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Controversial New Religions
Editor
LanguageEnglish
Published
    • 2004 (OUP)
    • 2014 (OUP)
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
December 9, 2004
Pages480 (1st), 483 (2nd)
ISBN0-19-515682-X 978-0-19-931531-4 (2nd)
OCLC53398162
200/.9/04
LC ClassBP603 .C66 2005

Controversial New Religions is an edited volume discussing new religious movements, or cults, that have resulted in controversy. It was co-edited by James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, and was first published in 2004 by Oxford University Press. A second edition containing mostly new content was published with the same two editors in 2014. The first edition contains 19 essays, while the second contains 22. Both editions are divided into four sections by topic, and cover numerous groups.

Both editions contain content on Western or Christian inspired new religious movements like the Unification Church or the Peoples Temple, in addition to Asian-derived groups like the Falun Gong, the Rajneesh movement and Aum Shinrikyo. Groups related to western esoteric and New Age concepts are also subject to discussion: the Church of Scientology and the Order of the Solar Temple are covered in both volumes, as are unclassified other groups like Heaven's Gate and Raëlism.

Reviews for both editions were generally positive, though some reviewers described it as a typical example in this field. One reviewer raised criticisms of unevenness in the point of view and level of assumed prior to knowledge from chapter to chapter in the collection, though generally the book was viewed as a valuable source.

Contents

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1st edition (2004)

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An introduction by the two editors opens with the history of the academic study of new religious movements as a field: until the Jonestown massacres in 1978, they were rarely studied, with few specialists in the field. Even after the events at Jonestown, it remained an obscure field, until in the 1990s there was a string of high profile extremely violent incidents associated with NRMs. As a result of these incidents the field grew in popularity and was accepted as a legitimate aspect of the field of religious studies. However, Lewis notes, the category of "NRMs" is a residual one without clear defining traits as to what groups were relevant to it.

The first section follows several "Groups in the Christian Tradition", including The Family International, the Unification Church, the Peoples Temple, and the Branch Davidians.

  • Chancellor (Family)
  • Moonies (Beverly)
  • Peoples Temple (Moore)
  • Davidians (Wright)

"Asian and Asian-inspired Groups"

  • Hare Krishna (Rochford)
  • Rajneesh (Goldman)
  • Soka Gakkai (Kisala)
  • Aum (Repp)
  • Ownby (Falun Hong)
  • Aumist (Zoccatelli)

"Esoteric and New Age Groups"

  • Scientology (Christensen)
  • Theosophy (Santucci)
  • OTS (R. Lewis)
  • JZ Knight (Harley)
  • SIA (Tumminia)

"Other Groups and Movements"

  • HG (Chryssides)
  • Raelian (Palmer)
  • White racist (Gardell)
  • Satanism (Petersen)

2nd edition (2014)

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The introduction from the second edition is a modified edition of the first.

"Western Religious Traditions"

  • Family (Chancellor) reprint or changed?
  • Moonies (M. Lewis)
  • Peoples Temple (Moore)
  • Davidians (Gallagher)
  • Jesus People (Skjoldi)
  • Kabbalah (Myers)
  • AA Muslims (Larsson)

"Asian and Asian-inspired Traditions"

  • R. Lewis (Earth School)
  • TM (Tollefsen)
  • Rajneesh (Goldman)
  • Aum (Repp) reprint or changed?
  • Falun Gong (Farley)

"Western Esoteric and New Age Groups"

  • Scientology (Hellesoy)
  • CUT (DeHaas)
  • OTS (Bogdan)
  • New Age (Kraft)
  • modern paganism (Hedenborgh-White)
  • Shamanism (Kalvig)

"Other Groups and Movements"

  • HG (Chryssides) reprint or changed?
  • Raelians (Ostling)
  • Wolf Age Pagans (Gardell)
  • Satanism (Petersen)

Contributors

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2004

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2014

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  • Henrik Bogdan
  • James D. Chancellor
  • George D. Chryssides
  • Jocelyn H. DeHaas
  • Helen Farley
  • Eugene V. Gallagher
  • Mattias Gardell
  • Marion S. Goldman
  • Malcolm Haddon
  • Manon Hedenborg-White
  • Kjersti Hellesøy
  • Anne Kalvig
  • Siv Ellen Kraft
  • Göran Larsson
  • James R. Lewis
  • Sarah M. Lewis
  • Rebecca Moore
  • Jody Myers
  • Erik A. W. Östling
  • Jesper Aagaard Petersen
  • Martin Repp
  • Jane Skjoldli
  • Inga B. Tøllefsen

