"The Apocalyptic Is Political"

"Her account highlights several prophetic works and visionaries, from Ezekiel to Paul to the ancient sect of prophesying Christians called the Montanists, and others. Pagels also discusses the afterlife of Revelation in the Christianity of late antiquity through the fourth century. Her thesis is that apocalyptic literature—visions, prophecies, predictions of cataclysm—has always carried political ramifications, both revolutionary and reactionary, liberal and conservative, from the very beginning up until today, as seen in conservative iterations of millennial dispensationalism and the hugely popular 'Left Behind' series of novels about the end of the world."   

Dale B. Martin in The New York Times reviews Elaine Pagels's Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation.