John Philip Jenkins
Contributor
Website : John Philip Jenkins at Baylor University
Distinguished Professor of History, Baylor University. Author of A History of the United States, Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in America, Synthetic Panics: The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs, and others.
Primary Contributions (50)
Obscenity, legal concept used to characterize certain (particularly sexual) material as offensive to the public sense of decency. A wholly satisfactory definition of obscenity is elusive, however, largely because what is considered obscene is often, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. Although…
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Publications (4)
A History of the United States (Palgrave Essential Histories series) (2012)
Philip Jenkins explores the central developments in American history from the fifteenth century to the present day. This highlyreadable and authoritative account discusses the political, social, cultural and economic events that have shaped the history of the United States. The text covers key elements of this history such as the civil rights movement, the events of pre- and post-9/11, and the Iraq war. For this new edition, Jenkins brings the story right up to date with discussions...
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Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years (March 2011)
The Fifth-Century Political Battles That Forever Changed the Church In this fascinating account of the surprisingly violent fifth-century church, Philip Jenkins describes how political maneuvers by a handful of powerful characters shaped Christian doctrine. Were it not for these battles, todays church could be teaching something very different about the nature of Jesus, and the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence. Jesus Wars reveals the profound implications...
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Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History (November 2001)
In Mystics and Messiahs--the first full account of cults and anti-cult scares in American history--Philip Jenkins shows that, contrary to popular belief, cults were by no means an invention of the 1960s. In fact, most of the frightening images and stereotypes surrounding fringe religious movements are traceable to the mid-nineteenth century when Mormons, Freemasons, and even Catholics were denounced for supposed ritualistic violence, fraud, and sexual depravity. But America has also been the home...
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Synthetic Panics: The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs (July 1999)
America has a long history of drug panics in which countless social problems have been blamed on the devastating effects of some harmful substance. In the last forty years, such panics have often focused on synthetic or designer drugs, like methamphetamine, PCP, Ecstasy, methcathinone, and rave drugs like ketamine, and GHB. Fear of these substances has provided critical justification for the continuing "war on drugs."Synthetic Panics traces the history of these anti-drug movements,...
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