Apocalypse without anxiety: the end times for a Caribbean religion

Abstract

Affect has not been entirely established as a casual explanation in social science. The classic academic accounts of millennial movements emphasise both a period of ‘unease’ in the ambient atmosphere or ‘of tension’ at the actual start, and then a periodic culmination of fear or extreme emotion as the movement gains a following and the prophecy accelerates so much so, that ‘apocalyptic expectation’ equates with ‘anxiety’. In the instance examined here, a new Caribbean religion, there may well have been identified anxieties around the time of the founder’s visions, but once established the group have little strong emotion, negative or otherwise, although always facing the imminent end of all things.