This article is about the belief in a coming major transformation of society, as upheld by religious, social, or political groups. For a specific type of Christian millenarianism, see Millennialism. For the teachings of William Miller, see Millerism.
Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latinmīllēnārius, "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed".[1] Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide, with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation.[2]
These movements believe in radical changes to society after a major cataclysm or transformative event.[3]
Millenarianist movements can be secular (not espousing a particular religion) or religious in nature,[4] and are therefore not necessarily linked to millennialist movements in Christianity.[3]
The terms "millennialism" and "millenarianism" are sometimes used interchangeably. Stephen Jay Gould has argued that this usage is incorrect, stating:
Millennium is from the Latin mille, "one thousand," and annus, "year"—hence the two n's. Millenarian is from the Latin millenarius, "containing a thousand (of anything)," hence no annus, and only one "n".[5]
The application of an apocalyptic timetable to the changing of the world has happened in many cultures and religions, continues to this day, and is not relegated to the sects of major world religions,[6] both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic.[7] Increasingly in the study of apocalyptic new religious movements, millenarianism is used to refer to a more cataclysmic and destructive arrival of a utopian period as compared to millennialism which is often used to denote a more peaceful arrival and is more closely associated with a one thousand year utopia.[8]
Millennialism often refers to a specific type of Christian millenarianism, and is sometimes referred to as Chiliasm from the New Testament use of the Greek chilia (thousand). It is part of the broader form of apocalyptic expectation. A core doctrine in some variations of Christian eschatology is the expectation that the Second Coming is very near and that there will be an establishment of a Kingdom of God on Earth.[7] According to an interpretation of biblical prophecies in the Book of Revelation, this Kingdom of God on Earth will last a thousand years (a millennium) or more.[9]
Theology
Many if not most millenarian groups claim that the current society and its rulers are corrupt, unjust, or otherwise wrong, and that they will soon be destroyed by a powerful force. The harmful nature of the status quo is considered intractable without the anticipated dramatic change.[10]Henri Desroche observed that millenarian movements often envisioned three periods in which change might occur. First, the elect members of the movement will be increasingly oppressed, leading to the second period in which the movement resists the oppression. The third period brings about a new utopian age, liberating the members of the movement.[11]
In the modern world, economic rules, perceived immorality or vast conspiracies are seen as generating oppression. Only dramatic events are seen as able to change the world and the change is anticipated to be brought about, or survived, by a group of the devout and dedicated. In most millenarian scenarios, the disaster or battle to come will be followed by a new, purified world in which the believers will be rewarded.[4]
While many millennial groups are pacifistic, millenarian beliefs have been claimed as causes for people to ignore conventional rules of behavior, which can result in violence directed inwards (such as the Jonestown mass suicides) or outwards (such as the Aum Shinrikyoterrorist acts). It sometimes includes a belief in supernatural powers or predetermined victory. In some cases, millenarians withdraw from society to await the intervention of God.[12] This is also known as world-rejection.
The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the 'intrinsically perverse' political form of a secular messianism.
^Baumgartner, Frederic J. 1999. Longing for the End: A History of Millennialism in Western Civilization, New York: Palgrave, pp 1-6
^Gould, Stephen Jay. 1997. Questioning the millennium: a rationalist's guide to a precisely arbitrary countdown. New York: Harmony Books, p. 112 (note)
^ abMillenarianism. In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.) Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 2021
^ abcGordon Marshall, "millenarianism", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (1994), p. 333.
^Landes, Richard A. Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
^ abGreisiger, Lutz (2015). "Apocalypticism, Millenarianism, and Messianism". In Blidstein, Moshe; Silverstein, Adam J.; Stroumsa, Guy G. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 272–294. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697762.013.14. ISBN978-0-19-969776-2. LCCN 2014960132. S2CID 170614787.
^Mayer, Jean-François (June 2016). Lewis, James R; Tøllefsen, Inga (eds.). "Millennialism: New Religious Movements and the Quest for a New Age". The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. II. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466176.013.30.
