Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession Book

Target audience: Anyone interested in apocalypticism, history of Protestantism, religious psychology and the Antichrist.

About the author: According to Bradley University, Robert C. Fuller is an authority on American religious thought, he regularly serves as a resource to the news media and has appeared on the History Channel's two-part series on the "Antichrist," Canadian Cable television's "What I Believe" and on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect." He is a sought-after speaker at professional conferences. For his many professional contributions to his field, he was awarded the Samuel Rothberg Professional Excellence Award in 1988 and received a Caterpillar Professorship for Religious Studies in 2000. He also received the Charles M. Putnam Award for Teaching Excellence in 1995. Dr. Fuller received his bachelor's degree at Denison University and his master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago prior to beginning his teaching career at Bradley in 1978. He also serves as director of Bradley's Honors Program.


Structure of the book: The book has 240 pages and it is divided in an Introduction, six chapters, an Epilogue, Notes and Index.

Overview: How many times have you heard about American presidents or celebrities being identified or associated with the Antichrist? Have you heard speculations about Obama being the Antichrist? Or George W. Bush? Or Hillary Clinton? Or Donald Trump? Or the simple speculation that an American president will be the Antichrist? Do you think that this phenomenon is new? Not at all; mythologizing the world is a feature of the American people ever since the first settlers placed their feet on American shores and it was passed from generation to generation as a unique element of the American heritage.
Naming the Antichrist is not a critique of the Christian religion or values. It is an analysis of America's obsession with the Antichrist in doctrine and popular culture, throughout history from its roots in antiquity up to the modern age examination. Almost 2,000 after the Bible was written and it mentioned about antichrists and the Antichrist, people still anticipate the arrival of a demonic force akin to Revelation's Beast of the Sea. This "Antichrist" may take the form of an organization, like the Catholic Church, or a person, like Hitler, depending upon whoever is in the news at the time. Crises within the nation and religious communities have often precipitated the naming of religious and/or secular forces within the country as minions of the Antichrist.
During the Reformation, in the 16th century, Protestants Reformers assumed that the papacy was the Antichrist predicted in Scripture. This assumption was gradually discarded by many European Protestants over time but became etched in the collective consciousness of those who left for America. The Elizabethan era, characterized by a compromise between Protestantism and Catholicism, was unsatisfactory for the Puritans who wanted a church completely devoid of any Roman ritualism. After Cromwell's revolution and the Restoration many of them traveled in America. With them they brought their intense hatred of Catholics as the legendary "other" as they sought to build the great Christian society free of popish influence (the "city upon a hill" as John Winthrop said). With no Catholics around to dread, the Antichrist rhetoric changed. Yes, on the occasions that their hegemony was threatened, the natural inclination was to attribute a sinister motive with Rome as the likely power behind the nefarious plot. But even events within their own communities were seen as threats. The fear of satanic influences seeking to undermine the nation's status as a bastion of true Christianity engendered a sense of trepidation that produced tragic results, such as the Salem Witch Trials. Out of this Puritan foundation came a tradition of "naming the Antichrist" as a method of closing debate, separating "us" and "them", vilifying the enemy, and protecting the societal hegemony. Whether the enemy was the Catholic France (in the French and Indian War) or later the British (during the American War of Independence), the struggle was painted in apocalyptic terms with the enemy as an agent of the devil himself.
This pattern continued throughout the 19th century, especially during the Second and the Third Great Awakenings. The world had to be transformed with evangelization, orphanages, soup kitchens, temperance movements, and other social endeavors and a postmillennial eschatology dominated. During stable periods, the antichrist rhetoric would recede but resurfaced when a threat was perceived. These could be in the form of Enlightenment philosophy, Freemasonry, or Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Europe - few people have escaped demonization in the cosmic war of good versus evil. During the Civil War, anti-slavery forces in the North and pro-slavery forces in the South demonized each other as Satan's minions; and, although the author does not mention it, they both used the same Bible text to support or to reject slavery.
In the 20th century the dream of the "perfect Christian society" was pretty much abandoned due to the scientific development and events such as the World Wars and the Cold War. Popes, world leaders, diplomats and too-liberal preachers continue to be identified by name. Now the Antichrist has been discovered even in computers, bar codes and rock music. Moreover, the pattern for "naming the Antichrist" took new, more secularized, forms. The political discourse is centered on the inference of nefarious motives by the opposition. And, of course, evangelicals have continued the unbroken American tradition of pointing to an enemy as the son of perdition.
Overall, throughout his analysis, Fuller provides a framework for understanding how American Protestantism achieved its distinctive elements and how this affected the country's history. For those seeking to understand the American tendency to see itself as a land of destiny and to see all of its conflicts - both foreign and domestic - in apocalyptic terms, Naming the Antichrist is a book to read.


Quote: …The history of Americans' obsession with naming the Antichrist draws attention to their almost limitless capacity for. With the help of biblical metaphors, many Americans are able to mythologize life by 'seeing' that there are deeper powers at work behind the surface appearance of worldly events. Everyday life is viewed against a cosmic background in which the forces of good are continually embattled by the forces of evil. The problems and confusions that Americans face consequently can never be reduced to political, social, or economic causes. Instead, these are guerrilla tactics employed by Satan in his never-ending war against the people of God…

Strong points: Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession in my opinion, is well researched, sober, unbiased, it has some philosophical and psychological tones here and there, and on the subject.

Weak points: Can the story of the Antichrist be completely or well understood if we speak only about one side of it? Because analyzing the story of the Antichrist mainly from an American point of view is not even half of the entire story of the Antichrist. Moreover, the lecture is a little "dry" in some places.

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