The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium [Hardcover]

Damian Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1997

The complete history of millennialism from Zoroaster to David Koresh and Heaven's Gate.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The end of yet another millennium is fast approaching, and all kinds of squirrelly people are coming out of the woodwork. Members of Aum Shinrikyo set off poisoned gas in Tokyo subways while members of Marshall Applewhite's Heaven's Gate bid farewell to this world via lethal pudding, headed for that great mother ship in the sky. Meanwhile, the whole world fearfully anticipates 2000--the year when computers everywhere will trigger mass confusion over the double zero and set us all back a century. Lest you think that our generation is alone in its end-of-the-millennium craziness, Damian Thompson has written a history of millenarianism through the ages, The End of Time.

Technically speaking, the millennium refers to Christ's Second Coming and his thousand-year reign on earth; however, long before Christianity, various people in various corners of the earth have predicted the end of the world--everyone from the ancient Mesopotamians and Persians right up through the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Thompson provides an engrossing survey of four millenarian movements, taking a more in-depth look at the end of the 20th century, a time in which fundamentalism and New Age theology are simultaneously on the rise as people scramble for meaning in these fast-changing times. What better way to prepare for the end of yet another millennium than by reading The End of Time?

From Library Journal

In another valuable title about the approaching millennium, British journalist Thompson focuses on human obsession with calendars and time. He traces the roots of millenarians from the first societies, which were influenced by the seasons, to the practitioners of early Near East religions, to Christianity. He later tackles this century's growth of evangelical Christianity and revivalism and predictions about Christ's return and subsequent 1000-year reign. Thompson also discusses New Age religions and their obsession with prophecy, crises, and good vs. evil and takes on both the Japanese Armageddon cult Aum Shinrikyo and David Koresh and the Branch Davidian standoff. He ends with a timely epilog devoted to Heaven's Gate and the recent suicides. In contrast to Philip Lamy's Millennium Rage (LJ 12/96), which focused on the political aspects of end-of-the-century cults, Thompson concentrates on theology and history. Well written, well researched, and entertaining, this is highly recommended for all libraries.?Cynthia L. Peterson, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Ctr. at Dallas
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 390 pages
• Publisher: UPNE (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874518490
• ISBN-13: 978-0874518498
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,490,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A global survey of Pre Millenial Tension (PMT), July 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium (Hardcover)

Taking in the vast cultic mileu - doomsdayers, new agers, evangelicals, pentecostalists, fundamentalists (both Christian and Muslim), liberal democrats and, naturally, millennialists (technically, those who await the thousand year reign of Christ prophesied in the book of Revelation) - Thompson's treatise uncovers the historical and sociological motives we have for putting ourselves near the end of history rather than at its beginning. The approach of the calendar millennium has been a catalyst for the current wave of Pre Millennial Tension sweeping the globe but there are much larger issues at stake. Thompson argues that there is a powerful confluence between apocalyptic belief and the universal human experience which allows that belief to fit within the personal horizon of the individual. Our urge to celebrate the passing of time fails to conceal an even deeper urge to escape from it, which is why our celebration of 2000 is set to have a bittersweet edge and a tinge of desperation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh, or weep?, September 2, 2011

By 

Simon G. Barrett (london, england) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium (Paperback)

This fun overview of religious wackiness is still surprisingly readable a decade and more post-millenium; you could supplement it with the baggier How to Win a Cosmic War (of course 9/11 was a game-changer) and the specifically Jerusalem-focussed (a hoot, this one) *The End of Days* by **Gershom Gorenberg** Not to be confused with the egregious and 'internationally best-selling' Sylvia Browne's book of the same title - and no doubt innumerable others..