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 cutting-edge analysis of American and European new religious movements explores the controversies between religious groups and the majority interests which oppose them. It asks how modern societies can best respond to new religious movements,

Based on extensive ethnographic research, this collection uses a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodologies to examine some of the many subcultures and new religious movements that have emerged in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of communism.

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. Coverage includes movements that derive from the major religions of the world and to neo-traditional movements, movements often overlooked in the study of NRMs. In addition to the coverage of particular movements there are also entries on topics, themes, key thinkers and key ideas, for example the New Age Movement, Neo-Paganism, New Religion and gender, NRMs and cyberspace, NRMs and the law, the Anti-Cult Movement, Swedenborg, Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, Lovelock, Gurdjieff, al-Banna, Qutb. The marked global approach and comprehensiveness of the encyclopedia enable an appreciation of the innovative energy of NRMs, of their extraordinary diversity, and the often surprising ways in which they can propagate geographically. The most ambitions publication of its sort, the Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements is a major addition to the reference literature for students and researchers of the field in religious studies and the social sciences. Entries are cross-referenced with short bibliographies for further reading. There is a full index.

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.

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.

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.

Leading scholars examine the growth of new religious movements or cults in the US and Europe over the last 50 years and state attempts to monitor and control them, debating the political, practical and ethical issues which arise.

Pagan and Native Faith movements have sprung up across Europe in recent decades, yet little has been published about them compared with their British and American counterparts. Though all such movements valorize human relationships with nature and embrace polytheistic cosmologies, practitioners’ beliefs, practices, goals, and agendas are diverse. Often side by side are groups trying to reconstruct ancient religions motivated by ethnonationalism—especially in post-Soviet societies—and others attracted by imported traditions, such as Wicca, Druidry, Goddess Spirituality, and Core Shamanism. Drawing on ethnographic cases, contributors explore the interplay of neo-nationalistic and neo-colonialist impulses in contemporary Paganism, showing how these impulses play out, intersect, collide, and transform.

In this multidisciplinary interpretation of world Christianity and the changing shape of the global religious landscape, scholars consider the complex dynamics shaping Christianity's recent expansion in all parts of the globe. They view the explanations of homogenization or American cultural influence as being necessarily limited and point to the far more varied intersections of external influence and indigenous appropriation. The geographical coverage and the voices from various corners of the globe exemplify the shift of Christianity's center of gravity away from the northern hemisphere. New voices, new methods, and new perspectives emerge here. Contributors: Afe Adogame Edith L. Blumhofer Joel Carpenter Paul Freston Anthony dela Fuente Jehu J. Hanciles Brian M. Howell Ogbu U. Kalu Sebastian C. H. Kim Philomena Njeri Mwaura John Parratt Dana L. Robert Brian Stanley Diane Stinton Feiya Tao Kevin Xiyi Yao