Editing Millennialism (section)

== Social movements ==
Millennial social movements, a specific form of [[millenarianism]], have as their basis some concept of a cycle of one-thousand years. Sometimes{{quantify|date=August 2020}} the two terms{{which|date=August 2020}} are used{{by whom|date=August 2020}} as synonyms, but purists regard this as not entirely accurate.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} Millennial social movements need not have a religious foundation, but they must{{request quotation|date=August 2020}} have a vision of an [[apocalypse]] that can be [[utopia]]n or [[dystopia]]n. Those associated with millennial social movements are "prone to [be violent]",<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Bromley |first1=David G. |author-link1=David G. Bromley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRESDAAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=9780195369649 |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=James R. |editor1-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=reprint |series=Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology |volume=1 |location=New York |publication-date=2008 |page=148 |chapter=Violence and New Religious Movements |quote=Groups with millennial/apocalyptic expectations have been proposed to be prone to violence due to their fiery rhetoric condemning the existing social order and separation from that order. [...] However, there does not appear to be any simple connection between millennialism and violence. [...] While millennialism as a general form may not be linked to violence, there have been several suggestions that specific types of millennialism may be so connected. |access-date=30 August 2020 |via=[[Google Books]]}}
</ref> with certain types of millennialism connected to violence.<ref>
Compare:
{{cite book |last1=Walliss |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgUTDAAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2011 |isbn=9780190611941 |editor1-last=Wessinger |editor1-first=Catherine |editor1-link=Catherine Wessinger |edition=reprint |series=Oxford Handbooks Series |location=Oxford |publication-date=2016 |page=224 |chapter=Fragile Millennial Communities and Violence |quote=Like all religious groups, Wessinger argues, millennial groups possess an 'ultimate concern' [...] When this concern – or 'millennial goal' – is threatened in some way, a group that possesses a radically dualistic perspective may in some cases seek to preserve or fulfill their goal through acts of violence. [...] By contrast, revolutionary millennial movements are likely to engage in pre-emptive, offensive actions, believing 'that revolutionary violence is necessary to become liberated from their persecutors and to set up the righteous government and society' [...]. [...] Finally, [...] Wessinger adds the category of fragile millennial groups, where violence stems from a combination of internal pressures and the perception or experience of external opposition. |access-date=30 August 2020 |via=[[Google Books]]}}
</ref>

In progressive millennialism, the "transformation of the social order is gradual and humans play a role in fostering that transformation".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Bromley
 | first1 = David G.
 | author-link1 = David G. Bromley
 | year = 2003
 | chapter = Violence and New Religious Movements
 | editor1-last = Lewis
 | editor1-first = James R.
 | editor1-link = James R. Lewis (scholar)
 | title = The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sRESDAAAQBAJ
 | series = Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology
 | volume = 1
 | edition = reprint
 | location = New York
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | publication-date = 2008
 | page = 148
 | isbn = 9780195369649
 | access-date = 30 August 2020
 | quote = With progressive millennialism, transformation of the social order is gradual and humans play a role in fostering that transformation.
 | via = [[Google Books]]
}}
</ref>

Catastrophic millennialism "deems the current social order as irrevocably corrupt, and total destruction of this order is necessary as the precursor to the building of a new, godly order".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Bromley
 | first1 = David G.
 | author1-link = David G. Bromley
 | year = 2003
 | chapter = Violence and New Religious Movements
 | editor1-last = Lewis
 | editor1-first = James R.
 | editor1-link = James R. Lewis (scholar)
 | title = The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sRESDAAAQBAJ
 | series = Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology
 | volume = 1
 | edition = reprint
 | location = New York
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | publication-date = 2008
 | page = 148
 | isbn = 9780195369649
 | access-date = 30 August 2020
 | quote = Catastrophic millennialism deems the current social order as irrevocably corrupt, and total destruction of this order is necessary as the precursor to the building of a new, godly order.
 | via = [[Google Books]]
}}
</ref>

However the link between millennialism and violence may be problematic, as new religious movements may stray from the catastrophic view as time progresses.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-514986-6}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=August 2020}}

=== Nazism ===
The most controversial interpretation of the [[three-age system]] and of millennialism in general involves [[Adolf Hitler]]'s "[[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]]" ({{lang|de|Drittes Reich}}), which in his vision would last for a thousand years to come ({{Lang|de|Tausendjähriges Reich}}) but ultimately lasted for only 12 years (1933–1945).

