Mystics and Messiahs

Last updated
Mystics and Messiahs
Author Philip Jenkins
LanguageEnglish
Subject Cults
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date
2000
Pages294
ISBN 0-19-512744-7
OCLC 41231449
200'.973
LC Class BL2525 .J46 2000

Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History is a 2000 nonfiction book by historian of religion Philip Jenkins. It was published by Oxford University Press. [1] The book argues that the anti-cult movement in America starting in the 1970s extends farther back in American history to at least the seventeenth century. Nineteenth-century new religious movements like the Shakers, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Spiritualism, Christian Science, etc. had countermovements that resembled recent anti-cult movements. Anti-cult rhetoric, like the brainwashing thesis, was generated in the nineteenth century and later revived during the Cold War. Jenkins identified a cycle of cult resurgence and anti-cult reaction throughout US history, and he predicted that in 2010 there would be a cult resurgence typified by that cycle.

Reception

Daniel W. Howe for the Journal of Ecclesiastical History called the book an "engaging examination of [American religious] diversity". [1] Michael J. McClymond in his review for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion says that "[n]ot many books deserve the epithet fascinating, but this is one of them". [2] John Orme Mills for New Blackfriars called the book a "remarkably balanced survey" of controversial religious groups throughout US history. [3] Jeffrey Kaplan for Utopian Studies that "the text is a valuable—and perhaps indispensable—discussion of the historic dimensions of new religious movements in America". [4] Evelyn A. Kirkley for Church History notes that the argument is different from other historians of American religion because of its framing of cult history in terms of countermovements. [5] Ray Olson for Booklist notes that the book has a "healthily nonjudgmental attitude" towards cults and the anti-cult movement. [6] A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the work full of "cultural breadth and fresh insights into the role of new religions" in US history. [7] Thomas Robbins for Nova Religio called the book a "scintillating analysis of the dynamics of recurrent waves of cult formation and anticult excitation". [8]

Some have criticized Jenkins's book for its consistent use of the word cult and strange religious taxonomy. McClymond writes that "[o]ther groups [treated in the work], such as black Muslims and Theosophists, may be small in numbers and yet lack the authoritarianism and separatism that characterize the classic 'cult'". [2] Kirkley made similar comments in their review. [5] Others have criticized Jenkins for note being too critical of cults in his work. For example, Brett W. Jagger for the John Whitmer Historical Society Journal believes that Jenkins "swings too far toward the side of the cult in his treatment of alleged cultist atrocities". [9] Mary Farrell Bednarowski for CrossCurrents warns that readers "who are not familiar with the major literature on new religions will want to stay alert for occasional inaccuracies in the text", but she overall believes that Jenkins's argument is well substantiated. [10]

Richard Lynn Buchman for the Journal of Mormon History calls the book "helpful" yet "discouraging" for Mormon readers. [11] Kaplan also noted that Jenkins's conclusion that the attribution of the 1980s Satanic child abuse scare to the Manson Family murders and Jonestown are questionable. [4] John Moryl for Library Journal calls the work "important" but criticized it as "not necessarily a light reading". [12]

Related Research Articles

The Christian countercult movement or the Christian anti-cult movement is a social movement among certain Protestant evangelical and fundamentalist and other Christian ministries and individual activists who oppose religious sects that they consider cults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New religious movement</span> Religious community or spiritual group of modern origin

A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges that the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.

A cult is a group which is typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who tightly controls its members, requiring unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices which are considered deviant. It is in some contexts a pejorative term, also used for a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular person, object, or goal. This sense of the term is weakly defined – having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia – and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.

Anson D. Shupe, Jr. was an American sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct.

A Doomsday cult is a cult that believes in apocalypticism and millenarianism, including both those that predict disaster and those that attempt to destroy the entire universe. Sociologist John Lofland coined the term doomsday cult in his 1966 study of a group of members belonging to the Unification Church of the United States: Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. In 1958, Leon Festinger published a study of a group with cataclysmic predictions: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World.

The academic study of new religious movements is known as new religions studies (NRS). The study draws from the disciplines of anthropology, psychiatry, history, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and theology. Eileen Barker noted that there are five sources of information on new religious movements (NRMs): the information provided by such groups themselves, that provided by ex-members as well as the friends and relatives of members, organizations that collect information on NRMs, the mainstream media, and academics studying such phenomena.

<i>Captive Hearts, Captive Minds</i> 1994 anti-cult book

Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships is a study of cults and abusive relationships by Madeleine Landau Tobias, Janja Lalich, Ph.D., and Michael Langone. It was published by Hunter House Publishers in 1994. In 2006, the book was reissued as Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships.

<i>Misunderstanding Cults</i> Book by Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins

Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field is an edited volume discussing various topics related to cults, including the scholarly field itself, the concept of brainwashing, and the public perception of the groups. The book was edited by Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins, and was published by University of Toronto Press on December 1, 2001. It includes contributions from 12 religious, sociological, and psychological scholars, in 14 essays.

Daniel Arlon Vogel is an independent researcher, writer, and author on a number of works that include Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet and is most known for his work on early Mormon documents.

<i>Gifts of Deceit</i> 1980 book by Robert Boettcher

Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean Scandal is a 1980 non-fiction book on Koreagate and the Fraser Committee, a congressional subcommittee which investigated South Korean influence in the United States by the KCIA and the Unification movement, written by Robert Boettcher, with Gordon L. Freedman. Freedman had served on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee staff and had been a producer for ABC News 20/20 prior to his service on the subcommittee.

