Watching Movies in Jonestown: A Cultural Interlocutor Approach to Visual Media and New Religions

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Klippenstein
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
New Religions ◽  
And Behavior

This article argues that new religious movements (NRMs) develop as cultural interlocutors. As emergent social bodies that respond to extant norms, structures, and values, NRMs can deploy cultural products as a shared vocabulary and grammar in their response to surrounding society. To demonstrate this approach’s ability to parse NRMs’ relations to popular culture while highlighting organizationally distinctive dimensions of such interactions, this article examines Jim Jones’s references to visual media shown in Jonestown in 1978. Jones critiqued movies and television as tools of social control, repurposed documentaries and films as evidence to support his proffered doctrine, and creatively presented movies as analogues of the commune’s perceived challenges. This threefold hermeneutic shaped the Peoples Temple’s beliefs and behavior, as well as its own media productions.

Brainwashing and “Cultic Mind Control”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Control Techniques ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Mind Control

Unable to comprehend the appeal of New Religious Movements, many observers concluded that the leaders of such groups has discovered a special form of social control which enabled them to recruit their followers in non-ordinary ways, and, more particularly, to short-circuit their rational, questioning minds by keeping them locked in special trance states. A handful of professionals, mostly psychologists and psychiatrists with sentiments for the anti-cult movement, attempted to provide scientific grounding for this notion of cultic brainwashing/mind control, in part by referring back to studies of Korean War POWs who had been ‘brainwashed’ by their captors. This chapter revisits anti-cultism’s implicit ideological assumptions and the empirical studies indicating that conversions to contemporary new religions result from garden-variety sociological and psychological factors rather than from esoteric ‘mind control’ techniques.

Invention in “New New” Religions

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.

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

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.

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.

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