Little Bibliography in 8 Categories a Little Annotated
www.preciousheart.net/freemasonry
Here are the full abstracts and annotations. We introduce the works easiest to find and thank God for the computer. We cut back to fit only the most prominent here. Like most Grand Lodges, the Texas Masonic Library has a host of sources too, many not listed here. What is clear from the following is that Freemasons are interwoven throughout the history of the United States and Europe in a fashion far more honorably than not, and that history is always totally occulted by the anti-Masons in all of their best work. Then, ironic to the uttermost, the anti-Masons profusely claim Freemasons are the ones occulting.
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Intro to Little
Bibliography = Intro & TOP Shelf |
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1. TOP Shelf
Freemasonry References & Couple of Others |
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3. Main
Freemasonry Bibliography |
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3.c. Pro Articles on Freemasonry — 137 Articles, w 50 Bk Rws |
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3.d. Foreign Books on Freemasonry — 226 Authors of 265 Books |
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7. Great Hoax—Léo Taxil’s Luciferian Doctrine a. General
Info, Web Sties, and One Excellent Refutation b. Publications
Still Duped by Taxil’s Hoax c. Publications
Exposing Taxil’s Hoax |
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Intro to Little Bibliography
Yes—just 8 sets of bibliographies, yes indeedy, just to spite the 8 SBC incompatibilities again and the little squeak called a Closer Look. Just out of curiosity, I pulled up Gordon’s pdf file for his teeny tiny Closer Look squeak and selected all, and then pasted it all into an empty MS Word window and did a word count:
4,546 words, 485 lines, and 485 paragraphs.
Wow, what a hoot!—and Gordon calls that a closer look at the fraternity of ten legions of legends. The same amount of lines as paragraphs? Okey-dokey. There are more entire books written on Freemasonry than words in the SBC expert Bill Gordon’s squeaky closer look.
Here, there are 445 authors of 904 books in English—just a start—mostly from the bibliographies of the best of the best, the Library of Congress, and the libraries of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Books in Print. Then are 59 Ph.D. dissertations, 137 professional grade articles, 226 authors of 265 foreign book, and 226 news articles in major newspapers. That is 1,325 works by 800+ authors, not counting the news that is conspicuously absent of any anti-Mason prophecy fulfillment (what is the test of a prophet again?). Excuse me, but that is 800+ authors of 1,325 works and those are quite a load and a laugh when compared to the 100 anti-Mason authors. That is made all the more funny when one has to search for the anti-Mason books because they rarely reference each other in all of their occulting, nor do any of them—none—contribute to professional-grade journals. As horrendously contrasting as the numbers the are, this collection was a speedy one and just represents a few of what could be easily found—if just for a breezy closer look at the Freemasonry references.
In all, there 1,888+ authors in 3,000+ works.[1]
Look here at this small bibliography alone, and thanks to MS Word’s word-counting prowess and following David Barton’s method of self-validation—that does not mean much in the long run, except just for fun—there are 800+ authors on Freemasonry alone and there are 1,888+ authors in all represented with respect to the on-line versions. All joking aside, the word count for them all from #3 to the end yielded a whopping 85,007 words in this bibliography alone; that is 18.69 times words more than Gordon’s 4,546 words in his ten-year-old tiny closer look. Now this substantial bibliography is still small, far from comprehensive, and shrinks small when compared to the thousands of biographies of the ten legions of Freemasonry historical legends and tens of thousands of history books and hundreds of thousands of professional articles related to all of them and all of history (and related history) surrounding the ten legions of legends. When world-renown historian Jasper Ridley says the following statement in the context of his profusely historical book, The Freemasons: A History of the World’s Most Powerful Secret Society, one is left adrift at what must be a bibliographic impossibility: “At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon himself was almost the only man who played a prominent part who was not a Freemason.”[2] My God in heaven, just tracing the relevant bibliographic references for Freemason men of significance that Jasper Ridley, Steven Bullock, and Margaret C. Jacob reference would take a lifetime.[3]
Gee whiz—the SBC expert Bill Gordon could have learned more about real Freemasonry if he had just looked up the Freemasonry dissertation abstracts alone; in just the 58 Ph.D. dissertations abstracts below, there are 17,297 words which turns out to be an extraordinary 3.8 times as many words over Gordon’s teeny tiny Closer Look.[4] Truly, even though using David Barton’s method of using bulk to validate substance, those numbers mean nothing in themselves. But the numbers are not by themselves, and the numbers do make profoundly stupid the SBC expert Bill Gordon’s Closer Look at Freemasonry and his supporters in the light of the 24 Franken-Bones above. More profoundly stupid and embarrassing Gordon and Patterson become in their anti-Mason dribble when they are both turned toward—and made to face the character therein—the ten legions of legends and the many honorable SBC Freemasons that Gordon smeared and Patterson still mouths against, thousands who helped pay both Gordon’s and Paige Patterson’s salary, and who paid them to write.
