World Without End: Mainstream American Protestant Visions of the Last Things, 1880-1925 (Religion in North America, 28)

By James H. Moorhead

"In this compelling intellectual and social history, Moorhead argues that for mainline Protestants in the late 19th century, time became endless, human-directed and without urgency. . . . Moorhead offers some brilliant observations about the legacy of postmillennialism and the human need for a definitive eschaton." --Publishers Weekly

In the 19th century American Protestants firmly believed that when progress had run its course, there would be a Second Coming of Christ, the world would come to a supernatural End, and the predictions in the Apocalypse would come to pass. During the years covered in James Moorhead's study, however, moderate and liberal mainstream Protestants transformed this postmillennialism into a hope that this world would be the scene for limitless spiritual improvement and temporal progress. The sense of an End vanished with the arrival of the new millennium.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253335809
• ISBN13: 9780253335807
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent History of Changing of End Times Guard in USA

Moorhead provides a well-written, thorough review of the decline of post-millenialism and the rise of premillenialism in America in the 1880-1925 timeframe.He works from the thesis that historical criticism undercutting the Biblical foundation for post-mill and thus the removal of all coping mechanisms when crisis hits (such as depression and world war and societal declline) led to this eschatological shift.Moorhead is a fine writer and documents his research with both primary and secondary sources. I enjoyed this read immensely and will find it a worthwhile resource to turn to. Well worth the read and purchase for all interested in end times in America.