Cosmic Journey in the Book of Revelation

Joel M. Rothman considers the significance of cosmology in biblical and extra-biblical texts and the role of the cosmic journey in many apocalyptic narratives. He posits that Revelation's narrative likewise takes the hearer on a virtual journey through a cosmic story-space of great theological significance. While scholarship commonly assumes a three-tiered cosmos in Revelation Rothman argues that Revelation's narrative operates in a four-tiered cosmos with the hyper-heaven sitting above the sky-heaven earth and abyssal depths; a cosmic story-space that is recreated in the imagination of the hearers.<br/><br/>Beginning with a methodology of visual narrative reading Rothman then discusses the assumptions and existing conceptions regarding heaven and earth. He stresses that Revelation does not exhibit tension in its portrayal of heaven - between heaven as a site of conflict and heaven as the realm in which God truly reigns - but rather shows readers a sky-heaven characterised by archetypal conflict between powerful sky-beings and a hyper-heaven defined by full recognition of the Throne. In journeying through the sky-structure and God-space and by analysing the four cosmic layers in operation the distinct nature of the two sky-spaces cosmic change and the ideological import of the cosmic structure Rothman demonstrates that the existence of the hyper-heaven - in contradistinction with the limited lived-cosmos of earth and sky-heaven - is a present guarantee of the final cosmic transformation that creates a new space for human life exclusive of imperial draconian elements.