Series foreword

Abstract

The Millennialism and Society series had its genesis in the 1996–2002 Annual meetings of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. Each year, those meetings brought together an international array of scholars to discuss the texts and traditions of religious revelation or apocalypses concerning the end of the world as we know it, whether in a tumultuous final judgment or a utopian eternal paradise. As apocalyptic texts advance an argument that massive change on earth is possible and even desirable, the over-arching scholarly goal of those gatherings was to attain a richer, more nuanced understanding of what some argue are the most ancient ideas of social change. The series consists of three volumes. Gender and Apocalyptic Desire focuses on the significance of sex and sexuality for the apocalyptic traditions, and on gender as a critical framing element within apocalyptic narratives as well as for how apocalyptic narratives have been appropriated. The End That Does recounts the myriad cultural contributions that apocalyptic concepts and energies have spawned, from atomic films to rap. The other volume, War in Heaven/Heaven on Earth, critically evaluates the variety of theories employed to analyze the persistence of apocalyptic beliefs and activity into the present day. Taken together, Millennialism and Society represents a sustained effort on the part of an established scholarly network to advance our understanding of what frequently has been a rather unruly element in our cultural heritage.