The Samuel Ferguson lecture is an annual lecture in theology hosted by the Department of Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester, in partnership with Manchester Cathedral. The Lecture will be conducted via Zoom.

An Afternoon in conversation with Prof. Catherine Keller (Drew University) - Apocalypse After All? Climate, Politics and Faith in the Possible.

As the fires, floods, and droughts of global warming spiral around a planetary pandemic and intensify political precarity, the ancient symbol of apocalypse finds ever new energy. It pulses--quite apart from fundamentalist deployments--across fully secular news sources (the “Insect Apocalypse,” “the California Wildfire Apocalypse,” etc.) What other single word delivers a comparable warning of coming collective catastrophe?

It is crucial therefore that Christian publics correct the misreading of Apocalypse as “End of the World.” The word means not closure but disclosure, and attaches to an ancient vision of radical transformation.

The ancient Apocalypse denounced the imperial power and global economics of Rome--a pattern not lacking in current manifestation--only to announce the coming of “New Jerusalem,” green with “leaves for the healing of the nations.” We will meditate upon the social and environmental resonances of the symbol in the present, as faith communities work to find spiritual meaning and a healthy future for themselves and for the whole troubled planet.

About Catherine Keller-http://catherineekeller.com/ck/about-catherine-keller/