Frankenstein pygmy must die and be buried for good.
I must admit weakness and astonishment. Prior to this Freemasonry study, I thought it would be a simple matter to refute SBC expert Bill Gordon’s little Closer Look. When I set my pen to work, it was too easy and became fun too … swish, swish … and look at the worms wiggling out of the vivisection. Every which way one looks at the SBC documents, a great missionary denomination is shamed, whose very theological legacy is still in debt to several Freemason SBC theologians.
The more I studied Freemasonry and only twenty books deep, I began to see a paradox between the simple and complex sides of Freemasonry. There is the simple side of Freemasonry being a fraternity gathering around honor itself under God that any honorable man may join. Then there is the other side that is rich in interpretation with a vast array of symbolism that seems limitless. Despite the paradox, it is the simplicity that is Freemasonry’s glory and the anti-Mason’s curse, for the Square and Compasses are so simple to all the world and always avoided by the anti-Masons as they struggle and twist and corkscrew their Frankenstein concoctions. Only twenty books deep, I began to see one mountain range after another; from the foundation of the Blue Lodge and spreading out from there into the three continental divides of the Scottish Rite, York Rite, and Shriners, and so much more—very early the study quickly affirmed the words of William G. Hinton:
If one desires to study Freemasonry today, one must be prepared for the same amount of research as would be required to review “Religion” or “Politics.” A true study would be a monumental undertaking![5]
This study focused upon only one mountain in particular—character counting—and how that single mountain casts huge shadows over the few and small shovels of anti-Mason dirt. Character—that was just one mountain among many.
I can show you a picture of the Rocky Mountains, beautiful from a distance and fun to drive through—all can agree about some aspects of the Rocky Mountain range and depth and presence (you cannot miss them, they are like ten legions of legends)—but I cannot count the rocks or all of the stream beds. Likewise, and William G. Hinton’s point, I suppose there is no larger term in the world than religion. Politics too—politics is a term for social engagement with an ulterior motive and is too big for simple definitions. Yet even children use politics and religion, and there is a very simple meaning to those terms we all understand (no matter what the faith or party, or even the politics one uses in religion, or how one’s religion affects his or her politics). Big. The term freemasonry is as simple and profound, from the simple vision of man laying bricks or cutting stone (as one man sharpens another) to the profound and never-ending quest to make the world better through Freemasonry’s primary tenets of brotherly love, truth, and relief. The term freemasonry gathers up within its connotation all of the meanings and implications of love, truth, and hardship relief, and all of that intermingles in the Free-mason’s own religion and politics too.
The following bibliographies, especially those on Freemasonry, are only representative, only the best I could do with the time I had. Continuity through the centuries is the most impressive element, for in the main the principles have not changed. And like all worthy causes and gatherings, there are several mountains who stand out. I wanted to be comprehensive—but soon discerned that Freemasonry contained in her ranks thousands of scholars over the centuries and throughout the world. There are over 900 works on Freemasonry history alone below, and hundreds on Freemasonry history in Texas alone. I hope the following contains the best of the best, but even so—shoot fire, look at the following—I actually looked at a mere couple of hundred and realize that, with folks like Robert Macoy a hundred years ago and historians Harry Carr and Allen E. Robert today, I could not conveniently find a list all of their works. The following were the easy ones to get. I gleaned from the bibliographies of the best of the best authors and from the Library of Congress and the libraries of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I was privileged to get a good representative from the Texas Grand Lodge library, but not all, and I stopped gleaning after I realized there just about every Grand Lodge has a library. Therefore—with a little sadness at my inadequacy—the following contains many of the best of the best, but not all of the best by any account; in the total picture, the following is just a little bibliography of a grand fraternity side by side with a couple of other bibliographies pertinent to this book’s purpose.
