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The Collected Sermons of Jim Jones - Volume IV The 1972 Sermons, Part Two, and Additional Sermons This volume continues one of the most important documentary projects in the study of modern religious history: the preservation and critical presentation of the sermons of Jim Jones. Gathering the second set of 1972 sermons alongside additional recovered recordings, Volume IV offers a rare and unfiltered window into the evolving theology, psychology, and rhetorical power of the Peoples Temple leader. These sermons capture Jones at a pivotal moment-when his movement was expanding, his ideas were intensifying, and the foundations of what would become Jonestown were being laid. Presented with original Q-number archival references, these transcripts are reproduced as historical documents for scholarly, theological, and critical engagement. Readers will encounter Jones's complex synthesis of Pentecostalism, New Thought, socialism, and prophetic authority-alongside the manipulative structures and ideological shifts that would later culminate in tragedy. Editor Jeff Hood provides a deeply reflective introduction that does not excuse or sensationalize, but instead wrestles with the enduring theological and moral questions raised by Jonestown: Where is God in horror? How does faith become coercion? And what does it mean to seek hope in the darkest corners of human history? a publication of New Theology School Press

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The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic Priest (Old Catholic) and nationally recognized theologian and spiritual advisor to death row inmates nationwide. He has accompanied eleven men to their executions, including the first and eighth nitrogen hypoxia executions. Widely regarded as the leading spiritual voice on the death penalty, his work has been profiled in outlets ranging from the New York Times to a Rolling Stone documentary, The Spiritual Advisor. For his service and scholarship, he was nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Hood holds degrees from Auburn University (BA), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv), Emory University's Candler School of Theology (ThM), the University of Alabama (MA), Creighton University (MS), Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University (DMin), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the American Institute of Metaphysics. His primary interest has always been the power of spirituality to bring about liberation. Ordained to ministry in 2006, Dr. Hood was incardinated into the priesthood of the Old Catholic Church in 2022. The author of over 100 books - including The Courage to Be Queer, named one of the best religion books of 2016 at the Independent Publishers Book Awards - he regularly partners with men on death row to co-produce original works of theology. On July 7, 2016, Dr. Hood organized and led a Dallas rally against police brutality that ended in the shooting deaths of five police officers. He saved lives by using the cross he was carrying to force people away from the gunfire. The Dallas Public Library honored his role in that event and his wider work by opening the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood Collection in its archives. In January 2024, Dr. Hood became the first spiritual advisor present in an execution chamber for a nitrogen hypoxia execution. Amid the international media attention that followed, he kept the memory of Kenneth Smith at the center of the story while demanding that such an execution never be repeated. No other spiritual advisor in the country has been present in the execution chamber for as many executions. Believing that traditional theological education is increasingly inadequate, Dr. Hood founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and as the Rev. Charles Moore Professor of Prophetic Theology. With many arrests and assaults, he is not afraid to give his body to the struggle for justice.

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