Dictionary

millenarianism en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌmɪ.lɪˈnɛə.ɹɪ.əˌnɪz.əm/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌmɪl.əˈnɛɹ.i.ənˌɪz.əm/ (General-American)

Etymology

From millenarian + -ism. Compare millenarism, millennianism, millennialism.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A belief in a coming religious millennium, especially (Christianity) the belief in a coming thousand-year reign of peace heralded by the Second Coming of Christ; utopianism, belief in a coming era of peace and prosperity.
   • It is hard to say for certain just why this brief but notable shift from passive to active millenarianism should have occurred during the Interregnum. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 139:
   • When Herman Melvilled visited , he was fascinated yet repulsed by the 'contagion' of American Christian millenarianism – 'this preposterous Jewmania', he called it, 'half-melancholy, half-farcical'. 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 406:

Forms

Synonyms

chiliasm