Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History

Description

Are religious fringe movements a recent phenomeon in American history? Are widespread fears of mass suicides, sexual abuse, and brainwashing in cults justified? Do marginalized religious groups play any positive role in American spiritual life? Do the panics over such groups follow any discernible pattern?
Phillip Jenkins gives fascinating--and surprising--answers to these and many other questions in Mystics and Messiahs, the first full account of cults and anti-cult scares in American history. 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 vehemently denounced for supposed ritualistic violence, fraud, and sexual depravity. As Charles Ferguson observed in 1928, "America has always been the sanctuary of amazing cults." But America has also been the home of an often hysterical anti-cult backlash. Jenkins provides an insightful new analysis of why cults arouse such fear and hatred both in the secular world and in mainstream churches, many of which--Baptists, Quakers, Pentecostals, and Methodists--were themselves originally regarded as cults. Most importantly, Jenkins 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 in the 1980s.
While not 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.

Download FREE

Uploading.com

Uploadbox.com

DepositFiles.com

No Mirror(s) Please !!!

Disclaimer:
Contents of this page are indexed from the Internet. All actions are under your responsability. Email us to report illegal contents or external links and we'll remove them immediately.

Please check the description for download links if any or do a search to find alternative books.

Can't Download?
Please search mirrors if you can't find download links for "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History" in "Description" and someone else may update the links. Check the comments when back to find any updates.

Search Mirrors
Maybe some mirror pages will be helpful, search this book at top of this page or click here to find more info.

1. Ebooks list page : 2239
2. American Religions: An Illustrated History
3. American.Religions.an.Illustrated.History
4. American Religions: An Illustrated History
5. American Religions: An Illustrated History
6. American Religions: An Illustrated History
7. American Religions: An Illustrated History
8. American Religions an Illustrated History
9. Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord (The History of African-American Religions)
10. Native American Religions (World Religions)
11. Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity through Satire
12. States' Rights and American Federalism: A Documentary History (Primary Documents in American History and Contemporary Issues)
13. Atlas of African-American History (Facts on File Library of American History)
14. Atlas of Asian-American History (Facts on File Library of American History)
15. Encyclopedia of American Religions
16. Melton's Encyclopedia Of American Religions