Religious historian Elaine Pagels has authored many books on the early Christian church, including The Gnostic Gospels and the book she discusses in this talk, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation. You can fast forward to 6 minutes into the start of her lecture, where she summarizes the final book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation by John of Patmos. This apocalyptic book with vivid imagery of the end times is different than any other book in the Bible. She includes slides with her description of artworks it has inspired over the centuries.
Pagels then talks about the context of John writing the book and prophesying the end times of the Roman Empire with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. She also touches on many other books of revelations that didn't make it into the Bible. Pagels reminds us that throughout history the Book of Revelation, with its battles between good and evil, has been interpreted by both sides of conflicts as prophesying the end times from Martin Luther and the fight between Protestantism and Catholicism to the American Civil War to World War II, and by some Christians in the present day. Founder of the Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand, asks her many interesting questions after her lecture.