The Rhetoric of Religious Cults: Terms of Use and Abuse

Mooney, A.

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.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2005-08-02

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9781403942852

DOI: 10.1057/9780230504417

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 208