The Rhetoric of Religious Cults: Terms of Use and Abuse

By Annabelle Mooney

Book Overview

The Rhetoric of Religious Cults takes as its departure point the notion that 'cults' have a distinctive language and way of recruiting members. First outlining a rhetorical framework, which encompasses contemporary discourse analysis, the persuasive texts of three movements - Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses and Children of God - are analysed in detail and their discourse compared with other kinds of recruitment literature. Cults' distinctive negative profile in society is not matched by a linguistic typology. Indeed, this negative profile seems to rest on the semantics and application of the term 'cult' itself.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403942854
• ISBN13: 9781403942852
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"