Description

What were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians? This is the first full scholarly account of their history. Kenneth G. C. Newport argues that, far from being an act of unfathomable religious insanity, the calamitous fire at Waco in 1993 was the culmination of a long theological and historical tradition that goes back many decades. The Branch Davidians under David Koresh were an eschatologically confident community that had long expected that the American government, whom they identified as the Lamb-like Beast of the book of Revelation, would one day arrive to seek to destroy God's remnant people. The end result, the fire, must be seen in this context.

Features

• Presents a new and distinctive explanation of the cause of the Waco fire
• Based on extensive research into archives, and into material not in the general public domain
• Explores themes of violence and sex in relation to religious commitment

Reviews

"An extended, well-documented, analytical treatment." --Nova Religio

"Acknowledging the passionate engagement with theological ideas that always characterized the small but intense membership of teh various splinter groups of the Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) church that made up the Davidian and Branch Davidian traditions, Newport's history patiently disentangles and lays out for examination their complex understandings of the Bible." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Product Details

400 pages; 12 halftones; ISBN13: 978-0-19-924574-1ISBN10: 0-19-924574-6

About the Author(s)