Publication

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Controversial New Religions was first published December 9, 2004 by Oxford University Press.[1][2] In 2014, a second edition of the work was published from the same two editors. The second edition contains several new chapters replacing ones from the first edition, though it is not indicated in the work what differences there are from the first.[2][3] According to the publisher, the second edition contains "mostly new material by different scholars".[4] The first edition contains 19 essays,[5] and the second contains 22.[6]

When the first edition was published, editor James R. Lewis was a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, while co-editor Jesper Aagard Petersen was a teaching assistant at University of Copenhagen in the history of religions department.[7] At the time of the second edition's publication Lewis was a professor of religious studies at the University of Tromsø in Norway, while Petersen was an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who specialized in religious studies.[2]

Reception

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The volume received generally positive reviews. Karlie King praised the essays included for their thoroughness and the angles from which they explored the material, though noted most used the rhetoric of academia and so would be most suited for that audience.[5] A review from the journal Illness, Crisis & Loss praised the book as "interesting on its own merit" and said it was "another fine example of Oxford Unversity Press' ability to carefully research, document and incorporate vital information" into reference works. The reviewer said the book "exposed the raw nerves of what religion can and has become for many."[8] A review in the journal Missiology said the book would serve as a resource for those looking for a less sensationalistic approach to learning about NRMs.[7]

Some reviews described it as "typical" of the edited collections devoted to this topic.[9][10] George Adams described it as uneven in places, with some individual chapters being written by people who seemed too sympathetic to the groups they were studying. He singled out Christenson's chapter on Scientology as in his view not adequately covering how the Church of Scientology had controlled the narrative, and said Harley's chapter on JZKnight did not engage with basic questions of the legitimacy of the practices in question. He also noted that the more specialized chapters presumed the reader already knew of the groups, while others assumed no previous knowledge of them.[10] In a review from Choice magazine, reviewer C. H. Lippy recomended the volume, calling it valuable to scholars for reference and analysis.[11] He described the book as rejecting cult-type language and ideas of brainwashing, focusing instead on internal elements.[11] King noted that at the core of all the essays in the volume were two ideas: a utopia-dystopia narrative and the connection between new religious movements and the idea of cults.[5]

Reviewing the second edition, J. R. Stone of Choice recommended the volume for both researchers and general readers. He said its inclusion of new chapters made it an ideal companion to the first edition.[3] Jonathan Benthall, reviewing the work for The Times Literary Supplement, described it as a "balanced and intriguing book", noting its inclusion of many scholars studying in Nordic countries. He particularly singled out Hellesøy's chapter on Scientology for praise, calling it "insightful", however said Lewis and Petersen's introduction was "all-too-brief".[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Controversial New Religions (1st edn)". Oxford Academic. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Arweck, Elisabeth (January 2, 2015). "Book Notes". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 30 (1): 186–192. doi:10.1080/13537903.2015.987019. ISSN 1353-7903.
  3. ^ a b Stone, J. R. (January 1, 2015). "Controversial new religions". CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Vol. 52, no. 5. pp. 819–820. ISSN 0009-4978.
  4. ^ "Controversial New Religions: Second Edition". Oxford University Press. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c King, Karlie (March 1, 2007). "Comptes rendus / Reviews of books: Controversial New Religions: James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, eds. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. v + 483 p". Studies in Religion. 36 (1): 179–180. doi:10.1177/000842980703600122. ISSN 0008-4298.
  6. ^ a b Benthall, Jonathan (September 11, 2015). "This life only". The Times Literary Supplement. No. 58677. p. 28. ISSN 0307-661X.
  7. ^ a b Blowers, LaVerne P. (October 1, 2006). "Book Review: Controversial New Religions". Missiology. 34 (4): 533–534. doi:10.1177/009182960603400411. ISSN 0091-8296.
  8. ^ Gilbert, Richard B. (July 2008). "Controversial New Religions". Illness, Crisis & Loss. 16 (3): 262–263. ISSN 1054-1373.
  9. ^ Bales, Stephen (September 2013). "New religious movements: the current landscape". CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Vol. 51, no. 1. pp. 19–28. ISSN 0009-4978.
  10. ^ a b Adams, George (2010). "Review of Controversial New Religions". Nova Religio. 13 (3): 106–107. doi:10.1525/nr.2010.13.3.106. ISSN 1092-6690.
  11. ^ a b Lippy, C. H. (September 2005). "Controversial new religions". CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Vol. 43, no. 1. p. 116. ISSN 0009-4978.
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