ABSTRACT
The twin concepts of millennialism and millenarianism are generally associated with forms of religious belief or forms of transcendence that are unique and specific to individual ethnic cultural and religious groups. At first sight secular thinking may appear entirely unrelated to the religious millennial apocalypse. However a belief in the perfectibility of humanity and the establishment of a material paradise on earth, might be said to fit a classic postmillennialist model. In some respects medieval Christianity itself aided the process through encouraging more emphasis upon the experience of living in an endtime. Individuals who rejected the JudeoChristian and other religious millennia have, throughout history clearly reacted to these beliefs and created countercultural responses, and dialogues with various forms of religiosity.
