Table of Contents

Introduction to New Religious Movements Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein; Part I. Social Science Perspectives: 1. The sociology of New Religious Movements David Bromley; 2. Religion and the Internet Douglas Cowan; 3. Major controversies involving New Religious Movements: a comparative perspective James Richardson; Part II. Themes: 4. History and the end of time in New Religions Garry Trompf; 5. Charismatic leaders in New Religions Catherine Wessinger; 6. Rituals in New Religions Graham Harvey; 7. Canonical and extracanonical texts in New Religions Mikael Rothstein and Olav Hammer; Part III. New Religions in the West and Beyond: 8. Scientology: up stat, down stat James Lewis; 9. Neo-Paganism Sabina Magliocco; 10. The International Raelian Movement Susan J. Palmer and Bryan Sentes; 11. The Sathya Sai Baba Movement Tulasi Srinivas; 12. Neo-Sufism Mark Sedgwick; 13. Satanism Asbjørn Dyrendal and Jesper Aagaard Pedersen; 14. Theosophy James Santucci; 15. The New Age George Chryssides; 16. 'Jihadism' as a New Religious Movement Reuven Firestone; 17. New Religions in the New Russia Marat Shterin; 18. New Religious Movements in sub-Saharan Africa Peter Clarke.

Promotional Information

This volume addresses the key features of new religions, such as Scientology, the Moonies and Jihadist movements, from a systematic, comparative perspective.

About the Author

Olav Hammer is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark. He is author of Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age (2001) and co-editor of Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and its Others (with Kocku von Stuckrad, 2007), The Invention of Sacred Tradition (with James R. Lewis, 2007) and the Brill Handbook of the Theosophical Tradition (with Mikael Rothstein, 2012). Mikael Rothstein is Associate Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Copenhagen and Visiting Professor at the Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas. He is author of Belief Transformations (1996), editor of New Age and Globalization (2001) and co-editor (with Tim Jensen) of Secular Theories in the Study of Religion (2000).

Reviews

'There's some excellent material in this book especially on individual movements.' Fortean Times

'… volume editors Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein have solicited brand new essays from an impressive array of international scholars who work on new religious movements (NRMs), all with extensive records of publication and most with advanced academic standing. … this book would make an excellent addition to any library reference collection. Secondarily it has the potential to serve as a textbook in classrooms focused on the study of NRMs; those teaching in this area might consider it for that purpose, but should do so knowing that it will need to be supplemented with additional material.' Nova Religio