6. James R. Lewis and Jonestown Studies

Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions - A Tribute to James R. Lewis - Margo Kitts

Rebecca Moore [+-]
San Diego State University
Rebecca Moore is Emerita Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, published by University of California Press. Her publications include Beyond Brainwashing: Perspectives on Cultic Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and Peoples Temple and Jonestown in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Description

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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Citation

Moore, Rebecca. 6. James R. Lewis and Jonestown Studies. Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions - A Tribute to James R. Lewis. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 85-98 Nov 2024. ISBN 9781800505070. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=45189. Date accessed: 13 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.45189. Nov 2024

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