JWs: Portrait of a Contemporary Religious Movement

by JAVA 1 Replies latest jw friends

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  JAVA

  I ordered Jehovah's Witnesses: Portrait of a Contemporary Religious Movement, by Andrew Holden, from Amazon.com. Has anyone here read this book? The book description from Amazon.com reads:

  Book Description
  This is the first major study of this enigmatic religious society. By examining the Jehovah's Witnesses' dramatic recent expansion, Andrew Holden reveals the dependency of this quasi-totalitarian movement on the very physical and cultural resources which have brought about the privatization of religion, the erosion of community and the separation of "fact" from supernatural faith. Asking vital questions about the ambivalent relationship of spiritual meaning to modern secular materialism, Jehova's Witnesses reconsiders the Witnesses' ascetic faith at once as an inverted form of pseudo-corporate "branding," and as an anti-modern quest for certainty in a hostile world of relativism and risk.
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  JAVA

  dantheman,

  I don't think Penton was "soft on Russell," just fair and historical. As far as I know, Penton's book is the best read on the JW Movement from a historical point of view. When one looks at the full scope and history from the Bible Students to Jehovah's Witnesses, Russell was not mean-spirited and controlling. Shunning and other high-control techniques came out of the Rutherford camp, and was far removed from Russell's vision. I think you'll enjoy Penton's book as you continue through the various stages of JW history.