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

by David Chidester

Book Overview

Praise for the first edition:
" This] ambitious and courageous book is a] benchmark of theology by which questions about the meaningful history of the Peoples Temple may be measured." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Re-issued in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the mass suicides at Jonestown, this revised edition of David Chidester's pathbreaking book features a new prologue that considers the meaning of the tragedy...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 025321632X
• ISBN13: 9780253216328
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

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.