologies and modes of existence in the apocalyptic texts in dialogue with non-western ontologies, like the Amerindian, in order to open new possibilities for understanding their myth-poetic language.
