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Academic Year 2004/2005


The End of the World: The Millennium and the End Times in American Thought
RELI 287 FA

Crosslistings:
AMST 288

Eschatology: [Gk eschatos last, farthest] 1. A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of mankind.

This course examines how some religious groups in the U.S. herald the hastening of the End Times, when a Messiah will appear to cleanse the earth of all unrighteousness. This course examines various American eschatologies and the religious communities that imagine them. Included are Puritans, Messianic Jews, Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists, Branch Davidians, Rastafari, the Nation of Islam and Christian Identity, in genres of representation including fiction, film and popular music. Among the themes we will discuss will be Americanism, or the ways groups imagine the United States to be favored by God, religious politics, and the ways that American eschatologies are gendered and racialized.

MAJOR READINGS

BOOK OF DANIEL
BOOK OF REVELATION
Sacvan Bercovitch, THE AMERICAN JEREMIAD
Paul Boyer, WHEN TIME SHALL BE NO MORE
Octavia Butler, THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER (novel)
David Chidester, SALVATION AND SUICIDE:
William Pierce, THE TURNER DIARIES (novel)
Hal Lindsey, LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH (novel)
Elijah Muhammed, "Message to the Blackman in America"
Bladerunner (film)

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Attendance discussion, weekly response papers and three critical essays.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course fulfills a "Religion in Society" departmental requirement.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS RELI    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005


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