Almost 50 years ago a trio of ground-breaking publications appeared that would leave their indelible impressions on the emergent branch of inquiry that we are now calling millennial studies. Norman Cohn (1957), Anthony F.C. Wallace (1956), and Leon Festinger and his associates (1956), all tendered their unique contributions from diverse fields: history, anthropology and social psychology. Such interdisciplinary diversity, as the present volume amply demonstrates, continues to sustain and characterize millennial studies, the discipline that seeks to understand what really happened when prophecy failed, and the contexts and causes wherever and whenever millenarians and apocalyptic movements have flourished. Much about this fledging field is still uncertain, not the least regarding the future direction it is to take, the problems that are to be considered, as well as other equally important questions, such as the viability of particular theoretical approaches. This, then, is what the present volume seeks to address, and perhaps something more ambitious as well.

For although almost 50 years have passed, the study of new religious movements, millennialism and apocalyptic movements has become increasingly parochial and cloistered, losing much of its early enthusiasm and vitality by forgetting its interdisciplinary roots. The present volume will perhaps serve to bridge these widening gaps. The contributions included here are, for the most part, by presenters at the Center for Millennial Studies Annual Conferences (1996–2002) held at Boston University under the leadership of Boston University medieval historian Richard Landes and the University of Southern California rhetorician Stephen O'Leary.