Download or read book Cult of the Devoted written by K. A. Riley and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feeling an overpowering pull she can't explain or control, Branwynne slips out of the Emergents Academy in search of Matholook, the mysterious and charming seventeen-year-old member of the Cult of the Devoted she first met five years ago.Heading right into the enemy camp may not seem like the most sensible thing to do, but Branwynne has never been one to blindly follow the rules--or to shy away from danger. Especially when her instincts are screaming at her that Matholook may have answers to questions she's been searching for all her life.Thrust into the middle of a bloody, three-way war for power in a bleak and ravaged land, Branwynne has her loyalties tested as she closes in on the mystery of who and what she really is.What she finds may not change her life or her mind.But it could just change her heart.
Download or read book Devoted written by Jennifer Mathieu and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jennifer Mathieu, the author of The Truth About Alice comes a novel about the courage to believe and what it means to be truly devoted. Rachel Walker is devoted to God. She prays every day, attends Calvary Christian Church with her family, helps care for her five younger siblings, dresses modestly, and prepares herself to be a wife and mother who serves the Lord with joy. But Rachel is curious about the world her family has turned away from, and increasingly finds that neither the church nor her homeschool education has the answers she craves. Rachel has always found solace in her beliefs, but now she can't shake the feeling that her devotion might destroy her soul.
Download or read book The Cult of Trump written by Steven Hassan and published by Free Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *As featured in the streaming documentary #UNTRUTH—now with a new foreword by George Conway and an afterword by the author* A masterful and eye-opening examination of Trump and the coercive control tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters written by “an authority on breaking away from cults…an argument that…bears consideration as the next election cycle heats up” (Kirkus Reviews). Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings on to others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, and yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and a major Trump supporter, calls him one of the most persuasive people living. His need to squash alternate information and his insistence of constant ego stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders—cult leaders. In The Cult of Trump, mind control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former “Moonie” himself, and he presents a “thoughtful and well-researched analysis of some of the most puzzling aspects of the current presidency, including the remarkable passivity of fellow Republicans [and] the gross pandering of many members of the press” (Thomas G. Gutheil, MD and professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School). The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. “This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the current political climate” (Judith Stevens-Long, PhD and author of Living Well, Dying Well).
Download or read book The English Cult of Literature written by William R. McKelvy and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What constitutes reading? This is the question William McKelvy asks in The English Cult of Literature. Is it a theory of interpretation or a physical activity, a process determined by hermeneutic destiny or by paper, ink, hands, and eyes? McKelvy seeks to transform the nineteenth-century field of "Religion and Literature" into "Reading and Religion," emphasizing both the material and the institutional contexts for each. In doing so, he hopes to recover the ways in which modern literary authority developed in dialogue with a politically reconfigured religious authority.The received wisdom has been that England's literary tradition was modernity's most promising religion because the established forms of Christianity, wounded in the Enlightenment, inevitably gave up their hold on the imagination and on the political sphere. Through a series of case studies and analysis of a diverse range of writing, this work gives life to a very different story, one that shows literature assuming a religious vocation in concert with an increasingly unencumbered freedom of religious confession and the making of a reading nation. In the process the author shifts attention away from the idea of the literary critic in favor of considering the historic role of religious professionals in shaping and contesting the authority of print.Indebted to recent findings of book history and newer historiographies at odds with conventional secularization theory, this work makes an interdisciplinary contribution to revising the existing models for understanding change in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Download or read book Devoted to Death written by R. Andrew Chesnut and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R. Andrew Chesnut offers a fascinating portrayal of Santa Muerte, a skeleton saint whose cult has attracted millions of devotees over the past decade. Although condemned by mainstream churches, this folk saint's supernatural powers appeal to millions of Latin Americans and immigrants in the U.S. Devotees believe the Bony Lady (as she is affectionately called) to be the fastest and most effective miracle worker, and as such, her statuettes and paraphernalia now outsell those of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Jude, two other giants of Mexican religiosity. In particular, Chesnut shows Santa Muerte has become the patron saint of drug traffickers, playing an important role as protector of peddlers of crystal meth and marijuana; DEA agents and Mexican police often find her altars in the safe houses of drug smugglers. Yet Saint Death plays other important roles: she is a supernatural healer, love doctor, money-maker, lawyer, and angel of death. She has become without doubt one of the most popular and powerful saints on both the Mexican and American religious landscapes.
