Instructor: Patrice C. Brodeur
Office Hours: Wednesday: 2:00—4:00pm
Office: Blaustein 307A (ext.2114) as well as by appointment
E-mail: pcbro@conncoll.edu

Classroom: Olin 14 Schedule: Tues. & Thur.: 8:30am-9:45am

Michael Westfort
Office Hours in Wax Lab (next to Winthrop):
Office: Bill Hall 101B (ext. 5046) Wednesday: 9:00am to 12:00pm
E-mail: mdwes@conncoll.edu Friday: 1:00pm to 5:00pm

Course Description: http://www.conncoll.edu/academics/departments/relstudies/290/

This course explores various interpretations of the millennium from biblical times to the present including such topics as Jewish messianic expectations, the Second Coming of Christ, Islamic eschatology, contemporary millennial movements, and secular celebrations of the year 2000. The methodology is interdisciplinary (history, psychology, religious studies, political science, sociology, and computer science). The purpose is not only to learn how to study comparatively various millennial movements across the ages but also to interpret, in light of those histories, the exponential growth in contemporary millennial movements. As a means to achieve these goals, the whole class together will create a Connecticut College-based web-site which re/constructs millennial histories using today’s unprecedented technologies, thereby participating in and shaping our unfolding millennial present. In pairs, students will be responsible for one segment of the web-site, each one being focused on a concept, a person, or an event from which millennial studies takes its purpose.

In order to enhance analytical skills, ethical empathy and wisdom, students need to strengthen experiential, verbal and written skills. Students embarking on this millennium passage are committing themselves to an educational process in which we practice self-motivation and take full responsibility for our learning environment. This responsibility is not for individual selves only; excellence in learning is the result of a collective and mutually supportive process in which building takes place through trial and error, i.e. taking risks. If we demand this level of excellence in learning for ourselves, we have every reason to demand and expect it from others in the classroom. Students are expected not to be late for class (early morning class is no excuse). We also commit ourselves to participate in all classes in order both to improve our public verbal skills and to practice critical thinking "on our feet" by responding to impromptu questions. The emotional challenges of such an environment become part of building ethical empathy. In short, by joining this class, we agree to train ourselves further in the art of learning, itself a millennial process!

Requirements:

25%: weekly response papers: 10 weekly response papers each worth 2.5% are to be e-mailed to Prof. Brodeur at the latest by 7:00am the morning of the class for which that reading is due (minimum of 200 and maximum of 300 words). If you submit more than 10, the extra ones will count as bonus points. Each weekly paper will be graded as either A, B, or C if submitted on time, F if late.

15%: class participation: attendance at all classes and films/videos is mandatory. Careful and critical preparation of the reading before class is expected in order to sustain the class learning. A grade of "F" is assigned to anyone who misses more than three class sessions without any written reason (medical, etc.).

60% final multi-media project: its purposes are manifold: improving concise academic writing, interviewing, research, and multi-media skills, as well as cooperation within and across teams composed of two students sharing similar thematic interests. The web-site will be divided into several thematic areas on the first day of class. Each team will select its area on the second day of class. The grade will be divided into six compulsory parts:

1. a one page project description for each team due on Feb. 9 at the beginning of class;
2. a six page project report due on March 2 (a 10% team grade);
3. a ten minute team presentation of your web-site section followed by a five minute feedback session from the class on May 11 (a 10% team grade by class evaluation);
4. a final version of your web-site section due by May 21 (a 30% team grade);
5. a personal grade evaluating your own work due by May 21 (a 5% personal grade);
6. a personal grade evaluating your teammate’s work due by May 21 (a 5% personal grade).

Books:

The following books are available for purchase at the Connecticut College Bookstore:

• The Common Bible, The New Revised Version with Deuterocanon/Apocrypha (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989)
• N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990)
• Charles B. Strozier, Apocalypse; On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994)
• S. D. O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse, (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998)
• D. Pipes, The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy, (NY: St. Martin’s, 1996)
• Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, (NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993)
• James D. Tabor and E. V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious
• Freedom in America, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995)
• Damian Thompson, The End of Time, (Univ. Press of New England, 1998)

The readings for this course (books and articles) are on regular reserve at the library.

