Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

The Politics of Religious Apostasy

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Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
1998

Originally published
  
1998

Page count
  
256

Editor
  
David G. Bromley

3/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Media type
  
Hardcover

Author
  
David G. Bromley

Genre
  
Sociology of religion


Series
  
Religion in the Age of Transformation

Publisher
  
Praeger Publishers, (now part of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.)

Subjects
  
Apostasy, Anti-cult movement

Similar
  
David G Bromley books, Religion books

The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements, edited by David G. Bromley, presents studies by several sociologists of new religious movements on the role played by apostates (described as individuals that leave new religious movements to pursue opposition against their former group.) The volume examines the apostate's testimonies, their motivations, the narratives they construct to discredit their former movements, and their impact on the public controversy between such movements and society.

Contents

Contents

Introduction
  • Sociological Perspectives on Apostasy: An Overview by David G. Bromley
  • A Comparative Approach to Organizational Exit
  • The Social Construction of Contested Exit Roles: Defectors, Whistleblowers, and Apostates, by David G. Bromley
    • The Apostate Role and Career
  • In Defense of Self: Apostasy as Spoiled Identity, by Armand L. Mauss
  • The Politics of Marginal Heresy, by Eileen Barker
  • Exploring the Varieties of Apostate Roles, by Stuart A. Wright
  • Apostates Who Never Were: The Social Construction of Absque Facto Apostate Narratives, by Daniel Carson Johnson
    • The Organizational Context of Apostasy
  • Apostasy, Apocalypse, and Religious Violence: An Exploratory Comparison of Peoples Temple, the Branch Davidians, and the Solar Temple, by John R. Hall and Philip Schuyler
  • Apostates, Defectors, Law and Social Control, by James T. Richardson
  • Apostates and Their Role in the Construction of Grievance Claims Against the Northeast Kingdom/Messianic Communities, by Susan J. Palmer
  • The Changing Apostate Role in the Evolution of the North American Anti-cult Movement, by Anson Shupe
    • Methodological Issues in the Study of Apostasy
  • Carriers of Tales: On Assessing Credibility of Apostate and Other Outsider Accounts of Religious Practices, by Lewis F. Carter

    • Reception

    The Social Science Journal refers to the book as a "superb effort to examine in depth the complexity and significance of the apostate role, and to illuminate the processes through which subversive evil is socially constructed. Taken together, the authors contribute a diverse array of theory, data and substantive insights that add to our knowledge of the inner-workings of new religious movements. I recommend this book for classes in organizations, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, group dynamics and related subjects".

    The book was reviewed in the American Journal of Sociology, that found this work to be a "remarkably unified collection of high-quality essays by many leading sociologists of new religious movements."

    Michael Langone argues that some will accept uncritically the positive reports of current members without calling such reports, for example, "benevolence tales" or "personal growth tales". He asserts that only the critical reports of ex-members are called "tales", which he considers to be a term that clearly implies falsehood or fiction. He states that it wasn't until 1996 that a researcher conducted a study to assess the extent to which so called "atrocity tales" might be based on fact.

    References

    The Politics of Religious Apostasy Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA