Although the Great Anti-Cult Crusade links new religious movements to dangerous cults, brainwashing, and the need for deprogramming, Karla Poewe and Irving Hexham argue that many cults are the product of a dynamic interaction between folk religions and the teachings of traditional world religions. Drawing on examples from Africa, the United States, Asia, and Europe, they suggest that few new religions are really new. Most draw on rich, if localized, cultural traditions that are shaped anew by the influence of technological change and international linkages. With the widespread loss of belief in biblical mythology in the nineteenth century, new mythologies based on science and elements derived from various non-Western religious traditions emerged, leading to the growth and popularity of new religions and cults.

Annotation "Religion and Global Culture draws together the work of a group of historians of religion whose concern is situating the contemporary study of religion within the cultural complexity of the modern world. Each of the volume's contributors has independently explored the implications of the work of leading historian of religion, Charles H. Long, who has located religion in the contacts and exchanges of the colonial and post-colonial periods. Together with Long, these scholars consider phenomena ranging from hierophanies of water in Tokyp and the civil and ritual activities of African Immigrant communities in the United States to the philosophy of Sankara and the regional reprecussions of multinational business. They invite a reconfiguration of the study of religion by localizing religion itself in the conflicted and cooperative relationships of the colonial and post-colonial periods."

This volume provides a complete guide to the global impact and cultural significance of new religious movements.

Since the 1960s virtually every part of the world has seen the arrival and establishment of Japanese new religious movements, a process that has followed quickly on the heels of the most active period of Japanese economic expansion overseas. This book examines the nature and extent of this religious expansion outside Japan.

New Religious Movements in the 21st Century is the first volume to examine the urgent and important issues facing new religions in their political, legal and religious contexts in global perspective. With essays from prominent NRM scholars and usefully organized into four regional areas covering Western Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe, and North and South America, as well as a concluding section on the major themes of globalization and terrorist violence, this book provides invaluable insight into the challenges facing religion in the twenty-first century. An introduction by Tom Robbins provides an overview of the major issues and themes discussed in the book.

Globalization is a predominant theme in contemporary educational and political circles. Research on globalization has become a political priority because the world has become a 'single place', as Roland Robertson formulated it, where events in any particular part of the world can, and often do, have political, economical and military consequences for the rest of the world. Discourse on globalization, however, has generally ignored the cultural consequences. Recent waves of violence that seem to be religiously fueled, if not motivated, among immigrants and refugees in Europe and their home regions in the Middle East, have demonstrated that we can only ignore culture, values and religion at our own peril. Globalization and new religions is the theme of this book. It is argued here that studying new religions in a globalization perspective offers theoretical and methodological advantages both for the general study of religion and the general study of globalization. Religions are often cosmopolitan and universal in their overall message, yet they may at the same time be utterly immersed in local interactions. This is often clearly expressed among minority religions. The contrast of the local and the global is accentuated by globalization, and, in particular, many new religions have followed suit. This book draws together a selection of top quality papers given at a conference held in Aarhus in 2002 under the auspices of the Research Network on New Religions (RENNER). The papers, which have been edited and up-dated, represent the work of leading scholars in the history of religions, sociology of religion, psychology of religion and other disciplines. They address questions that are vital for everyone in the modern world: whether approached as a reflection of world economy and power dynamics, new possibilities of communication and cultural exchange in the light of mass media and technology, increased cultural plurality in the wake of migration or as a combination of any of these, globalization challenges the academic study of religion to renewed theoretical and methodological reflection.

Looking at modern German paganism as well as the established Church, Poewe reveals that the new religions founded in the pre-Nazi and Nazi years, especially Jakob Hauer's German Faith Movement, would be a model for how German fascism distilled aspects of religious doctrine into political extremism."--BOOK JACKET.

Discussions of any religion can easily raise passions. But arguments tend to become even more heated when the religion under discussion is characterized as new. Divisions around the study of new religious movements (NRMs), or cults, or nontraditional or alternative or emergent religions are so acute that there is even controversy over what to call them. John Saliba strives to bring balance to these discussions by offering perspectives on new religions from different academic perspectives: history, psychology, sociology, law, theology, and counseling. This approach provides rich descriptions of a broad range of movements while demonstrating how the differing aims of the disciplines can create much of the controversy around NRMs. The new second edition has been updated and revised throughout and includes a new foreword by noted historian of religion, J. Gordon Melton. For classes in religion or the social sciences, or for interested individuals, Understanding New Religious Movements offers the most objective introduction possible.

The topic of religion and globalization is complex, susceptible to a great variety of approaches. This book combines contributions from many authors who examine a wide range of subjects ranging from overall theoretical considerations to detailed regional perspectives. No single understanding of either religion or globalization is privileged.

This book offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of religious identities in the Global South. Drawing on literature in various fields, Felix Wilfred analyzes how religious identities intersect with the processes of globalization, modernity, and postmodernity. He illustrates how the study of religion in the Global North often revolves around questions of secularism and fundamentalism, whereas a neo-Orientalist quality often attends study of religion in the Global South. These approaches and theorizing fail to incorporate the experiences of lived religion in the South, especially in Asia. Historically, the religions in the South have played a highly significant role in resistance to the domination by the colonial forces, an important reason for the continued attachment of the peoples of the South to their religious universe. This book puts the two regions and their scholarly norms in conversation with one another, exploring the social, political, cultural, and economic implications.