CALL FOR PAPERS!
5TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON MILLENNIALISM
Swords into Ploughshares:
Mass Enthusiasm, Peace Movements and Tranformational Millennialism
October 28 - 31, 2000
Boston University, Boston, MA
Abstracts due June 1, 2000
Send 1 page abstracts and 1 page CV with summer and fall contact information
to:
Beth Forrest
Center for Millennial Studies
Boston University
704 Commonwealth Ave., Suite 205
Boston, MA 02215
or via fax: 617.358.0225
or via e-mail [log in to unmask]
Questions? Call 617.358.0226
Our fifth call for papers in millennial studies focuses on the forms of
millennial thinking that attributes important elements in the creation of the
messianic or utopian age to human effort, whether divinely, ideologically, or
messianically inspired. Although some of these forms can become violent and
totalitarian, the focus on this year's conference is on the socially creative
and constructive forms of these activist millennial drives, those aiming for a
collective leap for humanity to a "new" or "just" social paradigm.
The relationship of such millennialism to the creation, sustaining, and
transforming of civil society is a particularly welcome topic, enabling us to
explore the hypothesis that civil society is, on a number of important
occasions, the product of a "successful" millennial movement. This does not
mean that the violent and coercive dimensions of millennialism are not
relevant, since no millennial manifestations have avoided such elements
entirely, and contributions to the interaction between these strands of
millennialism are welcome. The focus, however is on those millennial
manifestations that contribute to the starting of public transformational
waves, to the kinds of movements to which they give rise to the NRMs and
voluntary associations they create, and , finally to the various landings that
such movements have upon returning to the world of normal time, stable human
relations, and realistic expectations about long-term human behavior.
Contributions welcome from all disciplines within and from outside the academy.
Contributions can range historically and geographically from the ancient past
to the global present.
Possible Topics Include:
Popular Peace Movements -- Peace of God, Great Alleluia, Flagellants, Great
Awakening, Taiping Revolution
New Religious Movements (NRMs) and Revitalization Movements -- Quakers,
Anabaptists, Sufis, Bahais, Ghost Dancers, Taiping
Forms of Transformational Spirituality -- amnesty, emancipation, jubilee,
atonement, singing and dancing, bahkti waves, covenantal, voluntary
associations
Pacifist Ideologies -- apocalyptic genealogies, theories of justice and the
toleration of the "other"
Social Mysticism -- Micah/Isaiah, Francis of Assisi, Tomasso Campanella,
William Blake
Public Millennial Manifestations -- great awakenings, public collective
experiences, pilgrim waves, mass penitential reconciliations, mass conversions
Social and Psychological Manifestations -- "great awakenings," conversion
phenomena, communalism, social and educations reforms, narcissims,
megalomania, anxieties of vulnerability and temptations of paranoia
Cultural Manifestations -- humor and subversive laughter, millennial poetry and
song, street theatre, political iconoclasm and messianic icons, public
discourse, public media and the technology of communication, antinomian and
ascetic sexuality
Theories and Exegesis -- forms of semiotic arousal the the "proofs" offered,
readings of prophetic texts, relationships between urgency and patience,
owl/rooster encounters, role of emotion and passion, spontaneity, tolerance
The Media -- media as creation of, contribution to, and interaction with
transformational millennialism, media's role in civil society, in both
conspiracist and anti-conspiracist narratives, media and Y2K.
60s as a Millennial Movement, 1968/9 as a Millennial Moment -- various aspects
of the dynamic of the last transformational millennial wave to sweep
around the globe.
Problems, Weaknesses -- antinomianism, instability, disappointment, anarchy,
paranoia
Post-apocalyptic Landings -- covenantal societies, experiments in sovereignty,
holy wars for territory, for dominion, new religious movements,
political reforms/revolutions, totalitarianism, non-apocalyptic millennialism
Millennial Theory and Methodology -- mimetic theory, punctuated equilibrium and
epidemiological theory in cultural evolution, historical
reconstruction, cognitive dissonance theory, chaos and models of
self-organizing behavior, psychoanalytic theory
ALL presenters are required to register, pay registration cost, and are
responsible for travel and lodging costs.
Travel grants are available for those who would otherwise be unable to attend.
When submitting your abstract, please inform us if you will only be able to
attend if you receive a travel stipend.
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