Apocalypticism and typology: Rhetorical dimensions of a symbolic reality

Abstract

The long history of the Christian prophetic vision shows that the vision's popularity has fluctuated markedly and that its ideological content has been modified frequently. This essay seeks to explain the distinct persuasive appeal which accounts for the vision's fluctuating popularity and to identify the ways in which the vision, when modified to meet extant rhetorical situations, functions rhetorically.