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| Dublin Core |
PKP Metadata Items |
Metadata for this Document |
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| 1. |
Title |
Title of document |
6. James R. Lewis and Jonestown Studies - Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions |
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| 2. |
Creator |
Author's name, affiliation, country |
Rebecca Moore; San Diego State University; |
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| 3. |
Subject |
Discipline(s) |
Religious Studies |
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| 4. |
Subject |
Keyword(s) |
Peoples Temple; Jonestown; cult leader; religious movement; suicidal mystique; deprogramming; suicide cult; millennial movement; Solar Temple; Heaven's Gate |
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| 5. |
Subject |
Subject classification |
New Religions |
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| 6. |
Description |
Abstract |
The extensive writings of James R. Lewis provide a number of insights that illuminate studies of Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Sometimes these insights directly relate to the tragedy in which more than 900 people lost their lives, such as his analysis of the mental and physical states of those cult leaders who led their followers to death. At other times, insights come indirectly. These include Lewis’s concept of “monolithic inferences,” which features his observation that scholars, including he himself, tend to assume that everyone belonging to a new religion has the same knowledge and information as everyone else. Another, and related, example is Lewis’ insistence that scholars differentiate between religious groups, noting salient differences and similarities, rather than squeezing them into ideal types. A final, implicit insight concerns the way, or ways, in which the Jonestown tragedy has shaped the study of new religious movements. Lewis sees Jonestown as a pivotal moment in the growth of this field. I agree, but at the same time—and using Lewis’ own arguments—I argue that Jonestown is largely an anomaly, and ultimately somewhat irrelevant to the study of new religions. |
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| 7. |
Publisher |
Organizing agency, location |
Equinox Publishing Ltd |
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| 8. |
Contributor |
Sponsor(s) |
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| 9. |
Date |
(YYYY-MM-DD) |
13-Nov-2024 |
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| 10. |
Type |
Status & genre |
Peer-reviewed Article |
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| 11. |
Type |
Type |
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| 12. |
Format |
File format |
PDF |
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| 13. |
Identifier |
Uniform Resource Identifier |
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/books/article/view/45189 |
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| 14. |
Identifier |
Digital Object Identifier |
10.1558/equinox.45189 |
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| 15. |
Source |
Journal/conference title; vol., no. (year) |
Equinox eBooks Publishing; Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions |
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| 16. |
Language |
English=en |
en |
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| 18. |
Coverage |
Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.) |
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| 19. |
Rights |
Copyright and permissions |
Copyright 2014 Equinox Publishing Ltd |