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30Edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer RoutledgeThe giant cultural cogs of the millenial machine are ticking inevitably away A year and a half before 2000 Two and a half years before 2001. Can you feel the tension? Recently there’s been a proliferation of material (such as Disco 2000 reviewed opposite! dealing with the issue, as well as the more dramatic doomsday cult violence, such as by the Branch Davidiaruh in Waco.Texas. There h25 been much pedantic argument about when precisely the rmllenium will occur in Christian rerms (some saying 1994 should have seen the Beast of Rcvelat’on make his brimstone debut), but. this book s precisely the sort of tcme rhar dispels a need for precise dating, examining as it does on a general cultural evel these movements Tnis collection o’ essays utilises a var ety of approaches, from the more traditionally sociological, to a literary narrative approach, to the psychological Before discussing the collection, some definitions would oe useful. Millenarianism refers to the belief in 'a final endemic $jh a compensatory or retributive sigr ficance’ Millenialism is similar to millcnanamsm, but has a special reference to the thousand-year kingdom to be established undr Christ. Postmlllenialism sees Ch-ist retumirg after human agents have made global culture Christian: premillenialism suggests that only a new human order can be formed by Christs intervention and defeat of the Antichrist Apocalypticism corresponds broadiy with premiilenialism for in WesslngerR suggested terminology, catastrophic millenialism) in focussing on the imminence of the transforming events which will usher in the new crder.Section One aises some basic theorefca. and conceptual issues r analysing apocalypticism ind rrnllenananism Bromley notes tnac apocalyptic movements are caught between two world?.: tn^ destruction of the old world, and the ar ivr,l nf *he ew, neither of which has taxcn place, or as he says. Ir is group life in suspended animation. arguing that the energy required to sustain the moment is too cosry for it to persist for long Tne implication is thai vioierir tendencies win supsjdfi or escalate as toe group tries to resolve us indeterminate position. Perhaps the failure of the end of the wcrlo when 2000 rick', over w load to group violence, but as Wessinger points out. catastrophic me nisi ism has received much critical attention at the expense of whar she terms progressive millenialism. a utopian order createc through human wqrx, Wessinger also makes the important point that millenialism . net cied to a linear view of history and is compatible with As.iat.-c cyclical moods of c-roe Aho creates his own apocalyptic myth o' modernity.arguing -hat fundamentalism has arisen in response to a general decentering of various mst-tu tiof. -u-.n beliefs he makes the pom: that postmodernist beliefs (or. in his terminology, ‘The Linguistic Turn ) appeals primarily to comfortably ensconced individuals who take moral civility arc order for granted... knowing mat. 'after ai most people are generally decent chaps anyway.' However, fundamentalism uoiises selective features of the modernity it claims to reject (such as technological dissemination) and weds them to a romantic fiction of a lost past. Aho seems to draw a basic class decision between the urbanised and rural poor as constituting the majority o( fundamentalists, but the ether contributions in the volume tend to work against this, showing that people from ail soc a! strata are attracted to these movements.The second section deals'With die secularization of millenarianism and its relationship with more traditionally religious organisations in terms as diverse as environmentalism and feminisms. Lamy argues that fear of nuclear holocaust scenarios and the proliferation of technology manifest themselves in survivalist doctrines, which perpetuate a millenial myth by providing stones o( apocalyptic texts and interpreting current events through them, eg AIDS is one of the plagues from God mention in the Book of Revelation. Bozeman discusses parallels between 'scientific' movements, such as eugenics, ccyonics and space colonies, noting chat while they claim to overturn the social order and bring about a more perfect order the greater perfection was actually che preservation and magnification of the' existing orderThe third section explores apocalyptic and rnillenanan ferment across the spectrum of American organized religion, and although perhaps no: as relevant to Australian audiences as the first two sections, is a useful overview of American religious movements. The final section explores the interplay of violence and confrontation, specifically In the North American context (chough the Solar Temple deaths and the Aum Shmrinkyo which flooded che Tokyo subway system with poison gas are covered ) The sheer diversity of the material is probably more useful as a gcneml introduction than a specifically theoretical text on one Issue, but undoubtedly there will be something to fascinate every reader in the collection One issue thac Is not really covered is the effects of these movements in the next century, after the supposed turning point that Is 2000/2001. The millen'.alist movements certainly are concerned with the future, but as the book shows, many of che strands of millenialism and apocalypticism are focussed on the ”ere and now at the expense olt; planning and a practical approach to the future.An excellent, topical introduction to themes which have been gaining momentum for the last few decades. Start praying. Just in case.1998. ISSUE 6 THARUNKA
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Kensington Tharunka
Kensington, New South Wales, AU
Tue, May 19, 1998
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