Jan 8, 2018

Book Reviews: Rebecca Stott, In the Days of Rain. A Daughter

The Journal of CESNUR

Book Reviews
Rebecca Stott, In the Days of Rain. A Daughter. A Father. A Cult. London: 4th
Estate (Harper Collins), 2017.

Reviewed by Massimo Introvigne, Center for Studies on New Religions,
maxintrovigne@gmail.com

Anti-cult literature is normally repetitious, and rarely of interest for scholars.  “Atrocity stories” by “apostates,” the technical term used by sociologists to
designate angry ex-members who have left groups they regard as “cults,” in
particular, tend to repeat the same clichés. In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott, one of many anti-cult “apostate” books by ex-members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC), deserves, however, more attention. The author is both a well-known novelist and author in unrelated fields and a self-styled apostate from the PBCC, not a frequent combination and one that made her book well supported by publicists and generously reviewed in mainline media.


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