Messiahs, Millennium & Apocalypse

This course will explore the historical, crosscultural and contemporary dimensions of various messianic/millenarian/apocalyptic ideologies and movements, and as such will offer students here at Columbia a comprehensive and in-depth examination and understanding of the many cults, religions, movements and manifestations that have arisen throughout the planet during the past 3,000 years, whose leaders and adherents sought, and most importantly continue to seek, the coming of a new utopian, godinfused age on earth that, in the vast majority of cases, is believed to be preceded by unprecedented global crises, wars and both human and material devastation (aka The Great Tribulations). Since it has been eight years since I last taught this course here at Columbia (which I taught, under various different titles, six times between the years1999 and 2016), it needs to be extensively updated to include the numerous Millennial/Apocalyptic

manifestations that have arisen globally during this more recent period of time, the most current one perhaps being the re-election of our once and future president, Donald J. Trump, whom many of his MAGA followers (particularly his hardline Evangelical base) believe to be the Second Coming of the “Messiah” as foretold in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (or perhaps alternatively, the Beast or Anti-Christ depicted in the latter’s Book of Revelation).