Description

The Collected Sermons of Jim Jones — Volume V
The 1972 Sermons: Recovered Tapes — The Missing Archive

This volume presents some of the most revealing documents in the history of Peoples Temple: the recovered sermons of 1972 that complete the archival record of Jim Jones at the height of his power.

Drawn from previously uncollected recordings, Volume V fills critical gaps in the historical and theological development of Jones's movement. These sermons capture a moment when the Temple was expanding rapidly across California—establishing major centers in Redwood Valley, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—while Jones refined the ideological system that bound his followers together.

What emerges is not simply preaching, but a fully operational system of control. Jones moves seamlessly between theology, political rhetoric, healing performance, and administrative command. In these transcripts, the boundary between religion and institution disappears. The sermon becomes governance. The pulpit becomes power.

Included in this volume are six recovered recordings—sermons on dedication, doctrine, race, stewardship, and incarnation—each illuminating how Jones constructed a worldview that fused divine authority with total communal obligation. These are not marginal texts. They are central to understanding how Peoples Temple functioned at its peak.

Editor Jeff Hood frames the collection with a theological and moral reflection that refuses both sensationalism and dismissal. Instead, he confronts the enduring questions raised by Jonestown:
How does the language of justice become a tool of domination?
How does faith become control?
And how can such a movement grow in plain sight?