Revelation’s New Jerusalem in the Age of Imperial Christianity (ca. 313–ca. 600)

• Applicant: Dr. Nathan Betz, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 530173204

This project comprehends a ground-breaking synthetic study of the reception of the book of Revelation’s New Jerusalem from the dawn of the Constantinian era through the golden age of Revelation scriptural commentaries in the sixth century CE. Resplendently depicted in the final two chapters of the canonical New Testament, this image has guided and inspired theological, artistic, and political imagination for as long as it has been read. Even so, its reception history in this period has never been undertaken. Building on my earlier research into its reception up until the early fourth century, I now turn to study the image’s textual and visual receptions from ca. 313–ca. 600 CE and situate them within the historical conditions that brought them forth. The project has three principal research objectives that will be carried out employing a critical historical and intermedial approach to historical reception that is grounded on a close scrutiny of texts, artworks, and their larger social contexts: (1) To trace the use of the New Jerusalem image in late antique theological texts, art, architecture, and non-theological literature, (2) to describe and account for the late-antique development of the New Jerusalem image in general, and (3) to track the shifting authority and influence of the Book of Revelation by employing the New Jerusalem topos as a case-study. The textual sources investigated will be in the three principal languages of Christendom in late antiquity: Greek, Latin, and Syriac. The three-phase work program will consist of data collection (most of which is already completed), analysis, and synthesis/writing. The eventual success of this ambitious project is assured by my extensive expertise in the subject matter, a realistic work plan, a strictly delimited textual (reception of Revelation’s image only), historical (ca. 313-600), and linguistic scope (e.g. Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, etc. are excluded for reasons of chronology). The perspective and deep experience of the directors and fellows at my current/proposed institution— the Beyond Canon Centre for Advanced Studies (FOR 2770) at the University of Regensburg—will also contribute directly to the success of the proposed project. The project’s research output is a monograph, several papers in highly-ranked theological and historical journals, a battery of interim research presentations at high-profile international conferences, and a Regensburg-based conference on the topic.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants