A study of the millenarian sect of Jehovah's Witnesses was carried out within the framework of Roy Wallis' reformulation of the church-sect typology. The Jehovah's Witnesses were classified as a sectarian group because they advocate a monopolistic authoritarian posture for universe maintenance and have created a radical millenarian community that is characterized by a deviant belief system. Furthermore, Max Weber's contention that ideas create "world images" that determine the direction in which action is "pushed by the dynamic of interest" was used to show that millenarianism has been the ideological switchman for many doctrinal and organizational changes among Jehovah's Witnesses. This thesis was developed over against the view of James Beckford and others who believe that the millennial vision of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the sect, was "largely determined by the organizational form" of the Watch Tower Society. Finally, the study sought to further specify the monumental contributions made by Joseph Zygmunt, Alan Rogerson, and James Beckford to the scholarly analysis of the Jehovah's Witness sect. / Chapter two discusses the life of Charles Russell in the light of his nineteenth century background. He was a theologian of the Industrial Revolution or Gilded Age of American history who became a charismatic quasi-prophetic figure among his disciples. / Chapter three describes the transformation of the original democratic, loosely organized Bible Students into the totalitarian Jehovah's Witness sect. Joseph F. Rutherford made Russell's future millennial theocracy the realized eschatological government of the Jehovah's Witnesses during the present age. He accomplished this by using the Watch Tower Society as the organizational structure for theocratic rule. Rutherford's work has been implemented by his successors. / Chapter four undertakes a systematic analysis of Russell's millenarian views. It demonstrates that his "Plan of the Ages" was a mutation of the apocalyptic millenarian tradition known as the Advent movement. Russell was a religious muckraker who became an articulate spokesman on the bearing industrialism had on human misery and poverty and he presented a scenario of world conditions that was gleaned not only from reading the press but also from personal observations he made while traveling extensively both at home and abroad. The later modifications that were added to his millenarian theology by his successors are also discusssed. / Chapter five gives attention to how the Witnesses have reacted during crises of disconfirmation. Although many individual believers have faltered at times, the Watch Tower Society has never fallen completely apart. It has managed to counter the effects of cognitive dissonance by ambiguously worded prophecies, by predicting supernatural, non-empirical events, by after-the-fact reinterpretations of prophecies, by increased proselytizing activities following apparent instances of disconfirmation, and by periodic alternations between short- and long-term millenarian perspectives. / Chapter six examines the effect of the Witnesses' millenarian views on the formation of their deviant theology, with special attention given to the nature of man, the person and work of Christ, the Godhead, and the church. / Chapter seven shows that the millenarian New World Society of Jehovah's Witnesses offers a broad appeal that cuts across class differences, provides a "plausibility structure" for religious values that have gone awry, and affords "community and comradeship" among those who share deviant beliefs in a hostile environment. / The Jehovah's Witnesses are intent on remaining a deviant religious group with a distinctive millenarian message. Moreover, the world seems to be gradually accepting their sect as a valid religious collectivity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0703. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74072 |
| Contributors | CURRY, MELVIN DOTSON, JR., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 322 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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