In this book St. John's Revelation is approached as a great and singular theological poem. The author tries to see how the poem arose in an inspired mind, by what processes of divination its author explored the realm of supernatural truth, how he used the images of his Old Testament faith and gave them fresh meaning in the context of his scheme. Here the reader may follow the workings of a late first-century Christian imagination in which the Scriptures and the stars, the liturgy of the temple and the magic of numbers, the elements of nature and the march of human history are closely interwoven.