Description
Book SynopsisNew Religious Movements (NRMs) came into being as a distinct subfield of academic study in the 1970s in response to the explosion of non-traditional religions that took place in the waning years of the Sixties counterculture. (The designation âNew Religionâ is a direct translation of a Japanese term coined for the many new religions that emerged in the wake of the Second World War, and was adopted by Western scholars in the late Sixties/early Seventies in preference to the pejorative term âcultâ.) These movements, and those termed âsectsâ and âcultsâ, initially attracted the attention of American and European sociologists of religion because of the controversy that arose in response to their expansion.
Religious Studies, which at the time was still in the process of establishing itself as a legitimate discipline distinct from Theology and traditional Biblical Studies, was only too happy to leave NRMs to Sociology. This situation gradually changed, however, so that at present at least as many scholars of NRMs come from Religious Studies backgrounds as come from the social sciences.
The collection consists of four volumes which together provide a one-stop source for crucial information onâand theoretical/methodological approaches toâcontemporary New Religions. The set brings together thinking on a wide variety of themes associated with NRMs (e.g. apocalypticism, typologies, conversion, gender) and major works on the NRMs that have attracted the most scholarly attention (e.g. the âMooniesâ, The Family International, Osho Rajneesh). Some influential âanti-cultâ articles (normally not considered part of mainstream scholarship) have also been included as well.
Sects, Cults, and New Religions is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, and is destined to be valued as a vital research resource.
