Minority Religions and Religious Tolerance
The Jehovah’s Witness Test
Minority Religions and Religious Tolerance
The Jehovah’s Witness Test
Description
This book argues that the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses is a critical gauge for measuring the level of religious toleration and freedom in any given society. Witnesses' beliefs and practices exist at the margins of what most modern states and societies deem acceptable. Thus, the 'Jehovah's Witness test' reveals much about the conditions for minority religions in any given state.
The chapters focus on a range of geographic locations, including South America, Rwanda, and South Korea, across the 20th and 21st centuries. Each one highlights what Witnesses tell us about the state of tolerance in that context, focusing on salient issues such as taxation regimes, religious legislation, ethics and law, human rights, medical treatment and gender. The central objective is twofold: to see what insights the analysis of Witnesses offers to our broader understanding of religious tolerance and to determine how Witnesses have shaped the way we regard basic religious freedoms.
The book is a multidisciplinary call for scholars to recognize the Jehovah's Witnesses as a crucial litmus test for tolerance. Taken together, the contributions demonstrate that the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses reveal the extent to which modern societies and governments uphold and respect basic civil liberties.
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Zoe Knox (University of Leicester, UK) and Emily B. Baran (Middle Tennessee State University, USA), 'Religious Minorities and the “Jehovah's Witness Test”: An Introduction'
1. Joseph Webster (University of Cambridge, UK), 'When Witnesses Talk Back: Ethnographic and Eschatological Reflections on Experiences of Intolerance among Jehovah's Witnesses in Contemporary Northern Ireland'
2. Edgar Zavala-Pelayo (El Colegio de México, Mexico), 'Intersectional discriminations against Jehovah's Witnesses: Blood transfusions, religious minorities and secularism in Mexico'
3. Margo A. Peyton (Mass General Brigham, USA) and Michael P.H. Stanley (Tufts Medical Center, USA), 'Blood Refusal and the Ethics Revolution'
4. Lise Paulsen Galal (Roskilde University, Denmark), 'Nation building, Christian churches, and Jehovah's Witnesses: Dual Encounters in Egypt'
5. Kwangsuk Yoo (Kyung Hee University, South Korea), 'Minority Religions and Conscientious Objection: The South Korean case'
6. John R. Vile (Middle Tennessee State University, USA), 'First Amendment Freedoms and Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States'
7. James T. Richardson (University of Nevada, USA), 'Jehovah's Witnesses and the International Campaign for Religious Freedom'
8. Emily B. Baran (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) and Zoe Knox (University of Leicester, UK), 'Banning Religious Minorities: Does it Work? A Case Study of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union and in Putin's Russia'
9. Tharcisse Seminega (Author, No Greater Love: How my Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda) and Valens Nkurikiyinka (Independent researcher, Rwanda), '“Political Neutrality” During the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: A Case Study of Jehovah's Witnesses'
George D. Chryssides (York St John University, UK), 'The Law and the Prophets: Concluding Reflections'
Index
Product details
| Published | 02 Oct 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 224 |
| ISBN | 9781350372252 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 9 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
