This made me pause while reading Kingsnorth, “Against the Machine” (p239): “… because Christian tradition has long taught that the emergence of one global religion […] will be the prelude to the coming of the figure known as Antichrist.” I don’t think that “long taught” is true?

@joshuapsteele I mean you’re the trained theologian here, but in my understanding that’s more of a dispensationalist invention than some long church tradition.

@joshuapsteele I don’t recall any such teaching in the Church in which Kingsnorth and I both are communicants.

I do recall something rather opposite: that the Church’s eschatology is “from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”

@cjhubbs I mean, certainly in the way Kingsnorth goes on to describe “Antichrist” and “global religion”, it sounds like the much more recent dispensationalist/Left Behind crap…

@joshuapsteele No such teaching in Orthodoxy unless I’m greatly mistaken. I think some of Revelation can be read in this way, and lots of other ways! The book of Revelation is the only part of the NT that isn’t appointed to be read in church.

@joshuapsteele Yep, exactly.

@cjhubbs @JohnBrady @ReaderJohn Yeah, I’m 99% sure fears about a “one-world religion” don’t go back before Dispensationalism. Anyways, I agree with Kingsnorth’s worries about “The Machine” in very broad brushstrokes, but have been quite disappointed with the book beyond its opening chapters…

@joshuapsteele @cjhubbs @JohnBrady @ReaderJohn Also, have any of you read “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco? Thinking about the history of interpreting Revelation reminded me of that book. What a wild ride.

@joshuapsteele I liked it overall (= he agrees with me!) but thought it had some serious problems. When he gets into politics I wince. I think some of that has to do with time of writing/publication: Some of the draconian state measures during Covid are his prime examples of the Machine at work; though those feel pretty tame these days, what with unaccountable secret police roaming the streets etc.

@joshuapsteele It’s been somewhere on my mental reading list for decades without ever rising to the top. Maybe I need to fix that…

@JohnBrady It’s pretty great. A seminary professor assigned it as required pre-reading for his Medieval Theology course in our “History and Doctrine” sequence at Beeson.

@joshuapsteele in the early parts of the book he seemed pretty happy with christendom attempts to be the one world religion? 🤷‍♂️ I'm not finding it to be super coherent.

@joshuapsteele I haven’t read The Name of the Rose, though it was very popular when I wore a younger man’s clothes.

@frankm That’s a fascinating insight. Gonna chew on that one a bit.

@joshuapsteele I’m just about to begin the book. Thanks for pointing that bit out. And no, it does not remind me of any long-established teaching of Christian churches.