Description: Examining the biblical Tree of Life in Revelation 22, it serves as a metonym of kingship and power and reimagining life beyond imperial control.
Brief description: Amy Meverden is visiting assistant professor of New Testament at the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Review Quotes: "A world-healing Tree of Life opens and closes the book of Revelation, drawing on Genesis. Amy Meverden brilliantly shows how this subversive tree functions as an anti-imperial symbol, critiquing the Roman empire's propaganda of eternity as imaged in the viney tendrils of Rome's acanthus plant. Meverden's scholarship on comparative visual imagery and dueling trees in the ancient world convincingly argues that the biblical Tree of Life gives radical hope, justice, and life for all. I love this book!" --Barbara Rossing, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago