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by NICHOLAS GUYATT

NICHOLAS_GUYATT Religious_Studies English
  • ISBN: 0091910889
  • Category: Religious books
  • Author: NICHOLAS GUYATT
  • Subcategory: Religious Studies
  • Other formats: lit lrf doc azw
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: EBURY PRESS (2008)
  • FB2 size: 1733 kb
  • EPUB size: 1338 kb
  • Rating: 4.9
  • Votes: 598
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Now, the not so good: The sub-title of this book is "Why Millions of Americans are looking Forward to the End of the World.

They're convinced that. Now, the not so good: The sub-title of this book is "Why Millions of Americans are looking Forward to the End of the World. This is a very provocative question - and it is the sole reason that I bought the book. I knew all about End Times bullsh t - I've read works by Lindsay, LaHaye, etc. What I want to know is WHY average Americans believe this stuff, and I was very excited to read Guyatt's thoughts and theories on this question.

Have a Nice Doomsday book. They're convinced that, any day now, Jesus will snatch up his followers and spirit them to heaven.

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They're convinced that has been added to your Cart.

Apparently, 50 million Americans believe that we are living in the end .

Apparently, 50 million Americans believe that we are living in the end times, and that any day now, Jesus is going to swoop down to earth and Rapture his true believers. Everyone else will have to hang around for the Tribulation and life under the one-world global empire of the Antichrist and face Armageddon. This book gives an excellent history of the various end-of-the-world Christian beliefs. He never really answers why so many people 'look forward' to the End Times, and worse, he goes another step in the wrong direction by ignoring most of the evidence he presented throughout the book. Most of these guys are hardcore.

They're convinced that, any day now, Jesus will snatch up his followers and spirit them to heaven. The rest of us will be left behind to endure massive earthquakes, devastating wars, and the terrifying rise of the Antichrist. But true believers aren't sitting around waiting for the Rapture. They're getting involved in debates over abortion, gay rights, and even foreign policy.

Why do they seem so cheerful about the end of the world? And does their influence stretch beyond the Bible .

Why do they seem so cheerful about the end of the world? And does their influence stretch beyond the Bible Belt perhaps even to the White House? trange, funny and unsettling in equal measure, Have a Nice Doomsday uncovers the apocalyptic obsession at the heart of the world s only superpower. He divides his time between Canada and London. Country of Publication.

The phrophetic world is a murky world. com User, March 1, 2008.

book by Nicholas Guyatt. The phrophetic world is a murky world. I have mixed emotions about the book I just finished; on one hand Guyatt writes very well and very clearly but on the other hand I found the subject matter difficult to fully understand.

Have a Nice Doomsday: Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the en. £. 5. item 2 (Very Good)-Have a Nice Doomsday: Why millions of Americans are looking forward -(Very Good)-Have a Nice Doomsday: Why millions of Americans are looking forward.

Nicholas Guyatt Reader in North American History at the University of Cambridge. Nicholas Guyatt, Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans are Looking Forward to the End of the World (London, 2007). Producer: Simon Tillotson. Pietsch, Dispensational Modernism (Oxford University Press, 2015). T. C. F. Stunt, From Awakening to Secession: Radical Evangelicals in Switzerland and Britain, 1815–35 (T&T Clark, 2000). Matthew Avery Sutton, American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism (Harvard University Press, 2014). Jerry Walls (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World (2007). Nicholas Guyatt teaches history at Cambridge. Bind Us Apart: A Prehistory of ‘Separate but Equal’ comes out later this year. Another American Century?: The United States and the World Since 9/11 (2003). The Absence of Peace: Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1998). In the LRB Archive: Whalers v. Sealers: Rebellion on the Tryal · 19 March 2015. Empire of Necessity: The Untold History of a Slave Rebellion in the Age of Liberty by Greg Grandin. A Topic Best Avoided: Abraham Lincoln · 1 December 2011.


