Omens of Millennium

The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection

by Harold Bloom

Summary

Harold Bloom analyzes the history and meaning of Gnosticism, tracing its course through the Zoroastrian, Hebraic, Christian, and Sufi traditions. Bloom reveals himself to be a Gnostic and urges his readers to look for the God within themselves.

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Media Reviews

"While presenting an informative history of ideas and provocative cultural critique, 'Omens of Millennium' is, above all else, a spiritual autobiography....Though presented as a narrative of spiritual triumph, [it] is actually a work of profound despair...A melancholy world-weariness haunts its pages....he attempts to escape history and its struggles by returning the eternal self to the eternal God from which it has fallen. He is not alone in his neo-Gnosticism, and his brethren in that quasi-faith will honor his struggle."    -- Mark C. Taylor

   -- New York Times Book Review

"'Omens of Millennium' is born of despair, but it focuses throughout on possibility, with a true teacher's refusal to give up the job of stimulating and informing, no matter how restless the class or desolate the wasteland in the schoolyard outside."    -- Marina Warner

   -- Washington Post Book World

"...Bloom is a visionary critic, a reader who peers deeply into the soul of poems and writers and himself....'Omens of Millennium' is obviously a provocative book, shot through with wide learning, hard thinking and disturbing ideas....Harold Bloom takes seriously our millennial obsessions and searchingly explores our spiritual natures, while reminding us that we Americans are, as Emerson remarked with his usual insight, 'all poets and mystics.'"    -- Michael Dirda

   -- Civilization

"A sense of alternative traditions resurfacing runs through Harold Bloom's brilliant, idiosyncratic study of millennial omens. Mr Bloom, who is one of America's foremost literary scholars, embarks here on what he calls a 'spiritual autobiography', a mutable venture drawing in the Romantics, Shakespeare, Kabbalists, Sufis and Freud among many others. Gnostic visions of a universe from which the creator has absented himself interest Mr Bloom in particular. His view is that gnosis-the conviction of direct contact with God-springs from the repeated failure of promised apocalypse. America, to Mr Bloom, is a nation of prophecy, and of powerful gnostic leanings. He cites a survey showing that more than two-thirds of its inhabitants believe in angels and that almost a third claim direct experience of the divine. Though often hard to follow, Mr Bloom's latest book is full of dazzling insights and unexpected connections."

   -- Economist

"Like a cosmic graffiti board, the end of the millennium has become the subject on which to post everything from judgments about the past to observations about hate present to predictions about the future. Harold Bloom nails to that board four current millenarian "industries": , dream divination, interest in '' experiences and a preoccupation with apocalyptic fulfillment. The result is a religious autobiography, a critique of American culture, and an apology for Agnosticism that is both eloquent and disturbing....If the intellectual company you keep and the trajectories of your thinking do not overlap with bloom, you may find this a very ponderous book....but Bloom's attempt to human nature is theologically interesting. If you are attracted by millennium spotting, this text is for you....Among the myriad posting we will see as we approach the year 2,000, Bloom's book will certainly stand out for its novelty and profundity. Some may dismiss it as disjointed scrawlings, others as whimsical musings. But few books will come near it in serious and sustained vision."    -- Jerry K. Robbins

   -- Christian Century

"If there is a critical mind alive today and writing in the English language more important than Harold Bloom's, I have not heard the case made effectively...[Omens of Millennium] is so beautifully written, so sparely argued, so marvelously full of the revelation of an acute mind at work, that it is not hard to read. Here is an exquisite intellect working with exquisite discipline to produce exquisite clarity."

   -- Baltimore Sun

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Putnam Pub Group
Published date: 1996
Size: 6.5 x 9.75 inches
Weight: 1.3 pounds
Pages: 253

Publisher's Notes

Angels, prophetic dreams, and resurrection--as we approach the millennium, American culture is increasingly fascinated with what many consider to be "new age" phenomena. Yet our current millennial preoccupations are derived from the ancient Hebraic, Christian, and Sufi traditions; they are neither ephemeral nor trivial. They have inspired and captivated the greatest of Western thinkers, from antiquity to Milton, Blake and Shakespeare.

Other Editions

• Hardcover - Putnam Pub Group (1996) - from $1.00
• Paperback Reprint - Berkley Pub Group (1997) - from $2.49

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