Table Of ContentProPhecy in the new MillenniuM
This is a rich text full of significant insights for both new comers to the field of
study and established experts. Uniquely combining the views of scholars and
participants in prophetic movements, the essays in this volume make important
contributions to our theoretical and empirical grasp of why and how prophecies
generate, sustain, and sometimes strain religious movements, ranging from the
lengthy legacy of Christian apocalypticism to the recent preoccupation with the
Mayan 2012 prophecy and many other contemporary revelations.
lorne Dawson, university of waterloo, canada
Seasoned scholars are joined by new researchers in this rich and lively collection.
Coverage is broad and comparative, chapters are written in an accessible yet
scholarly style, and a sure editorial hand is evident throughout. The volume as a
whole makes a persuasive case for restoring prophecy to a central place within the
comparative study of religion.
Steven J. Sutcliffe, university of edinburgh, uK
Secular and spiritual prophets of doom abound in the information-rich twenty-first
century – as they have for millennia. But there has yet to be worldwide floods,
meteor impact, global computer failure, obvious alien contact, or direct intervention
from God to end the world as we know it. considering the frequency with which
prophecy apparently fails, why do prophecies continue to be made, and what social
functions do they serve?
this volume gives a concise, but comprehensive, overview of the rich
diversity of prophecy, its role in major world religions as well as in new religions
and alternative spiritualties, its social dynamics and its impact on individuals’
lives. Academic analyses are complemented with contextualized primary source
testimonies of those who live and have lived within a prophetic framework. the
book argues that the key to understanding the more dramatic, apocalyptic and
millenarian aspects of prophecy is in appreciating prophecy’s more mundane
manifestations and its role in providing meaning and motivation in everyday life.
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Advisory Board:
Afe Adogame, university of edinburgh, uK,
Madawi Al-rasheed, King’s college, london, uK,
François Bellanger, université de Genève, Switzerland,
irena Borowik, Jagiellonian university, Krakow, Poland,
Douglas e. cowan, university of waterloo, ontario, canada,
Adam Possamai, university of western Sydney, Australia,
James t. richardson, university of nevada, reno, uSA,
Fenggang yang, Purdue university, uSA
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Other titles in this series:
Spiritual and Visionary communities
out to Save the world
Edited by Timothy Miller
Prophecy in the new Millennium
when Prophecies Persist
Edited by
SArAh hArVey
Inform, UK
SuzAnne newcoMBe
Inform, UK
© Sarah harvey and Suzanne newcombe 2013
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Prophecy in the new millennium : when prophecies persist.
-- (Ashgate inform series on minority religions and spiritual movements)
1. Prophecy--history--21st century. 2. Prophecy--Social aspects.
i. Series ii. harvey, Sarah. iii. newcombe, Suzanne.
203.2-dc23
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Prophecy in the new millennium : when prophecies persist / edited by Sarah harvey and
Suzanne newcombe.
p. cm. -- (Ashgate inform series on minority religions and spiritual movements)
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-1-4094-4995-9 (hbk) -- iSBn 978-1-4094-4996-6 (pbk) --
iSBn 978-1-4094-4997-3 (ebook) 1. eschatology. 2. Prophecies. 3. Prophecy. 4.
religions. i. harvey, Sarah. ii. newcombe, Suzanne.
