Apocalypticism in the Contemporary World

doi:10.1017/9781108394994.017

17 - Apocalypticism in the Contemporary World

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2020

Lorenzo DiTommaso

Edited by

Colin McAllister

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Colin McAllister: Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

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Summary

Apocalyptic thinking informs virtually every major aspect of life in the twenty-first century, the result of a shift in outlook that began in the late 1960s. This chapter examines the causes of this apocalyptic shift and its remarkable acceleration since 2001, with attention to popular culture, the resurgence of robust apocalypticism in religions both new and old, and the “illiberal revolution” and the normalization of apocalyptic thinking.

Keywords

apocalyptic shift popular culture fundamentalism illberalism

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature , pp. 316 - 341

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108394994.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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References

Selected Further Reading

Collins, John J., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.CrossRef Google Scholar

DiTommaso, Lorenzo. The Architecture of Apocalypticism. New York: Oxford University Press, in press.Google Scholar

Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fiction. London: Verso, 2005.Google Scholar

Lewis, James R. The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.CrossRef Google Scholar

Lilla, Mark. The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction. New York: New York Review Books, 2016.Google Scholar

Stein, Stephen J., ed. The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism. Vol. 3, Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age. New York: Continuum, 1998.Google Scholar

Strozier, Charles B., et al., eds. The Fundamentalist Mindset. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.CrossRef Google Scholar

Sutton, Matthew Avery. American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2014.Google Scholar

Walls, Jerry L., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar