Dragons, plagues and Christ's return: The Book of Revelation, explained

Jesuitical

America Media

Spirituality, Christianity, News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on a special Halloween episode of “Jesuitical,” Ashley and Zac speak with Micah Kiel, a professor of New Testament at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minn., where he teaches a class called “Apocalypse-mania.” Micah is also the author of Apocalyptic Ecology: The Book of Revelation, the Earth, and the Future. Ashley, Zac and Micah discuss: - How Catholics should read the Book of Revelation - Where our obsession with the apocalypse comes from - Revelation’s (violent) critique of empire In Signs of the Times, Ashley and Zac discuss King Charles’s monumental visit to the Vatican, Cardinal Burke saying the Latin liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica and Pete Hegseth’s decision to retain awards for soldiers who massacred hundreds of Indigenous civilians at Wounded Knee in the late 19th century. In “As One Friend Speaks to Another,” Ashley and Zac speak to Jackson Goodman, strategic program manager at America, about his and Zac’s upcoming participation in the New York City Marathon. Links for further reading: Pope Leo and King Charles make history with first-ever joint prayer service in Sistine Chapel Cardinal Burke celebrates traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Analysis: Why is Pope Leo letting Cardinal Burke say the Latin Mass at the Vatican? Bishop, Jesuits reject Hegseth decision to honor soldiers who massacred Lakota at Wounded Knee Support Cristo Rey New York High School You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for Saints and Sinners. You can join us
0:15.3	each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church in our world today, sometimes over drinks.
0:20.3	I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Zach Davis.
0:22.8	Great to be with you, Ashley.
0:23.8	How you feeling? A couple days to go before the marathon.
0:26.4	I am ready. I am ready for it to be over.
0:29.4	I don't know, the anticipation. This is very much like an Advent kind of week,
0:33.0	the waiting for the big event, especially because you're not really like running or doing anything.
0:39.0	It is just like this period of anticipation.
0:42.6	And if you don't know, Zach is running the New York City Marathon, your first marathon.
0:47.1	First, last, only.
0:49.0	We'll see.
0:49.9	And we're going to get more into the spirituality of running in general, running in a marathon with our colleague Jackson Goodman, who is going to join us in studio for as one friend speaks to another at the end of the show.
1:01.6	That's right, our face sharing segment.
1:02.9	But before that, we have a very spooky episode.
1:05.9	Yes, we are talking about the book of Revelation, which I just reread. It's just as weird as I remember
1:13.0	it being when I read it in college. And so we're bringing on a scripture scholar. His name is
1:18.9	Micah Keel. He's a professor of New Testament at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary in
1:24.4	Collegeville, Minnesota, and an expert on the Book of Revelation.
1:28.9	Yeah, I, anytime a reading from the Book of Revelation comes through,
1:33.9	either like in my normal prayer or in the mass readings,
1:37.9	I just kind of like toss my hands up, like,
	...

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