Millenarianism or millenarism (from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, "containing a thousand") is the belief by a
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...
, social, or
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
group or
movement in a coming fundamental
transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide, with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation.
These movements believe in radical changes to society after a major cataclysm or transformative event.
[''Millenarianism'']
In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.) ''Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements''. 2021
Millenarianist movements can be secular (not espousing a particular religion) or religious in nature,
[Gordon Marshall, "millenarianism", ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology'' (1994), p. 333.] and are therefore not necessarily linked to
millennialist
Millennialism (from millennium, Latin for "a thousand years") or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future ...
movements in
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
[
]
Terminology
The terms "millennialism
Millennialism (from millennium, Latin for "a thousand years") or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future ...
" and "millenarianism" are sometimes used interchangeably. Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...
has argued that this usage is incorrect, stating:
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 sect
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...
s of major world religions
World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the five—and in some cases more—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are always includ ...
, both Abrahamic
The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran.
Jewish tradition ...
and non-Abrahamic. Increasingly in the study of apocalyptic new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...
s, ''millenarianism'' is used to refer to a more cataclysmic and destructive arrival of a utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
n 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.
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
Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...
in some variations of Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology, a major branch of study within Christian theology, deals with "last things". Such eschatology – the word derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" () and "study" (-) – involves the study of "end things", whether of ...
is the expectation that the Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messi ...
is very near and that there will be an establishment of a Kingdom of God
The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" b ...
on Earth. According to an interpretation of biblical prophecies
Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy comprises the passages of the Bible that are claimed to reflect communications from God to humans through prophets. Jews and Christians usually consider the biblical prophets to have received revelations from G ...
in the Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...
, this Kingdom of God on Earth will last a thousand years (a ''millennium
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
'') or more.[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]
Theology
Many if not most millenarian groups claim that the current society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
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. Henri Desroche
Henri Desroche (; 12 April 19141 June 1994) was a French sociologist. His writings center on the sociology of religion and cooperative systems and movements. He was a priest in the Dominican Order.
Life
Henri Desroche was born 12 April 1914 in ...
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.
In the modern world, economic rules, perceived immorality or vast conspiracies are seen as generating oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...
. 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.
While many millennial groups are pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
ic, 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 suicide
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U.S.–based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationall ...
s) or outwards (such as the Aum Shinrikyo
, formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year.
The group says tha ...
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
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. This is also known as world-rejection.
Millenarian ideologies or religious sect
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...
s sometimes appear in oppressed peoples, with examples such as the 19th-century Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...
movement among Native Americans, early Mormons
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
, and the 19th and 20th-century cargo cults
A cargo cult is an indigenist millenarian belief system, in which adherents perform rituals which they believe will cause a more technologically advanced society to deliver goods.
Causes, beliefs, and practices
Cargo cults are marked by a ...
among isolated Pacific Islanders
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...
.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book for ...
rejects all forms of millenarianism and its variations:Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 676
/ref>
See also
* Amillennialism
Amillennialism or amillenarism is a chillegoristic eschatological position in Christianity which holds that there will be no millennial reign of the righteous on Earth. This view contrasts with both postmillennial and, especially, with premil ...
* Center for Millennial Studies
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
*
* Fifteen Signs before Doomsday
* Millenarianism in colonial societies
Millenarianism 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". These movements have been especially common among people living un ...
* Postmillennialism
In Christian eschatology (end-times theology), postmillennialism, or postmillenarianism, is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring ''after'' (Latin ''post-'') the "Millennium", ...
* Premillennialism
Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennialism#Christianity, Millennium, a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. Premillennialism is base ...
* Singularitarianism
Singularitarianism is a movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the singularity ben ...
* Taki Unquy
''Taki Unquy'' (Quechua, Hispanicized and alternative spellings ''Taqui Ongoy'', ''Taki Oncoy'', ''Taqui Honcoy'', ''Taqui Onccoy'', ''Taki Onqoy'') was a millenarian Indigenous movement of political, religious and cultural dimensions which arose i ...
* Timeline of the far future
While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, present understanding in various scientific fields allows for the prediction of some far-future events, if only in the broadest outline. These fields include astrophysics, which studies how ...
References
Further reading
* 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) pb. 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 ''The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages'' (1957, revised and expanded in 1970) is Norman Cohn's study of millenarian cult movements.
Covering a wide span of time, Cohn's book discusses ...
: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages'', revised and expanded (New York: Oxford University Press, 9571970). (revised and expanded 1990)
*
* Gray, John. ''Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia'' (London: Penguin Books, 0072008)
* 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).
* 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)
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 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.
* Underwood, Grant. (1999) 993
Year 993 ( CMXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – The 12-year-old King Otto III gives the Sword of Saints Cosmas and Damian ...
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
* 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
Catholic Encyclopedia.
''Catechism of Catholic Church'', Part One, Section Two, Chapter Two, Article 7, 1. He will come again in glory, paragraph 676
{{Doomsday
Apocalypticism
Utopian movements