This is a rare find in our current climate - a thoughtful, well-researched analysis of the book of Revelations (and a bit of the overall state of Christianity in today's world) from a historical, literary, global, and logical perspective. A smart author who respects his readers/listeners enough to avoid talking down to them or reducing his premise to memeable soundbites. There is so much hope and love and challenge in this book that it nearly brought me to tears, remembering the days when this kind of discussion was the norm in theological circles rather than a tiny oasis in a sandstorm of secular politics and greed.

I listened to the audio edition, which was narrated by a voice so "announcery" that it almost sounded like AI - but strangely, that worked for the tone. My only (very minor) reason for possibly recommending the print version is that nobody seems to have found a really good way to handle citations in the audio format, and during the chapters that are heavy on textual analysis it can be a bit disruptive to constantly have verbal citation of chapters and verses. I don't really have a suggestion for improvement - leaving out the citations seems wrong, but since most of us listen to audiobooks while doing other things it doesn't seem practical to have a follow-along PDF...but greater minds than mine will eventually come up with something, I'm sure.

But regardless of your current relationship with Christianity or any institutional Church, I strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in theology, Church history, or even secular literature - I promise you'll get something out of it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Foretaste of the Future: Reading Revelation in Light of God's Mission

This was a really interesting book. I am so glad I got it.

Revelation is one of the most misunderstood, confusing, scary, and even incorrectly named book of the Bible (people often call it Revelations, with the incorrect trailing 's').

I really appreciated Dean's great analysis of the book, and I got a lot of insight from Revelation.
Flemming pivots traditional readings of Revelation (end-times predictions) and instead, shifts focus to God's ongoing mission in the world.
Flemming's work is grounded in academic theological research. However, I found the book completely accessible for my own enjoyment, and I am not a theologian. This made the book really applicable to a broad audience, and I liked that approach a lot.

This book is important because it explores Revelation's original context, key themes, and message for each new generation.

If you want to better understand God's work in Revelation, I highly recommend checking out this book. I am so glad I did.

4.4/5