Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History Rating :
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
Copiously researched, but a little too fair
By Jonathan H Barlow
I like this book a great deal; we used it in a grad. seminar in my Ph.D. work. The book is very well researched, and the author takes great pains to understand the nature of the religious groups he discusses. He reveals that too often a standard stereotype of cults has prevented the FBI and other "cult watching" groups from correctly understanding and resolving conflicts that arise in cults. My only criticism is that at times, the author is a little too fair to the cults. It is hard for him to condemn even the most destructive behavior, and it gives the book a preachy tone, as though his readers are all bigots in need of sensitivity training toward cultists. This book is leagues better, however, than your standard "anti-cult" books, though, and I can't really think of anything like it on the topic. Highly recommended.
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Outstanding
By Steve Jackson
Philip Jenkins is one of America's best historians of religion, and also a frequent contributor to Chronicles magazine. In this work, Jenkins shows us that concern over "cults" goes back to the 1800's and that many of the allegations raised about modern cults (sex abuse, etc.) were also made about groups in the past (which as Jenkins states, doesn't mean that this is never found in certain fringe groups).
Prof. Jenkins makes all sorts of interesting observations in this history of fringe groups, such as that some practices like women ministers and speaking in tongues were once considered far-out but are now considered mainstream. (Just look at the sorry state of "evangelical" Christianity in the U.S.) But the best part of this book is that it is just good history: lots of interesting facts and colorful characters.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful.A very good read on an important topic
By Robert H. Nunnally Jr.
Religious tolerance remains a key challenge today. Some contend that we are in a remarkable and unprecedented era of new "cults" and "heterodoxy". Jenkins' work is a timely and highly entertaining reminder that the American religious landscape has always been filled with new faiths dismissed in their time as deviant. In particular, Jenkins shows that in some instances the very religious movements that were once denounced as new faiths produce the leaders who in turn denounce the faiths that come after them. I found the work anecdotal and interesting, the kind of book one flips through back and forth rather than necessarily treating as a "novel-style" linear text.
One might imagine that a work with Jenkins' theme would run a severe risk of being either a polemic or a dreary dissertation-like tome. Mystics and Messiahs evades both risks. Jenkins' writing style is highly readable, and his tone is not that of a pedantic, but of a sympathetic skeptic telling a bit of interesting popular history. The book is well documented, but there is no loss of a good read in pursuit of an "academically-refined text".
America's pulsating religious need in our time is the need for tolerance (as the song says, "what's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?"). Jenkins' book illustrates the lessons from our history that past Americans' intolerance has caused us to learn, without interfering with the fact that the story of America's many faiths is a darned entertaining read.
It is refreshing to see a level-headed book which is neither "XYZ Evangelist's Book of Cults" or "What Christians Fail to Get about our Wonderful New JLK Faiths". Instead, in the Dragnet parlance, it's more "just the facts", and whether one is a fervent believer or a casual skeptic, this one is a worthwhile read.
See all 8 customer reviews...Product Description
In Mystics and Messiahs--the first full account of cults and anti-cult scares in American history--Philip Jenkins shows that, contrary to popular belief, cults were by no means an invention of the 1960s. In fact, most of the frightening images and stereotypes surrounding fringe religious movements are traceable to the mid-nineteenth century when Mormons, Freemasons, and even Catholics were denounced for supposed ritualistic violence, fraud, and sexual depravity. But America has also been the home of an often hysterical anti-cult backlash. Jenkins offers an insightful new analysis of why cults arouse such fear and hatred both in the secular world and in mainstream churches, many of which were themselves originally regarded as cults. He argues that an accurate historical perspective is urgently needed if we are to avoid the kind of catastrophic confrontation that occurred in Waco or the ruinous prosecution of imagined Satanic cults that swept the country in the 1980s.
Without ignoring genuine instances of aberrant behavior, Mystics and Messiahs goes beyond the vast edifice of myth, distortion, and hype to reveal the true characteristics of religious fringe movements and why they inspire such fierce antagonism.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #641908 in Books
- Published on: 2001-11-15
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.21" h x6.18" w x.83" l,.95 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 304 pages
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