Millennialism, Millerites, and Prophecy in Bahá’í Discourse provides the first serious analysis of the Bahá’í Faith vis-à-vis millennialism and the history of prophetic interpretation. William Collins adeptly shows that this religion evolved in conversation with other faiths in global contexts. Throughout fifteen chapters, Collins explicates the Bahá’í millennialist vision, their gravitation toward Millerite history and theology, time prophecies and the role of sacred time, the role of Millerite time prophecy within the Bahá’í community, and how Bahá’í millennialism has evolved in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The book focuses on “how specific Bahá’í authors used the Millerite movement and certain time prophecies that William Miller deciphered, reinterpreted the same biblical texts using similar methodology, and extended those prophecies” in their own work (3). Despite the vastly different cultural, political, and religious contexts into which these religions emerged (Shia Islam in Iran and American Protestantism), the Bahá’í Faith and Millerism (and, by extension, Seventh-day Adventism) converge ideologically in relation to prophetic time and shared interpretations in Christian apocalyptic texts. This is most notably seen in their shared interest in the year 1844, which both faiths endow with historical and religious significance. This was the year that Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad Shírází (1819–1850) declared himself to be the Báb, or “gate of God,” and prophesied in Arabic and Persian to tens of thousands of adherents about the restoration of global justice. Providentially, according to Bahá’í interpreters, this coincided with the expectations of tens of thousands of Millerites who expected Jesus Christ to return to earth and inaugurate the just and equitable millennium in the fall of 1844. Despite shared millennial interests between these eastern and western faiths, however, this religious convergence represents a one-sided love affair. Though Adventist theology “exerted a strong influence” on Bahá’í teachings (especially in America), Bahá’í doctrines have not influenced Adventism (104; cf. 157).

In addition to significantly expanding scholarly understanding of the connections between the Bahá’í Faith and Adventism, Collins makes some important contributions to millennial/apocalyptic studies more broadly that deserve scrutiny. Collins employs Catherine Wessinger’s terms, catastrophic and progressive millennialism, and sees them as pessimistic (catastrophic/premillennialism) and optimistic (progressive/postmillennialists). However, he argues that these concepts are polar opposites on an apocalyptic continuum, rather than a rigid either/or binary. Since religions are not static, Collins further demonstrates that these opposing millennial views can coexist in an apocalyptic movement as well as evolve over time. Collins uses Richard Landes’ concept of an “apocalyptic curve” to explain how the “wave of apocalyptic time” often waxes, crests, breaks, and collapses in a four-stage pattern that elucidates millennialists’ expectations for imminent change and the strength of their enthusiasm (15). Since cataclysmic and transformative ideas simultaneously form the crests and troughs of millennial waves, Collins concludes that “good can emerge from catastrophic-apocalyptic millennialism in a maturation process” (16).

These elements of millennial coexistence and maturation are evident in the Bahá’í tradition. According to Collins, the Bahá’í Faith “has a premillennial foundation in which Bahá’u’lláh claimed to be the promised latter-day messiah of all religions” as well as a “progressive/postmillennial superstructure” that guides humanity to embrace, internalize, and implement “Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to transform human civilization” (175). To ask whether an apocalyptic movement, such as the Bahá’í Faith, is either catastrophic or progressive “misses the dynamic of the millennial phenomenon” (229). As Collins demonstrates, the intricacies of millennial coexistence directly challenge the rigid catastrophic/premillennial-progressive/postmillennial binary that has plagued religious studies for more than a century. This astute observation makes Millennialism, Millerites, and Prophecy in Bahá’í Discourse a key contribution to religious studies broadly and apocalyptic studies specifically.

Collins extends this argument further through the concept of millennial maturation. He argues that Bahá’ís escaped the Shia end-time script as they adopted a progressive divine plan. The Báb, himself, was responsible for this transformation, Collins insists, because he “reshaped Shia apocalyptic forecasts of immediate overthrow of existing systems by divine fiat, reordered prophetic priorities, and attenuated expectations of militancy, leading to a transition toward a progressive millennialist outcome” (72). Collins thus sees millennialism “as a developmental metaphor” (180) and argues that “apocalyptic thinking” can evolve into progressive “process thinking” (227).

Collins’ maturation argument — the idea that millennial movements can, or should, trend “away from the adolescence of catastrophe toward the maturity of progress” (238) — is less persuasive than his analysis of millennial coexistence, and these two concepts are in tension (from my perspective) throughout his text. The concept of maturation is rooted in ancient and problematic notions of “good” (progressive) and “bad” (catastrophic) religion and reiterates the “pre-political” thesis Eric Hobsbawm, among others, popularized, which sees apocalypticism (specifically its premillennial or catastrophic varieties) as an undesirable survival from primitive religion of the distant past. Indeed, to suggest that “good can emerge from catastrophic-apocalyptic millennialism in a maturation process” (16) does more to reify the catastrophic/premillennial-progressive/postmillennial binary than to expose it as a dubious fiction. As I have recently demonstrated in Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and Reform America (New York University Press, 2026), premillennial apocalypticism can improve society while postmillennialism can cause it to retrograde. Simply put, “catastrophe” can be convivial and “progress” can be detrimental. Apocalypticism is thus neither inherently bad or good, conservative or liberal, harmful or useful. Rather, all shades of gray coexist on the millennial continuum because people continue to assess the character of apocalypticism in multitudinous ways.

These critical insights are meant to highlight the immense value of Millennialism, Millerites, and Prophecy in Bahá’í Discourse. Collins’ book is an insightful, thought-provoking text worthy of serious attention. It reveals crucial new information about the Bahá’í Faith and Adventism, advances our knowledge of millennialism and apocalypticism, and provides a strong foundation for further research into a host of related topics. Students, professors, and the curious will benefit from William P. Collins’ important work as it fills in important gaps within the scholarly literature, especially in relation to prophecy, millennialism, and apocalypticism in global religious contexts.