# Is Millenarianism dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2020, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600 "2020-12-22T05:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JudahbenHur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@JudahbenHur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JudahbenHur)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/21 "2020-12-23T04:21:58Z")
Of course not. millennialism/chiliasm/apocalyptism has been around since the Zoroastrians invented it sometime in the first millennium B.C.E. It has waxed and waned ever since, becoming especially prominent in the period around Jesus’ life, during the European Middle Ages, and in 19th century America. Countless tiny sects all around that world have used some version of it as a magnet. If I looked hard enough, I could probably identify some in South America and Africa now. It isn’t really an uncommon phenomenon. Think of, e.g., Manson’s Family, Peoples’ Temple (Jim Jones), Aum Shinrikyo, the Children of God, the Branch Davidians, the Nibiru prophecy, etc. Hell, even the Left Behind novels, although they presented themselves as fiction, were appealing to a very widespread conviction among evangelicals that they are living in the End Times. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/22 "2020-12-23T05:44:20Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Why would the pandemic affect Millenarianism? It’s the belief that Jesus will return and reign for a thousand years on Earth, after many disasters that will make Covid pale in comparison. > > Covid has no relation to it. Not as I understand it. There’s no clear requirement that everything happen all at once. It’s the type of thing that builds. And COVID-19 is a type of plague. Plus the OP seems to be more about why it seems that the usual millenarianists seems to be silent, when you would expect at best that they would be just as active as before. I concur with others: the secular doomsday stuff has drowned it out. And the people who are predisposed to End Times beliefs seem to be going for QAnon’s version rather than trying to grab anything from the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![Astrid1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Astrid1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astrid1)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/23 "2020-12-23T16:40:48Z")
I am speaking about Italian who live in Italy. Which part of Italy does your family originate from? Maybe from the North, if not it is impossible they don’t recall the San Gennaro miracle ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/24 "2020-12-23T17:01:08Z")
> [@Astrid1](#): > > I am speaking about Italian who live in Italy. Which part of Italy does your family originate from? Maybe from the North, if not it is impossible they don’t recall the San Gennaro miracle Not Italy, but from smack dab in the middle of Germany, Westphalia and the Rhineland, from traditionally Catholic regions. But regular German Catholics usually don’t care much for these kind of “miracles”. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/25 "2020-12-23T17:01:32Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Those folkloric “miracles” are dime a dozen in some ultra-Catholic regions, but don’t impress many other Catholics. I’m reminded of the old Father Guido Sarducci bit, paraphrased: “Declaring saints is all political now. You’ve got Italians with 6 or 7 miracles but we’ve got too many Italian saints. So they’re going with an American with three lousy miracles. And apparently, two of them were card tricks” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/26 "2020-12-23T17:10:14Z")
Nice! 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Astrid1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Astrid1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astrid1)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/27 "2020-12-24T15:39:17Z")
Germany?! Now it is clear the reason they don’t know it. Is part of the folklore and beliefs of Southern Italy, and there almost everyone has faith in San Gennaro. San Gennaro is the Patrono of Neaples: he is in charge for the protection of the city. In the attached picture you can see a murales who displays him. It was recently realized by a famous street artist : Jorit something… I don’t remember his last name ---
**Author:** ![Astrid1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Astrid1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astrid1)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenarianism-dead/928600/28 "2020-12-24T15:42:17Z")
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