Central European Journal for Contemporary Religion is a scholarly journal published both by the Hussite Theological Faculty of the Charles University and Karolinum Publishers, which aims to serve as a publication platform for Comparative Religion and related disciplines. It focuses mainly on contemporary religious phenomena with special (but not exclusive) focus on Central and Eastern Europe. It should serve both as a source of information on te religious life in the region and as a supply of scholarly studies focused on contemporary lived religion at large. It is published semi-annually both in print and online (free access). Its goal is to bring thought-provoking contributions related not only to current established religions and religious movements new and old, but also to contemporary spirituality in its wider context, including the New Age milieu, Neopaganism and pop-cultural spirituality. The journal also covers the latest theoretical and methodological trends in Comparative Religion, Ritual Studies and other disciplines. The editorial board consists of scholars from most Czech Comparative Religion departments, as well as experts on the most important religious traditions across the globe.
CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGION, Vol 1 No 2 (2017), 1–18
The Role of the Apostates in the Twelve Tribes conflict in Germany
Zdeněk Vojtíšek
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/25704893.2017.7
published online: 13. 11. 2017
abstract
The testimonies of the apostates and their captivity narratives and atrocity tales often have a great impact on the conflict between new religious movements and general society. The reason behind this is both the great persuasive power that those narratives wield, which stems from personal experience, and the negative bias of the public that seldom questions their truthfulness and accuracy. One of the examples of apostates’ narratives largely contributing to a violent solution of a conflict with a New Religious Movement, is the case of the Twelve Tribes. The article describes the role of the apostates that led to a raid on a German community of this movement in 2013 and pursues parallels with the raid on a community of the same movement in 1984 in Vermont. The text also briefly mentions other violent conflicts in new religious movements at large.
keywords: Twelve Tribes movement; New Religious Movements; religious community; apostasy; raid; “captivity narratives”; “atrocity tales”
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