Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - Zsolt K. Virágos: The American Brand of the Myth of Apocalypse

unique linkage between present and future as being also different from (or a distinct manifestation of) the prophets' vision of history.

2 Biblical apocalyptic, then, is basically a type of preview of the end of an age and of the establishment of a new one. It most often predicts the ultimate destiny of the world by suggesting a terrible final end. Apocalyptic imagery connotes the "end of the world" or "Judgment Day" as specific events with which history is to terminate

3 because the world itself will disappear into its two unending constituents, a heaven and a hell, into one of which man automatically goes. Since the Renaissance, however, the concept of this cosmic and radical turningpoint has been largely shorn of its biblical overtones and the subsequent use of the word has tended to refer to secular and humanistic phenomena, whether social, political or psychic transformation. Within the American frame of reference, earlier national optimism proceeded from a millennial vision, in which the idea of the end of the world is complemented by that of its possible renewal. The reason for the intrinsic optimism of the millennial vision is evident in the original Jewish sources. Apocalypse, as described, for instance, in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah, is more reconstruction than destruction, more of a beginning of a new than an ending of the old, more of a vision of hope than of dissolution. Thus the original understanding of apocalypse can be defined simply as a revelation of spiritual realities in the future. This is clearly reflected in the early American manifestations. In New England Puritan literature Increase Mather's "New Jerusalem" (1687) suggests that New England was to be the site of the fulfilment of 2 Canonical and noncanonical apocalyptic texts exist in abundance in both Hebrew and Christian writings. The foremost examples of testamentary Hebrew apocalypses are Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, whereas the Gospel of St. Mark and the second Epistle of St. Peter contain apocalyptic passages and, above all, the revelation of St. John of Patmos exemplifies Christian testamentary apocalypse. 3 Cf. the fourteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah, the Revelation of St. John, or the medieval Latin hymn Dies Irae. 123