Religious Studies

Marginal religions in the United States have been supportive of women taking leadership roles at least since the nineteenth century. In Women's Leadership in Marginal Religions, historians, folklorists, and theologians explore what factors within these groups support women's religious leadership. The religions examined are Shakerism, Pentecostalism, Spiritualism, Christian Science, the Theosophical movement, New Thought, Unity, Hindu, and Buddhist groups, African-American Spiritual churches in New Orleans, the feminist spirituality movement, the Women-Church movement among Roman Catholic women, and Mormonism.

Religious Institutions and Women's Leadership documents the movement of women into positions of leadership and ministry in mainline American Judaism and Christianity and evaluates how this trend will reshape traditional religion in the United States. Contributors compile data formerly found only in diverse scholarly and denominational publications to offer an enlightening interdisciplinary comparison of women's struggles for a more central role in mainstream religious leadership.

In addition to providing historical information, the contributors pay particular attention to the experiences of women leaders in their respective denominations and to the changes they have introduced to worship, theology, and ministry. They trace the economic and social changes currently transforming patriarchal religions and examine such issues as the resistance to female leadership and the question of whether feminist objectives are better formed by women forming separate religious institutions or by remaining in established structures.

Showing that simply admitting women to positions previously closed to them is not enough to counteract the millennia of prejudice, the contributors suggest specific institutional measures to ensure the full inclusion of women in mainstream religion.

In this cross-cultural volume Catherine Wessinger reveals three patterns relating to millennial groups involved in violence that are not mutually exclusive: assaulted millennial groups that are attacked by outsiders who fear and misunderstand the religion, fragile millennial groups that initiate violence to preserve the religious goal, and revolutionary millennial groups possessing an ideology that sanctions violence.

The 1993 event at Mt. Carmel shocked all of America and has since spawned a plethora of books regarding the "truth" about the Branch Davidians. Memories of the Branch Davidians is the story told from the inside. The oral history of Bonnie Haldeman, the mother of Vernon Howell (David Koresh), offers an intimate, first-hand account of how a boy named Vernon Howell became David Koresh. Haldeman paints a picture of Koresh that could only be told by one who knew both his greatest strengths and his deepest faults.

When They Were Mine is the autobiography of Sheila Martin, a member of the Branch Davidian Church at the time of its apocalyptic encounter with the FBI in April, 1993. The assault resulted in a fire that killed 76 Branch Davidians, including 23 children. Sheila's husband and four oldest children died in the fire. Martin told the story of her life, both before and after the attack, to Catherine Wessinger, who then wrote this first-person narrative from the recordings of their sessions together. The result is a haunting account of one life, typical in its ups and downs, made atypical by a collision of faith with history.

Christian Dispensationalism, the Taiping Revolution, cargo cults in Oceania, the Baha'i Faith, and the Raelian Movement would seem to have little in common. What they share, however, is a millennial orientation--the audacious human hope for a collective salvation, which may be heavenly or earthly or both. Although many religions feature a belief in personal salvation, millennial faiths are characterized by the expectation that salvation will be accomplished for an entire group by a superhuman agent, with or without human collaboration. The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism offers
readers an in-depth look at both the theoretical underpinnings of the study of millennialism and its many manifestations across history and cultures.

While the term "millennialism" is drawn from Christianity, it is a category that is used to study religious expressions in diverse cultures, religious traditions, and historical periods. Sometimes, millennial expectations are expressed in peaceful ways. Other times, millennialists become involved in
violence.

The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism begins with a section that examines four primary types of millennialism. Chapters in the next section examine key issues such as charismatic leadership, use of scripture, prophetic failure, gender roles, children, tension with society, and violence. The rest of the book explores millennialism in a wide variety of places and times, from ancient Near Eastern movements to contemporary apocalyptic and new age movements, including the roles played by millennialism in national and international conflicts. This handbook will be a valuable resource for scholars of religious studies, sociology, psychology, history, and new religious movements.

Nearly twenty years after they happened, the ATF and FBI assaults on the Branch Davidian residence near Waco, Texas remain the most deadly law enforcement action on American soil. The raid by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents on February 28, 1993, which resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, precipitated a 51-day siege conducted by the FBI. The FBI tank and gas assault on the residence at Mount Carmel Center on April 19 culminated in a fire that killed 53 adults and 23 children, with only nine survivors. In A Journey to Waco, survivor Clive Doyle not only takes readers inside the tragic fire and its aftermath, but he also tells the larger story of how and why he joined the Branch Davidians, how the Branch Davidian community developed, and the status of survivors.

While the media and official reports painted one picture of the Branch Davidians and the two assaults, A Journey to Waco shares a much more personal account of the ATF raid, the siege, and the final assault that details events unreported by the media. A Journey to Waco presents what the Branch Davidians believed and introduces readers to the community’s members, including David Koresh. A Journey to Waco is a personal account of one man’s journey with the Branch Davidians, through the tragic fire, and beyond.