Eschatology, Popular Culture - General & Miscellaneous, Society & Culture - Forecasting, Religion & Literature

The Millennium Myth

Name: The Millennium Myth
Author: Michael Grosso
ISBN: 9780835607346

by Michael Grosso

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Overview

In The Millennium Myth, Michael Grosso highlights the chief prophetic vision of the Western world and where it may be leading us. We can see it, the author tells us, unfolding in the high-tech of today and tomorrow: space colonization, terraforming, bioengineering, life-extension, cryonics - the lurch toward bionic superhumanity. Grosso's coinage, technocalypse, sums up his insight that technology is secretly driven by the Millennium Myth, a vision that is piloting human history toward recreating nature and reinventing humanity. Grosso chronicles the visionary ideas of the medieval prophet Joachim of Fiore, the Renaissance magicians Pico and Ficino, the American founding fathers Paine and Jefferson and shows the millennial thread that runs through them all. No less does he expose the dark side of the Myth in the fanaticism that inflamed the Russian Revolution and the messianic madness that drove Adolf Hitler. The author puts the American "New Age" and increasing reports of angelic contact, alien abduction, near-death visions and Virgin Mary sightings all in the context of apocalyptic hope and sees them as heralds of consciousness transformation.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Grosso (philosophy and humanities, Jersey City State Coll.) is an elegant heir to Vico's realm of the philosophy of culture. Here he traces the history and analyzes the operative dynamism that fuels the diverse repackagings enjoyed by the "millennium myth," which assumes that the end of time is at hand and requires specific human preparation. From the biblical Book of Revelation, through the foundation of America as the New Jerusalem, and on to the Nazi worship of Hitler and to New Age credos, Grosso carefully and clearly explicates both the whys and the wherefores informing the millennial mind. Because he writes with an evenhanded comprehension of both political history and human nature, his text will provide valuable insight and clarification for scholars and interested lay readers. Highly recommended.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkely P.L., Cal.