The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements

by Lewis, James R.

• ISBN13: 9780195149869
• ISBN10: 0195149866
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) is one of the fastest-growing areas of religious studies. This Handbook covers the current state of the field and breaks new ground. Its contributors are drawn equally from sociology and religious studies and include both established scholars and"rising stars" in the field. The core chapters deal with such central issues as conversion, the brainwashing debate, millennialism, and modernization. Another section deals with NRM subfields such as neopaganism, satanism, and UFO religions. The final section considers NRMs in globalperspective.

Author Biography

James Lewis is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Table of Contents

Contributors,	xi
Overview,	3	(36)
James R. Lewis
1. An Introduction to New Religions,	16
J. Gordon Melton
PART I. MODERNIZATION AND NEW RELIGIONS
2. Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions, and the Reenchantment of the West,	39	(29)
Christopher Partridge
3. The Sociocultural Significance of Modern New Religious Movements,	68	(31)
Lorne L. Dawson
4. Science and Religion in the New Religions,	99	(20)
Mikael Rothstein
5. Virtually Religious: New Religious Movements and the World Wide Web,	119	(24)
Douglas E. Cowan and Jeffrey K. Hadden
PART II. SOCIAL CONFLICT
6. Violence and New Religious Movements,	143	(20)
David G. Bromley
7. Legal Dimensions of New Religions,	163	(21)
James T. Richardson
8. The North American Anti-Cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure,	184	(22)
Anson Shupe, David G. Bromley, and Susan E. Darnell
9. Something Peculiar about France: Anti-Cult Campaigns in Western Europe and French Religious Exceptionalism,	206	(15)
Massimo Introvigne
10. Satanism and Ritual Abuse,	221	(22)
Philip Jenkins
11. Conversion and "Brainwashing" in New Religious Movements,	243	(55)
Dick Anthony and Thomas Robbins
12. Leaving the Fold: Disaffiliating from New Religious Movements,	298	(19)
David G. Bromley
PART III. SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS
13. Psychology and the New Religious Movements,	317	(16)
John A. Saliba
14. Millennialism,	333	(26)
Richard Landes
15. The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process,	359	(19)
Diana G. Tumminia and R. George Kirkpatrick
16. Women in New Religious Movements,	378	(8)
Susan J. Palmer
17. Children in New Religious Movements,	386	(33)
Charlotte E. Hardman
PART IV. NEO-PAGANS, UFOS, AND OTHER HETERODOXIES
18. Waiting for the "Big Beam": UFO Religions and "Ufological" Themes in New Religious Movements,	419	(26)
Andreas Grünschloß
19. Esotericism in New Religious Movements,	445	(21)
Olav Hammer
20. The Dynamics of Alternative Spirituality: Seekers, Networks, and "New Age,"	466	(25)
Steven J. Sutcliffe
21. New Religions in East Asia,	491	(23)
Michael Pye
22. Witches, Wiccans, and Neo-Pagans: A Review of Current Academic Treatments of Neo-Paganism,	514	(20)
Sián Lee Reid and Shelley TSivia Rabinovitch
Index,	534