Reviews about Have a Nice Doomsday: Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world (6):
Runehammer
If you live in America chances are that you are aware that you live in a space age nation that harbors many citizens with Stone Age beliefs. Nowhere is this more noisily apparent than in the politically active religious right who in their list of factually incorrect beliefs such as a 6,000 year old earth and superstitions of answered prayers you will also find another total lapse of critical thought - that prophecies contained in the Bible are actually relevant and true.

Press them on the issue and you'll get a litany of obfuscations and evasions that come ready made in the structure of "prophecy." Never mind valid historical criticism that shows prophecy to be the longings of the writers of what they hoped would happen, in the minds of the apocalyptic evangelical Christians who are forced into the whackaloon position of scriptural inerrancy, these passages *must* have a connection to real events.

Nicholas Guyatt goes into this strange realm of irrationality to interview and research the big shots. Among these firebrands of fallacious thinking are John Hagee, Tim LaHaye, Hal Lindsey, and Jerry Jenkins. We find out about Hagee's megachurch preaching and LaHaye and Jenkins' multimillion copy selling "Left Behind" as well as much of the history and complexity surrounding these beliefs and the individuals who hold them.

Perhaps the most disturbing finding that Guyatt brings to light comes toward the end of the book when political strategist turned novelist Joel Rosenberg reveals his schmoozing with the then top level Bush administration advisors.

While the book is certainly very good, I can't write the review without mentioning one strong criticism: the book needed more logical deconstruction of these beliefs. I do acknowledge that the author's goal here wasn't focused on debunking apocalyptic prophecy, but more valid criticism in this vein would have been very welcome. Just to give one example, these prophecy people often make statements--which are quoted by Guyatt--stating to the effect that we should pay attention to "holy scripture" as a guide to the future. Which scripture? The Bible? The Koran? The Upanishads? The Book of Mormon? They haven't validated their premise upon which they base their entire argument. And they can't without resorting to tautologies. While Guyatt does offer a wonderful section detailing the failed prophetic movements of the past and shaky reasoning behind these of the present, these are more indirect refutations and not a direct engagement.

That aside, the book is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for more information on this fascinating if troubling cultural development. Guyatt strikes a good balance between reporting the facts and history of the movement while offering anecdotes that personalize these individuals.
Ganthisc
Too much like a bad school text, instead of a book on the madness of crowds and their thought processes, or imprinting.
Samulkree
A pretty good report on the phenomena of Apocalyptic Christianity in America. The tone was more respectful than the goofy title and cover led me to believe it would be (which is a good thing). At the same time this is no somber report. The book is breezy and conversational. More an overview than an in depth study.

The history of End Times belief is followed from its origins in England and we are shown how those beliefs moved to the New World even as they faded from Europe. I agree with the other review that pointed out that this history was pretty light, but that wasn't my primary interest in the book, so I didn't mind it.

By far the most interesting parts of the book for me were the interviews with the End Times superstars and also-rans. Tim LaHaye and Joel Rosenberg are interesting guys. While I don't doubt they sincerely believe their End Times eschatology, you can't help but feel that they aren't glorying in their celebrity a bit. Guyatt lets them skewer themselves with their own words. It never felt like he was holding these people up for ridicule, though he didn't gloss over some of the negative image they project on their own.

The real revelation (pardon the pun) for me were some of the guys 'in the trenches'. The host of a cable access show: Final Hour, the guy who felt a calling to sell his home and travel the country in an RV and Mel Odom, a Christian contract writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch novels who was hired to write a Tom Clancy-esque spin-off series to the Left Behind books. These are regular work-a-day guys doing what they believe in but wrestling with some of the stickier questions of End Times belief.

The author gets them to grapple with their seemingly contradictory views that things must get worse in order to trigger The Rapture and at the same time that Christians should exercise their influence in politics in order to make America a more Christian nation.

I wish Amazon allowed for half stars, because this is a three and a half star book. But I'll award it the extra half for capturing my attention with the light-hearted (but not lightweight) writing style.

Over all I would say Have A Nice Doomsday is a good introduction to End Times belief for anyone who's seen those Left Behind books and are wondering what that whole Rapture thing is about.

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