Ph.D. Alan S. Bandy’s blog: Café Apocalypsis, contains a few entries on Revelation: See his categories Book of Revelation/The Apocalypse of John, as well as the following entries:

• Book Recommendation: Charts on the Book of Revelation
• The Imperial Cult in Asia Minor during the Reign of Domitian
• Jesus as “The Son of Man”: Periphrasis or Prophetic Appellation? (Part 1) and (Part 2)
• Christophanies in the Apocalypse
• Thematic parallels between the Olivet Discourse and the Seven Seals

Dr. Bandy wrote his thesis on the Book of Revelation: Bandy, Alan S. The Prophetic Lawsuit in the Book of Revelation: An Analysis of the Lawsuit Motif in Revelation with Reference to the Use of the Old Testament. Ph.D.-thesis, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007.

Price, Simon R.F. Rituals and Power. The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor. Cambridge; London; New York: CUP, 1984. 32o pp.

This dissertation is written by one of the worlds leading scholars on the topic of imperial cult, Dr. Simon Price. This book is the starting point, if you want to understand the imperial cult. Price has received honour for his book, but also some critique. See Friesen, Twice Neokoros.

Amazon’s synopsis:
“In his study of the Greek cults of the Roman emperor in Asia minor, Simon Price attempts to discover why the Roman Emperor was treated like a god. He contends that ever since the emergence of Christianity within the Roman Empire the problem has been misinterpreted; a Christianizing distinction between religion and politics has led to the cult being considered simply as a form of political honours.

“Drawing on anthropology as well as numismatics and archaeology, literary sources and inscriptions, Dr Price offers a fundamentally different perspective. He examines how the Greek cults of the Roman Emperor located the Emperor with their subjection to the external power of Rome.

“The book falls into two major parts. The first analyses the historical, social and cultural contexts of the Imperial cult, showing that the cult was deeply rooted in the Greek cities. The second focusses on the evocations of the rituals of temples, images and sacrifices. It casts light on the architechural development of Greek Cities, on cult statues in the ancient world and on the vitality and flexibility of the Greek religious system.

“In his concluding chapter the author draws out some of the general implications of the book; comparative material from Africa and Cambodia help our understanding of the relationship between religious ritual and political power.

“This book, which assumes no knowledge of Latin or Greek, will appeal to students and teachers of ancient history and archaeology. It will also attract anthropologists, historians and others interested in the interpretation of rituals and in the history of early Christianity.”

This topic deals with works who treat the themes of persecutions and the imperial cult with or without reference to Revelation.

Although some scholars have uttered their disagreement, until recently few Revelation scholars have doubted that there were imperially initiated severe persecutions in Asia which was the primary reason for Revelation.

Now, however, several scholars have rejected or modified this traditional view, but no consensus has been reached, and the debate is likely to continue untill more research and synthetic interpretation has been carried out.

Sordi, Marta. The Christians and the Roman Empire. London; London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.

Sordi has treated the topic of relationship between the Roman Empire and the Christians earlier (Il christianesimo e Roma (1965) and this is her second book on this theme. Her view has not changed, but this book treats the questions raised since 1965 including misunderstandings which have arisen as the result of her proposition. Sordi proposed (and still do) that “the conflict between Rome and Christianity was ethical and religious, ideological and emotional, but was not, at least not on its deepest level, a political conflict at all” (p. 4).

In order to tidy up all the issues (although she admits that some ambiguities and difficulties remain) she analyses the relationship between the Christians and the Roman Empire throughout the first three centuries in two parts. One: The Christians and the Political Power and Two: The Christians and the Roman World.

Despite its age, I recommend this book to anyone working with NT and Revelation in particular. Sordi claims that Christians were persecuted and that a great many people lost their lives, but that the conflict almost never was a political one. The Christians continued to “profess their loyalty to the Roman state and to call themselves good Roman citizens even during periods of persecution” (p. 4). Of course, Sordi’s proposition is dependent on her definitions, but do read the book to verify the qualities of her work.

Scherrer, Stephen Joseph: ”Signs and Wonders in the Imperial Cult: A New Look at a Roman Religious Institution in the Light of Rev 13:13-15” in Journal of Biblical Literature 103 (1984): 599-610.

Scherrer’s thesis supports the usual understanding of Rev 13, but, in my view, his arguments should only be followed with great caution.