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Introduction to |
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Revelation is beyond doubt the most endangered book of the Christian canon. It remains an irony of note that the danger proceeds, not from worldly minds, but from Christian ones. Under Christian maltreatment, and in our lifetime, the plain text has been variously insulted, bent around, bowdlerized, distorted almost beyond recovery. To the point where a robust handbook of hope, a work of enormous import to Christians beset in olden times, has all but lost its credential. The Book of Revelation is now commonly taught as a nightmarish labyrinth, leading inexorably to despair of the Christian enterprise in the world. Thus we hear talk that strikes one with the horror of ultimate irresponsibility: Revelation counseling an inevitable "showdown" war between good and evil forces, closely identified, stalemated, sealed in their hostility, dead set against all compassion. The book urgently requires rescuing, rehabilitation under sane hands. Such were the hands, as is acknowledged among Quakers and many others, of George Fox. Like Bonhoeffer after him, like Jagersaetter and the noble student resisters known as "White Rose," like Barth and Stringfellow and Ellul, like anti-war resisters of our own time and place, in jail and out, under obloquy and good report, Fox, disarmed and disarming, met "evil times," scripture in hand. Thus he was enabled to overcome the times. Thus are we required to meet our own "evil times," and prevail over the brutality and enticement of yet another war. Revelation here has passed to other hands than Fox's; yet they are the same hands. Which is to say, these are Christian hands. They hold the book in honor, as befits a holy text. They interpret with care, even with fear and trembling, knowing that the words of God are given for our instruction, our reproof, and above all, for our encouragement. May this sensible treatment of the plain sense of Revelation help us to endure days of darkness and unexampled violence, even to rejoice. The Christ of Revelation, we need reminding, is also the Christ of the beatitudes, of Calvary, of resurrection. - Daniel Berrigan
This is Berrigan's introduction to George Fox
and the Book of Revelation by Arthur Berk, published by the New
Foundation Fellowship. The introduction is reprinted here by
kind permission of the author. Crossroads Friends have been
using Arthur Berk's book in the study of Revelation, and find it
helpful. George Fox and the Book of Revelation is
available for purchase on line at |