CLOSING Editorial Note: This is an ongoing project. Some of titles in the Main Freemasonry Bibliography might need to go into the Anti-Mason Bibliography—I’ve not read everything. Any mistakes here are mine. Eventually, this bibliography will be on-line at www.preciousheart.net/freemasonry as soon as we are able. Your help in its growth and maintaince will be appreciated, even with annotations. Eventually and if possible, we could separate the Freemasonry more than five sections, similar to Macoy Publishing’s sections.
Also note that we use the em-dash (—) to separate books by the same author.
There are too many to single out, yet these were among the books on Freemasonry that merit the utmost demanding attention—for any kind of a closer look—and there are a few others here that directly pertain to this book’s purpose. There are hundreds of other authors that each one overshadow all of the mere 88 anti-Mason authors.
Bullock, Steven Conrad. Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840. Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early ... History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia; University of North Carolina Press, 1998. 442p. A monumental contribution to the literature. — The Ancient and Honorable Society: Freemasonry in America, 1730-1830. Ph.D. diss., Brown Univ., 1986.
Burke, Janet Mackay. Sociability, Friendship and the Enlightenment Among Women Freemasons in Eighteenth-Century France. Ph.D. diss., Arizona State Univ., 1986. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
Carr,
Harry. The Freemason at Work. London: Burgess & Sons, 1976. 425p. I
was given this book shortly after publication of Character Counts, and
would have footnoted several items to this distinguished historian, especially
on the Bible use in the lodge. As one of the all-time great scholars of Freemasonry
in the 20th century, this book contains 200 questions and answers on
Freemasonry from him at his post as Editor of the Transactions of the Quatuor
Coronati Lodge 1961-1973, with this volume being a collections of the best
questions and answers. Carr was a Past Master of five English lodges, an
honorary member of 12 in Paris, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Illinois, and
Massachusetts. The Coronati lodge is often considered the premier lodge of
research. Carr has been honored with many Masonic awards from around the world.
See www.preciousheart.net/freemasonry/Carr_Bible.htm
for his history of when the Bible first appeared in Masonic literature.
Cerza,
Alphonse. Anti-Masonry: Light on the Past and Present Opponents of
Freemasonry. Fulton, MO: Ovid Bell Press, 1962. 410p. A massive historical
study with eleven appendices, crucial to the literature and never referenced by
the anti-Masons, much less dealt with.
Coil, Henry Wilson. Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia. See www.macoy.com. One of the most popular authorities. Richmond, VA: Macoy Publishers, 1961; revised by Allen E. Roberts, 1996. 734p.
Curry, Thomas J., Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The First Freedoms: Church and State in America to the Passage of the First Amendment. NY: Oxford University Press, 1986. 236p. Leonard W. Levy called this, “The best book on the subject.” — Farewell to Christendom: The Future of Church and State in America. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001. 143p.
De Hoyos, Art, and S. Brent Morris. Is It True What They Say about Freemasonry?: the Methods of Anti-Masons. Foreword and addendum by James T. Tresner. NY: M. Evans and Co., 2004. 262p. (Silver Spring, MD: Masonic Service Center, 1997; 1st 1993.) A must on the most controversial issues—sets the record straight. A good bibliography with the most significant references on anti-Masons and Taxil hoax. — Freemasonry in Context: History, Ritual, Controversy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003.
Denslow, William R. 10,000 Famous Freemasons from A to J Part One. Foreword, Harry S. Truman; 672p.; From K to Z Part Two; 796p. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. First published Missouri Lodge Research, 1976, 4 vols. First published Missouri Lodge Research, 1976. Title speaks for itself.
