scholarly journals A Joke, Mockery, or Something More? The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – an Invented Religion or a New Movement?

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Siarhei A. Anoshka ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Short History ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This article attempts to analyse a contemporary phenomenon from the sphere of alternative religiosity in the form of joke religions. The main subject of the analysis is a new religious movement called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (CFSM), founded in the USA in 2005. By referring to the theory of carnival fun, joining the sacrum and profanum, and passing through the various doctrinal threads of this religious movement, the author attempts to answer the question of whether the CFSM can be considered a genuine religion or only a joke. The article begins with a short reflection on the possibility of joking about religion and faith, and the response to religious humour by people of faith, which may range from anger to disgust and sometimes even to aggression. Then, after a short history of this new (pseudo-)religious movement, a perspective is developed. It emerges that the whole structure of the so-called doctrine of this (quasi-)religion refers to other known religions and beliefs, including other new religious movements.

The Occult Roots of Scientology?

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh B. Urban
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
American Students ◽  
Aleister Crowley ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Church

The Church of Scientology remains one of the most controversial and poorly understood new religious movements to emerge in the last century. And among the most controversial questions in the early history of the Church is L. Ron Hubbard's involvement in the ritual magic of Aleister Crowley and the possible role of occultism in the development of Scientology. While some critics argue that Crowley's magic lies at the very heart of Scientology, most scholars have dismissed any connection between the Church and occultism. This article examines all of the available historical material, ranging from Hubbard's personal writings, to correspondence between Crowley and his American students, to the first Scientology lectures of the 1950s. Crowley's occult ideas, I argue, do in fact represent one—but only one—element in the rich, eclectic bricolage that became the early Church of Scientology; but these occult elements are also mixed together with themes drawn from Eastern religions, science fiction, pop psychology, and Hubbard's own fertile imagination.

Light of Life Christian Group as a New Religious Movement in Zimbabwe

Exchange ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-176
Author(s):  
Misheck Mudyiwa
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Current Article

The birth and rapid growth of new religious movements in Zimbabwe is a marked phenomenon in the history of Christianity in Africa. Ever since the Reformation that split the Western Church in the 16th century, a number of efforts have since been made by various new religious movements to try and foster ecumenism amongst the deeply divided ecclesiastical communities. Whilst great strides have since been made in critical areas such as common witnessing, inter-religious dialogue, common prayers, mixed marriages, ecumenism in faculties of theology, among other areas, one key element of ecumenism, namely, the common celebration of the Eucharist has always remained very remote and a no go area. To a greater extent, the Roman Catholic authorities in particular have been accused of dragging their feet or taking a ‘distant and detached’ approach to the same practice.1 This current article specifically examines the Light of Life Christian Group’s (llcg) vision of ecumenism, particularly its practice of Eucharistic intercommunion that dates back to the early 1970s. The main argument developed in this article is that, whilst llcg may stand in sharp opposition to the traditional Christian (particularly Catholic) view with regard to sharing the Eucharist with non-Catholics and norms governing the formation of public associations, it has made a breakthrough in the realization of the highest goal of ecumenism. To a greater extent, it has also succeeded in uniting the various denominations that for centuries had been separated by doctrine, history and practice. The article also argues that whilst llcg’s breakthrough is of pinnacle importance in the history of Christianity in Zimbabwe in particular, it is also unique in the sense that, instead of starting from above, from popes and bishops as is always expected and canonically constituted, the breakthrough has started from below.

Race and New Religious Movements in the USA

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Native American Church ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Moorish Science

Organized in chronological order of the founding of each movement, this documentary reader brings to life new religious movements from the 18th to 20th century. Engaging with religious studies theory and method and critical race theory, students are provided with the tools needed in order to understand questions of race, religion, and American religious history. Each chapter has: An introduction to the movement, including the context of its foundingTwo to four primary source documents about or from the movementSuggestions for further reading. Movements covered include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), the Native American Church, the Moorish Science Temple, and the Nation of Islam. The voices included come from both men and women. Showing that religio-racial movements have been a perennial aspect of American history from the colonial period to the present, this reader provides a history of innovative social groups in America. A timeline of movements is included, and discussion and study questions can be found in the book’s online resources.

scholarly journals Development of the Genealogical FamilySearch Database and Expanding Its Use to Map and Measure Multiple Generations of American Migration

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Samuel M. Otterstrom ◽  
Brian E. Bunker ◽  
Michael A. Farnsworth
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Short History ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genealogical Data ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
The Church ◽  
Family Trees