Download or read book Images of Cult and Devotion written by Søren Kaspersen and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval pilgrims not only worshipped relics, they also venerated statues and paintings. These images or idols' were of particular importance in the day-to-day religion of ordinary people judged superstitious by the Church.
Download or read book 500 Essential Cult Books written by Gina McKinnon and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 500 essential cult books brings together some of the best cult books ever written, assembling an incredible list comprising fiction, memoirs, thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy epics, self-help tomes, graphic novels and children's books from across the ages.
Download or read book Don t Call it a Cult written by Sarah Berman and published by Steerforth. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They draw you in with the promise of empowerment, self-discovery, women helping women. The more secretive those connections are, the more exclusive you feel. Little did you know, you just joined a cult. Sex trafficking. Self-help coaching. Forced labor. Mentorship. Multi-level marketing. Gaslighting. Investigative journalist Sarah Berman explores the shocking practices of NXIVM, a cult run by Keith Raniere and many enablers. Through the accounts of central NXIVM figures, Berman uncovers how dozens of women seeking creative coaching and networking opportunities instead were blackmailed, literally branded, near-starved, and enslaved. Don't Call It a Cult is a riveting account of NXIVM's rise to power, its ability to evade prosecution for decades, and the investigation that finally revealed its dark secrets to the world.
Download or read book They Called Us a Cult written by Buddy Dawson and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unexpectedly, I no longer felt as if I had stumbled into some kind of private cult. Instead, I began to feel ugly and unclean, like a beggar in a palace or a stain on the front of a wedding dress. I knew I did not belong, but I knew I had to stay. The atmosphere was charged with an indescribable feeling of holiness and purity. As I sat with my head in my hands, suddenly, I felt the presence of someone standing behind me. Fear came up into my throat making me too afraid to turn and face my would-be captor, but realizing I had been discovered, I slowly sat up in the seat, not knowing what would happen next.
Download or read book The Kingdom of the Cults written by Walter Martin and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2003-10 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newly updated, this definitive reference work on major cult systems is the gold standard text on cults with nearly a million copies sold.
Download or read book The Devoted A Novel written by Blair Hurley and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spellbinding confession of what it means to abandon one life for another, The Devoted asks what it takes, and what you’ll sacrifice, to find enlightenment. Nicole Hennessy’s life revolves around her Zen practice at the Boston Zendo, seeking solace in the tenets of Buddhism to the chagrin of her Irish Catholic family. After a decade of grueling spiritual practice under her Master’s tutelage, living on a shoestring budget as a shop clerk, Nicole has become dangerously entangled with her mentor. As Nicole confronts her past—a drug-fueled year spent fleeing her family’s loaded silences and guilt-laden "Our Fathers"—and reinvents herself in New York City, her Master’s intoxicating voice pursues her, an electrifying whisper on the other end of the phone. Somehow, he knows everything. In deft, soaring prose that bristles with psychological and erotic tension, Blair Hurley crafts a thrilling exploration of Nicole’s ecstatic quest for spirituality.
Download or read book The Cult of the Virgin Mary written by Michael P. Carroll and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing devotion to Mary to psychological and historical processes that began in the fifth century, Michael Carroll answers intriguing questions: What explains the many reports of Marian apparitions over the centuries? Why is Mary both "Virgin" and "Mother" simultaneously? Why has the Marian cult always been stronger in certain geographical areas than in others? The first half of the book presents a psychoanalytic explanation for the most salient facts about the Marian cult and the second addresses the question of Marian apparitions.
Download or read book The Devoted written by Eric Shapiro and published by . This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's the last day in the life of the cult. At 6PM, The Leader will pass out the knives and everyone in the cult will Ascend to the next level of existence. But Matthew Barrett begins to have second thoughts. He's just a brainwashed kid trying to reclaim the ability to think for himself. He's not sure he has the will to stand up to The Leader. Can he disrupt the careful balance that The Leader has built before it's too late?
