Millennialism: New Religious Movements and the Quest for a New Age

This chapter starts by offering a brief overview of the concept of millennialism, with its Christian roots and its extension to a more generic use. Applying the concept to new religious movements, a section of the chapter takes the example of the Millennium ‘73 event in Houston in order to draw some observations on aspects of interaction between new religious movements and millennial themes: selective use of Biblical themes, aspirations to change the world, general rather than specific views of the future, mobilizing function of millennial hopes, changes in the intensity and nature of millenarian aspirations. The third and final part of the chapter lists the various shades of millennialism among new religious movements, derived from different religious environments.