The Apocalyptic Readings and Crises (ARC) project explores how apocalyptic imaginaries rooted in ancient texts not only continue to shape contemporary understandings of crisis, but also provide critical frameworks for deciphering the conditions under which such narratives re-emerge today. By situating apocalyptic writings within their historical, social, and political contexts of production, the project highlights how these texts arose from moments of domination, uncertainty, and profound disruption—configurations that resonate strongly with present-day societies. In the context of today’s overlapping health, climate, political, and geopolitical crises, ARC examines the persistence and reactivation of apocalyptic interpretive frameworks in public, media, and institutional discourses. Through the study of key texts such as Daniel, Enoch, the Book of Revelation, and the Sibylline Oracles, the project traces continuities and transformations between ancient and modern uses of apocalyptic language, including its instrumentalization in polarized environments marked by disinformation and conspiracy thinking.
At the intersection of teaching and research, ARC brings together scholars and students from the Universities of Geneva, Prague, and Copenhagen in an interdisciplinary collaboration drawing on the humanities and social sciences, religious studies, and discourse analysis. The project pays particular attention to the impact of apocalyptic narratives on international organizations and contemporary modes of crisis governance, especially within the Geneva international ecosystem. By developing comparative and critical tools, ARC seeks to enhance understanding of how crisis narratives shape collective perceptions, influence decision-making processes, and—when misread or strategically manipulated—contribute to fear, radicalization, and discursive polarization. In doing so, the project affirms the vital role of the humanities in addressing contemporary European and global challenges through critical engagement with the languages of crisis.
The project ARC aims to generate academic and societal outcomes by developing analytical frameworks capable of addressing a wide range of contemporary crises through the study of apocalyptic narratives. By confronting ancient apocalyptic texts with modern contexts, the project creates conditions for identifying recurring patterns in how crisis situations are narrated, politicized, and moralized. These insights can be applied to diverse contemporary issues, including climate change, radical political movements, religious extremism, techno-utopian or techno-apocalyptic imaginaries surrounding artificial intelligence, and the erosion of liberal democratic norms—fields widely explored in recent scholarship on political theology, radical ideologies, and apocalyptic capitalism.
Through its combined research and teaching activities, ARC enables results that go beyond methodological innovation. Drawing inspiration from theoretical perspectives such as mimetic theory (René Girard), critiques of modern apocalyptic politics (John Gray), and analyses of crisis-driven economic and ideological imaginaries (Quinn Slobodian), the project helps clarify how apocalyptic framings contribute to polarization, enemy construction, and the naturalization of violence or inevitability. By engaging with contemporary forms of secondary orality—such as podcasts and digital storytelling—the project also reflects critically on the media environments in which crisis rhetoric and disinformation circulate today. Overall, ARC strengthens critical tools for understanding how institutions and social actors may become both producers and targets of apocalyptic narratives in times of profound uncertainty.
Introductory session to the seminar in person on site in each Faculty (description of the course topic, schedule and bibliography, instructions about the preparatory work.
Introduction to the (1) corpus, (2) main contemporary themes and (3) methodology
Guest lecture by Tommaso Venturini on conspiracy theories and ‘secondary orality’, exploring how apocalyptic motifs are produced, circulated, and transformed within contemporary digital media and disinformation ecologies.
Guest lecture by Jayne Svenungsson on systematic theological approaches to the apocalyptic imaginary, examining its conceptual tensions and its role in shaping contemporary understandings of crisis.
Division of students into groups, instructions for podcast episode recording, and beginning of group work.
Preliminary schedule
Sunday: Travel to Geneva
Monday: Official welcome and group work
Tuesday: Podcast episode recording
Wednesday: Manuscript Workshop – The Geneva Beatus with Nadia Togni, and visits: option 1) Bodmer Foundation; option 2) Reformation Wall and Museum, and St. Pierre Cathedral, including a visit to the archaeological excavations beneath the cathedral.
Thursday: Day with partners from International Geneva, including a visit to the Palais des Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross
Friday: Return travel from Geneva
Course review, debrief and evaluation.
Une boussole européenne pour nos tempsapocalyptiques
K. Luc Bulundwe (PhD, University of Geneva) is Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Geneva. A former Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) research fellow at the Beyond Canon Centre (University of Regensburg) and SNSF return grantee at the University of Zurich, his research focuses on apocalyptic literature, memory and identity, politics of belonging, and reception history, with particular attention to the Book of Revelation. His work combines socio-historical, spatial, and discourse-oriented approaches. As Principal Investigator of ARC, he coordinates the project’s research design, pedagogical framework, and international collaboration.
Luc.bulundwe@unige.ch; +22 379 77 75; Uni Bastions, Aile Jura, Rue De-Candolle 1, 1205 Genève, bureau J.01.80
David Cielontko (PhD, Charles University) is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he teaches and researches early Judaism and early Christianity. His work focuses on Second Temple Jewish literature, with particular emphasis on Enochic and apocalyptic traditions, the reception of Jewish texts in early Christianity, and early Christian apocrypha, especially the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. He completed his PhD in 2020 and has held multiple research fellowships at the Centre for Advanced Studies Beyond Canon (University of Regensburg). Within the ARC project, he contributes expertise in apocalyptic literature, manuscript traditions, and transnational academic coordination.
cielontko@etf.cuni.cz; Wuchterlova 3, Praha 6, 16000 Czechia
Daniel Maier (PhD, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) is Tenure Track Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen. After completing his doctorate in 2020 (summa cum laude), with research stays in Jerusalem, Addis Ababa, and at Yale University, he held a postdoctoral position at the University of Zurich, where he also defended his Habilitation in 2025. His research focuses on apocalypticism in Antiquity, concepts of the good life and happiness in Second Temple Judaism and the New Testament, apocryphal literature, and the transmission and digital preservation of Ethiopic texts. Within the ARC project, he contributes expertise in apocalyptic thought, digital humanities, and innovative pedagogy.
dcm@teol.ku.dk; +491721333564 ; Karen Blixen Plads 16, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark.