Customer Reviews

A Qualitative Analysis of the Jehovah's Witnesses: The Rhetoric, Reality and Religion in the Watchtower Society (Studies in American Religion)

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While there are commendable aspects of _A Qualitative
Analysis_, there are some surprising weaknesses
contained in the book as well. While I can overlook
Cronn-Mills' less than precise and not wholly accurate
explanation of the Witnesses' pneumatology in the
following terms, "The Spirit is merely Jehovah's
power, force, or energy" (44), I find it much more
difficult to ignore other errors. For instance, he
writes that the Witnesses believe that "Lucifer" was
created by Jehovah through "Michael" to watch over the
Garden of Eden until he began to nurture and
eventually acted on a desire to have his own
worshipers. Cronn-Mills continues: "So, while Jehovah
*slept* on the seventh day, Lucifer found and
capitalized on Adam and Eve's fatal flaw--free will"
(44).

I think that most Witnesses of Jehovah reading the
aforesaid comments could quickly and immediately
discern errors in Cronn-Mills' presentation. There are
other slips, but I will resist the urge to nit-pick.
Yet, before closing, we must mention the threefold
distinction mentioned in _A Qualitative Analysis_ that
Witnesses putatively advocate or teach. That is, the
threefold division of Satan's world, the Witness
world, and Jehovah's world (i.e., the new world
order). I think that many Witnesses, probably most,
would take issue with this portrayal of our beliefs.
Witnesses do not make a sharp distinction between a
so-called "Witness world" and Jehovah's world.

Cronn-Mills needs to reanalyze and rework this
explanation of Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that
Cronn-Mills' work is worth reading, if one is
interested in rhetorical and social science issues as
they appertain to religion. His attempt to be fair is
noble. His scientific research is also sound. But some
of the theological details are unfortunately explained in an
inadequate manner. Furthermore, there are a number of
typos in the book and the writing style employed in
the study is at times difficult to decipher. I am not
talking about technical language as such but the
writer's style of communication. Then again, he may
not be a native American English speaker or writer.
That would account for what seem to be textual idiosyncrasies in
_A Qualitative Analysis_. Finally, the issues of
social interactionism and groups constructing their
own reality through discursive pratices or rhetoric

are issues that could be treated in another essay or
monograph. Suffice it to say that Cronn-Mills'
"construction of reality" theory needs to be
approached with a certain "hermeneutics of suspicion"
by the Christian who endeavors to be faithful to God,
His written Word, and the very reality of God.

Edgar Foster
University of Glasgow

The author writes for a very narrow audience, those who are academically minded and who want a discourse on what the paradigm of Jehovah's Witnesses apparently is.

For Jehovah's Witnesses, this book is valuable only in the sense that this book shows the understanding that a non-believer walked away with after attending quite a few meetings and after having quite a few discussions with Jehovah's Witnesses. He doesn't get everything right, but then neither do "believers."

It also bothered me that he accepted some of the negative statements made by apostates (non-Jehovah's Witnesses who are actively against the religion, whether they were once believers or not.)

If you enjoy academic language, would like to know an outsider's understanding of how Jehovah's Witnesses view the world, and know the meaning of words like etic and emic then this is the book for you. Otherwise, at a price of [item price], you are better off ordering this book through Inter-Library Loan.