Despite the importance of this text, it remains widely neglected. In many churches it is rarely preached on; many ordinary Christians do not know what to do with it; some deliberately avoid it, perhaps because of strange or unnerving encounters they experienced in the past. But contemporary Christians need to engage responsibly with this text more than ever, for at least two reasons. First, Revelation is the book that above all others tests our ability to read Scripture well. People who might agree