Product Description
Unification Church examines the movement begun by Sun Myung Moon that has spread throughout North America since 1973. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A lot of information in a very short book!:)
This is is a short book (85 pages), but is well organized and uses an outline form to pack as much information as possible into a small space. This book is just one in a series put out by Zondervan on cults and religious movements.

It starts off with an introduction - historical background on the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, how he started the church, and statistics on the church.

Part 2 is the main part of the book - theology.The book talks about various aspects of Unification theology and how it differs from historical Christianity, using the Bible to refute Moon's teachings.It covers divine revelation, sin, salvation, Christ & the Trinity, resurrection, and heaven & hell.

Part 3 is witnessing tips - how to approach a Unificationist, and what approaches to avoid. Very good suggestions here if you plan on witnessing to a church member.

Part 4 is a bibliography - books for further study, both from the Unification perspective and the Christian perspective.

part 5 is a sort of summary of part 2 - an at-a-glance chart with Unification theology on one side and Bible verses refuting it on the other.

I recommend this book for anyone wanting to know more about the Rev. Moon and his church.

Helpful
I took a personal interest in religion this past year and was looking for a book that would help explain the Unification Church to me.The first book I bought was very long and confusing, but this book was great.While it did seem that the followers of the Unificationist Church were being portrayed in a somewhat negative light, I still feel that the history of Reverend Moon and his ideas were well described.A very easy read; I recommend it if you would like to understand and read about the religion, but do not wish to have a dictionary next to you at all times.

A practical, neutral and simple guide
Easy to understand, logical and informative. I am against every type of cult and sect, so I think that this collection of books should make everybody clear how difficult it is nowadays to believe in ideas or inCorean false messiahs, who have a bomb factory and who proclame onw nationhigher than others (Cor > Jap > the rest > communists). Well, Irecommend this book to everyone.

Why Is There A Political Bias in This Series?
I find it interesting that Gomes' book on Unitarian-Universalism contains copious references to our traditions religious views, but this book on the Unification Church does not. I would have liked more discussion ofUnificationism's linksto Christian Right organisations in the eighties,and the Christian Right relationship to the Washington Times. The sectionon front groups is inadequate and should be expanded for thatreason.

However, I did like aspects of this book. The description ofUnificationist doctrine is good, and the author is not afraid to challengethe authoritarianism of the Unification movement. I would ask why theauthor does not similarly critique elements within his own evangelicaltradition that often lead evangelicals andUnificationists toco-belligerency. One other thing- the author does not comment on the fact that most evangelical critiques of the Unification movement are overfifteen to twenty years old, before the Unificationists started theircurrent conservative correctness campaign. I wonder ifthere is aconnection, and why the author does not comment on this? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

obctive and accurate
I am surprised that there are not more customer reviews. Much of the material about church life style is rather out of date since the book was published in the early 70's, if my memory serves me well. But it contains possibly the only in depth interview with Reverend Sun Myung Moon to bepublished. I am still impressed by Rev Moon's candour and how consistenthis remarks then are with his staements now and the whole of his life. Ialso find Professor Sontag's comments of great value, being unprejudicialand thoughtful. Aparently this book is now out of print. I would suggestthat the Unification Movement still carries copies. Check... the Unification websites.

Professors thoughtful investigation
I have read this book several times, and I have found it an accurate and thoughtful description of my church.All the major issues and most of the significant doctrines are here. ... Read more

Product Description
In writing any account of someone else's religious beliefs and practices, any author must find himself between two poles: what members of the religion wish to tell, and what the public wishes to know. Nowhere are these polarities more distant than in the field of new religions. The public wishes to know about "recruitment", "brainwashing", and fundraising within the Unification Church, while the authors discussion with UC members elicited far more material on their own inner spiritual life. After consideration the author has concluded that a common meeting ground is simply not possible, and that any book, including this one, has to be a compromise. Just as any mainstream Christian would be irritated by an inquirer's relentless pursuit of questions relating to the precise ingredients of the eucharistic wine, it is understandable that UC members should feel that the author has given too much attention to the more obviously external manifestations of their faith in some of their ceremonies.However, while recognising the importance of the insider's definition, the author still believes that it is important to answer many of the commonly asked outsider's questions too, and it is simply not possible to speak of sets of internal religious experiences which the author does not share. If those Unificationists who were willing to discuss their beliefs with the author hoped that they might be able to endorse this book's contents, then they may be disappointed: the account which they wanted can, the author believes, only be written by themselves. In normal circumstances a phenomenological account of a religion is relatively problem free. The author reads, listens, observes, and writes as far as possible without imposing his or her own value judgments. In the area of new religious movements, however, it seems that no neutral ground is possible. Even using the phrase "new religious movement" is a conscious choice which involves rejecting terms like "cult", "sect" or "fringe group", terms which some commentators would claim to be more suitable substitutes for what they regard as euphemism.In this book, however, the author decided as far as possible to present the Unification Church (although not uncritically) in terms which would at least be recognisable by its members, in accordance with the normal canons of scholarship or unless, of course, what the author saw clearly differed from what they explained to me. ... Read more

Product Description
Unificationists believe in "reconciling the internal truth pursued by religion with the external truth pursued by science." They promote anti-Communism, family values, and the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Hebrew prophets.Where they depart from traditional Christianity is in their acceptance of the Divine Principle as a companion to the Bible and in their assertion that founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon is Lord of the Second Advent, that with his wife (together the "True Parents"), Original Sin is conquered through special blessings.Since 1954 Unificationism has evolved toward a more normative approach to worship and lifestyle, if not belief a point that Italian scholar Massimo Introvigne emphasizes in his balanced overview of the church's history, doctrine, spirituality, missionary activities, and controversies. He notes that in doctrine Unificationism has moved away from mainstream churches toward increased emphasis on contact with the spirit world, numerology, and construction of a modern "Garden of Eden" in Brazil. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good overview
I am a UC member and I found the information in this book to be accurate. It is, perhaps, a little dry but a good source of basic information. It covers the various controversies and criticisms of the church well and at only 100 pages or so it does not take long to read. I am now using it as a source for my work on UC related articles on Wikipedia. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: New York, Chicago [etc.] F.H. Revell companyPublication date: 1895Subjects: Christian unionChurchNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
Presenting the thesis that all new, conversion-oriented religious movements which call their members to a radical change of life normally receive persecution, this study includes reference to contemporary researchers in the sociology of religion as A. Shupe, E. Barker, and J. Richardson, in order to identify and contextualize the main lines of attack upon one such new religion - the Unification movement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great legal rebuttal to church critics
I may be biased, because I used to live and work in the same building where the author had his office, but . . .

This book explains many, if not all, of the legal issues facing the Unification Church in its struggle for legitimacy.

Just to take one aspect, the charge of"brainwashing" which has dogged the church: Biermans citesinnumerable court decisions totally exonerating church members (and thechurch itself) of this inflammatory accusation.

One weakness of the bookis that it ONLY focusses on rebutting charges. I guess being a lawyer,that's how the author's mind works, but a would have liked to see some morepositive information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Historical Anti-Cult Literature
This book is an example of Anti-Cult literature published in the
1970's at the height of the cult frenzy. The material and sources are DATED but if you are interested historically in how
Evangelicals viewed the Unification Church, this book is useful
for that purpose. The book shows an Evangelical perspective which
should not surprise given the title. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more