The turn of the 21st century and the advent of the third Christian millennium is a moment of symbolic relevance for many societies, even those with different calendars and time reckonings. In response to the approach of the year 2000, the Council on Middle East Studies will sponsor a lecture series on millennialism this semester.
The first talk in the series, titled "Weeping Warriors at the End of the Millennium: From the Peace of God (990s) to the Promise Keepers (1990s)," will be presented at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, in Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. The featured speaker will be Richard A. Landes, professor of history at Boston University and director of its Center for Millennial Studies. The talk is open to the public free of charge.
Landes is author of "Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History: Ademar of Chabannes (989-1034)" and editor, with Thomas Head, of "The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in France around the Year 1000." He has written numerous articles on the history of apocalypticism and organized several conferences on millennialism.
The lecture series is an outgrowth of the Sawyer Seminar on "Millennium and Millennialism: Motifs and Movements," funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This seminar, open to faculty and graduate students, will meet on a bi-weekly basis during the 1998 calendar year.
"The theme of millennial chaos and subsequent renewal is prevalent in all major religious traditions originating in the Middle East: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," says Abbas Amanat, professor of Middle Eastern history and chair of the Council on Middle East Studies, who is director the seminar and lecture series, which is being coordinated by graduate student Magnus Bernardsson.
"Millennialism and messianism, as ideas and as movements, profoundly influenced the shaping and the evolution of religious traditions -- so much so that it is possible to argue that the very notion of prophetic religion stems from the ideal of millennial renewal," adds Amanat. "Millennialism should be seen as a common yearning shared by many cultures and societies to view the present as a culminating moment which defines the past and predicts the future, within a perceived time cycle."
The Council on Middle East Studies is part of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. For more information on the series or the seminar, visit the council's web page at www.yale.edu/ycias/cmes or call at 432-6252.