Zombie Ent(r)ailments in Risk Communication: A Rhetorical Analysis of the CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Campaign

Apocalypticism is a powerful brew of eschatological belief and political imagination that is extremely persuasive. This article addresses the intersections between apocalyptic rhetoric and the technical communication of risk, disease outbreak, and disaster preparedness by analyzing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s zombie apocalypse preparedness campaign. Specifically, I argue that the framing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s campaign relies on and extends problematic iterations of apocalypticism and undermines the educational objectives of disaster preparedness and response. I conclude with suggestions for how technical communicators designing public awareness and outreach campaigns can use existential risk rhetoric for engagement without succumbing to the pernicious side effects of apocalypticism.

Diversity

This chapter examines the conceptual diversity of expressions of resurrection in a variety of early Jewish writings (Daniel, 1 Enoch, 2 Maccabees, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Messianic Apocalypse, Pseudo-Ezekiel). Two categories, in particular, appear to have offered broad fluctuation. First, differing modes of embodiment may be identified within the evidence, including beliefs about the fate of the deceased body, as well as varied assumptions about what the newly embodied eschatological life would be like. Second, representations of resurrection also differ in how they locate human destiny within the larger spatial parameters of the cosmos. This diversity has sometimes been interpreted as a deficiency within early Jewish theologies, yet the present chapter explains this as the result of the adaptability of resurrection to a variety of intellectual contexts, a factor that accelerated the reception of resurrection as a widespread eschatological belief, even among competing groups.

Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism, 200 BCE-CE 200

Belief in resurrection of the dead became one of the most adamant conceptual claims of Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. This book provides a focused analysis of the gradual emergence and diverse receptions of the discourse of resurrection within early Jewish literature, from its early emergence within portions of 1 Enoch (c.200 BCE), until its standardization as a non-negotiable eschatological belief in the Mishnah (c.CE 200). Within this historical environment, resurrection emerged as an insurgent and controversial theodicy that challenged more traditional interpretations of death. The study further demonstrates how scribal circles legitimated the controversial eschatological claim by clothing it in the raiment of earlier scriptural language, grounding it in the theology of creation, and insisting that it was essential to the affirmation of divine justice. As resurrection gained a reception in multiple movements within early Judaism, a diverse range of conceptions flourished, including a fascinating variety of assumptions about the embodied character of eschatological life, as well as how resurrection would transpire within larger cosmic-spatial parameters of the world. The hope also maintained a somewhat tensive relationship with belief in the immortality of the soul, another popular approach to the afterlife within early Judaism. Supportive chapters explore the emergence of resurrection within specific literary texts and collections, including 1 Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and select inscriptions. As the nascent church and early rabbinic Judaism developed their own approaches to resurrection, they remained both the heirs and creative reinterpreters of earlier Jewish theologies of resurrection.