A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements. By W. Michael Ashcraft. Routledge New Religions. London: Routledge, 2018. Pp. viii + 251. Hardback, $149.95; E‐Book, $54.95.

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-229
Author(s):  
Lukas Pokorny
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
New Religions

The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
New Religions ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The Status ◽  
Social Scientific

The first edition ofThe Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movementsappeared in early 2004. At the time, it was a much-needed overview of a rapidly-expanding area of study; it received recognition in the form of aChoicebook award. The second edition brings this task up to date. In addition to updating most of the original topics, the new edition takes in more topics by expanding the volume from 22 to 32 chapters, and enlarges the scope of the book by doubling the number of contributors from outside of North America. Following an introductory section devoted to social-scientific approaches to New Religious Movements (NRMs), the second section focuses on what has been uppermost in the minds of the general public, namely the controversies that have surrounded these groups. The third section examines certain themes in the study of NRMs, such as the status of children and women in such movements. The fourth section presents religious studies approaches by looking at NRM mythologies, rituals and the like. The final section covers the subfields that have grown out of NRM studies and become specializations in their own right, from the study of modern Paganism to the study of the New Age Movement. Finally, the present volume has a thematic focus; readers interested in specific NRMs are advised to consult the second edition of James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa. Petersen’s edited volume,Controversial New Religions(Oxford University Press 2014).

scholarly journals Freedom for me and, perhaps, you – but surely not them? Attitudes to new religions in contemporary democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Barker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
European Convention ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
Freedom Of Belief

Throughout history, new religious movements (NRMs) have been treated with suspicion and fear. Although contemporary democracies do not throw members of NRMs to the lions or burn them at the stake, they have ways and means of making it clear that pluralism and freedom of religion have their limits. The limits to pluralism are evident enough in countries such as Saudi Arabia or North Korea that have regimes stipulating that citizens must adhere exclusively to their one and only True religion or ideology. Limitations to pluralism have also been manifest in countries such as Northern Nigeria, Sri Lanka or Myanmar (Burma), where terrorists have used violence to eliminate religions other than their own. Even otherwise peaceful democracies – that have signed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and other statements affirming freedom of belief (and non-belief) for all – can discriminate against religions, especially the new religious movements in their midst, and this they do in a variety of ways [Richardson 1994; Lindholm 2004; Kirkham 2013]. This paper outlines, from the perspective of a sociologist of religion, some of the ways in which such attitudes toward, and treatment of, NRMs can demonstrate more subtle, but nevertheless marked and serious limitations to freedom, even in societies that pride themselves on their progressive and inclusive approach to diversity.

The Role of Women in the Development of New Religious Movements in Latin America

2021 ◽  
pp. 346-364
Author(s):  
Angel Belzunegui Eraso ◽  
David Dueñas Cid
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
Latin American Countries

In this chapter we focus on the growth of “new religions” and new religious movements in Latin America and attempt to find explanations for this growth. Although other explanations for the increase in religious plurality exist, we focus on the role of women in this development. The expansion of movements such as Pentecostalism is challenging the centrality of Catholicism in many Latin American countries. Basically, we therefore aim to answer the following question: Why has Pentecostalism grown so much in some Latin American countries while Catholicism has experienced a certain decline? One possible explanation for this is the role of women in this expansion, which has fostered greater social cohesion within families and communities. Pentecostalism has led to a certain empowerment of the women living in precarious conditions, affording them greater visibility and importance within their communities and giving them a role in the re-education of behaviours that are rooted in male domination.

Psychology and New Religious Movements

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Saliba
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Fourth Edition ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Positive Approach ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
New Religions

In “Psychology and the New Religious Movements,” John Saliba begins by contrasting psychology/psychiatry’s traditional antagonism toward religion with the newer, more positive approach reflected in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1994). After a brief survey of relevant studies, he then explores the problems involved with psychological approaches to members of new religions through the example of studies of followers of Bhagwan Rajneesh. He concludes by outlining a series of unresolved issues regarding the psychology of NRM membership.

New Religious Movements and Science

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin E. Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Cultural Power ◽  
Scientific Systems

The notion or idea of science, quite aside from actual scientific enterprises, has achieved tremendous cultural power and prestige in modern society. The four studies in this special issue of Nova Religio on science and new religious movements indicate not only this newfound power, but also the contentious nature of its definition as well as its limits. The four articles reveal how founders, leaders and practitioners of new religious movements seek the authoritative mantle of science, and with it a perceived legitimacy, as well as challenge normative (Western) approaches to science assumed in much of modern society. In fact, these new religions generally seek to supplant normative Western science with the alternative religious-scientific systems they champion.

New Religious Movements and Scripture

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene V. Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
New Religions

In their efforts to establish legitimacy, many new religious movements link themselves to an authoritative past by producing interpretations of established scriptures or holy books. In the process, they sometimes produce holy books of their own that can be accorded the same status for their adherents as other, better known well-established, scriptural texts. As they do for established religions, in new religions scriptural texts serve as vehicles for the expression of fundamental practices and beliefs and support the efforts to gain the attention, approval, and even allegiance of a particular audience. This essay analyzes multiple examples of how new religious movements both offer innovative commentaries on existing sacred texts and produce their own, new scriptures.

New Religious Movements and the Visual Arts

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Massimo Introvigne
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Traditional Religions ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Modern Artists

Contrary to popular conceptions, modern artists are often religious. Some of them are part of mainstream religions including Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam. Others try to establish new religions and forms of spirituality based on art itself. A significant number of artists, while alienated from traditional religions, were either part of, or deeply influenced by, new religious movements and esoteric groups. Scholars have particularly focused on the influence of the Theosophical Society on the visual arts, but other movements have also been significant.

Media Treatment of New Religions in Quebec

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-155
Author(s):  
Susan J. Palmer ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
News Reports ◽  
New Religions ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Mass Media

This article focuses on how NRMs are depicted in the mass media in the province of Quebec, and examines some of the ethical, deontological and legal issues reflected in journalistic coverage of controversial groups known as “sectes” or “cults” in the francophone and anglophone medias. These groups include: Les Apôtres de l’Amour Infini, Le Mouvement Raëlien, L’Église essénienne chrétienne, L’Ordre du Temple solaire, La Cité Écologique de Ham-Nord, la Mission de l’Esprit-Saint, and Lev Tahor. News reports on these groups, collected over a period of fifteen years, will be analyzed within the framework of James A. Beckford’s 1994 study, “The Mass Media and New Religious Movements.” Relying on Beckford and models supplied by other sociologists, this chapter will identify various types of biased approaches used by journalists and analyzes the external pressures that shape their stories. Finally, it will attempt to explain why Quebec’s new religions are consistently portrayed by journalists as controversial and threatening, in a manner that tends to generate and perpetuate conflict.

Sensational Scientology!

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Religious Controversy ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Media ◽  
Television Coverage

The role of communications and information media long has been acknowledged as a key factor in religious controversy. Since the 1970s “cult wars,” new religions scholars have focused considerable attention on how the media communicate, influence and frame public perception of new religious movements. In this article, I briefly survey ways in which constant changes in communications media and consumption require scholars to reassess interaction between the media and new religious movements. Using as a test-case the Church of Scientology’s interaction with Australian “tabloid television” programs in a series of heavily publicized controversies, I outline some traditional journalistic practices and media constraints, identified by scholars, in television coverage of Scientology in Australia. I will introduce a series of additional practices and contingent factors dealing specifically with tabloid television which may assist scholars in assessing the complex relationship between the media and new religions.

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