Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown

By David Chidester

Book Overview

Discusses Jim Jones' techniques, describes the world view of his followers, and offers a religious perspective on the mass suicide incident.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253206901
• ISBN13: 9780253206909
• Release Date: August 1991
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 0.6" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Quite scholorly but...........

This book is indeed scholarly as another reviewer noted. At first I thought it must be written just for sociological college classes, but apparently its not. That doesn't take away the enjoyment or the quality of the book however. The Author has done tons of solid research , including going through and listening to almost every recording Jim Jones ever made. Jones was quite the speaker so that must have been a gargantuan task in itself.What I enjoyed most though and what I have to really commend the Author for is that he proves that Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple had a consistent,sophisticated , cohesive theology and a rich world view. I think most people overlook that preferring instead to believe that the Temple was a group of naive people who believed a bunch of disjointed razzmatazz that Jones picked out of the air.This book explores and analyzes The Peoples Temple theology and few other books have ever done that.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what the members of The Peoples Temple believed, lived for and what some of them willingly died for.