A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion’s Watch ... By B. W. Schulz

Terry

Enter:

https://books.google.com/books

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A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion’s Watch

You can preview what appears to be a remarkable book.

The painstaking detail in the research helps fill in some badly needed facts

surrounding the early years of C.T.Russell which I've found quite revelatory in understanding how Christians of a certain bent became obsessed with End Times is a wide variety of methodologies, heuristics, and do-it-yourself investigations based on seat-of-the-pants chronology and Ad Hoc guesswork.

millie210

I would venture that JWs would outright reject with no consideration, any "lumping" together with anyone.

They really play the "chosen by God in the last days" card to the hilt. If you say it enough and want it enough it MUST be true I guess.

Do you think it is articles like the one in the OP that have contributed to the great distancing from Russell that has happened in recent years amongst the JWs?

Vidiot

I often forget that it must take some serious disaffection with the world around you to want a global apocalypse to wipe the slate clean.

Finkelstein

Russell started off from other late 19th century Adventist movements.

Finkelstein

The name Watchtower was chosen to signify that something grand was to happened to humanity .. The return of Christ and his eventful new earthly order, removing the old wicked existing system of things.

Nothing happened in accordance to what was proclaimed by the WTS but the WTS was successful in selling a lot its own published literature and also cultivate its own subservient devoted distributors of its literature.

Beth Sarim

''Do you think it is articles like the one in the OP that have contributed to the great distancing from Russell that has happened in recent years amongst the JWs?''

I've overheard JW's talking in recent memory. Off the top comments that make Russell look like a loonie-tune.

Gorbatchov

They have a great blog, also: search in google for Watch Tower History and you will find a treasure.

G.

Old Goat

http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/

A fairly large preview of Separate Identity is available at books.google.com

I taught history at a major West Coast university for many years. This is some of the best work I've ever seen, especially about the Watch Tower.

TimDrake1914

It is a great book. I would say it's the definitive book on Russell and how he developed his beliefs. They had planned to do a follow up book detailing the years after the period talked about in the book, but it seems they weren't able to secure the funding or enough interest in it to proceed. Such a shame, really, as I imagine that follow up book would've been even more interesting.

Beth Sarim

Yeah, that's too bad. Would have been a great read.

A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion’s Watch ... By B. W. Schulz

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