Until recently, Irish religion has been seen as defined by Catholic power in the South and sectarianism in the North. In recent years, however, both have been shaken by widespread changes in religious practice and belief, the rise of new religious movements, the revival of magical-devotionalism, the arrival of migrant religion and the spread of New Age and alternative spirituality. This book is the first to bring together researchers exploring all these areas in a wide-ranging overview of new religion in Ireland. Chapters explore the role of feminism, Ireland as global ‘Celtic’ homeland, the growth of Islam, understanding the New Age, evangelicals in the Republic, alternative healing, Irish interest in Buddhism, channelled teachings and religious visions. This book will be an indispensable handbook for professionals in many fields seeking to understand Ireland’s increasingly diverse and multicultural religious landscape, as well as for students of religion, sociology, psychology, anthropology and Irish Studies. Giving an overview of the shape of new religion in Ireland today and models of the best work in the field, it is likely to remain a standard text for many years to come.

This book provides a comprehensive and field-defining examination of the study of religions in Ireland. By bringing together some of the foremost experts on religions in an Irish context, it critically traces the development of an important field of study and evaluates the thematic threads that have emerged as significant. It thereby offers an assessment of contemporary religions in Ireland and their relationships to society, culture, economics, politics and the State. Contributors make connections between topics as diverse as Ireland's Revolutionary Period, the formation of the Irish State, the decline of Catholicism, the rise of migrant religions and New Religious Movements and the effects of secularisation on religions and society. This book emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the study of religions whilst illustrating the coherent themes that have shaped the development of the field in Ireland, making it unique.

What does religion mean to modern Ireland and what is its recent social and political history? The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Modern Ireland provides in-depth analysis of the relationships between religion, society, politics, and everyday life on the island of Ireland from 1800 to the twenty-first century. Taking a chronological and all-island approach, it explores the complex and changing role of religion both before and after partition. The handbook's thirty-two chapters address long-standing historical and political debates about religion, identity, and politics, including religion's contributions to division and violence. They also offer perspectives on how religion interacts with education, the media, law, gender and sexuality, science, literature, and memory. Whilst providing insight into how everyday religious practices have intersected with the institutional structures of Catholicism and Protestantism, the book also examines the island's increasing religious diversity, including the rise of those with 'no religion'. Written by leading scholars in the field and emerging researchers with new perspectives, this is an authoritative and up-to-date volume that offers a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of the enduring significance of religion on the island.

New Religious Movements: Challenge & Response is the most comprehensive, wide-ranging study on the global impact of new religions. * New religions discussed include Hare Krishna, Sikh Dharma, The Unification Church, The Church of Scientology, The Jesus People and Wicca. * Focuses on the rise of new religious movements in Italy, Brazil, United States, Germany and Britain. * The contributors are among the most respected and reputable experts in the field.

There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements provides an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those that are well established in the West. The contemporary—and in some cases controversial—NRMs covered include the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, Osho, Soka Gakkai International and the Western Buddhist Order.

New religious movements such as the Moonies, Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishnas are now well established in mainstream cultural consciousness. But responses to these 'cult' groups still tend to be overwhelmingly negative, characterized by the furious reactions that they evoke from majority interests. Modern societies need to learn how best to respond to such movements, and how to interpret their benefits and dangers. Researching New Religious Movements provides a cutting-edge analysis of the controversy around new religions in America and Europe today. Drawing on original fieldwork, it explores the battles between the recruiting factions of groups like the Moonies, and the anti-cult movements and Church societies that have mobilized to oppose these. It considers academic and media interventions on both sides, placing special emphasis on the problems of objectivity inherent in the language of 'sects', 'abduction' and 'brainwashing'. Ideal for students, researchers and professionals, this provocative and much-needed book takes the debate over new religious movements to a newly sophisticated level.

In this book, historians of religion and gender studies explore the biographies of a number of female leaders, and the factors within their groups and cultural contexts that support these women’s religious leadership. New Religious Movements have been supportive of women taking roles of leadership for a long time. Authors of this book examine issues of gender and female leadership from diverse theoretical and methodological standpoints. The book covers a broad range of groups both with regard to time and place, covering Paganism, Hindu guru groups, Christian organizations, esoteric/ mystical movements, African churches, and a Japanese NRM. The common focal point is the powerful, prophetic, charismatic women who have founded and/ or led New Religious Movements.

RENNER Studies on New Religions is an initiative supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. The series was established to publish books on alternative spiritual movements from a wide range of perspectives. The books will appeal to an international readership of scholars, students, and professionals in the study of religion, theology, the arts, and the social sciences. It is hoped that this series will provide a proper context for scientific exchange between these often competing disciplines. Stimulated by travel, mass media and education, individuals have spent the twentieth century questioning organized religion, and at the start of a new millennium, many are turning to spirituality rooted in ancient practice, but modernized by secular experience. In this volume, an international group of authors surveys the religious and spiritual movements growing in popularity in Western Europe including (to name a few) theosophy, Transcendental Meditation, the Rosicrucians, the Occult, and Hare Krishna.

This book provides a unique insight into the lived realities of hate crime in Ireland and its treatment within the criminal justice system. The significance of the Irish case is contextualised within the European and global policy contexts and an overview of hate crime in Ireland, both north and south, and its differential treatment in each jurisdiction’s criminal justice system is offered. Presenting empirically grounded analyses of the experiences of commonly targeted identity groups in an Irish context, this study also draws upon their exposure to hate crime and challenges encountered in seeking redress. Combining theory, research and practice, this book represents legal, social, cultural and political concerns pertinent to understanding, preventing, deterring and combatting hate crime across Ireland. It incorporates a variety of perspectives on the hate crime paradigm and addresses many of the cutting-edge debates arising in the field of hate studies. Contributions from Irish and international academic researchers are complemented by applied pieces authored by practitioners and policy makers actively engaged with affected communities. This is a progressive and informed text which will be of great value to activists, policy makers and scholars of hate crime and criminal justice.

How does religion maintain or challenge discourses on national identity? What are the roles that religion plays on all sides – from Islamophobia of the radical right to the Christian alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Islamic beliefs and practices of European citizens as well as migrant communities – in the constitution of Fortress Europe? Are there any alliances shaping between belief and unbelief on either side of the battle for the future of Europe? These questions and more motivate the chapters in this timely interdisciplinary collection, with contributions focusing on diverse contexts throughout Europe involving a broad range of religious identifications and actors.