Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide

by Edited by James R. Lewis , Sarah M. Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780521881470
• ISBN10: 0521881471
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Schism (from the Greek 'to split') refers to a group that breaks away from another, usually larger organisation and forms a new organisation. Though the term is typically confined to religious schisms, it can be extended to other kinds of breakaway groups. Because schisms emerge out of controversies, the term has negative connotations. Though they are an important component of many analyses, schisms in general have not been subjected to systematic analysis. This volume provides the first book-length study of religious schisms as a general phenomenon. Some chapters examine specific case studies while others provide surveys of the history of schisms within larger religious traditions, such as Islam and Buddhism. Other chapters are more theoretically focused. Examples are drawn from a wide variety of different traditions and geographical areas, from early Mediterranean Christianity to modern Japanese New Religions, and from the Jehovah's Witnesses to Neo-Pagans.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. vii
Notes on contributors	p. viii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Theoretical Overview	p. 9
Understanding schisms: theoretical explanations for their origins	p. 11
Survey of Schisms in Selected Traditions	p. 35
Charismatic authority in Islam: an analysis of the cause of schisms in the ummah	p. 37
Schisms in Buddhism	p. 61
Schisms in Japanese new religious movements	p. 83
Christian Traditions	p. 107
Finishing the Mystery: the Watch Tower and "the 1917 schism"	p. 109
Challenges to charismatic authority in the Unificationist Movement	p. 129
Persecution and schismogenesis: how a penitential crisis over mass apostasy facilitated the triumph of Catholic Christianity in the Roman Empire	p. 147
Western Esoteric Traditions	p. 169
Church Universal and Triumphant: shelter, succession and schism	p. 171
Schism and consolidation: the case of the theosophical movement	p. 196
Satanists and nuts: the role of schisms in modern Satanism	p. 218
Schism as midwife: how conflict aided the birth of a contemporary Pagan community	p. 248
Non-Western/Postcolonial Traditions	p. 263
Succession, religious switching, and schism in the Hare Krishna movement	p. 265
Schisms within Hindu guru groups: the Transcendental Meditation movement in North America	p. 287
Schism in Babylon: colonialism, Afro-Christianity and Rastafari	p. 306
Index	p. 332
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