''Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church'' is a nonfiction book about the Unification Church and its founder and leader,

Sun Myung Moon Sun Myung Moon (; born Yong Myung Moon; 6 January 1920 – 3 September 2012) was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unif ...

. It was written by

Frederick Sontag Frederick Earl Sontag (October 2, 1924 – June 14, 2009Professor Fred Sont ...

, a professor of philosophy at Pomona College and a minister in the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...

.,Frederick E. Sontag dies at 84; Pomona College philosophy professor
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', June 20, 2009 and published by Abingdon Press in 1977. Sontag spent 10 months visiting church members in North America, Europe, and Asia as well as interviewing Moon at his home in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. The book also provides an overview of

Unification Church beliefs Unification or unification theory may refer to: Computer science * Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution * Unification (graph theory), the computation of the most general graph that subs ...

.Who is this Pied Piper of Religion?
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'', February 4, 1978 In an interview with UPI Sontag compared the Unification Church (founded in 1954) with

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church) and said that he expected its practices to conform more to mainstream American society as its members become more mature. He added that he did not want to be considered an apologist for the church but a close look at its

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

is important: "They raise some incredibly interesting issues."Moon: an objective look at his theology
''

Boca Raton News The ''Boca Raton News'', owned by the South Florida Media Company, was the local community newspaper of Boca Raton, Florida. The paper began publication December 2, 1955, with a startup circulation of 1200, published by Robert and Lora Britt, and ...

'', 1977-11-25

References

{{Unification Church Books on the Unification Church 1977 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Abingdon Press books