Rooted in the biblical tradition, the idea of the world’s imminent end is a fixture of Western history. This book gathers work from a multidisciplinary research team exploring the biblical apocalyptic imaginary as a transhistorical phenomenon. Objectives of the book’s chapters include both in-depth analyses of how the apocalyptic imaginary shapes conceptions of time, agency, justice, gender, corporeality, otherness and nationhood; and critical reflections on the apocalyptic imaginary’s ambiguity in the past and present. For example, the book interrogates the use of apocalyptic imagery in historiography, legal-political thought and populist rhetoric, but also the deployment of apocalyptic tropes in debates about AI, climate change and migration. How does the apocalyptic imaginary define which futures are thinkable and desirable, and thereby shape political choices in the present? When do apocalyptic motifs ignite our capacities for ethical engagement or political resistance, and when do they function merely to paralyze us? Drawing on multiple methodological skillsets, At the End of the World will tap into resources from the history of apocalyptic thinking to expose the deeply ingrained but largely unconscious ways in which apocalyptic themes resurface in today’s cultural and political challenges.
