The Epistemology of Otherworldly Knowledge: Prolegomena to a New Approach to Jewish Apocalypticism
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In recent decades, two methodological approaches have dominated the scholarly study of Jewish apocalyptic literature. The first examines apocalypticism through the lens of genre, an approach shaped in the late 1970s by the work of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Genres Project. The second approaches apocalypticism through the lens of ideology, as developed by the so-called Italian School. The present study proposes a third, epistemological approach, which examines Jewish apocalyptic literature through the category of knowledge. It argues that neither genre nor ideology, but rather the distinctive nature of reified otherworldly knowledge, constitutes the defining feature of Jewish apocalypticism.
Source: Scrinium
Author: Andrei Orlov
Institution: Marquette University
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7223800689