Bl500.P76 2013
202'.117--dc23
2012031450
iSBn 9781409449959 (hbk)
iSBn 9781409449966 (pbk)
iSBn 9781409449973 (ebk – PDF)
iSBn 9781472400611 (ebk – ePuB)
V
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by MPG PrintGrouP
Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xv
1 From the Extraordinary to the Ordinary:
An Overview of Prophecy 1
Suzanne Newcombe and Sarah Harvey
Part I: PersPectIves on ProPhecy
2 Messages from Beyond: Prophecy in the Contemporary World 17
Michael Barkun
3 Prophecy: Social Scientific Perspectives and Lubavitch 27
Simon Dein
4 Prophecy on the Margins: A Case Study of the Apocalypse in
Later Seventeenth-Century England 43
Warren Johnston
5 Prophecy: A Perspective from the Early Church and the
Contemporary Experience of a Methodist Minister 57
Andrew Maguire
Part II: PerennIal ProPhecy In MaInstreaM tradItIons
6 The New Apostolic Reformation:
Main Street Mystics and Everyday Prophets 75
Margaret M. Poloma and Matthew T. Lee
7 The Mahdi and the End-Times in Islam 89
Hugh Beattie
8 The Coming Golden Age: On Prophecy in Hinduism 105
Luis González-Reimann
vi Prophecy in the New Millennium
9 Divination, Prophecy and Oracles in Tibetan Buddhism 123
Christopher Bell
10 Chasing the Horizon: Prophecy in Secular Contexts 137
Wendy M. Grossman
Part III: conteMPorary case studIes
11 Living in the Time of the End: A Personal Commentary from
My Experiences with the Children of God and the
Family International 155
Abi Freeman May
12 Mormonism and The Family International:
Toward a Theory of Prophecy in the Development of
New Religious Movements 165
Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd
13 The Dispensation of Providence:
Growing Up as a Blessed Child in the Unification Church 185
Hani Zaccarelli
14 Waco: Living Prophecy 195
Livingstone Fagan
15 (Always) Living in the End-Times:
The ‘Rolling Prophecy’ of the Conspiracy Milieu 207
David G. Robertson
Part Iv: 2012 ProPhecIes
16 From Mushrooms to the Stars: 2012 and the Apocalyptic Milieu 225
Andrew Fergus Wilson
17 Viral Email and the 2012 Apocalypse Contagion:
Seven Reasons Why the World WON’T End in 2012 239
Kristine Larsen
18 Remembering the Future: 2012 as Planetary Transition 255
Suzanne Rough
Contents vii
19 2012 and the Revival of the New Age Movement:
The Mayan Calendar and the Cultic Milieu in Switzerland 261
Jean-François Mayer
20 Looking into the Future: Why Prophecies Will Persist 277
J. Gordon Melton
Index 285
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Notes on Contributors
Professor Michael Barkun is Professor Emeritus of Political Science in the
Maxwell School at Syracuse University. His books on millennialism include
A Culture of Conspiracy (2003), Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of
the Christian Identity Movement (1997), and Disaster and the Millennium (1974).
His most recent book, Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination, and Homeland
Security Since 9/11 was published in 2011. He edits the Religion and Politics
series for the Syracuse University Press and sits on the editorial boards of several
journals.
Dr Hugh Beattie is Lecturer in Religious Studies at The Open University. After
reading history at Cambridge, he moved into social anthropology at SOAS
(the School of Oriental and African Studies), and undertook field research in
Afghanistan in the late 1970s. Subsequently he has conducted extensive research
in the British Library’s Oriental and India Office archive. His interests include
Islam, state and society in Afghanistan and KhyberPakhtunkhwa, the history of
Sikhism, and end-times religion. Author of Imperial Frontier Tribe and State in
Waziristan (2002), he is currently working on religious leadership in Waziristan in
the twentieth century.
Christopher Bell received a BA in English Literature and Religious Studies
(2003), and an MA in Asian Religions (2006), both from Florida State University.
His Master’s thesis focused on the cult of Tsiu Marpo, one of the central protector
deities of Samyé, Tibet’s first Buddhist Monastery. He is currently a doctoral
candidate at the University of Virginia, concentrating on Tibetan and Buddhist
History. His dissertation research will examine the seventeenth-century rise and
ritual systematization of the Nechung protective deity cult under the auspices of
the Fifth Dalai Lama’s burgeoning government.
Dr Simon Dein is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Medicine at University
College London and Honorary Professor at Durham University. He is also
Visiting Professor in Psychology at Glendwyr University, Wales and is a part-time
psychiatrist working in the NHS. He has written extensively on religion and health
and on millennialism in Judaism and is the author of Religion and Healing among
the Lubavitch Community of Stamford Hill: A Case Study in Hasidism (2004) and
Lubavitcher Messianism: What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails? (2010).
He is one of the editors of the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture.
