Terrorism in Muenster Then and Now

Yet another terrorist attack was perpetrated today. This time the target is the German city of Muenster.

Students of radical millennial movements will remember the Muenster Anabaptist rebellion of the 16th century.

Last week we saw a revival of the 1212 Children’s Crusade and today we remember the revolution in the city of Muenster from 1534 to 1545.

Norman Cohn’s classic study, Pursuit of the Millennium, demonstrates that apocalyptic expectations have been aspects of the Christian West for a thousand years. You can read about them in a chapter on Modern Political Religions from my history of political theory., published forty years ago.