LibGuides UFV: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion E.D.I.: New Religious Movements

New Religious Movements

New Religious Movements refers to two separate religious phenomena. First, there are the new religions of aboriginal and tribal people in the Third World, which are the result of an interaction between local, indigenous religions and Christianity, and to a lesser extent Hinduism and Buddhism. Various terms have been given to such religions: messianic, nativistic, and revitalization religions. They are seen by anthropologists to be responses or adjustments by relatively powerless people to their social dislocation in the face of direct or indirect colonialism. They often borrow the radical theology of early Christianity to express a profound symbolic protest.

Second, there are new religions in the developed, industrial societies of the West, which are often associated with youth movements and the counter-culture. These are often syncretist, borrowing elements from many different religious and philosophical traditions. Sociologists have claimed that such religions satisfy the psychological and social needs of young people seeking a meaning for life which they cannot find in the mainstream religious traditions. Examples include the Divine Light Mission, Hare Krishna, the Unification Church, and Scientology. They are often termed ‘movements’ because they are looser and more diffuse than established religions and have some of the characteristics of a social movement." "new religions." Oxford Reference. . . Date of access 27 Jul. 2021, <https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100232369>

Resources

Cyberhenge by Douglas E. Cowan
Call Number: BP605 .N46 C69 2005
Cyberhenge examines the use of Internet technology in shaping religious traditions and rituals. Cowan asks how and why Neopaganism has embraced the Internet in such an innovative and imaginative way.
Scientology by James R. Lewis
Call Number: E-book
The present volume brings together an international group of top scholars on New Religious Movements to offer an extensive and even-handed overview and analysis of all of these aspects of Scientology, including the controversies to which it continues to give rise. The book's six parts take a detailed look at the Church through its similarities to and differences from other religions, conflicts with various groups, overseas missions, and its theology, history, and sociology.
Controversial New Religions by James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa Petersen
Call Number: BP603 .C66 2014
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's 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. 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 written in an accessible form by established scholars as well as younger experts in the field, 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.
Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic by Jenny Blain
Call Number: BF1622 .S34 B57 2002 eb
This accessible study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds. Written by a follower of seidr, it investigates new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.
New Religious Movements: a Guide for the Perplexed by Paul Oliver
Call Number: BL80.2 .O55 2012
This book analyses the concepts we use to discuss new religions, and surveys a range of different movements which were established in the second half of the 20th century. Paul Oliver explores the organization of the movements, and the psychological aspects of life within them; the distribution of power and authority within movements; the position of women in relation to such organizations, and finally, the nature of the evolution and expansion of such movements in relation to post-modern society.
Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements by Peter Clarke (Editor)
Call Number: BL98 E53 2006 eb
New Religious Movements (NRMs) can involve vast numbers of followers and in many cases are radically changing the way people understand and practice religion and spirituality. Moreover, many are having a profound impact on the form and content of mainstream religion. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements provides uniquely global coverage of the phenomenon, with entries on over three-hundred movement from almost every country in the world.
Witching Culture by Sabina Magliocco
Call Number: BF1573 .M34 2004
Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning.
Aliens Adored by Susan J. Palmer
Call Number: BP605 .R338 P35 2004
Aliens Adored is the first full length, in-depth look at the Raëlian movement, a fascinating new religion founded in the 1970s by the charismatic prophet, Raël. Born in France as Claude Vorilhon, the former race-car driver founded the religion after he experienced a visitation from the aliens (the "elohim") who, in his cosmology, created humans by cloning themselves. The millenarian movement awaits the return of the alien creators, and in the meantime seeks to develop the potential of its adherents through free love, sexual experimentation, opposition to nuclear proliferation and war, and the development of the science of cloning.
New Age Religion and Western Culture by W. J. Hanegraaff
Call Number: BP605 .N48 H36 1996
Analyzing contemporary New Age beliefs, this work argues that the foundations of such beliefs lie in the Western esoteric traditions of the Renaissance. The modern New Age movement is seen as having emerged from the secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century.