Contact: Meredith Dickenson (214) 768-7654 [email protected]
February 10, 1999
SMU CLASS EXPLORES MILLENNIALISM THROUGH THE AGES
DALLAS (SMU) ó The approach of the second millennium has become a worldwide phenomenon, feared by some and anticipated eagerly by others. Will it bring a Golden Age or the end of the world as we know it? Or, to the rational skeptics in our midst, will it be simply the passing of another calendar year? To put into perspective the growing mania over the Year 2000, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, professor of history in Southern Methodist University's Dedman College, designed a new class that explores millennial fears, beliefs and behavior over the last three thousand years. The class began this spring and will be offered several times before and after the new millennium. Adams' first challenge was to explain what millennialism is to his students, difficult to define since there have been many interpretations throughout Western history. Millennialism, or millenarianism, is rooted in early Christianity and is derived from Jewish eschatology, the doctrine of last things, encompassing beliefs about the end of history, the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. In Christian theology, the millennium is the 1,000-year period when Jesus Christ will return and establish his kingdom on Earth. How exactly this will manifest itself is something Christians have debated for centuries. According to Adams, the two basic meanings of millennialism, therefore, are an obsession with the number 1,000 as prophecy and a belief that the millennium will inaugurate an ideal time for humanity, a Golden Age or "Reign of the Saints." Interestingly ó and unique to our time ó both these beliefs are currently rising in ascendancy, Adams says. The threat of a global computer meltdown, the Y2K problem, seems to fulfill an arithmetic prophecy of sorts, while the media and widespread commercialism celebrate the coming of a new age. "Like two planets in the sky, the computational thinking about the millennium has aligned with the belief in the Golden Age," Adams says. With the fascination of millennialism as strong today as it has been throughout 3,000 years of Western history, Adams can draw on a vast reservoir of high and low culture to teach his subject. Course materials include scripture, novels, historical accounts, contemporary commentary, foreign and Hollywood films and even a television show, the Fox TV Network's "Millennium." Guest lectures add to the discussion. Recently, the class heard from Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ph.D., a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, author of the Ryrie Study Bible and one of the world's foremost authorities on the Rapture doctrine. As a counterpoint to the religious theories, the class also is reading and studying the biologist's Steven Jay Gould's book, Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown. "Gould's book is a classic treatment of modern scientific skepticism of the whole business of millennial excitement. He's the best source I found of the common sense scientific result, but he tries hard not to offend the sensibilities of many Christians," Adams says.
Students in Adams' class are learning that millennial beliefs emerge during times of great social and cultural upheaval. The historical starting point for the class is early Christianity and its background, from about 200 B.C. to 400 A.D., a highly apocalyptic age which saw the rise of Christian millenarian sects such as the Montanists and the Chiliaists. Other important historical periods to be covered include the Middle Ages, in particular the first millennium; the Protestant Reformation, when violent millenarian sects were trying to form a New Utopia; and 18th and 19th century America, which developed its own set of Puritan millennial beliefs; and later with the famous Millerite Movement, in which thousands of people dropped out of society to await the Second Coming of Christ. Adams, a specialist in medieval history and the works of St. Augustine, says it isn't often that he has the chance to relate contemporary events to the remote past, something historians of the 20th century do more often. "Now is the perfect moment for this class. Not only does the subject matter attract a lot of interest, but the timing of this class shows the wider public what an historical look can tell us about our times," he says.
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98180-SI-2/11/99-mmd
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