Edited by James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa. Petersen
In terms of public opinion, new religious movements are considered controversial for a variety of reasons ranging from how they speak, dress, and eat, to the way they think and their sense of community. Their social organization often runs counter to popular expectations by experimenting with
communal living (or strict individualism), alternative leadership roles (or flat network structures), unusual economic dispositions, and new political and ethical values. As a result the general public views new religions with a mixture of curiosity, amusement, and anxiety, sustained by lavish media
emphasis on oddness and tragedy rather than familiarity and lived experience.
This updated and revised second edition of Controversial New Religions offers a scholarly, dispassionate look at those groups that have generated the most attention, including some very well-known classical
groups like The Family, Unification Church, Scientology, and Jim Jones' People's Temple; some relative newcomers such as the Kabbalah Centre, the Order of the Solar Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, and the Falun Gong; and some interesting cases like contemporary Satanism, the Raelians, Black
nationalism, and various Pagan groups. Written by established scholars as well as younger experts in the field, each essay combines an overview of the history and beliefs of each organization or movement with original and insightful analysis. By presenting decades of scholarly work on new religious
movements in an accessible form, this book will be an invaluable resource for all those who seek a view of new religions that is deeper than what can be found in sensationalistic media stories.
Contributors
Introduction
Part I: Western Religious Traditions
1. James Chancellor: A Family for the 21st Century
2. Sarah Lewis: The Unification Church
3. Rebecca Moore: The Controversies About Peoples Temple and Jonestown
4. Gene Gallagher: The Branch
Davidians
5. Jane Skjoldli: Charismatic Controversies in the Jesus People, Calvary Chapel, and Vineyard Movements
6. Jody Myers: Kabbalah Centre: Marketing and Meaning
7. Goran Larsson: Controversial Afro-American Muslim Organizations
Part II: Asian and Asian-Inspired
Traditions
8. James R. Lewis: The Earth School: The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness
9. Malcolm Haddon: Contested Genealogies and Cross-cultural Dynamics in the Hare Krishna Movement
10. Inga Tòllefsen: Transcendental Meditation, the Art of Living Foundation and Public
Relations: From Psychedelic Romanticism to Science and Schism
11. Marion S. Goldman: Controversy, Cultural Influence, and the Osho/Rajneesh Movement
12. Martin Repp: Aum Shinrikyo and the Aum Incident: A Critical Introduction
13. Helen Farley: Falun Gong: A Narrative of Pending
Apocalypse, Shape-shifting Aliens and Relentless Persecution
Part III: Western Esoteric and New Age Groups
14. Kjersti Hellesòy: Scientology: The Making of a Religion
15. Jocelyn DeHass: The Church Universal and Triumphant: Controversy, Change, and Continuance
16. Henrik
Bogdan: The Order of the Solar Temple
17. Siv Ellen Kraft: New Age Spiritualities
18. Manon Hedenborg White: Contemporary Paganism
19. Anne Kalvig: Popularity of--and Controversy in--Contemporary Shamanism
Part IV: Other Groups and Movements
20. George D. Chryssides: "Come
on up, and I will show thee": Heaven's Gate as a Post-modern Group
21. Erik Estling: "Those Who Came from the Sky": Ancient Astronauts and Creationism in the Ra#0lian Religion
22. Mattias Gardell: Wolf Age Pagans
23. Jesper Aagaard Petersen: Carnal, Chthonian, Complicated: The Matter of
Modern Satanism
Index
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James R. Lewis is a prominent, highly-published scholar of New Religious Movements. He is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø in Tromsø, Norway. Lewis currently co-edits three book series and is the general editor for the Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review and
the Journal of Religion and Violence. He co-founded the International Society for the Study of New Religions and the Alternative Spirituality and New Age Studies association. Jesper Aa. Petersen is Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway,
specializing in Religious Education and Religious Studies. He is the editor of several anthologies, most recently The Devil's Party: Satanism in Modernity (OUP, 2013) with Per Faxneld. His primary areas of research include contemporary esotericism and occult milieus, non-religion and critical
religious education.
Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin
Controversial New Religions - Edited by James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen
Comprehending Cults - Lorne L. Dawson
Violence and New Religious Movements - Edited by James R. Lewis
