1998/04/01 by Brad Whitsel · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices #Millenarianism #Blueprint #Politics #BLISS #Government (linguistics) #Sociology #Law #Religious studies #History #Theology #Political science #Philosophy #Art
paper · doi:10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.183
openalex publication_date 1998/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
ABSTRACT: The 19 April 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City brought media attention to bear on a violent, futuristic novel that had been widely circulated in the radical right political subculture for nearly two decades prior to the disaster. Although the media would not explore the connection between William Pierce's novel, The Turner Diaries, and the bombing until weeks after it occurred, the book had incited violence before and was used earlier as a blueprint for launching a revolution against the federal government. In recent days, The Turner Diaries has received growing attention as a racist, anti-government tract. However, what remains unexplored about the book is its millenarian message and the apocalyptic theology that motivates its reclusive author. Pierce, who is the director of National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group headquartered in West Virginia, embraces a worldview shaped by a philosophy he refers to as “Cosmotheism.” This syncretic belief combines scientific evolutionary theory with racial mysticism in its construction of reality. Cosmotheism, like all millennial beliefs of a catastrophic nature, mandates the destruction of the present order of earthly existence before a new era of redemption and bliss for the community of the chosen can unfold.