The End of Time: Religion, Ritual, and the Forging of the Soul

The End of Time is a highly original and topical study of how societies and individuals deal with the meaning and passage of time. Richard Fenn has a particular interest in time running out, in making up for lost time, and what society - invariably through ritual - may demand in such situations by way of sacrifice. Fenn makes a disturbing claim that 'temporal panic' - the idea that time is short - leads to the exacerbation, in society, of fascist tendencies: fascist movements are the direct result of anxiety and panic about running out of time, and may have a lasting and disastrous effect on communities which give rise to them. The message of this book is that it is exceedingly dangerous for any society to run out of time. In the shadow of the millennium, at the end of the century, Fenn discusses what the ultimate 'end of time' might signify. This exciting interdisciplinary work, written by a leading sociologist of religion writing at the height of his powers, will appeal to scholars of religion, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies alike. --- from book's back cover