Title: New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader
Author: edited by Dereck Daschke, W. Michael Ashcraft
Publisher: New York University Press
ISBN: 0814707033
Pro:
• Provides texts not otherwise readily accessible
Con:
• Book needs to be read with other texts
Description:
• Analysis and history of new religious movements
• Presents key texts from and about new religious movements written by adherents or founders
There are a large number of books out there about “cults,” but a significant number are either designed to argue against them from a biased theological perspective, or are aimed at a specialized academic audience, thus making them unsuitable for the average reader. Only a few have been written for general audience, but even these are framed as secondary literature, consisting of scholars' opinions about what people believe and why.
A welcome and needed addition to this literature is New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader, edited by Dereck Daschke and W. Michael Ashcraft. This collection features a general overview of the academic research on new religious movements, summaries of the history of several major movements, and selections from original documents written by those who have been most involved with the origins and development of these movements.
In this volume you can read about Christian Science from Mary Baker Eddy, The Family from Moses David, the Nation of Islam from Elijah Muhammad, the People’s Temple from Jim Jones, Adventism from William Miller, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses from Charles Taze Russell. You could certainly find whole books of writings by these and the other authors found in this book, but that would cost a lot more money and time. Daschke and Ashcraft do the leg work for you by picking out the most important sections from the most important texts.
The book was written with an academic audience in mind and the editors expect that it will mostly be used in religion classes at the college level. Indeed, it would probably make an excellent addition to any course dealing either with new religious movements specifically or American religion generally. It’s also not designed to be the sole text used — it’s more a supplementary text that should be used alongside something else.
In some cases, this might be difficult. Every text on new religious movements divides them up into “typologies” of some sort — groups defined by some common characteristic. Daschke and Ashcraft use their own, new typology rather than something already common. This will conflict with whatever typology is used in the main text, but at the same time it will force students to reconsider the perspective in that text and this is undeniably a good thing.
The editors also made this text accessible to general, non-academic audiences as well. You won’t find any theological diatribes against “cults” which are insults to God and leading people into sin. The descriptions of each movement are clear, concise, and quite fair. I don’t expect that very many casual readers will be interested in this book, but it should prove useful to anyone curious about new religious movements and who would like to read what their adherents have to say in their own words.
