Swords into Ploughshares: 
Mass Enthusiasms, Peace Movements and Transformational Millennialism    
Saturday, October 28th  
A CONCERT OF MILLENNIAL MUSIC  
7:30, School of Management, 595 Commonwealth Ave.  
   
Sunday, October 29th  

Sargent College, 635 Commonwealth Ave.

 
8:15 - 8:40 Registration/Coffee  
8:40 - 9:00 Welcome: Richard Landes  

9:00 - 10:30

 
Theory

Chair: TBA

 

 
Irenic Genre: Integrative Apocalpyse as Aestetic in the Western Tradition

Dennis Costa, Boston University

Du Spectacle au Simulacre: Jean Baudrillard and the 'chiliastic serenity' of Guy Debord

Andrew Hussey, The University of Wales

Soft Landings: "Generations," Tolkien & Preterism John J. Reilly, Independent Scholar
 
   

Medieval 1

Chair: Al Baumgarten, Bar Ilan University, Israel
 

Byzantium Millennialism and the State

Pablo Ubierma, Dumbarton Oaks

The Jewish Antichrist in the Middle Ages: Revising McGinn's Antichrist Thesis

Andrew Gow, University of Alberta, Edmonton

A Millennial Movement Changes into a Religion: The Early Development of Islam in Umayyad Syria

David Cook, University of Chicago

 
   

10:30 - 11:00 Break

 

11:00 - 12:30

 
   

Virtual Millennialism

Chair: Richard Landes, Center for Millennial Studies
 

Rapture of the Trans-Humans: Gaia on, in and by Wide-Area Networks

Robert Howard, University of Oregon
Millennial Utopias in Cyberspace Brenda Brasher, Mount Union College
Y2K and the Aftermath

Stephen O'Leary, University of Southern California

 
   

Early Modern

Chair: Virginia Reinburg, Boston College

 
"The Bear of Deformity, the Arrow of Detraction": Rewriting the Heavens in Bruno's The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast Geoffrey McVey, Syracuse University
Restorers of the Shattered World: The Apocalyptic Mercantilism of Samuel Purchas and the Making of Bacon's Great Instauration Gerald Ward, Boston University
They Built Millennium: Jesuits and Guaranís 1610-1768 Thomas Beebee, Penn State University
 

 

 
12:00 - 2:00 Lunch  
2:00 - 4:00  
   
Right Wing

Chair: Gene Gallagher, Connecticut College

 
"Do those looking into the abyss see light?": A Post-Apocalyptic Vision for the Religiously Racist Right Simon Baalham, Oxford Brooks University
Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam - Moving towards the Mainstream? Martha Lee, University of Windsor
Rude Boys, Rebels, and Racists: An Examination of Skinhead Subculture

Kevin Borgesin, Keene State College

Philip Lamy, Castleton State College

 
   
Extended Millennialism?

Chair: John J. Reilly, Independent Scholar

 
Joachimites, Rappites and the Pursuit of Global Harmony Raymond Bulman , St. John's University
British Millenarianism and the Rediscovery of the Holy Land Thomas Idinopulos, Miami University, Ohio
Looking Sideways at Edward Bellamy; a view of Utopia from the year 2000

Laura Krutz, Simon Fraser

Julian West, University of Victoria

"Salut au Monde!" to *Mondo 2000*: American Bohemia at Two Crossroads John Roche, Rochester Institute of Technology
 
   

4:00 - 4:30 Break

 
4:30- 5:30  
   
UFOs Chair: Dan Noel, Vermont College of Norwich University
 
Raelian Apocalypse: Preparing for the Aliens' Advent while Placating the Public Susan Palmer, Dawson College
Ufology: A Religion for the Third Millennium Philip Lamy, Castleton State College
 
   
Year 2000, Part 1 Chair: John Berthrong, Boston University
 
Cape Town: The Third Parliament of the World's Religion and the Ends of the World Hillel Schwartz, Millennium Institute/UC San Diego

Promoting the Virtues of the Universe: Falun Gong in China Today

Christopher Rzonca, New York University
 
   

6:00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS

 
STEWART BRAND  
FROM THE WHOLE EARTH CATALOG TO THE THE CLOCK OF THE LONG NOW  
   

Monday, October 30th

 
George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Avenue  
   
8:30 - 9:00 Registration/Coffee  
9:00 - 10:30  
   
Pacifist Action Chair: Stewart Brand
 
A.J. Muste, Christian Pacifism and the A-Bomb Leilah Danielson, University of Texas at Austin
Peace Activist Women in the United States in the 1980s: Values, Vision and the Transformative Potential of Public Dialog

Ginger Hanks Harwood, La Sierra University

Convergence, Eschatechnology, and Prophecies of Æonic Transformation in the 21st Century James C. van Pelt, Yale Divinity School
 
   
Pre/Post Millennialism

Chair: Brenda Brasher, Mount Union College

 
Parallel Worlds: Premillennial Beliefs, Social Transformation and the Seventh-day Adventist Church Kenneth Newport, Liverpool Hope University College
The Worldwide Church of God and Environmental Awareness: Postmillennial Currents in a Premillennial Movement Scott Lupo, University of Nevada
Nuclear Doomsday: Global Apocalypse Averted Michael Christensen, Drew University
 