^Kark, Ruth "Millenarism and agricultural settlement in the Holy Land in the nineteenth century," in Journal of Historical Geography, 9, 1 (1983), pp. 47-62
^Worsley, Peter. 1957. The trumpet shall sound; a study of "cargo" cults in Melanesia. London: MacGibbon & Kee.
^Desroche, Henri (1969). Dieux d'hommes. Dictionnaire des messianismes et millénarismes de l'ère chrétienne. Paris: Berg International. pp. 31–32.
^Wessinger, Catherine. Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Print.
Burrage, Champlin. "The Fifth Monarchy Insurrections," The English Historical Review, Vol. XXV, 1910.
Burridge, Kenelm. "New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities" (Basil Blackwell. Original printing 1969, three reprints 1972, 1980, 1986) ISBN0-631-11950-7 pb. ISBN0-8052-3175-7 hb.
CenSAMM. "Millenarianism." In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.) Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 2021
Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, revised and expanded (New York: Oxford University Press, [1957] 1970). (revised and expanded 1990) ISBN0-19-500456-6
Gray, John. Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (London: Penguin Books, [2007] 2008) ISBN978-0-14-102598-8
Hotson, Howard. Paradise Postponed: Johann Heinrich Alsted and the Birth of Calvinist Millenarianism, (Springer, 2000).
Jue, Jeffrey K. Heaven Upon Earth: Joseph Mede and the Legacy of Mllenarianism, (Springer, 2006).
Kaplan, Jeffrey. Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997). ISBN0-8156-2687-8ISBN0-8156-0396-7
Katz, David S. and Popkin, Richard H. Messianic Revolution: Radical Religious Politics to the End of the Second Millennium. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1999) ISBN0-8090-6885-0.
Landes, Richard. Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of Millennial Experiences, (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Lerner, Robert E. The Feast of Saint Abraham: Medieval Millenarians and the Jews, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000).
Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern Culture (4 voll.), Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Vol. 1: Goldish, Matt and Popkin, Richard H. (eds.). Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World, 2001
Vol. 2: Kottmnan, Karl (eds.). Catholic Milleniarism: From Savonarola to the Abbè Grégoire, 2001
Vol. 3: Force, James E. and Popkin, Richard H. (eds.). The Millenarian Turn: Millenarian Contexts of Science, Politics and Everyday Anglo-American Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 2001
Vol. 4: Laursen, John Christian and Popkin, Richard H. (eds.). Continental Millenarians: Protestants, Catholics, Heretics, 2001
Schwartz, Hillel. The French Prophets: The History of a Millenarian Group in Eighteenth-Century England. Berkeley: University of California, 1980.
Voegelin, Eric. The New Science of Politics. University of Chicago Press (October 12, 2012).
Wessinger, Catherine. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism, New York: Oxford University Press 2011.
Wright, Ben and Dresser, Zachary W. (eds.) Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2013.
External links
, Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. List of links sorted by group type. (archive)
Millenarianism. In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.) Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 2021
Millennium and Millenarianism, Catholic Encyclopedia.
