Abstract
The author describes his father’s conversion to the Brethren and subsequent lifelong adherence to the sect. He examines his father’s Bible, and discovers in its marginal notes the major themes of Brethren belief and culture: the belief that the Bible is the Word of God speaking directly to the believer, and the consequent emphases on the authority of the Bible and on the separation from the world which they believe this authority commands. The author emphasizes the variety of perspectives from which the Brethren are perceived in the book, maintaining that while one must first listen to the Brethren themselves, it is impossible to engage in analysis or dialogue from within such a closed belief system.
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Notes
- 1.
Grass, Tim (2006) Gathering to His Name: The Story of Open Brethren in Britain and Ireland. Milton Keynes: Paternoster.
- 2.
Hood, Ralph, Hill, Peter, and Williamson, Paul (2005) The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism. New York: Guilford Press.
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Sennett, Richard (1998) The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: Norton.
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Stott, Rebecca (2017) In the Days of Rain. A Daughter. A Father. A Cult. London: 4th Estate.
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Herriot, P. (2018). Introduction. In: The Open Brethren: A Christian Sect in the Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03219-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03219-7_1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03218-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03219-7
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