From recent disaster movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact to cult movements such as those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, apocalyptic images surround us as we prepare to mark the end of the current millennium. In Fearful Hope: Approaching the New Millennium editors Christopher Kleinhenz and Fannie LeMoine provide a wide range of thought-provoking essays probing the meaning and significance of millennial expectations and apocalyptic visions.

From John J. Collins's essay on the sense of ending in pre-Christian Judaism to Paul Boyer's discussion of apocalyptic fears and foreboding in the twentieth century, Fearful Hope offers fresh insight on millennial thinking in fields ranging from history and literature to philosophy, cinema, and politics. These essays explore the apocalyptic in both religious and secular culture, providing illuminating illustrations from biblical prophets, medieval manuscripts, cult movements, and even the current obsession with conspiracy in television shows like The X-Files. Finally, Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Johannes Hempel stress the importance of maintaining hope in our own age, the latter with particular reference to the fall of the Communist regime in East Germany.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, no one could have predicted men walking on the moon, transcontinental jet air travel and of course, the personal computer revolution. And yet, all this happened before the close of the 20th Century. We are now at the beginning of a new century, but what lies ahead is anyone's guess. This book takes us on a whirlwind tour of human progress and achievement, highlighting many astonishing new ideas that may transform our lives during the course of the 21st Century.