becoming

Really bad.

And Michael Gorman is telling us why.

And while he is at it, he also offers an alternative set of principles – a cruciform hermeneutic– for reading Revelation:

1. Recognize that the central and centering image of Revelation is the lamb that was slaughtered.
   
2. Remember that Revelation was first of all written by a first-century Christian for first-century Christians using first-century literary devices and images.
   
3. Abandon so-called literal, linear approaches to the book as if it were history written in advance, and use an interpretive strategy of analogy rather than correlation.
   
4. Focus on the book’s call to discipleship.
   
5. Place the images of death and destruction in Revelation within the larger framework of hope.

Read his post here as he expounds each point in more details.

[link: cross talk via euangelion]