Mystics and Messiahs. Cults and New Religions in American Society
1 journaler for this copy...
(Note: The author is fully aware of the usual deliberate avoidance of the word ‘cult’ by academics because of its acquired pejorative connotations but he argues strongly that in many situations
there is no workable alternative to this word with its wide range of semantic aspects.)
An interesting historical survey of successive waves of Cults and New Religious Movements in USA during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (up to the ‘Doomsday Cults’ of 1980-2000)
and of other recurring waves of public suspicion and disapproval - see his chronological table on page 13 and the chapters on ‘The Cult Racket. Anticult Campaigns of 1920-1940' and on ‘Cult
Wars 1969-1985'.
Professor Jenkins, like other contemporary academic experts, traces the modern origins of occult,
mystical, and esoteric New Age groups back to the late nineteenth century. (Surely one of the best known of those academic experts is W. Hanegraaf, but Jenkins does not seem to make any
reference to the latter’s pioneering 1996 work - and, incidentally, although providing copious and detailed Notes with bibliographical data, he fails to offer a Bibliography in which one could
resolve such doubts. There is no mention of H. in the Index.)
‘Mystics and Messiahs’ offers a wealth of clear information on this vast and complex subject.
***
there is no workable alternative to this word with its wide range of semantic aspects.)
An interesting historical survey of successive waves of Cults and New Religious Movements in USA during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (up to the ‘Doomsday Cults’ of 1980-2000)
and of other recurring waves of public suspicion and disapproval - see his chronological table on page 13 and the chapters on ‘The Cult Racket. Anticult Campaigns of 1920-1940' and on ‘Cult
Wars 1969-1985'.
Professor Jenkins, like other contemporary academic experts, traces the modern origins of occult,
mystical, and esoteric New Age groups back to the late nineteenth century. (Surely one of the best known of those academic experts is W. Hanegraaf, but Jenkins does not seem to make any
reference to the latter’s pioneering 1996 work - and, incidentally, although providing copious and detailed Notes with bibliographical data, he fails to offer a Bibliography in which one could
resolve such doubts. There is no mention of H. in the Index.)
‘Mystics and Messiahs’ offers a wealth of clear information on this vast and complex subject.
***
