Kline's prophecy performance in Brian Evenson's last days: the representation of Jesus' prophecy in Islamic perspective

This study aims to explore Kline’s prophecy performance in Last Days novel by Brian Evenson. In the story, Kline is involved with two deviant cults, the Brotherhood of Mutilation and the Paul cult, who have their regards on Kline’s prophecy. This study has three research questions: (I) How do the Brotherhood of Mutilation and the Paul Cult regard Kline as their prophet? (II) How does Kline perform his prophecies? (III) How is Kline’s story similar to Prophet Isa in Islam? The researcher answers the research questions based on the novel and several sources from Christian and Islamic perspectives. This study uses a descriptive-qualitative approach to analyze Kline’s prophecy performance issue. The researcher uses this approach to describe how Kline performs the cults’ regard on his identity and mimics several figures outside the Last Days novel. This study uses mimetic theory from Aristotle and René Girard to uncover Kline’s prophecy performance. The Brotherhood of Mutilation cult regards Kline as a prophet, admiring his distinctive power, which encourages the followers of the cult to emulate Kline’s way of amputating his hand. Additionally, the Paul cult regards Kline as their prophet, admiring his actions in opposing the Brotherhood of Mutilation cult by himself, giving Kline several titles, and protecting him from any danger. However, Kline has his own way of performing the cults’ prophecies. Moreover, Kline’s actions in the novel Last Days mimic the interpretation of several figures in Christianity, and some represent the stories of Jesus and the prophet Isa. Furthermore, the beliefs of the Brotherhood of Mutilation and the Paul cult mimic several verses from the Christian Bible. In Last Days, several characters, such as Borchert and Paul, also represent Jewish and Christian figures from Jesus’ era.