Books

Rosey

Hi there.....I'm new here and I don't really know if I'm posting this on the right board but I was wondering if you could tell me the name of recommended books to read when you have left the borg......you know.....the books you were never allowed to read when you were part of the hive.... I can't remember the names you see and my husband was interested to find out. Personally I was df'd almost seven years ago now......I'm now married to a wonderful man and have a beautiful baby daughter who will pobably never meet her grandparents, aunt and numerous second cousins. But hey......it's their loss. Lovinf my freedom and the ability to think on my own Luv Rosey xx

BlessedStar

Try reading the best book of all....

The Bible - King James version!!!!!

Yay!!!

blessedstar

slimboyfat

I would recommend Penton's Apocalypse Delayed for the best history of the Witnesses, though it is somewhat biased against them.

Beckford's Trumpet of Prophecy for the best sociological study, though somewhat dated.

Andrew Holden's Jehovah's Witnesses: Portrait of a Contemporary Religious Movement is more up-to-date than Beckford's book and is qualitative rather than quantitative in approach.

Hans Hesse's collection of essays on the Witnesses in Nazi Germany is really interesting, and includes submissions from both Watchtower officials and from German church historians critical of Watchtower historiography.

Ray Franz's Crisis of Conscience is of course a classic text, though his second book, In Search of Christian Freedom is more extensive, better documented, and in many ways more interesting.

If you are interested in Evangelical critiques of Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine you could not do much better than the books of Robert M. Bowman Jnr.

There are many more, but they are a good start.

blondie

Steve Hassan's 2 books

Spiritual Abuse

PrimateDave

I just got through reading Timothy Campbell's fine web site "Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses". Years of nagging doubt suddenly cleared up. I just ordered two books that he recommended - Ray Franz's Crisis of Conscience and Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliot Freidman. I can't personally comment on their contents, yet. But, they appear to be well recommended.

Dave

serendipity

HI Rosey & Primate Dave, welcome to the forum!

Rosey,

If you look at the main forum topics, there is a link to the 'Best of' section. If you look there, there's a link of recommended books.

Forscher

But hey......it's their loss.

Never forget that Rosey and everybody!
By the way, welcome to both Rosey and PrimateDave. I've read Crisis of Conscience and it is a very good start. Ray Franz walked the corridors of power within the JW organization and was privy to much of went on while he was there. Unfortunately for the Governing body he made extensive notes on the GB meetings he attended and they forgot to take them away from him when they booted him out. Although they made him pretty useless to the ex-JW community in one way by spread claims that he'd been booted-out for trying to start his own personality cult (I suspect that is the main reason he does'nt lend his name to any particular ex-JW group, no matter how much he might like) their lack in that regard came back to bite them in the butt when he used those notes in writing his book. His book gives folks a glance into the inner workings of the Governing Body, something I doubt they ever wanted to come into the light.
The big strength of his book is in its tone. He comes across as simply setting the record straight as to how he came to be hounded out of the Witnesses. His method of simply telling the story lends his book far more authority than any other agenda would and makes it a pretty good read. The fact that he has refrained from any active anti-Witness activities or organizations also gives the book greater credence than if he were invovled in the kind of work that folks like our fellow poster Danny Hazard are doing. It isn't all that hard to get and I'd recommend highly that you start there instead of going first with an obviously polemic work like th majority of books out there.
I haven't read his second book yet and can't speak to it's merits or lack thereof. I plan on getting it sometime. I like the attitude you expressed Rosey, as I quoted above, keep that great attitude. That is the way it really is.
Forscher