Abstract (eng)
This thesis is concerned with end time belief among Protestant fundamentlists in the USA. Many of them adhere to an eschatology known as „premillenarian dispensationalism“ which was systematized by the Irish theologian John Darby in the 1800s. The historical development of this particular variety of Christian millenarianism and of American Protestant fundamentalism, their connection to and influence on each other are presented. In order to better understand the prevalence of apocalyptic interpretive patterns in „fundamentalisms“ in general, and the American case in particular, some insights into both subjects by recent scholarship are introduced. Deprevation theories, that see both millenarianism and fundamentalism as the domain of the socially and economically disenfranchised, have been qualified. While the perception of the present in terms of crisis is central to both phenomena, they are now seen as complex and flexible regarding their circumstances.
For US-fundamentalism the reception, assimilation, and transfer of the dispensational narrative in different aspects of believers´ lives is described: its bearing on the reading of the Bible and the consequent search for „signs of the times“ in world events, the political activism it has caused in Christian Zionism, and the apocalyptic aspects of fundamentalist popular and entertainment culture (e.g. Left Behind franchise). Following the sociologist of religion Martin Riesebrodt this thesis describes the role the millenarian understanding of the world and its history as „heilsgeschichtliche (relating to salvation history) dramatization of the American present“.