Dumenil, Lynn. Brotherhood and Respectability: Freemasonry and American Culture, 1880-1930. Ph.D. diss., Univ. California, Berkeley, 1981. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
Ellul, Jacques. Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. NY: Vintage Books, 1973. Just for fun.
Gould, Robert Freke. The History of Freemasonry, Its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, etc., Derived from Official Sources throughout the World. Edinburgh: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1884-1887. 4 vols. Updated 1936-1915 W. J. Hughan, Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, David Murray Lyon, Enoch T. Carson, Josiah H. Drummond, T. S. Parvin and others. NY & Cincinnati: J.C. Yorston, 1884?-89. — Library of Freemasonry. Philadelphia: John C. Yorston, 1911.
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica Leigh. “The Essential Link”: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1751-1918. Ph.D. diss., Duke Univ., 2000. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
Huss, Wayne Andrew. Pennsylvania Freemasonry: An Intellectual and Social Analysis, 1727-1826. Ph.D. diss., Temple Univ., 1985. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
Hutchens, Rex R. A Bridge to Light. Washington, DC: Supreme Council 33°, 1988; Second Edition 1995. — A Glossary to Morals and Dogma. Washington, DC: Supreme Council 33°, , Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S., 1993. — and Donald W. Monson. The Bible in Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma. Washington, D.C.: Washington, DC: Supreme Council 33°, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S., 1992.Jacob, Margaret C. Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991. 304p. A monumental contribution to the historical record. See fuller list of her work below.
Jacob,
Margaret C. Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in
Eighteenth-Century Europe. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991. 304p. A monumental
contribution to the historical record. — The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts
and Fictions. PA: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2005. 176p. See http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14184.html.
Johnston, E. R., and A. C. Monette, editors. Masonry Defined: A Liberal Masonic Education: Information Every Mason Should Have. Shreveport, LA: National Masonic Press, 1930. Appendix & dictionary, answering 1,025 questions; compiled from the writings of Albert G. Mackey and many other authorities; Kingsport, TN: National Masonic Press, 1939, 935p.; Kingsport, TN: National Masonic Press, 1930, 621p.
Lambert, Frank. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2003. 344p.
Leazer, Gary. Fundamentalism and Freemasonry: The Southern Baptist Investigation of the Fraternal Order. NY: M. Evans and Co., 1995. 253p. Leazer wrote the SBC study and was criticized for seeking out Freemasonry experts on Freemasonry; his side of the story is a crucial part of the picture and left out of the anti-Mason literature. He includes a snapping bibliography with perhaps the best the collection of articles and news reports—very informative. Reading this next to James L. Holly’s work will fill in the hidden history of the SBC anti-Mason efforts.
Levy, Leonard W. The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment. NY: Macmillan; 1986. 236 p.; rev. 2nd ed., Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. North Carolina Press, 1994; 273p. — See General and Historical References below for many more.
Lewinski,
Robert J. What Is Freemasonry? Silver Spring, MD: MSA, 1999 revised; 1st
1961; 76p. One of the best little pocketbooks covering most of the
topics.
Lipson, Dorothy Ann. Freemasonry in Connecticut, 1789-1835. Ph.D. diss., Univ. Connecticut, 1974. DAI, 35, no. 04A, (1974): 2180.
Newton, Joseph Fort (1876-1950). The Builders. Cedar Rapids, IA: 1915. See www.macoy.com. — The Religion of Masonry: an Interpretation. Washington, D.C.: MSA of U.S., 1927. 160p. Richmond, VA: Macoy Pub., 1969. 160p. www.kessinger.net. Not a religion at all.
Pike,
Albert (1809-1891). Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry. Prepared for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third
Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and Published by
Its Authority. Charleston, A. M. 5632, 1871 & 1881. 861p. (Richmond, VA: L.