Catechism of Catholic Church, Part One, Section Two, Chapter Two, Article 7, 1. He will come again in glory, paragraph 676
March 28, 2023
millenarianism, this, article, about, belief, coming, major, transformation, society, upheld, religious, social, political, groups, specific, type, christian, millenarianism, millennialism, teachings, william, miller, millerism, millenarism, from, latin, mīllē. This article is about the belief in a coming major transformation of society as upheld by religious social or political groups For a specific type of Christian millenarianism see Millennialism For the teachings of William Miller see Millerism Millenarianism or millenarism from Latin millenarius containing a thousand is the belief by a religious social or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society after which all things will be changed 1 Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation 2 These movements believe in radical changes to society after a major cataclysm or transformative event 3 Millenarianist movements can be secular not espousing a particular religion or religious in nature 4 and are therefore not necessarily linked to millennialist movements in Christianity 3 Contents 1 Terminology 2 Theology 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksTerminology EditThe terms millennialism and millenarianism are sometimes used interchangeably Stephen Jay Gould has argued that this usage is incorrect stating Millennium is from the Latin mille one thousand and annus year hence the two n s Millenarian is from the Latin millenarius containing a thousand of anything hence no annus and only one n 5 The application of an apocalyptic timetable to the changing of the world has happened in many cultures and religions continues to this day and is not relegated to the sects of major world religions 6 both Abrahamic and non Abrahamic 7 Increasingly in the study of apocalyptic new religious movements millenarianism is used to refer to a more cataclysmic and destructive arrival of a utopian period as compared to millennialism which is often used to denote a more peaceful arrival and is more closely associated with a one thousand year utopia 8 Millennialism often refers to a specific type of Christian millenarianism and is sometimes referred to as Chiliasm from the New Testament use of the Greek chilia thousand It is part of the broader form of apocalyptic expectation A core doctrine in some variations of Christian eschatology is the expectation that the Second Coming is very near and that there will be an establishment of a Kingdom of God on Earth 7 According to an interpretation of biblical prophecies in the Book of Revelation this Kingdom of God on Earth will last a thousand years a millennium or more 9 Theology EditMany if not most millenarian groups claim that the current society and its rulers are corrupt unjust or otherwise wrong and that they will soon be destroyed by a powerful force The harmful nature of the status quo is considered intractable without the anticipated dramatic change 10 Henri Desroche observed that millenarian movements often envisioned three periods in which change might occur First the elect members of the movement will be increasingly oppressed leading to the second period in which the movement resists the oppression The third period brings about a new utopian age liberating the members of the movement 11 In the modern world economic rules perceived immorality or vast conspiracies are seen as generating oppression Only dramatic events are seen as able to change the world and the change is anticipated to be brought about or survived by a group of the devout and dedicated In most millenarian scenarios the disaster or battle to come will be followed by a new purified world in which the believers will be rewarded 4 While many millennial groups are pacifistic millenarian beliefs have been claimed as causes for people to ignore conventional rules of behavior which can result in violence directed inwards such as the Jonestown mass suicides or outwards such as the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist acts It sometimes includes a belief in supernatural powers or predetermined victory In some cases millenarians withdraw from society to await the intervention of God 12 This is also known as world rejection Millenarian ideologies or religious sects sometimes appear in oppressed peoples with examples such as the 19th century Ghost Dance movement among Native Americans early Mormons 13 and the 19th and 20th century cargo cults among isolated Pacific Islanders 4 The Catechism of the Catholic Church rejects all forms of millenarianism and its variations 14 The Antichrist s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism especially the intrinsically perverse political form of a secular messianism See also EditAmillennialism Center for Millennial Studies Faith in Buddhism Millenarianism Fifteen Signs before Doomsday Millenarianism in colonial societies Postmillennialism Premillennialism Singularitarianism Taki Unquy Timeline of the far futureReferences Edit Baumgartner Frederic J 1999 Longing for the End A History of Millennialism in Western Civilization New York Palgrave pp 1 6 Gould Stephen Jay 1997 Questioning the millennium a rationalist s guide to a precisely arbitrary countdown New York Harmony