Abstract
The development of all these four lines or branches of contemporary Western millennialism is followed up in this chapter. (1) The Mainline Protestant and secular branch has brought into Western millennial thought a strong conviction of social progress that sooner or later, ushers humankind into blissful future. (2) While Protestant and secular millennial ideas can be marked as “progressive millennialism”, the substantial part of the second main branch, Evangelical millennialism, has undergone a great turnabout from an initial optimistic outlook to the expectation of a doomsday. (3) The Roman Catholic millennialism can usually be found in Marian movements which have been growing rapidly within the Roman Catholic Church especially in the last decades (4) Western Esotericism had possessed millennial aspects only very exceptionally until the birth of the Theosophical society in 1875. From that time on, these ideas have been flourishing as it can be seen in the New Age movement.