No Human Society Is Too Primitive To

The Book Of Revelation, Difficult As It May Be For "literalists," Becomes Much Simpler When We Read It Typologically, As A Mosiac Of Allusions To Old Testament Prophecy.

We Find Rhetorical Situations Everywhere In Life, And Only Our Imaginations Can Get Us Out Of Them.

It Is Of The Essence Of Imaginative Culture That It Transcends The Limits Both Of The Naturally Possible And Of The Morally Acceptable.

Literally, The Bible Is A Gigantic Myth, A Narrative Extending Over The Whole Of Time From Creation To Apocalypse, Unified By A Body Of Recurring Imagery That "freezes" Into A Single Metaphor Cluster, The Metaphors All Being Identified With The Body Of The Messiah, The Man Who Is All Men, The Totality Logoi Who Is One Logos, The Grain Of Sand That Is The World.

The Ups And Downs Of This Cosmos May Sometimes Be Acknowledged To Be Metaphorical Ups And Downs, But Until About Newton's Time Most People Took The "up" Of Heaven And The "down" Of Hell To Be More Or Less Descriptive.