H. Jenkins, 1920, 1923; new & revised, 5632, 1950; Kessinger Publishing,
1992; and NuVision Pub., 2004.). With respect to Morals and Dogma, these
two are important: — Hugo, T. W. Digest-Index of ‘Morals and Dogma’ of
Albert Pike. Duluth, MN: Duluth consistory, A. & A. S. R., 1909. 200p.
— Hutchens, Rex Richard. A Glossary to Morals and Dogma. Preface by C.
Fred Kleinknecht; foreword by Wallace McLeod. Washington, D.C.: Supreme
Council, 33°, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern
Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1993. 538p. Includes bibliographical references: 519-538.
— See: At
www.freemasons-freemasonry.com to read Morals and Dogma online. It is
admittedly a tough read, some portions easy to take out of context (as we
indicated Holly and others did), and Pike himself does not claim to be prophet
or inerrant or a Christian evangelical. It is likewise clear that morals,
justice, liberty, and equality precious throughout and
side-by-side a loathing of tyranny and inequality, articulated
with a force and clarity totally absent in the anti-Mason literature, even
occulted by them.
Peterson, Christopher, and Martin E. P. Seligman. Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004; 816p. This massive and significant contribution shall become a classic in positive-preventative psychology, gathering together most of the secular psychological studies having a bearing upon the meaning and development of character. Moreover, for Christian theologians (and those of other religions), herein psychology has proven the value of values and of noble behavior as good for the soul and society. The bibliography has more technical journals relating to character than another work to date (that I am aware of). They left no psychological nook or cranny out.
Rasoletti, Judith. Square and Compass: Freemasonry’s Tools for Constructing a Global Civil Society. Ph.D. diss., Florida International Univ., 2003. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
Ridley, Jasper. The Freemasons: A History of the World’s Most Powerful Secret Society. Arcade Publishing, 2002. 368p. See reference in Freemasonry Bibliography for Amazon.com comments. A seasoned, well-respected historian and non-Mason gives perhaps the best history of Freemasonry for the modern reader and non-Mason alike.
Roberts, Allen E. Freemasonry in American History. Richmond, VA: Macoy Pub., 1985. 462. — The Mystic Tie. Richmond, VA: Macoy Pub., 1991. 295p. — Georege Washington, Master Mason. Richmond, VA: Macoy Pub., 1976; 206p. — Brother Truman: the Masonic Life and Philosophy of Harry S. Truman. Highland Springs, VA: Anchor Communications, 1985; Harry S. Truman (1884-1972). 297p. Many more below.
Robinson, John J. A Pilgrim’s Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right. M Evans and Company, 1993. 178p. See Freemasonry Bibliography for Amazaon.com comments. Robinson researches as a non-Mason and takes on several including Pat Robinson and James L. Holly.
Sachse, Julius Friedrich (1842-1919), comp. Washington’s Masonic Correspondence as Found Among the Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, Comp. from the Original Records, Under the Direction of the Committee on Library of the Grand lodge of Pennsylvania, with Annotations. Philadelphia & Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing, 1915. 144p.
Scottish Rite Journal of Freemasonry Southern Jurisdiction, The. (February 1993 & March 1993 especially). It is an utter shame that anti-Masons would fail to address these two volumes, and their failure to reference them speaks more to anti-Mason malignance than most anything else the anti-Masons have published—most especially the SBC’s Bill Gordon and then folks like John Ankerberg and associates who continues to regurgitate much of his own stuff under different catchy titles.
Stillson, Henry Leonard, et al, editor. History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons and Concordant Orders. Boston & NY: The Fraternity Publishing Company, 1904. A masterful work by several notable Freemasonry scholars.
Texas Grand Lodge Library. Masonic Library Catalog. A pamphlet with a hundred or so of books available. Most impressive is the list of books on Freemasonry in Texas and in Texas history—remarkable. Note: probably all of the 50 Grand Lodges of the U.S. have good libraries. Waco, Texas.
Weisberger, Richard William. The Cultural and Organizational Functions of Speculative Freemasonry During the Enlightenment: A Study of the Craft in London, Paris, Prague, and Vienna. Ph.D. diss., Univ. Pittsburgh, 1980. See Ph.D. section for abstract.
www.preciousheart.net/freemasonry