Discovering the End of Time: Irish Evangelicals in the Age of Daniel O’Connell

by Donald Harman Akenson

Apocalyptic millennialism is embraced by the most powerful strands of evangelical Christianity. The followers of these groups believe in the physical return of Jesus to Earth in the Second Coming, the affirmation of a Rapture, a millennium of peace under the rule of Jesus and his saints, and, at last, final judgment and deep eternity.

In Discovering the End of Time, Donald Akenson traces the primary vector of apocalyptic millennialism to southern Ireland in the 1820s and ’30s. Surprisingly, these apocalyptic concepts - which many scholars associate with the poor, the ill-educated, and the desperate - were articulated most forcefully by a rich, well-educated coterie of Irish Protestants. Drawing a striking portrait of John Nelson Darby, the major figure in the evolution of evangelical dispensationalism, Akenson demonstrates Darby’s formative influence on ideas that later came to have a foundational impact on American evangelicalism in general and on Christian fundamentalism in particular. Careful to emphasize that recognizing the origins of apocalyptic millennialism in no way implies a judgment on the validity of its constructs, Akenson draws on a deep knowledge of early nineteenth-century history and theology to deliver a powerful history of an Irish religious elite and a major intersection in the evolution of modern Christianity.

Opening the door into an Ireland that was hiding in plain sight, Discovering the End of Time tells a remarkable story, at once erudite, conversational, and humorous, and characterized by an impressive range and depth of research.

Genres: History

548 pages, Hardcover

Published April 11, 2016

About the author

[From book The United States and Ireland (1973):]

Donald Harman Akenson teaches history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He was born in Minneapolis, took his degrees at Yale and Harvard, and taught and held administrative positions at both of those universities. He is the author of The Irish Education Experiment (1970); The Church of Ireland (1971); and Education and Enmity: The Control of Schooling in Northern Ireland (1973).

Reviews

[Kyle]

Excellent read,I am living here in Wicklow and drive by Darby‘s original church everyday. It’s a rich history, fascinating developments coming out of Ireland of all places.

[Tim Wilder]

Sequel to the author's early book on the social origins of Dispensationalism. This one is informative, but less critical to understanding the Brethren movement. Like the first one it is long-winded and written from a liberal, unsympathetic view. Not that I like Dispensationalism, but it is an outsider's perpective, an outsider who dislikes them mainly because they are not liberal.

[Daniel]

I read this book for review, so I cannot give it a rating here.