Books p 112 note a b Millenarianism In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart eds Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements 2021 a b c Gordon Marshall millenarianism The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology 1994 p 333 Gould Stephen Jay 1997 Landes Richard A Heaven on Earth The Varieties of the Millennial Experience New York Oxford University Press 2011 Print a b Greisiger Lutz 2015 Apocalypticism Millenarianism and Messianism In Blidstein Moshe Silverstein Adam J Stroumsa Guy G eds The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions Oxford and New York Oxford University Press pp 272 294 doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780199697762 013 14 ISBN 978 0 19 969776 2 LCCN 2014960132 S2CID 170614787 Mayer Jean Francois June 2016 Lewis James R Tollefsen Inga eds Millennialism New Religious Movements and the Quest for a New Age The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements II doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780190466176 013 30 Kark Ruth Millenarism and agricultural settlement in the Holy Land in the nineteenth century in Journal of Historical Geography 9 1 1983 pp 47 62 Worsley Peter 1957 The trumpet shall sound a study of cargo cults in Melanesia London MacGibbon amp Kee Desroche Henri 1969 Dieux d hommes Dictionnaire des messianismes et millenarismes de l ere chretienne Paris Berg International pp 31 32 Wessinger Catherine Millennialism Persecution and Violence Historical Cases Syracuse N Y Syracuse University Press 2000 Print Underwood Grant 1999 1993 The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0252068263 Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 676Further reading EditBurrage Champlin The Fifth Monarchy Insurrections The English Historical Review Vol XXV 1910 Burridge Kenelm New Heaven New Earth A Study of Millenarian Activities Basil Blackwell Original printing 1969 three reprints 1972 1980 1986 ISBN 0 631 11950 7 pb ISBN 0 8052 3175 7 hb CenSAMM Millenarianism In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart eds Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements 2021 Cohn Norman The Pursuit of the Millennium Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages revised and expanded New York Oxford University Press 1957 1970 revised and expanded 1990 ISBN 0 19 500456 6 Crossley James September 2021 The Apocalypse and Political Discourse in an Age of COVID Journal for the Study of the New Testament SAGE Publications 44 1 93 111 doi 10 1177 0142064X211025464 ISSN 1745 5294 S2CID 237329082 Gray John Black Mass Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia London Penguin Books 2007 2008 ISBN 978 0 14 102598 8 Hotson Howard Paradise Postponed Johann Heinrich Alsted and the Birth of Calvinist Millenarianism Springer 2000 Jue Jeffrey K Heaven Upon Earth Joseph Mede and the Legacy of Mllenarianism Springer 2006 Kaplan Jeffrey Radical Religion in America Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah Syracuse NY Syracuse University Press 1997 ISBN 0 8156 2687 8 ISBN 0 8156 0396 7 Katz David S and Popkin Richard H Messianic Revolution Radical Religious Politics to the End of the Second Millennium New York Hill and Wang 1999 ISBN 0 8090 6885 0 Review on H Net Landes Richard Heaven on Earth The Varieties of Millennial Experiences Oxford University Press 2011 Lerner Robert E The Feast of Saint Abraham Medieval Millenarians and the Jews University of Pennsylvania Press 2000 Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern Culture 4 voll Dordrecht Kluwer Vol 1 Goldish Matt and Popkin Richard H eds Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World 2001 Vol 2 Kottmnan Karl eds Catholic Milleniarism From Savonarola to the Abbe Gregoire 2001 Vol 3 Force James E and Popkin Richard H eds The Millenarian Turn Millenarian Contexts of Science Politics and Everyday Anglo American Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 2001 Vol 4 Laursen John Christian and Popkin Richard H eds Continental Millenarians Protestants Catholics Heretics 2001 Schwartz Hillel The French Prophets The History of a Millenarian Group in Eighteenth Century England Berkeley University of California 1980 Underwood Grant 1999 1993 The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism Urbana University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0252068263 Voegelin Eric The New Science of Politics University of Chicago Press October 12 2012 Wessinger Catherine ed The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism New York Oxford University Press 2011 Wright Ben and Dresser Zachary W eds Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era Baton Rouge LA Louisiana State University Press 2013 External links EditMillennial Sites Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University List of links sorted by group type archive Millenarianism In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart eds Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements 2021 Millennium and Millenarianism Catholic Encyclopedia Catechism of Catholic Church Part One Section Two Chapter Two Article 7 1 He will come again in glory paragraph 676 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Millenarianism amp oldid 1125509741, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
