Rear cover of: “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World: from the 1870s to the Present”

by Doug Mason 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Doug Mason

  “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World: from the 1870s to the Present” (Histories of the Sacred and Secular), Zoe Knox. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-39604-4.

  https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137396044

  'Zoe Knox offers an ambitious study of Jehovah's Witnesses from Malawi to the Soviet Union. This balanced examination of how minority faiths interact with modern states and societies is a valuable contribution to scholarship on religious tolerance and freedom of conscience, and a must-read for scholars of this religious community.'

  —Emily B. Baran, Assistant Professor at Middle Tennessee State University, USA, and author of Dissent on the Margins: How Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses Defied Communism and Lived to Preach About It

  'For the past few decades, the landmark books on Jehovah's Witnesses have largely been written by ex-members. Zoe Knox's impartial, scholarly, and rigorous account of the Watch Tower organisation comes as a welcome contrast, providing useful and illuminating analysis of the Society's position on several key themes.'

  —George D. Chryssides, Honorary Research Fellow at York St John University, UK, and author of Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses and Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change

  This book examines the historic tensions between Jehovah's Witnesses and government authorities, civic organisations, established churches and the broader public. Witnesses originated in the 1870s as small, loose-knit groups calling themselves Bible Students. Today, there are some eight million Witnesses worldwide, all actively engaged in evangelism under the direction of the Watch Tower Society. The author analyses issues that have brought them global visibility and even notoriety, including political neutrality, public ministry, blood transfusion, and anti-ecumenism. It also explores anti-Witness discourse, from media portrayals of the community as marginal and exotic to the anti-cult movement. Focusing on varied historical, ideological and national contexts, the book argues that Witnesses have had a defining influence on conceptions of religious tolerance in the modern world.

  Zoe Knox is Associate Professor of Modern Russian History at the University of Leicester, UK.
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  slimboyfat

  Podcast discussion of the book with the author here. Excellent book, excellent scholar. The interviewer is also very knowledgable about JWs which makes me wonder if he has a JW background. He could just be a well prepared interviewer.

  https://newbooksnetwork.com/zoe-knox-jehovahs-witnesses-and-the-secular-world-from-the-1870s-to-the-present-palgrave-2018/
  
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  Doug Mason

  Thanks for the information Slimboyfat. I have downloaded the interview copy it to my computer.

  I will attempt to contact the author as she is mistaken on matters concerning Russell and also Rutherford. I have located her contact details.

  In her acknowledgements, she write: "By far my greatest debt of gratitude is to George Chryssides". I would appreciate any information regarding him.

  Thanks, Doug
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  slimboyfat

  What mistakes did you find?
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  Doug Mason

  This passage at page 32 of her book concerns me:

  "Russell taught that Jesus returned to rule the Earth invisibly in 1914. Rutherford reaffirmed that it was indeed a watershed year marking the invisible presence of Christ in a speech in February 1918" (She gives no references for these statements.)

  There is no mention of the importance of the organisation's appointment by Jehovah God and Jesus Christ in 1919.

  The sole reference to 1874 is: "[Barbour] convinced Russell that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874".

  She correctly recognises Russell's support for Zionism (page 229)

  I did not see her acknowledge that Russell was the Society's second President.

  I only downloaded the book last night so there is much more to digest..

  Doug
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  vienne

  I'm prejudiced of course, but I think you'd get much more out of mom's latest book. I'm only sorry she did not live to see it in print.

  https://www.amazon.com/Separate-Identity-Organizational-1870-1887-Organization/dp/1678009245

  https://www.lulu.com/shop/b-w-schulz/shop/b-w-schulz/separate-identity-organizational-identity-among-readers-of-zions-watch-tower-1870-1887-volume-2-culture-and-organization/paperback/product-1wky6pv7.html

  And a lengthy review by a Swiss scholar:

  https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/latest-review-of-separate-identity-vol-2.html
  
  
  
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  Doug Mason

  Yes, Vienne, I thoroughly agree with you.

  Doug
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  vienne

  Mom and Dr. Chryssides corresponded. He's the author of two books on Witnesses. One isn't very good in my estimation. The other Mom reviewed mostly positively. But even I [I'm 15] can pick out the wrong statements in Knox and Chryssides' books.

  Mom's review of Chryssides' last book https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Chryssides

  Mom found him helpful and in her "introductory essay" thanks him for his comments on two chapters of Separate Identity volume 2.
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  careful

  Thanks DM for the post, and thanks SBF for the podcast link. It seems to me that the interviewer was well prepared rather than having a Witness past. At the end Zoe Knox thanks him for his careful reading of her book. To me his questions all seem to come from that, not any other background.

  Three things I wonder about Knox: 1. she said that JWs have been quick to jump on technology and she used the sound cars of Rutherford's time as an example, then the carts of today (she could have used Russell's Photodrama but did not in the interview). Does she realize how they condemned the internet for years, then suddenly did an about face, in other words, what latecomers they have been to this technology?

  2. I wonder if she is at all aware of the lack of legal action the org took during the 1970s and 80s. When I was in, the org was afraid to take cases to court. They were afraid they might lose the legal rights they had established under Rutherford and Covington. The Legal Dept. was a shadow of what it has become today. I know of cases where they failed to support individual bros who took personal legal stands based on the org's dictates, and of individual Witness lawyers, and others, who did not like this.
  

  3. Is she aware of the work of people like Jerome and Vienne? When she says that very little work has been done on CT Russell, is she speaking about peer-reviewed academic material only?
  
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  vienne

  She cites B and Mom's Separate Identity vol 1. She called my mom and Bruce amateur historians despite their academic credentials. I think there's a bit of jealousy there. Mom and Bruce did what she was not capable of doing and did it better.