Has anyone read any books by Walter Ralston Martin? He's written The Kingdom of Cults and Jehovah of the Watchtower. I saw an ad for his book on someone else's post and it looks pretty good.
Any reviews?
Books by Walter Martin
by Bubbamar 7 Replies latest jw friends
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RR
He sucks! And it has ben proven that he's as much a con artist as he claims the people he writes about! You should do a search on Walter Martin on teh wb and aall his phoney credentials.
RR
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hillary_step
Bubbamar,
Yes, I have read both these books. They are pretty dismal on the research front, high on rhetoric, but every so often make a valid point almost by default.
I find books that focus on opposing religious view are seldom totally reliable as they are normally infected by the authors own religious viewpoint. Historians make much better writers on religion than do religionsists. This is what is so compelling about Penton, Franz and Jonsson, all of whom I understand are still very much Christians, and whose research and subsequent writings are free of rancour or Martin type exaggerations deliberately included to make a partisan point.
I think Ted Dencher ( "Why I Left Jehovah's Witnesses" - 1966 ) , despite using his book as a launching pad for his newly found Born Again faith, did a much better job at dissecting the WTS from a doctrinal standpoint than Martin. Another book worth the effort and written by a non-witness is 'Cults Of Unreason' by Christopher Evans, interesting for its examination of the personality type drawn to cults.
HS
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RR
As was Schnell's 30 years a Watchtower Slave, You could feel the hate in his words, but he gave an excellent historical view og the transformation from Russell to Rutherford.
RR
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Carmel
I find Martin to be short on a lot of things, scholarship being only one! carmel
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onacruse
HS:
whose research and subsequent writings are free of rancour or Martin type exaggerations deliberately included to make a partisan point.
If you are so inclined, I'd be interested on your perspectives about this.
Do what Penton, Franz and Jonsson have done (and I have nothing but respect for their works) merit more consideration because of a perceived "objectivity"? Can we categorize AlanF or Farkel or JanH or Kent as "objective" commentators?
Is "objectivity" to be defined as an impersonal disconnection to the import of the words written, as if they are sterile extensions of a pure mind?
I submit that nothing we say, or write, or post on a db, is anything other than to press home a point about which we feel passionate...or, in your words, "a partisan point." The evidence and quotations and statistics we marshall to the defense of our position simply betrays a subliminal psychological compulsion to prove ourselves right.
In that respect, Martin (I've listened to several of his tapes, and read some of his books), and Schnell (whose 30-years book I've just re-read) are really of no different breed than the rest of us.
Nor am I.
Craig
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Glenmore
I read Kingdom of the Cults when I was "studying". As I recall, a lot of inconsistencies and I still signed up for the WT program. Crisis of Conscience was the main book for me when I left 18 years later.