The German thinker [[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]] coined the phrase "Third Reich" and in 1923 published a book titled ''[[Das Dritte Reich]]''. Looking back at [[German history]], he distinguished two separate periods, and identified them with [[Three Eras|the ages]] of the 12th-century Italian theologian [[Joachim of Fiore]]:

* the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (beginning with [[Charlemagne]] in AD 800): the "First Reich", ''The Age of the [[God the Father|Father]]'' and
* the [[German Empire]], under the [[House of Hohenzollern]] (1871–1918): the "Second Reich", ''The Age of the [[God the Son|Son]]''.

After the interval of the [[Weimar Republic]] (1918 onwards), during which [[constitution]]alism, [[Parliamentary system|parliamentarianism]] and even [[pacifism]] dominated, these were then to be followed by:
* the "Third Reich", ''The Age of the [[Holy Spirit]]''.

Although van den Bruck was unimpressed by Hitler when he met him in 1922 and did not join the [[Nazi Party]], nevertheless the Nazis adopted the term "Third Reich" to label the [[totalitarian state]] they wanted to set up when they gained power, which they [[Enabling Act of 1933|succeeded in doing in 1933]]. Later, however, the Nazi authorities banned the informal use of "Third Reich" throughout the German press in the summer of 1939, instructing it to use more official terms such as "German Reich", "Greater German Reich", and "National Socialist Germany" exclusively.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schmitz-Berning |first=Cornelia |date=2000 |title=Vokabular des Nationalsozialismus |language=de |trans-title=Vocabulary of National Socialism |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] GmbH & Co. KG |location=Berlin |pages=159–160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jmWOMks6bkC&q=drittes+reich&pg=PA607 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

During the early part of the Third Reich many [[Germans]] also referred to Hitler as being the ''German Messiah'', especially when he conducted the [[Nuremberg rallies]],{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} which came to be held annually (1933–1938) at a date somewhat before the [[September equinox]] in [[Nuremberg]].

In a speech held on 27 November 1937, Hitler commented on [[Germania (city)|his plans to have major parts of Berlin torn down and rebuilt]]:

{{blockquote|{{lang|de|[...] einem tausendjährigen Volk mit tausendjähriger geschichtlicher und kultureller Vergangenheit für die vor ihm liegende unabsehbare Zukunft eine ebenbürtige tausendjährige Stadt zu bauen [...].}}}}

{{blockquote|[...] to build a millennial city adequate [in splendour] to a thousand-year-old people with a thousand-year-old historical and cultural past, for its never-ending [glorious] future [...]}}

After Adolf Hitler's unsuccessful attempt to implement a thousand-year-reign, [[Holy See|the Vatican]] issued an official statement that millennial claims could not be safely taught and that the related scriptures in Revelation (also called the Apocalypse) should be understood spiritually. Catholic author Bernard LeFrois wrote:

{{blockquote|text={{sic|Millenium}}<!-- PLEASE NOTE that "Millenium" is deliberately spelled incorrectly here, reflecting the mistake on the external page. -->: [...] Since the Holy Office decreed (July 21, 1944) that it cannot be safely taught that Christ at His Second Coming will reign visibly with only some of His saints (risen from the dead) for a period of time before the final and universal judgment, a spiritual millenium is to be seen in Apoc. 20:4–6. St. John gives a recapitulation of the activity of Satan, and the spiritual reign of the saints with Christ in heaven and in His Church on earth.|source=<ref>
LeFrois, Bernard J. Eschatological Interpretation of the Apocalypse. ''The Catholic Biblical Quarterly'', Vol. XIII, pp. 17–20; Cited in: Culleton R. G. ''The Reign of Antichrist'', 1951. Reprint TAN Books, Rockford (IL), 1974, p. 9 and in:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Culleton
 | first1 = R. Gerald
 | year = 1951
 | title = The Reign of Antichrist
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8DYqCgAAQBAJ
 | publisher = TAN Books
 | publication-date = 2009
 | isbn = 9781505102918
 | access-date = 30 August 2020
 | quote = [...] Since the Holy Office decreed (July 21, 1944) that it cannot be safely taught that Christ at His Second Coming will reign visibly with only some of His saints (risen from the dead) for a period of time before the final and universal judgment, a spiritual millenium is to be seen in Apoc. 20:4–6. St. John gives a recapitulation of the activity of Satan, and the spiritual reign of the saints with Christ in heaven and in His Church on earth.
 | via = [[Google Books]]
}}
</ref>}}

