Heaven's Gate. Postmodernity and popular culture in a suicide group. Edited by George D. Chryssides. (Ashgate New Religions.) Pp. xi+215+2 colour frontispieces. Farnham–Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2011. £50. 978 0 7546 6374 4

This article argues that the field of new religions studies is driven in large part by a paradigm based in the assumption that new religious movements are comparable because they are social problems. It outlines a social problems paradigm drawing upon the work of Joel Best, illustrates how the paradigm is taught in textbooks on new religious movements, shows its value through the recent work of Stuart A. Wright and Susan J. Palmer, and offers a criticism of the paradigm through Benjamin E. Zeller’s study of Heaven’s Gate. The question of what makes each movement and its study significant is raised and challenged. The article concludes with reasons for moving new religions scholarship beyond the social problems paradigm in favor of a paradigm of social possibilities.

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Invention in “New New” Religions

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466176.013.17 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Carole M. Cusack

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Popular Culture ◽

First Century ◽

Religious Movements ◽

Western Society ◽

New Religious Movements ◽

Divine Revelation ◽

New Religions ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

The Church

This chapter discusses the concept of invention and applies it to the study of New Religious Movements (NRMs). Invention plays a part in all religions and is linked to other conceptual lenses including syncretism and legitimation. Yet invention is more readily detected in contemporary phenomena (so-called “invented,” “hyper-real,” or “fiction-based” religions), which either eschew, or significantly modify, the appeals to authority, antiquity, and divine revelation that traditionally accompany the establishment of a new faith. The religions referred to in this chapter (including Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, and Jediism) are distinctively “new new” religions, appearing from the mid-twentieth century, and gaining momentum in the deregulated spiritual market of the twenty-first century West. Overt religious invention has mainstreamed in the Western society, as popular culture, individualism and consumerism combine to facilitate the cultivation of personal spiritualities, and the investment of ephemeral entertainments with ultimate significance and meaning.

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Intolerance toward “New” Religions in the Twentieth Century

Religious Intolerance in America, Second Edition ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655628.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 181-214

Author(s):

John Corrigan ◽

Lynn S. Neal

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Law Enforcement ◽

Case Studies ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Nation Of Islam ◽

Religious Groups ◽

Religious Intolerance ◽

New Religions ◽

Heaven's Gate

This chapter examines the power of the “cult” stereotype and how it is used against minority religious groups rhetorically, legally, and, in some cases, violently. The primary sources, ranging from internet hoaxes and jokes to FBI memos and city ordinances, demonstrate the ways that technology, law enforcement, and laws are embroiled in the spread and enactment of religious intolerance against minority religious groups. Readers explore the “cult” stereotype and these patterns through a series of case studies, including Unificationism, Wicca, Heaven’s Gate, the Nation of Islam, and Santería.

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FROM PEPLUMS TO NEW RELIGIONS: STOIC AND EPICUREAN ETHICS IN POPULAR CULTURE

10.22250/2072-8662.2020.3.97-105 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 97-105

Author(s):

OLGA K. MIKHELSON ◽

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Significant Role ◽

Modern Society ◽

Religious Movements ◽

New Religious Movements ◽

American Cinema ◽

Star Wars ◽

Feature Films ◽

New Religions ◽

Life Philosophy

The article analyzes the legacy of philosophical thought of Stoic and Epicurean Hellenistic schools in contemporary popular culture, in particular, in American cinema and two hyper-real religions: Jedaism and Dudeism. The aim of the research is to update the concepts of ancient thinkers in the context of popular culture. The study demonstrates that the theories of the Stoics and Epicureans still play a significant role in the life of modern society, offering variants of life philosophy, which is clearly embodied in the use of their ideas in a number of popular feature films. Moreover, the article also proves that Jedaism and Dudeism, new religious movements that arose on the basis of the “Star Wars” epic movie by J. Lucas’ and “The Big Lebowski” made by the Coen brothers, are directly related to the philosophy of these Hellenistic schools, since Jedaism is largely based on the teachings of the Stoics, and Dudeism is based on the Epicurean ones.

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