Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements is an edited volume about apocalypticism and millenarianism, largely but not entirely within a North American context.
Contributors to the book include David G. Bromley, Catherine Wessinger, Robert W. Balch, Anson Shupe, Massimo Introvigne, Michael Barkun, and Dick Anthony, of 21 authors total.
Michael W. Cuneo discusses the occurrence of apocalyptic ideology within American Catholics, while Anson Shupe covers reconstructionism, while the persistence of apocalyptic ideology within the Seven-Day Adventists is discussed by Ronald Lawson, while millenarianism of modern day Mormons is covered by Introvigne, focusing on the tension between its core millenarian beliefs and how this is viewed in practice by members.
The final chapter has Mark R. Mullins write on Aum Shinrikyo, notorious for its repeated acts of terror, and its classification as an apocalyptic movement.
[4][5] Susan J. Palmer is a sociologist and specialist in new religious movements, and at the time of the book's publication taught at Dawson College and Concordia University.
[8] "Such an ending is troubling, for although most of the essays are well written, one is left with the suspicion that this will only be distinguished as one of the better Y2K books that will soon be forgotten as the year 2000 passes and all the millennial ferment that scholars expected (and hoped for?)
[2] Stuart A. Wright found the relationship between the secular and the religious in the work to be ill defined, taking issue with the book's general conceptual clarity; he said that despite its problems it had much to offer.
[7] Reviewer Nathan Rousseau called it "unquestionably a significant contribution as a general scholarly introduction" to the topic,[9] while sociologist Enzo Pace writing for the Archives de sciences sociales des religions praised the analyses and the "richness of the cases analyzed", and said the work was a "good sociological laboratory for the study of that perpetual vital force which Desroche had already admirably dissected and which animates the apocalyptic and millenarian imaginary.
"[10] James T. Richardson called it a "fine collection of high-quality papers", though said "some may think the effort too ambitious and the coverage too varied",[11] while Timothy Miller praised it as engagingly written and among the best on the subject matter.
[2] Historian Kevin Madigan noted Wessinger's view on the topic as having "an attitude toward religious truth that differs as much from atheism, agnosticism, polytheism, and monotheism as it does from traditional Christianity".
[13] Fulop found its omission of the Y2K computer bug and fears of an economic and school collapse odd, calling the book more of a scholarly "tour through the zoo" instead of discussing more widespread concerns,[3] while Rousseau regretted the lack of a consideration of what effective responses could be made to these groups.
Rousseau also found the inclusion of the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo to be, given the book's otherwise exclusive focus on North American topics as noted by its editors, puzzling.