A Theory of Millennialism
The Irvingite Movement as an Illustration
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5635147 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Graham Allan (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1974 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 296 |
| Publication date | 1974-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/589396 |
| OpenAlex | W2333852471 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
The early I830S was a period in which a number of millennial movements arose in Britain.1 One of the most interesting occurred under the leadership of a Scottish Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving. Its interest lies in the fact that its support came mainly from the middle class, and that its followers included a number of well-established and influential members of English society. In later years, as the movement became an established millennial sect distinct, that is, from a millennial movement2 it became known as the Catholic Apostolic Church, but in its earlier, formative years (the years with which I am concerned), it was popularly known as the Irvingite movement. In this paper I want to analyse this movement's formation using an explicit theoretical framework that, hopefully, will also prove useful in analysing the formation of other millennial movements. The need for such a framework is clear. In recent years there has been a remarkable growth in the numbers of articles and monographs published about these movements. Yet despite this, a developed comparative analysis is still lacking. The foundations laid by Talmon3 and Wilson4, have not been built upon, for, with the exception of a number of studies concerned solely with the 'cargo cults' of Melanesia,5 most attempts at comparative analysis lack any consistent theoretical infrastructure. One possible reason for this is that there are nearly as many explanatory theories as there are individual movements analysed.6 As far as I am aware, no-one has attempted to generalize from these numerous approaches, or to combine them into a theoretical framework by means of which diffierent movements could be explained. But without such an explicit framework our understanding of the phenomena is surely limited. Equally such a framework is necessary if the study of millennialism is to increase our knowledge of other social processes. In the first part of this paper I have set out briefly the theoretical framework I am going to use in the hope that not only will this make
Aesthetics · Movement (music · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1977 - 2024 (48) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |