Table of Contents

Foreword

 

Preface

 

Timeline

 

 

1: What Are New Religious Movements?

 

Stereotyping NRMs

 

Defining NRMs

 

Explaining NRMs

            Social change

            Historical continuity and cultural context

 

Studying NRMs

 

 

2: NRMS as Modern Heresy

 

A Short History of Heresy

Christian heresy after the Reformation

 

The End of Heretics and the Beginning of Enthusiasts and Cults

Development of the modern cult stereotype in nineteenth-century America

 

The Christian Countercult Movement

            The current anticult movement

            Brainwashing

 

Close-up: The Unification Church

 

 

3: NRMs as Esoteric Revival

 

The Ancient and Medieval Worlds

 

From Renaissance to Enlightenment 

 

NRMs in the nineteenth century

            Mormonism

            Spiritualism

            Theosophy

            Mind Cure movements

            Where are the nineteenth-century new religions now?

 

Esoteric Currents in the Twentieth Century

            UFO movements

            Esotericism meets science

            Neopaganism

            The New Age

 

Close-up: Channeling NRMs: Lazaris and Ramtha

 

                       

4: NRMs as Asian Missions to the West

 

The Missionary Impulse

            Global Buddhism

            Modern Hinduism

            Sikh influences

            East Asian traditions

 

Asian “NRMs” in the West Before 1965

 

The World’s Parliament of Religions and its Aftermath

 

Asian NRMs in the West: The Post-1965 Boom

            Buddhism

            Hinduism

            Sikhism

 

Close-up: Soka Gakkai

 

 

5: New Religions in East Asia

 

China

            From prehistory to the early twentieth century

            The early twentieth century

            Religion in China today

            NRMs and qigong

           

Vietnam

 

Korea

 

Japan

            The history of Japanese NRMs

 

Close-up: Konkokyo

Close-up: Falun gong

 

 

 

6: New Religions of Africa and the African Diaspora

 

African Neo-traditional NRMs

 

African Initiated Churches

            Christianity in Africa: background

            The development of AICs

            Understanding AICs

 

NRMs of the African Diaspora

            Afro-Catholic NRMS

            African NRMs in North America

            Rastafarianism

            Nation of Islam

 

Close-up: The Kimbanguist Church

 

 

7: Islamic New Religions

 

Mystical Islamic NRMs: Sufism

 

Revivalism and Scriptural Fundamentalism

            Al-Qaeda as NRM

 

Close-up: Baha’i

 

 

8: The Global Future of New Religious Movements

 

NRMs and Globalization

 

Global Connections: NRMs and the Internet

 

Global Fears: NRMs and Violence

 

Is There a Future for NRMs?

 

Notes

Glossary

Suggested Further Reading

Internet Resources

Index