Bloomsbury Academic The Bloomsbury Handbook of Apocalypticism and Millennialism

In an age shadowed by pandemics, climate catastrophe, authoritarian resurgence, and existential technological threats, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Apocalypticism and Millennialism offers a timely and indispensable exploration of how societies make sense of their Ends—and their hoped-for new beginnings. This ground-breaking volume gathers leading scholars to trace the evolution, meanings, and enduring potency of apocalyptic and millennial ideas across religious, secular, and cultural landscapes. From ancient revelatory texts to contemporary political movements and popular culture, the book dissects how these concepts function not just as prophecies of doom, but as frameworks for resistance, renewal, and transformation. Through meticulous historical analysis and bold theoretical interventions, the contributors interrogate core debates—from the distinctions between apocalypticism and millennialism to their radical entanglements with justice, space, temporality, and morality. This volume dismantles simplistic portrayals of End Times thinking, revealing instead its nuanced, world-shaping logic. Whether manifest in religious movements or global politics, apocalypse is no longer a marginal concern—it is the defining hermeneutic of our times. Scholarly, provocative, and urgent, this Handbook is essential reading for researchers, students, and anyone seeking to understand how humanity envisions and enacts its endings, and potentially, new beginnings.