Rapture Culture

The rapture - an apocalytpic scenario during which Jesus secretly returns to earth and gathers to him all believers, leaving chaos behind - is anticipated by millions of Americans. These millions have made the Left Behind series - novels that depict the rapture and apocalypse - perennial bestsellers, with millions of copies in print. In Rapture Culture, Amy Johnson Frykholm explores this remarkable phenomenon, seeking to understand why American evangelicals find the idea of the rapture so compelling. What is the secret behind the remarkable popularity of the apocalyptic genre? Tracing the evolution of the genre of rapture fiction, Frykholm notes that at one time such narratives expressed a sense of alienation from modern life and protest against the loss of tradition and the marginalization of conservative religious views. Now, however, evangelicalism's renewed popular appeal has rendered such themes obsolete. Left Behind evinces a new embrace of technology and consumer goods as tools for God's work, while retaining a protest against modernity's transformation of traditional family life. Drawing on extensive interviews with readers of the novels, Rapture Culture opens a window into a little-understood subculture and sheds light on a mindset that is more common than many of us suppose.