   
10:30- 11:00 Break  
11:00 - 12:30  
   
19th Century American Chair: Ruth Doan, Hollins University
 
Jonathan Edwards, Four-Part Parousia: History as Transformational Process James Hewitson, University of Toronto
"We Make Millenniums": The Universal Peace Union and the Politics of Perfection Thomas Curran, Saint Louis University
Past Nostalgia: The Ethics of the Dead Cathy Gutierrez, Sweet Briar College
 
   
Millennial Music Chair: Steve Marini, Wellesley College
 

Dies Irae: Eschatological Judgments against the Enemies of God in the Poetry and Hymnody of the Jewish and Christian Traditions

Stephen Hummel, The Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Chanting Down Babylon: Lyrics of Peace in Rastafarian Reggae Music

Leslie James, DePauw University

Music is Revolution: Protest Music, Cultural Heritage, and Left-Wing Social Movements

Deirdre Hughes, Southern Illinois University

 
   

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

 

2:00 - 4:00

 
   

Pop Culture

Chair: Joe Boskin, Boston University

 

Competing Fictions: The Uses of Christian Apocalyptic Imagery in Contemporary Popular Fictional Works

Tom Doyle, Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University

Sitcom Soteriology: The Simpsons as Apocalyptic

Mick Broderick, Murdoch University, Australia

"I Don't Think the Sun Even Exists in this Place!": Questioning Reality in Millennial Films of the 1990s

Amanda Loos, Independen Scholar

Disappointment with Destiny: Millennial Anticipations and Misgivings, 1999-2000

Dan Noel, Vermont College of Norwich University

 
   

English/American Protestant

Chair: Rodney Petersen, Boston Theological Institute
 

Anglican Millennialism and the Virginia Company, 1606-1626

Beth Quitslund, Ohio University
Foxe and Milton: The Millennialist Border between Tradition and Innovation

Andrew Escobedo, Ohio University

'The Promised Day of the Lord': American Millennialism in the Revolutionary and Early National Era: 1765-1800

John Smith, SUNY, Albany

Uncertain Dawn: Millennialism and Revolutionary Ideology in the Critical Period, 1783-1792

Steve Marini, Wellesley College

 
   
4:00 - 4:30 Break  
4:30 - 5:30  
   

Medieval 2

Chair: Andrew Gow, University of Alberta, Edmonton
 

Intolerable Tolerances: Millennial Vision and Medieval Ecumenism in a Persecuting Society

Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, University of Victoria

Arnau de Vilanova and the Reign of Justice in Catalan Sicily Clifford Backman, Boston University
 
   

Roosters

Chair: Richard Landes, Boston University
 
Déjà vu?: Remembering Millennium '73

Charles Cameron, The Arlington Institute

The Making of Transmillennialism

Jay Gary, World Network of Religious Futurists

Tim King, Council on Transmillennialism

 
   

6:00 - 8:00 Banquet

 

8:00 - 9:30 Kali's Follies

 
play and workshop by Lou Montgomery, Pacifica Graduate Institute  
   

Tuesday, October 31, 2000

 
George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave.  
   
8:30 - 9:00 Registration/Coffee  
9:00 - 10:30  
   
Year 2000, part 2

Chair: Stephen O'Leary, University of Southern California

 

What Millenarians REALLY Think: the Results of a Survey of 3,000 London Pentecostalists

Damian Thompson, London School of Economics

Fears for the Millennium - Finnish Expectations for the year 2000 Maria Leppäkari, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
 
   

The 1960s

Chair: Bruce Schulman, Boston University

 

Post Vatican II Catholicism: a Millennial Vision?

Anthony Egan, Weston Jusiut School of Theology
In the Apostolic Tradition: Revolutionary Nonviolence, Gender, and Catholic Resistance to the Vietnam War Marian Mollin, Virginia Tech
1968: America's Second Great Awakening Leo Sandon, The Florida State University
 
   
10:30 - 11:00 Break  
11:00 - 12:30  
   

Medieval 3

Chair: Thomas Glick, Boston University

 

Roger Bacon and the Alchemy of a Christian Utopia

Mark Abate, University of New Hampshire
Re-Inventing the Reign of the Saints: Proponents & Critics of the Millennial Peace Movement in the Amienois David Van Meter, Boston University
The Peace of God and the Year 1000: the First Society-wide Transformative Millennial Movement in Global History

Richard Landes, Boston University

 
   

Across the 20th Century

Chair: Gary Donato, Three Rivers Community College
 

From Millennial Dreams to a Tribal Political Party: the Case of the Birsa Munda Movement in Northern India

Barbara Verardo, London School of Economics
Dedicated to Peace: The Foreign Policy of the Spanish Republic, 1931-1936 Wayne Bowen, Ouachita Baptist University

The Run of the Multicolor Apocalyptic Horses and the Plea of the White Robed Martyrs: Eschatologies of 20th Century Russia

Alexei Khamin, Drew University

 
   
12:30 - 2:00 Lunch  
2:00 - 3:30 ARCHIVING THE MILLENNIUM: A ROUND TABLE, led by Ted Daniels, Millennium Watch Institute