Download or read book Icon Cult and Context written by Maura K. Heyn and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This festschrift honors UCLA professor emerita Susan Downey and her meticulous scholarship on religious architecture and imagery in the Roman/Hellenistic world. The iconography of gods and goddesses, the analysis of sacred imagery in the context of ancient cult practices, and the design and decoration of sacred spaces are the main themes of the book. Authors examine such subjects as painting from Dura-Europos, Hellenistic sculpture at Saqqara in Egypt, Roman cameo glass, Pompeian fresco, and aspects of Venus in portrait sculpture. The essays on Dura-Europos are especially valuable in light of the present turmoil in the region. Professor Downey's influence shines through in these discussions, which echo her mentorship of several generations of art history and archaeology students and recognize her scholarly achievements. The broad temporal and geographic parameters of the volume are expansive, and the juxtaposition of images and analyses leads to surprising new conclusions.
Download or read book Cthulhu Cult written by Rick Dakan and published by Arcane Wisdom. This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is #1 in Arcane Wisdom's new Modern Mythos Series. Each title is hand picked and edited by Lovecraftian Scholar S. T. Joshi and award winning editor Larry L. Roberts as well as distributed by the dark fiction publisher, DarkFuse. Having fled town under a cloud of salacious scandal, Shelby Tyree has returned, a mysterious woman at his side and a strange new devotion to horror writer H.P. Lovecraft in his head. His childhood friends Rick and Conrad scarcely recognize Shelby, who has been transformed from a rakish dilettante into a zealous guru devoted to his own pseudo-religion. They take it upon themselves to discover what Shelby is really up to. Why has he founded his own church, devoted to a presumably fictional demonic alien? Is it possible Shelby's lost his grip on reality or is somehow under the spell of this mysterious woman? Or is it possible that Shelby has uncovered some secret truths that man was not meant to know? Cthulhu Cult is a brilliant and scintillating novel of Lovecraftian terror. It grips the reader from the first page and develops a tremendous cumulative power "Anyone who has the least interest in H. P. Lovecraft's work will find The Cthulhu Cult a must-read." -S. T. Joshi
Download or read book Fiction Memory and Identity in the Cult of St Maurus 830 1270 written by John B. Wickstrom and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-10 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores one of the most significant medieval saints’ cults, that of St. Maurus, the first known disciple of Saint Benedict. Despite the centrality of this story to the myth of medieval Benedictine culture, no major scholarly work has been devoted to Maurus since the late nineteenth century. Drawing on memory studies, this book investigates the origins and history of the cult, from the ninth-century Life of St. Maurus by Odo, abbot of Glanfueil, to its appropriation and re-shaping by three powerful abbeys through to the thirteenth century—Fossés, Cluny, and Montecassino. It traces how these institutions deployed caches of mostly forged documents (many translated here for the first time) to adapt the cult to their aspirations and, moreover, considers how the cult adapted itself further, to face the challenges of the modern world.
Download or read book Belief and Cult written by Jacob L. Mackey and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking reinterpretation that draws on cognitive theory to show that belief wasn’t absent from—but rather was at the heart of—Roman religion Belief and Cult argues that belief isn’t uniquely Christian but was central to ancient Roman religion. Drawing on cognitive theory, Jacob Mackey shows that despite having nothing to do with salvation or faith, belief underlay every aspect of Roman religious practices—emotions, individual and collective cult action, ritual norms, social reality, and social power. In doing so, he also offers a thorough argument for the importance of belief to other non-Christian religions. At the individual level, the book argues, belief played an indispensable role in the genesis of cult action and religious emotion. However, belief also had a collective dimension. The cognitive theory of Shared Intentionality shows how beliefs may be shared among individuals, accounting for the existence of written, unwritten, or even unspoken ritual norms. Shared beliefs permitted the choreography of collective cult action and gave cult acts their social meanings. The book also elucidates the role of shared belief in creating and maintaining Roman social reality. Shared belief allowed the Romans to endow agents, actions, and artifacts with socio-religious status and power. In a deep sense, no man could count as an augur and no act of animal slaughter as a successful offering to the gods, unless Romans collectively shared appropriate beliefs about these things. Closely examining augury, prayer, the religious enculturation of children, and the Romans’ own theories of cognition and cult, Belief and Cult promises to revolutionize the understanding of Roman religion by demonstrating that none of its features makes sense without Roman belief.
