Throughout history, powerful Christians have understood Daniel 7 to show them that God has chosen them to be divinely appointed world rulers––but then behave more like the beasts than the “nobodies” that God actually chooses to rule. From Constantine’s theologians claiming to establish the kingdom of the saints, to Charlemagne’s biographer describing his kingdom as the renewed fourth empire, to American notions of manifest destiny that drew on the language of Daniel 7: empire after empire has claimed what they think is Daniel’s promise of eternal global domination. Those claiming to be the holy ones became the beast, speaking arrogant words and making war on the vulnerable communities who suffer under systems of domination.

But really, it means a revealing, the revelation of Jesus. So ultimately, this book shows us who Jesus was in ancient times against the Roman Empire and might invite us into something about what the world is now.

Revelation was intended to give hope to a people going through impossible chaos. And God’s vision at the end of Revelation, the last word, so to speak, is incredibly hopeful. We need that now.

A father asks Elaine Pagels about our coronavirus world described through his young son’s “Once upon a time” lens.