Week 1 Millennial Studies: what, why and when?

01/26 Tu: Introduction:

 

- What is Millennial Studies?

- Creating a Class Web-site: Why, How, and for Whom?

- Overview of the Syllabus and Selection of Teams

01/28 Th: Millennial Studies: Why and When? And selection of web-site topics

Reading:

• Damian Thompson, The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium, (Hanover: Univ. Press of New England, 1996), pp. xi-xv
• Catherine Wessinger, "Millennialism With and Without the Mayhem," in Millennium, messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, ed. by T. Robbins and S. J. Palmer (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 47-59
• Stephen D. O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: a Theory of Millennial Rhetoric, (NY: oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 3-19

Week 2: The Time Bind on the Mind

02/02: Tu: Calendrical Psychology or Minding your own Time

Reading:

• A. Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, (Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 3-37
• Charles B. Strozier, Apocalypse; On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America, Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), pp. 1-24, 27-150(/2)
• Robert J. Lifton, "The Image of "the End of the World": a Psycho-historical View," in Facing Apocalypse. (Dallas: Spring Pub., 1987), pp. 26-48
• Stephen D. O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: a Theory of Millennial Rhetoric, (NY: oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 20-24, 44-51
• 02/04: Th: Historical Time and its Early Discontents
  

Reading:

• Anders Hultgård, "Forms and Origins of Iranian Apocalypticism," in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1989), pp. 387-411
• J. Gwyn Griffiths, "Apocalyptic in the Hellenistic Era," in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1989), pp. 273-294

Week 3: Jewish Apocalypticism

02/09: Tu: Prophecy and Apocalyptic (due: one page project description)

Reading:

• Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah 2: 1-37; 11: 1-21; 30: 1 — 32:44
• Ezekiel 36:22 — 48:35
• Isaiah 40:1 — 55:13; 56:1 — 66:24; 27: 1-12
• Zechariah 9: 1-17; 12: 1-14; 14: 1-16
• Paul D. Hanson, ed., "Old Testament Apocalyptic Reexamined," in Visionaries and their Apocalypses, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), pp. 37-60

02/11: Th: Wisdom and Apocalyptic

Reading:

• Hebrew Bible: Genesis 15:5; 22:17; Jeremiah 33:22
• Psalm 147
• Job 1:1 — 42:17
• Pseudo-Philo (Book of Biblical Antiquities) 19:10; 21:2
• Apocrypha: Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach): 1: 1-20; 18: 1-14; 42:15 — 43:33
• Wisdom of Salomon 1: 1 — 19:22
• Baruch 3:24 — 5:9
• Jonathan Z. Smith, "Wisdom and Apocalyptic, " in Visionaries and their Apocalypses, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), pp. 101-120
• John G. Gammie, "From Prudentialism to Apocalypticism: The House of the Sages and the Varying Forms of Wisdom," in The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East, (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), pp. 479-497

Week 4: Early Christian Apocalypticism

02/16: Tu: The Book of Revelation in the Bible: Its Meaning and Purpose

Reading:

• New Testament: The Book of Revelation

02/18: Th: The Impact of the Book of Revelation in Christian Art and Imagination of the Future

Guest Lecturer: Prof. Garrett Green, Connecticut College

Week 5: Medieval Apocalypticism

02/23: Tu: The year 1000 of the Christian Calendar: European Interpretations

Reading:

• D. Thompson, The End of Time, (Hanover: U. P. of New England, 1996), pp. 3-55
• David Landes, "The Apocalyptic Year 1000 Then and Now," and "Giants with Feet of Clay: On the Historiography of the Year 1000," both to be found at:http://www.mille.org/1000-pg.html

02/25: Th: Pursuing the Millennium and Towards a New Jerusalem

Reading:

• D. Thompson, The End of Time, (Hanover: U. P. of New England, 1996), pp. 56-102

Week 6: Seventeenth Century Jewish Messianism: The Case of Sabbatai Sevi

03/02: Tu: Sabbatai Sevi in the Ottoman Empire (due: three page project description)

Guest Lecturer: Cengiz Sisman, Harvard University

Reading:

• Cengiz Sisman, "The Seventeenth Century Ottoman-Jewish Sabbatian Messianic Movement: A Reappraisal, "presented at the Middle East Studies Association32^nd Annual meeting, Chicago, Dec. 1998.

