Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial ExperienceOxford University Press, USA, 4 ago 2011 - 499 pagine Millennialists through the ages have looked forward to the apocalyptic moment that will radically transform society into heaven on earth. They have delivered withering critiques of their own civilizations and promised both the impending annihilation of the forces of evil and the advent of a perfect society. And all their promises have invariably failed. We tend, therefore, to dismiss these prophets of doom and salvation as crackpots and madmen, and not surprisingly historians of our secular era have tended to underestimate their impact on our modern world. Now, Richard Landes offers a lucid and ground-breaking analysis of this widely misunderstood phenomenon.This long-awaited study shows that many events typically regarded as secular--including the French Revolution, Marxism, Bolshevism, Nazism-not only contain key millennialist elements, but follow the apocalyptic curve of enthusiastic launch, disappointment and (often catastrophic) re-entry into "normal time." Indeed, as Landes examines the explicit millennialism behind such recent events as the emergence of Global Jihad since 1979, he challenges the common notion that modern history is largely driven by secular interests. By focusing on ten widely different case studies, none of which come from Judaism or Christianity, he shows that millennialism is not only a cultural universal, but also an extremely adaptive social phenomenon that persists across the modern and post-modern divides. At the same time, he also offers valuable insight into the social and psychological factors that drive such beliefs.Ranging from ancient Egypt to modern-day UFO cults and global Jihad, Heaven on Earth both delivers an eye-opening revisionist argument for the significance of millennialism throughout history and alerts the reader to the alarming spread of these ideologies in our world today. |
Sommario
Tribal Millennialism | 89 |
Agrarian Millennialism | 147 |
Modern Secular Millennialism | 213 |
Postmodern Millennialism | 389 |
Assessing Apocalyptic Threats in the New Millennium | 467 |
477 | |
479 | |
489 | |
Altre edizioni - Visualizza tutto
Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience Richard Allen Landes,Richard Landes Anteprima non disponibile - 2011 |
Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience Richard Landes Anteprima non disponibile - 2011 |
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Akhenaten Amarna Amenhotep Amenhotep III apocalyptic apocalyptic scenario Arab argue Aten behavior believers Cambridge cargo cults cataclysmic century chap chapter Chinese Christian cited civil polities cognitive dissonance Communist conspiracy Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic culture Dajjal demotic millennial disappointment discourse discussion dominate dynamics early earth egalitarian Egypt Egyptian elites empire enemies enthusiasm evil failure French Revolution German global God’s historians Hitler Hong Xiuquan Hong’s human humiliation Ibid ideology imagine imperial Islam Jewish Jews jihad John Frum Landes Lenin lyptic Marx Marx’s Marxism medieval messianic millen Millenarian millennial movements millennialists millennium modern monotheism narrative Nazi Nazism Nongqawuse owls Oxford paranoid peace pharaoh political prime divider Princeton promise prophecy prophetic radical Rael Redles religion religious revolutionary rhetoric role roosters Sarhili secular Sed festival sense social society Studies Taiping Terror texts tion totalitarian tradition trans transformation turn UFOlogy University Press violence vision Western Xhosa York