Edited by James R. Lewis
The relationship between new religious movements (NRMs) and violence has long been a topic of intense public interest - an interest heavily fueled by multiple incidents of mass violence involving certain groups. Some of these incidents have made international headlines. When New Religious
Movements make the news, it's usually because of some violent episode. Some of the most famous NRMs are known much more for the violent way they came to an end than for anything else.
Violence and New Religious Movements offers a comprehensive examination of violence by - and against -
new religious movements. The book begins with theoretical essays on the relationship between violence and NRMs and then moves on to examine particular groups. There are essays on the "Big Five" - the most well-known cases of violent incidents involving NRMs: Jonestown, Waco, Solar Temple, the Aum
Shunrikyo subway attack, and the Heaven's Gate suicides. But the book also provides a richer survey by examining a host of lesser-known groups. This volume is the culmination of decades of research by scholars of New Religious Movements.
Introduction
I: Theorizing NRM Violence
1. David G. Bromley: Deciphering the NRM-Violence Connection
2. James T. Richardson: Minority Religions and the Context of Violence: A Conflict/Interactionist Perspective
3. Anticult and Cult Violence: Reciprocal Totalism: The Toxic
Interdependence of Anticult and Cult Violence
II: The "Big Five" (Plus One)
4. Rebecca Moore: Narratives of Persecution, Suffering, and Martyrdom: Violence in Peoples Temple and Jonestown
5. Stuart A. Wright: Revisiting the Branch Davidian Mass Suicide Debate
6. Henrik Bogdan:
Explaining the murder-suicides of the Order of the Solar Temple: A survey of hypothesises
7. Martin Repp: Religion and Violence in Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo
8. Benjamin Zeller: The Euphemization of Violence: The Case of Heaven's Gate
9. Jean-Francois Mayer: "There will follow a
new generation and a New Earth": From Apocalyptic Hopes to Destruction in the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
III: Select Religious Groups Involved in Violence
10. Jonathan Peste: Murder in Knutby: Charisma, Eroticism and Violence in a Swedish Pentecostal
Community
11. Kaarina Aitamurto: Modern Pagan Warriors: Violence and Justice in Rodnoverie
12. Helen Crovetto: Ananda Marga, PROUT and the Use of Force
13. Burke Rochford: Knocking on Heaven's Door: Violence, Charisma, and the Transformation of New Vrindaban
IV: Rhetoric of
Violence and Peaceful Denouements
14. Martha Lee: The Nation of Islam and Violence
15. Marion Goldman: Cultural Capital, Social Networks, and Collective Violence at Rajneeshpuram
16. Constance Elsberg: "Strong as Steel, Steady as Stone": Skirting Pitfalls in 3HO/Sikh Dharma
17.
Jesper Aagaard Petersen: "Smite him hip and thigh": Satanism, violence and transgression
V: Violence Against NRMs
18. James T. Richardson and Bryan Edelman: State Fostered Violence against the Falun Gong in China
19. Anson Shupe: Deprogramming Violence: The Logic, Perpetration,
and Outcomes of Coercive Intervention
Afterword
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
James R. Lewis is an extensively published scholar of new religious movements. He currently teaches in the History and Religious Studies Department of the University of Tromsø in Norway. His reference books have won New York Public Library, American Library Association, and Choice book awards.
He has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, NPR, the BBC, and Meet the Press.
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