03/04: Th: Feedback on the web-site descriptions

Week 7: Islamic Eschatology and Messianism

03/09: Tu: Medieval and Modern Islamic Understandings of the End of Time

Reading:

• Awad Karsany, "Beyond Sufism: the case of Millennial Islam in Sudan," in Muslim Identity and Social Changes in Sub-Saharan Africa, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), pp. 135-153
• Said A. Arjomand, "Millennial Beliefs, Hierocratic Authority, and Revolution in Shiite Iran," in The Political Dimensions of Religion, (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), pp. 219-239

03/11 The Modern Middle East: Inheritance of the Past Affecting the Future

Reading:

• Daniel Pipes, The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), pp-1-32, 225-286

Week 8: No Class:

03/31 Team Appointments

Week 9: American Premillennialism

04/06: Tu: American Millennialism

Reading:

• Timothy Weber, "Premillennialism and the Branches of Evangelicalism," in The Variety of American Evangelicalism, (Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1991), pp. 5-21

04/08: Th: Millerism

Reading:

• S. D. O’Leary, "Millerism as a Rhetorical Movement," and "Millerite Argumentation,"in Arguing the Apocalypse, (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994), pp. 93-133

Week 10: Contemporary Millennialism in the USA

04/13: Tu: Jonestown: a 20/20 report screening followed by discussion in class

Reading:

• Jonathan Z. Smith, "Jonestown: The "White Night"," in Imagining Religion (Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 1982), pp. 126-134
• John Hall, "Apocalypse at Jonestown," in In Gods We Trust : New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America, ed. by T. Tobbins and D. Anthony, (New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c1990), pp.

04/15: Th: Waco and the Branch Davidian

Guest Speaker: Prof. Eugene Gallagher, Connecticut College

Reading:

• James D. Tabor and E. V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America, (Berkeley, CA: U. of Cal. Press, 1995)
• E. Gallagher, "The Persistence of the Millennium: Branch Davidian Expectations of the End after ‘Waco’". Unpublished paper.

Week 11: New Forms of Millennialism

04/20: Tu: New Age and Hardcore Millennialism

Reading:

• Kranenborg, Reender, "Contemporary Millenianism and the New Age Movement," Exchange 23 (April 1994), pp. 44-57

04/22: Th: The End of Hollywood Time

Films: "Deep Impact", "Armageddon", "The Martians", and "The X-Files"

Reading:

• Stephen Kierulff, "’Armageddon Theology’ and Willingness to Risk Nuclear War,"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30 (March 1991), pp. 81-93

Week 12: Global Millennialism

04/27: Tu: Millennialism around the World

Reading:

• G. Trompf, ed., Cargo Cults and Millenarian movements: Transoceanic Comparisons of New Religious Movements, (Berlin: M. de Gruyter, 1990), pp. xi-xvii, 1-23

04/29: Th: The Cases of Zambia and Japan

Reading:

• Assimeng, "Sectarian Allegiance and Political Authority: The Watch Tower Society in Zambia 1907-1935," The Journal of Modern African Studies, 3:1 (1970), pp. 97-112
• Susumu Shimazono, "The Development of Millennialistic Thought in Japan’s New Religions: From Tenrikyo to Honmichi," in New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change, (Paris : UNESCO, 1986), pp. 55-86

Week 13: Virtual Millennialism

05/04: Tu: The Virtual Millennium: The Talk 2000 Forum

Reading: All three sections of FAQ on the web:

ftp://hcol.humberc.on.ca/library/internet/t2-faq1.txt

Charles C. West, "Mission, Christian Hope and Secular Hopes," Mid-Stream

05/06: Th: Unions and Lotteries as Millennial Signs

Guest Lecturer: Mark Douton ’98, ex- Connecticut College Religious Studies Major

Week 14: Millennialism at Connecticut College

05/11: Tu: Student Presentations

05/13: Th: Student Presentations and Final Evaluation

Week 15: Launch of The Millennium Web-Site on CC Orbit