Cool how do you get on? Might I be able to slip in? Are there many extra goodies in the members' section?
Look at this ...
by Old Goat 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Old Goat
I just asked. said i was an old witness interested in the history. I taught history at the university level ages ago. That was a plus. They've been more cautious lately I think. They threw out three or four a few months ago. One of them was tosed out for publishing their photos on another blog.
The private blog has whole chapters in rough draft, photos, essays. It's a very rich blog. The rules are that comments must be to the point. They don't discuss theology. Not everyone is a witness. there are at least two professors from various colleges who aren't witnesses. Most are witnesses best I can tell. Many have some professional credential too. (Rare among witnesses). you can always ask. but i think they say 'no' more than they say yes.
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slimboyfat
What's the title of the book do you know?
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cedars
Interesting stuff, thanks Old Goat.
Cedars
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Satanus
Download the whole site w winhttrack website copier:)
S
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steve2
I am in awe of three things about this stupendously detailed account: The utterly untroubled and unembarrassed seriousness of Russell and his assorted colleagues as they dabbled in brazen speculations over dates and times, the hubristic belief in "their" self-appointed roles as "decipherers" of "truth" and, the startling contrast to the dumbed-down superficiality of the current Watchtower "scholarship". Russell and co were as madly religious as any decent group of nutters in the mid to latter decades of the 1800s could be - we will never see their likes again. In their place are professionalized simpletons whose published flim-flam are big on color pictures, photos and graphics and small on words and ideas. Of course, the verbosity of revelations from Russell's day are no indicator of truth just as the GBs paint-by-numbers stories is no indicator of falsehood. But both Russell and his modern-day counterparts share in common difficulties summoning appropriate shame over their respective hubristic claims. Time may change the level of detail and the intensity of devotion - but human stupidity remains defiantly the same across time.
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Old Goat
the proposed front cover with title is on the blog. Title is A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1870-1887. In fact it covers a much wider era, presenting biographies of Storrs, Stetson, Wendell and others that take one back much further. I've read volume 1 other than the last chapter in rough draft. I am in awe.
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slimboyfat
Wow what a mouthful, but then I suppose it's not exactly breezy reading.
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slimboyfat
I don't suppose he ever interacts with the work of the likes of James Penton or Anthony Willis?
A scholarly approach should interact with previous literature on the subject, but I guess for an active Witness that is not easy.
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Old Goat
breezy reading? some of it is funny. there's a fine sence of humor behind some of what they write. And they scold people in ways I find entertaining. Forinstance, chapter 2, entitled Among the Second Adventists, Millenarians, and Age-to-Come Believers: 1869-1874, has this gem:
"Some considerable nonsense has come from the pen of Ralph Orr, one time editor and writer with the World Wide Church of God (Armstrongites). Orr asserted that Wendell predicted the return of Christ for 1874 and that he was responsible for the 2520 year count for the Times of the Gentiles. He says that after the failure of 1874, Wendell “replaced” that date with 1914. None of this is true. Gomes and Bowman suggested that Wendell provided a Seventh-day Adventist influence. This piece of utter nonsense should bring a sense of shame to the authors and their publisher Zondervan, though it probably does not. Wendell influenced Russell only in the two ways he mentions, awakening Russell’s interest in prophecy and satisfactorily answering his questions about the injustice of the Hell-Fire, endless torment doctrine."
They address an academic audience but sometimes is ways you'd expect from someone comfrotable sitting in you living room and explaining the mysteries of the universe in terms you can understand. (Okay, so I exaggerated). I notice they trash Zydeck's book. They make detail tell an engaging story. In volume two, which they'll release later, they take up the mass circulation of Food for thinking Christians. There's a whole narrative concerning events in Newark taken from a New York Newspaper. It's entertaining and informative.
I hope people buy this book. I want to keep these two at their projects. No one else is doing this.