Genealogical research is full of opportunities for connecting generations. Millions of people pursue that purpose as they put together family trees that span hundreds of years. These data are valuable in linking people to the people of their past and in developing personal identities, and they can also be used in other ways. The purposes of this paper are to first give a short history of the development and practice of family history and genealogical research in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has developed the FamilySearch website, and second, to show how genealogical data can illustrate forward generation migration flows across the United States by analyzing resulting patterns and statistics. For example, descendants of people born in several large cities exhibited distinct geographies of migration away from the cities of their forebears.

scholarly journals Modes of narrativity in the short history of Nikephoros of Constantinople

2015 ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
Dragoljub Marjanovic
Keyword(s):  
Short History ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
Key Accounts ◽  
Imperial Governance ◽  
The Church ◽  
Original Approach

Modes of narrativity applied in the Short history by Nikephoros of Constantinople are investigated on the basis of several key accounts which form a specific message of the author on the level of his entire work. This specific manner of literary presentation is particularly manifested in Nikephoros? original approach in portrayal of the Byzantine emperors and the patriarchs of Constantinople of the 7th and 8th centuries, thus embedding a specific idea of both imperial governance personalized in the reign of emperor Herakleios, and mutual relations between the Empire and the patriarchs of the Church of Constantinople, as presented in the accounts of patriarchs Sergios and Pyrrhos.

scholarly journals New Religious Movements: A Bibliographic Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movement ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Academic Study

This article provides a map to the bibliographic landscape for the academic study of new religious movements (NRMs). The article first considers the development of the scholarly subfield, including debates over the nature of the concept of ‘new religious movement’ and recent scholarship on the nature of this key term, as well as the most salient research areas and concepts. Next, the article introduces the most important bibliographic materials in the subfield: journals focusing on the study of NRMs, textbooks and reference volumes, book series and monographic literature, online resources, and primary sources.

scholarly journals The Closed Religious Community: the Strategy of Forming аnd the Principles of Functioning

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-100
Author(s):  
Svetlana V. Riazanova
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
World View ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Total Community

The point of the author’s research interest is mechanisms for the formation of a private religious community on the example of the Intersession brotherhood. A group of believers was emerged as part of the revival of the Orthodox life of the Kama region, but transformed into specific organization with features of popular religion, new religious movements and so-called “historical sects.” Author reconstructs the history of the community involving elements of the biographical method. The study is based on interviews and correspondence with former members of the community, close people of the residents of the commune, as well as analysis of the materials of the closed group on the social network, some audio of the groups’ seminars, photocopies of the working notebooks of the group and a series of photographs made by the believers. The investigation is based on the theoretical constructions of E. Goffman and the concept of total community. Intersession brotherhood appears as a community with the features of totality – territorial and communication closure of the residents, their employment in internal jobs, perception of the group as a family. Lack of privacy is combined with the presence of “mother-child” connection to the leader. The practice of naming for adults, the creation of new marriages, participation in gender-oriented councils create a special micro-environment with the unification of the world view. The system of privileges for advanced residents is supplemented by a developed system of fines. It makes possible to speak about special tools that lead to a change of values, a narrowing of the set of social roles and a reduction of critical thinking.

scholarly journals The articulation between evolutionism and creationism in New Religious Movements: Two South American case studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
Vitor Campanha
Keyword(s):  
Biological Evolution ◽  
New Age ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
The Internet ◽  
South American ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
American Case

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how certain religious perspectives present nuances between the concepts of creation and evolution. Although public debate characterizes them as polarized concepts, it is important to understand how contemporary religious expressions resignify them and create arrangements in which biological evolution and creation by the intervention of higher beings are presented in a continuum. It begins with a brief introduction on the relations and reframing of Science concepts in the New Religious Movements along with New Age thinking. Then we have two examples which allows us to analyze this evolution-creation synthesis. First, I will present a South American New Religious Movement that promotes bricolage between the New Age, Roman Catholicism and contacts with extraterrestrials. Then, I will analyze the thoughts of a Brazilian medium who disseminates lectures along with the channeling of ETs in videos on the internet, mixing the elements of ufology with cosmologies of Brazilian religions such as Kardecist spiritism and Umbanda. These two examples share the idea of ​​the intervention of extraterrestrial or superior beings in human evolution, thus, articulating the concepts of evolution and creation. Therefore, in these arrangements it is possible to observe an inseparability between spiritual and material, evolution and creation or biological and spiritual evolution.

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