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

by Don Akenson, Donald Harman Akenson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773546790
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	04/11/2016
Pages:	548
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Donald Harman Akenson is Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History at Queen's University.

Table of Contents

Maps and Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 3

Part I God's Petrie Dish

Chapter 1 Dalyland: The Shape of a Hidden Kingdom 11

Chapter 2 The Fauna of Dalyland 40

Chapter 3 John Nelson Darby Approaches Dalyland 86

Part II The Real World

Chapter 4 The Missing Years (1): 1819-1822 159

Chapter 5 The Missing Years (2): 1822-1825 199

Chapter 6 Everything Implodes, 1825-1829 224

Part III Into Deep Eternity

Chapter 7 Ecclesiology: Rebuilding the Fallen Jerusalem 265

Chapter 8 Eschatology: Lady Powerscourt Points to the Heavens 316

Chapter 9 The Drawing-Room Prophets, 1831-1832 369

Chapter 10 Powerscourt 1833: Apogee or Syncline? 416

Chapter 11 The End of the Irish Evangelicals' Big-House Tradition, 1834-1837 455

Bibliography 487

Index 523

Editorial Reviews

Akenson disavows presenting a biographical study of this complex and shadowy figure partly because, as a discussion at the end of the volume explains, the sources are few and opaque. Yet he does offer valuable correctives to previous biographical studies


“[Akenson’s] considerable narrative skills not only hold things together in Discovering the End of Time, but also entice the willing reader into a richly detailed exploration of a little known moment in Irish history.” New Hibernia Review

From the Publisher