Crimes of Preachers in the United States and Canada

Billings, M. E.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4
Word count
477K words
Chapters
48

Tags

English Originals ReligionLaw Historical ReappraisalHuman NatureCivic AwarenessCritique of ReligionPower OppressionCriminal PsychologySocial CritiqueMoral DilemmaCase AnalysisDocumentary Narrative

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Crimes of Preachers in the United States and Canada by M. E. BillingsAuthor: Billings, M. E.,Language: English, Class: BL: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Religion: General, Miscellaneous and Atheism, Release Date: Aug 24, 2018

Editor's review

This book is an English-language historical document compiled by M. E. Billings and made available by Project Gutenberg under the general category of religion. Its value lies not in literary quality but in its status as a slice of its era: a compilation of records concerning cases involving clergy in the United States and Canada. Readers can observe how society from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century paid attention to the conduct of religious professionals, as well as the recording conventions and narrative tone of the period, making it a primary source for those studying the social history of religion, the history of journalism, or the social history of law. It should be read as historical material rather than as a settled verdict, with attention to the editor's standpoint, the criteria for selecting cases, and the limits of verification, and without equating a collection of individual cases with a portrait of a group as a whole. It is suitable as supplementary material for specialized research, as a sourcebook for nonfiction writing, or as further reading for those interested in the relationship between religion and society. Because the original is in English and archival in format, it is best read with background guidance and in excerpted form rather than straight through for leisure.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the editor's note and table of contents to establish the scope of case selection and the organizing logic before entering the main text.
  2. Excerpt by theme or region and build your own index of cases for easy comparison.
  3. Read alongside background material on North American religious history to avoid judging individual cases outside their historical context.
  4. Cross-check key cases to distinguish documentary records from the editor's commentary.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  44. 44
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  48. 48

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a compilation of historical sources? It is a document in the nature of an English-language compilation of historical sources, gathering records of cases involving clergy in the United States and Canada and made available by Project Gutenberg. It is not a work of fiction and should be approached as historical material.
How difficult is the English, and what background is needed? The original is in English, archival and compilatory in style, with somewhat old-fashioned sentence patterns. Readers with university-level English and familiarity with religious and legal vocabulary will find it easier to enter; beginners can use a dictionary and read selectively.
Can it be taken as an overall assessment of religious groups? It should not be. The book is a compilation of individual cases selected by a particular editor, with limitations of selection criteria and period standpoint. It reflects only partial records and cannot support an overall judgment of religious groups; it must be compared with other research.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Billings, M. E. Author

M. E. Billings is an author about whom little public information is currently available; only one work is held in the collection, Crimes of Preachers in the United States and Canada. The title indicates that the book focuses on crimes committed by clergy in the United States and Canada, placing it within the genre of exposé writing on misconduct among religious figures. Such works typically take the form of case compilations or documentary narratives, aiming to bring negative phenomena hidden behind religious authority into view and thus carrying a strong tone of social criticism. Since the author's life, nationality, and educational background cannot be verified, the writing style and influence can only be inferred from the work itself: the book is likely intended for readers concerned with religious ethics and public morality, and offers material for discussion of these issues. Further understanding of the author would require additional public sources.