New Religious Movements: A Guide for the Perplexed PDF Download

Author: Paul Oliver
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441101977
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Discusses the philosophical, sociological, and psychological themes in new religious movements, and includes a survey and explanation of a few groups.

Author: Irving Hexham
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830876529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
A 2003 Finalist in the Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards! Studying new religious movements can be like trying to learn several languages at once, each with its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax. The flourishing variety of these movements today makes the task even more difficult. Irving Hexham has designed Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements to be an indispensable companion for students of religion and a fascinating guide for curious and perplexed observers of the religious scene. Here are nearly 450 entries covering specific groups, from the Aetherius Society to the Zion Christian Church practices, from the Alexander technique to Yoga UFO religion, from alien abductions to Unarius Academy of Science symbols, from the ankh to yin-yang religious texts, from the apocryphal New Testament to the Vinaya-Pitaka religious leaders, from George Adamski to Rabbi Zalman Reference books on religion tend to be too large, expensive and unwieldy for those who want quick information. Both handy and affordable, this Pocket Dictionary offers quick, concise and reliable answers to basic questions about new religious movements.

Author: George D. Chryssides
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441174494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements covers key themes such as charismatic leadership, conversion and brainwashing, prophecy and millennialism, violence and suicide, gender and sexuality, legal issues, and the portrayal of New Religious Movements by the media and anti-cult organisations. Several categories of new religions receive special attention, including African new religions, Japanese new religions, Mormons, and UFO religions. This guide to New Religious Movements and their critical study brings together 29 world-class international scholars, and serves as a resource to students and researchers. The volume highlights the current state of academic study in the field, and explores areas in which future research might develop. Clearly and accessibly organised to help users quickly locate key information and analysis, the book includes an A to Z of key terms, extensive guides to further resources, a comprehensive bibliography, and a timeline of major developments in the field such as the emergence of new groups, publications, legal decisions, and historical events.

Author: Robert H. Stockman
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441192018
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Clear introduction to the Bahá'í vision and development of its community.

Author: Pinchas Giller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441176756
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Kabbalah: A Guide for the Perplexed is a concise and accessible introduction to the major elements of the prevalent metaphysical system of Judaism, Kabbalah. The book covers the historical and theoretical essence of Kabbalah, offering a clear definition of the term and the limitations of what Kabbalah is and is not. Pinchas Giller provides an overview of the history of the movement, reflecting the sweep of Jewish history as a whole, and examines its metaphysical system, the advanced mythos of early and later Luria, doctrines of the soul, and the mysteries of Jewish religious practice and law. The book concludes with a summary of the contemporary kabbalistic phenomena, particularly in light of the notoriety of some modern purveyors of Kabbalah. As cogent and objective as possible, this is the ideal companion for those wishing to gain a sound understanding of this often perplexing mystical aspect of Judaism.

Author: George D. Chryssides
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441198296
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements covers key themes such as charismatic leadership, conversion and brainwashing, prophecy and millennialism, violence and suicide, gender and sexuality, legal issues, and the portrayal of New Religious Movements by the media and anti-cult organisations. Several categories of new religions receive special attention, including African new religions, Japanese new religions, Mormons, and UFO religions. This guide to New Religious Movements and their critical study brings together 29 world-class international scholars, and serves as a resource to students and researchers. The volume highlights the current state of academic study in the field, and explores areas in which future research might develop. Clearly and accessibly organised to help users quickly locate key information and analysis, the book includes an A to Z of key terms, extensive guides to further resources, a comprehensive bibliography, and a timeline of major developments in the field such as the emergence of new groups, publications, legal decisions, and historical events.

Author: James R. Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190466170
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements both covers the current state of the field and breaks new ground. Its contributors, drawn form both sociology and religious studies, are leading figures in the study of NRMs.

Author: James R. Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190611529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) is one of the fastest-growing areas of religious studies, and since the release of the first edition of The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements in 2003, the field has continued to expand and break new ground. In this all-new volume, James R. Lewis and Inga B. T?llefsen bring together established and rising scholars to address an expanded range of topics, covering traditional religious studies topics such as "scripture," "charisma," and "ritual," while also applying new theoretical approaches to NRM topics. Other chapters cover understudied topics in the field, such as the developmental patterns of NRMs and subcultural considerations in the study of NRMs. The first part of this book examines NRMs from a social-scientific perspective, particularly that of sociology. In the second section, the primary factors that have put the study of NRMs on the map, controversy and conflict, are considered. The third section investigates common themes within the field of NRMs, while the fourth examines the approaches that religious studies researchers have taken to NRMs. As NRM Studies has grown, subfields such as Esotericism, New Age Studies, and neo-Pagan Studies have grown as distinct and individual areas of study, and the final section of the book investigates these emergent fields.

Author: Wayne Hudson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350331732
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Deploying a distinctive disaggregative approach to the study of 'religion', this volume shows that spiritual movements with extensive counterfactual beliefs have been much more creative than one might expect. Specifically, Wayne Hudson explores the creativity of six spiritual movements: the Bahá'ís, a Persian movement; Soka Gakkai, a Japanese movement; Ananda Marga and the Brahma Kumaris, two reformed Hindu movements; and two controversial American churches, The Church Universal and Triumphant and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of these movements have counterintuitive features that have led Western scholars making Enlightenment assumptions to dismiss them as irrational and/or inconsequential. However, this book reveals that these movements have responded to modernity in ways that are creative and practical, resulting in a wide range of social, educational and cultural initiatives. Building on research surrounding the ways in which spiritual movements engage in cultural productions, this book takes the international research in a new direction by exploring the utopian intentionality such cultural productions reveal.

Author: Peter A. Huff
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440870837
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
An overview essay and approximately 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries explore the background and significance of atheism and agnosticism in modern society. This is the age of atheism and agnosticism. The number of people living without religious belief and practice is quickly and dramatically rising. Some experts call nonreligion, after Christianity and Islam, the third largest "religion" in the world today. Understanding the origins, history, variations, and impact of atheism and agnosticism is crucial to getting a grasp of the meaning of the present and gaining a glimpse of the future. Exploring some of the most extraordinary people, events, and ideas of all time, this book provides a fair, comprehensive, and engaging survey of all aspects of contemporary atheism and agnosticism. An overview essay discusses the background and social and political contexts of unbelief, while a timeline highlights key events. Some 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries follow, with each providing fundamental, objective information about particular topics along with cross-references and suggestions for further reading. The volume closes with an annotated bibliography of the most important resources on atheism and agnosticism.