<i>The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions</i> 2011 book by Ron Rhodes

The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions: The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response is a Christian countercult non-fiction book about cults and new religious movements by Ron Rhodes. The book was published by Zondervan on September 1, 2001. The book defines cults and new religions by examining case studies of twelve groups chosen by Rhodes. The book includes a foreword by Lee Strobel, author of the book The Case for Christ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James R. Lewis (scholar)</span> Professional writer and academic

James R. Lewis was an American philosophy professor at Wuhan University. He was a religious studies scholar, sociologist of religion, and writer, who specialized in the academic study of new religious movements, astrology, and New Age.

<i>Deadly Cults</i> 2003 book by Robert L. Snow

Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers is a book about cults by Robert L. Snow. It was published November 30, 2003 by Praeger Publishers in hardcover format. Snow, a retired police captain and former commander of the homicide branch of the Indianapolis Police Department, has authored several other books on crime including SWAT Teams and Technology and Law Enforcement.

Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of individuals and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement associated with the Book of Mormon, though not all churches and members of the Latter Day Saint movement identify with the terms Mormon or Mormonism. Denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest, as well as the Community of Christ (CoC) and other smaller groups, include some categorized under the umbrella term Mormon fundamentalism.

<i>The Kingdom of the Cults</i> 1965 book by Walter Ralston Martin

The Kingdom of the Cults, first published in 1965, is a reference book of the Christian countercult movement in the United States, written by Baptist minister and counter-cultist Walter Ralston Martin. As of 2019, the book is in its sixth updated edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Whitmer Historical Association</span>

The John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA) is an independent, nonprofit organization promoting study, research, and publishing about the history and culture of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is especially focused on the Community of Christ, other midwestern Restoration traditions, and early Mormonism. The Community of Christ's approach to its own history was influenced, in part, by historical problems raised and explored through JWHA publications and conferences, and those of its sister organization, the Mormon History Association. JWHA membership numbers around 400 and is open to all, fostering cooperation with LDS and non-Mormon scholars.

<i>Armageddon in Waco</i> Anthology on the Waco siege

Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict is a 1995 non-fiction anthology book on the Waco siege edited by Stuart A. Wright. It was published by the University of Chicago Press.

Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America is a 1995 non-fiction book written by James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher on the Waco siege and the anti-cult movement in America. It was published by the University of California Press. The same press reprinted it in 1997 in paperback. The appendix of the book contains an unfinished manuscript written by David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians, on the Seven seals in the Book of Revelation. The appendix has a preface written by Tabor and J. Phillip Arnold. The manuscript was obtained from a survivor of the fire, Ruth Riddle. The final pages of the book provide a list of Branch Davidians who died in the 28 February 1993 raid, the 19 April 1993 fire, and who survived.

The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions is a 1980 nonfiction book on anti-cultism, deprogramming, and new religious movements (cults) by sociologists of religion Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley. A foreword was written by Joseph R. Gusfield. It was published by SAGE Publications in its Library of Social Research series as volume 113. Some have described the volume as a companion to their previous work, "Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade (1979). Shupe and Bromley approach the anti-cult movement in the United States through a resource-mobilization lens.

<i>Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare</i> Nonfiction book about cults

Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare is a 1981 nonfiction book by Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley about the "cult scare" in America in the 1970s. It was published by Beacon Press in Boston. Shupe and Bromley analyze six specific new religious movements (cults) – the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, the Children of God, the Divine Light Mission, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and the Peoples Temple – in order to partially dispel myths about them.

References

  1. 1 2 Howe, Daniel W. (2001). "Mystics and messiahs. Cults and new religions in American history". Journal of Ecclesiastical History . 52 (4): 777–9.
  2. 1 2 McClymond, Michael J. (2002). "Review of Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Journal of the American Academy of Religion . 70 (2): 420–422. ISSN   0002-7189.
  3. ↑ MILLS, JOHN ORME (2001). "Review of MYSTICS AND MESSIAHS: CULTS AND NEW RELIGIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY". New Blackfriars . 82 (964): 297–298. ISSN   0028-4289.
  4. 1 2 Kaplan, Jeffrey (2000). "Review of Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Utopian Studies . 11 (2): 269–270. ISSN   1045-991X.
  5. 1 2 Kirkley, Evelyn A. (2002). "Review of Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Church History . 71 (2): 441–442. ISSN   0009-6407.
  6. ↑ Olson, Ray (2000). "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Booklist . 96 (14): 1295.
  7. ↑ "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Publishers Weekly . 246 (50): 78. 1999.
  8. ↑ "Book Reviews". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 6 (1): 188–207. 2002. doi:10.1525/nr.2002.6.1.188. ISSN   1092-6690.
  9. ↑ Jagger, Brett W. (2002). "Review of Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 22: 122–123. ISSN   0739-7852.
  10. ↑ BEDNAROWSKI, MARY FARRELL (2001). Jenkins, Philip (ed.). "A Cult Too Frequent". CrossCurrents. 51 (1): 121–122. ISSN   0011-1953.
  11. ↑ Bushman, Richard Lyman (2009). "Review of Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Journal of Mormon History . 35 (1): 250–253. ISSN   0094-7342.
  12. ↑ Moryl, John (2000). "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History". Library Journal . 125 (4): 96.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.