In this first sociological analysis of millenarian and mystical movements from the Middle Ages to the present, Sharot deals primarily with the Jewish masses. He describes religious currents in which hope focused on either a messiah who would bring redemption or on the means by which the individual could achieve mystical cleaving to God. Also discussed are Sabbatianism, Hasidism, Reform Judiasm, revolutionary socialism, Zionism, and the relationship between religion and magic.
Originally published in 1982.
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