Approaching the Apocalypse.

Approaching the Apocalypse: A Short History of Christian Millenarianism. John M. Court. I.B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]16.99 p.b. xv + 232 pages. ISBN 978-1-84511-759-7. In this book Mr Court attempts a survey of millenarian expectation in the centuries after Christ's resurrection. He does this first by defining his terms and showing the Biblical basis and then by providing a 'series of snapshots of particular situations in which millenarian ideas were dominant'. He begins with the Church Fathers and then looks at the flourishing of millenarianism in AD 1000, the Black Death, millenarian sects during the Civil Wars, the Irvingites. American movements, Joanna Southcott, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, modern utopianism, freakish movements such as David Koresh and millenarianism as a feature of modern church life, especially in America's Protestant denominations. He also looks at the farcical view, held by some American fundamentalists, that the modern state of Israel is a 'God-given institution' which is tied in with the Second Coming. As the Yorkshireman says, 'There's nought so queer as folk.' (J.M.)