Cults, Counterfeits and Clones: Examining Selected New Religious Movements in Kenyan Christianity

Authors

Daniel Kipkemboi Lagat

Synopsis

The book Cults, Counterfeits, and Clones: Examining Selected New Religious Movements in Kenyan Christianity covers several new religious movements that have been witnessed to exhibit characteristics that fail the biblical teaching of “truth” in one way or another. Several literatures are reviewed to provide basis for regarding them as cults. What is unique in this book is that it does not provide just the description of these movements, but analyzes their basic teachings and practices, in context of the character and background of the founders, to provide conclusions that are founded on valid interpretation. The book begins by giving an introduction of why the study of cults is important for a Christian, and for any scholar in religion. For the purpose of objectivity, the book provides a chapter on a criteria for determining what a cult is, and what a cult is not. What a reader will find unique in this book, is not just historical information that have been meticulously collected, but an analysis of the relationship of all the information, to form a narrative that shows, how in their diversity, these cults are similar. The book traces how these cults are founded by people that had ‘revelations’ which could not be validated, how they practiced denominational exclusivism, and how they idolized their founders, so that in effect, their founders became their gods.

Utafiti Academic Press

Published

2018

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