=== Utopianism ===
{{See also|Three Eras}}
The early Christian concepts of millennialism had ramifications far beyond strictly religious concerns during the centuries to come, as various theorists blended and enhanced them with ideas of [[utopia]].

In the wake of early millennial thinking, the [[Three Eras|Three Ages]] philosophy developed. The Italian monk and [[Theology|theologian]] [[Joachim of Fiore]] (died 1202) saw all of human history as a succession of three ages:
# the Age of the [[God the Father|Father]] (the [[Old Testament]])
# the Age of the [[God the Son|Son]] (the [[New Testament]])
# the Age of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] (the age begun when Christ ascended into heaven, leaving the [[Paraclete]], the third person of the Holy Trinity, to guide the faithful)

It was believed{{by whom|date=August 2020}} that the Age of the Holy Spirit would begin at {{circa|1260}}, and that from then on all believers would live as monks, mystically transfigured and full of praise for God, for a thousand years until [[Judgment Day]] would put an end to the history of our planet.

[[Joachim of Fiore]]'s divisions of historical time also highly influenced the [[New Age]] movement, which transformed the Three Ages philosophy into astrological terminology, relating the [[March equinox|Northern-hemisphere vernal equinox]] to different [[constellations of the zodiac]]. In this scenario the Age of the Father was recast{{by whom|date=August 2020}} as the Age of Aries, the Age of the Son became the Age of Pisces, and the Age of the Holy Spirit was called the Aquarian New Age. The current so-called "[[Age of Aquarius]]" will supposedly witness the development of a number of great changes for humankind,<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Bogdan
 | first1 = Henrik
 | chapter = Envisioning the Birth of a New Aeon: Dispensationalism and Millenarianism in the Thelemic Tradition
 | editor1-last = Bogdan
 | editor1-first = Henrik
 | editor2-last = Starr
 | editor2-first = Martin P.
 | title = Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism
 | date = 5 September 2012
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KpvqhORGQe4C
 | location = Oxford
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | publication-date = 2012
 | isbn = 9780199996063
 | access-date = 30 August 2020
 | quote = The New Age was commonly also defined in astrological terms, with the Age of Pisces said to be supplanted by the Age of Aquarius. The consequent evolutionary leap in the development of humankind was often portrayed as heralding a fundamental change in the understanding of the relationship between human beings and the universe. Such thought culminated in the blossoming of the New Age movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, with its characterization of the Age of Aquarius as the embodiment of holistic principles [...]. [...] the New Age would be marked by peace and harmony.
 | via = [[Google Books]]
}}
</ref> reflecting the typical features of some manifestations of millennialism.<ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Landes
 | first1 = Richard
 | author1-link = Richard Landes
 | chapter = Millenarianism and the Dynamics of Apocalyptic Time
 | editor1-last = Newport
 | editor1-first = Kenneth G. C.
 | editor2-last = Gribben
 | editor2-first = Crawford
 | title = Expecting the End: Millennialism in Social and Historical Context
 | year = 2006
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=h3lsZkm6qxcC
 | location = Waco, Texas
 | publisher = [[Baylor University Press]]
 | publication-date = 2006
 | page = 11
 | isbn = 9781932792386
 | access-date = 30 August 2020
 | quote = Transformational millennialism tends to foster programs of radical and often unrealistic social change [...]. [...] Currently, the most prominent form of transformational millennialism comes from the New Age movements set in motion by the millennial wave of the 1960s: environmentally harmonized communes.
 | via = [[Google Books]]
}}
</ref>