Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases

by WESSINGER CATHERINE (ED)

• ISBN13: 9780815605997
• ISBN10: 0815605994
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

Wessinger presents 18 papers that explore three interrelated patterns of some millennial religious movements: violence by outsiders, the initiation of violence to preserve religious goals, and millennial ideologies that sanction violence.

Author Biography

Catherine Wessinger is professor of the history of religions and chair of the Religious Studies Department at Loyola University, New Orleans.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Contributors	xi
Introduction
The Interacting Dynamics of Millennial Beliefs, Persecution, and Violence	3	(40)
Catherine Wessinger
Part One: Assaulted Millennial Groups
Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence
The Mormons	43	(19)
Grant Underwood
From Vision to Violence
The Wounded Knee Massacre	62	(20)
Michelene E. Pesantubbee
``Theology Is Life and Death''
David Koresh on Violence, Persecution, and the Millennium	82	(19)
Eugene V. Gallagher
Shooting Dreads on Sight
Violence, Persecution, Millennialism, and Dominica's Dread Act	101	(20)
Richard C. Salter
Part Two: Fragile Millennial Groups
``American as Cherry Pie''
Peoples Temple and Violence in America	121	(17)
Rebecca Moore
The Magic of Death
The Suicides of the Solar Temple	138	(20)
Massimo Introvigne
Imagined Persecution
Aum Shinrikyo, Millennialism, and the Legitimation of Violence	158	(27)
Ian Reader
Part Three: Two Nativist Millennial Movements
Millenarian Tragedies in South Africa
The Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement and the Bulhoek Massacre	185	(20)
Christine Steyn
Part Four: Revolutionary Millennial Movements
Apocalypse, Persecution, and Self-Immolation
Mass Suicides among the Old Believers in Late-Seventeenth-Century Russia	205	(15)
Thomas Robbins
Western Millennial Ideology Goes East
The Taiping Revolution and Mao's Great Leap Forward	220	(21)
Scott Lowe
Nazism as a Millennialist Movement	241	(111)
Robert Ellwood
Japanese Lotus Millennialism
From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements	261	(20)
Jacqueline Stone
Time, Authority, and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge
Elements of the Millennial Vision in Year Zero	281	(18)
Richard C. Salter
Real Paranoids Have Real Enemies
The Genesis of the ZOG Discourse in the American National Socialist Subculture	299	(24)
Jeffrey Kaplan
The Justus Freemen Standoff
The Importance of the Analysis of Religion in Avoiding Violent Outcomes	323	(24)
Jean E. Rosenfeld
Part Five: Implications for Law Enforcement
A Brief History of Millennialism and Suggestions for a New Paradigm for Use in Critical Incidents
A Presentation to the Los Angeles Police Department	347	(5)
Jean E. Rosenfeld
Afterword Millennial Violence in Contemporary America	352	(15)
Michael Barkun
Bibliography	367	(24)
Index	391