World Famous Cults and Fanatics by Colin Wilson

Author:Colin Wilson [Wilson, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

***

The Oneida Community

Smith’s advocacy of plural marriage was undoubtedly one of the chief causes of later hostility to the Mormons. Another prophet from Vermont whose views caused equal indignation nevertheless succeeded in avoiding martyrdom, and established one of the most successful and prosperous communities in the history of religious dissent.

To his disciples, John Humphrey Noyes was an inspired prophet and a great spiritual leader, but to most of his contemporaries he was a libertine whose doctrines of free love and “complex marriage” were a danger to the community. There were many strange religious communities in America in the nineteenth century: the Shakers (so called because they went into convulsions of religious ecstasy that made them shake all over), the Ephrata, the Rappites, Zoarites and many others. Most of these were “Perfectionists” – that is, they rejected the notion that man is a miserable sinner as unnecessarily pessimistic and taught that, through Divine Grace, man can achieve perfection. The Shakers believed that God is both male and female by nature, so women were as important as men in their religious rites, many of which looked like orgies. But the Shakers taught the importance of strict chastity.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.