Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare
OCLC 07947410 | | |
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.[1]
Reception
Mary Farrell Bednarowski for the polemical; this one is sociological and legal".[3] Bill J. Leonard for Review & Expositor adds that the work is "a helpful supplement to more polemical analyses of the cults".[4]
Sociological Analysis believes that the book has a "touch of media hype about it" and is in a lot of ways paradoxical like how it is well-written but "loosely reasoned".[5] He believes that those familiar with the academic study of new religious movements will find little scholarly value from the work.[5] Jack C. Ross for the Canadian Journal of Sociology also notes that anyone familiar with new religious movements can find "innumerable facts to quibble with, even if the authors' model and outline of the issues are acceptable".[6]
References
- ^ a b Bednarowski, Mary Farrell (December 1984). "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 52 (4): 767–8 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Heflebower, Lori Anderson (June 1983). "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Social Science Quarterly. 64 (2): 422 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Pitts, William L. (Spring 1982). "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Journal of Church and State. 24 (2): 410–1 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Leonard, Bill J. (1986). "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Review & Expositor. 83 (4): 642–3.
- ^ Sociological Analysis. 44 (2): 175 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Ross, Jack C. (Autumn 1983). ""Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade; The New Vigilantes: Deprogramming, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions; Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Canadian Journal of Sociology. 8 (4): 469–72 – via JSTOR.