Customer Reviews

Unification Church

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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.

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.

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 of Unificationism's links to Christian Right organisations in the eighties, and the Christian Right relationship to the Washington Times. The section on front groups is inadequate and should be expanded for that reason.

However, I did like aspects of this book. The description of Unificationist doctrine is good, and the author is not afraid to challenge the authoritarianism of the Unification movement. I would ask why the author does not similarly critique elements within his own evangelical tradition that often lead evangelicals and Unificationists to co-belligerency. One other thing- the author does not comment on the fact that most evangelical critiques of the Unification movement are over fifteen to twenty years old, before the Unificationists started their current conservative correctness campaign. I wonder if there is a connection, and why the author does not comment on this?

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 in Corean false messiahs, who have a bomb factory and who proclame onw nation higher than others (Cor > Jap > the rest > communists). Well, I recommend this book to everyone.