Academic, writer and presenter Dr Robert Beckford is visiting Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
He has produced a series of programmes for TV and radio. In The Bible, Dr Beckford explored the Book of Revelation - how it came to be written, and what effect its apocalyptic vision has had on humankind throughout history.
I'm a black liberation theologian. Liberation theologians believe that God is the God of the oppressed and marginalised. I seek out where the Bible can be freeing for ethnic minorities, women, gay men and lesbians, and disabled people.
My question is, 'What is there in Revelation that is useful for helping people resist oppression, fight tyranny, racism and sexism, and deal with the hogging of resources by one part of the world, leaving millions to go to bed hungry every night?'
Revelation is great when you read it in the historical context. The mysterious writer John, tells Christians to resist the tyranny of the Roman Empire, but it's represented in code. Rather than say Rome and Nero, he talks about Babylon and The Beast, because it's the way people can read it without getting into trouble.
It says, 'What's the task of being a Christian in this world? It is to resist tyranny even to the point of death. The good news is that if you resist it, God will be with you, you will be victorious, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.'
That's a really powerful message for anyone who finds themselves up against it for a variety of reasons. It's no surprise that interpretation of Revelation was inspiring for Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and for many South Africans who used the book as the biblical framework for resisting apartheid. It's great how this text even enables us to resist the carbon empire. An environmentalist interpretation is that this book warns us to resist tyranny; it paints a picture of a new heaven and earth and is inspiring to people attempting to build a sustainable environment. The book is fantastic in terms of offering spiritual resources.
The Bible has always played an important role in my life. As I was bought up in the Pentecostal church I was originally taught to read the Bible literally, as the dictated word of God. We read Revelation as a guidebook to the end of the world and learnt to see the images as signposts with events unfolding in front of us.
I still believe it to be 'inspired' but recognise that we have to read it contextually - aware of the social, political and ideological biases that shape each genre and author - and critically, recognising the internal contradictions.
Revelation can be used politically to scare people, who start to believe they are living in a particular time and the various stages are being fulfilled – it's a fantastic way to control people, but it's a book which has been abused. Many feel it is the most complex book of the Bible with its graphic, frightening images.
There is a fear of Revelation that people will be terrified, but also because this book does not fit easily with the belief of a nice, caring God, but, rather, with one who imposes plagues, war and wretchedness.
There are three ways of reading Revelation. One is to believe it as literal guidebook to the end of the world. Another is to dismiss it as historical and irrelevant. Or, there is a middle point, which is where I see myself.
Revelation is written from a historical context but it can inspire today. The message is that 'no matter what situation you find yourself in, there is hope'. For those of us who have the opportunity to resist evil, that's the message. It calls for believers not to collude with evil. It is bound up with the political and the economic, stirring us to ask of ourselves, 'How can we live a just life?'
