ZU Magazine Issue #6: Apocalypse (Spring 2020)

It goes without saying that as the school year comes to a close, things look much different than any of us ever expected. In our final (virtual) brainstorm session, themes of crisis and change/transition/disruption came up frequently. It’s no wonder, with everything that’s been happening in our world lately, that this sentiment is echoed around the globe.

At times it feels like our world is ending — or at the very least, put on pause. None of us expected this semester to end this way, but things like this force us to confront ourselves and our world in a different way. In doing so, there is a lot that can be revealed.

The theme for this issue is Apocalypse. No, not that kind of apocalypse. Last semester, I took a course on apocalyptic literature, where we learned that the term “apocalypse” doesn’t actually mean “end of the world,” as we have come to think of it. The Greek definition of apocalypse is more akin to revelation — “the disclosure of knowledge, the end of deception.” Apocalyptic writing usually comes in response to a crisis.

With this issue, we explore different things that the pandemic is revealing in our world. We examine our response to this crisis on a personal and global scale and how it has the potential to reveal the broken parts of our healthcare and economic systems, as well as the superficiality of fame, celebrity and power. There are biblical aspects of the end times and revelation that are powerfully considered as well. We also poke fun at the traditional way we’ve come to think of “apocalypse.” Is it the end of the world, or a cultural reset? And what comes after — a utopia or a dystopia?