Exploring New Religions

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Bloomsbury Publishing, 1999 M12 1 - 416 páginas
An objective, well-researched history of contemporary new religions and cults.New religious movements - popularly known as cults - arouse strong public opinion and most books on the subject are polemical, giving hostile reaction rather than informed exploration. Exploring New Religions provides an account of a wide variety of new religions, focusing on their origins, beliefs and practices, which are set out in a dispassionate way, leaving readers to form their own value judgements. George Chryssides provides important analysis of the killer cults-the Jonestown People's Temple, Waco, the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate-examining the factors that made their followers willing to die for their cause. Older groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are discussed, and Chryssides traces the development of a variety of strands of spirituality, ranging from New Thought, Spiritualism and Theosophy. Subsequent chapters include the Baha'i, the Family (formerly Children of God), the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON), the Jesus Army, the Rastafarians, the Church of Scientology, Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the Unification Church ('the Moonies'). Lower profile groups are also discussed including: EST (Erhard Seminar Training), the New Kadampa Tradition, Brahma Kumaris, Sai Baba, Subud and the Western Buddhist Order. A study of the New Age phenomenon, and an account of societal responses to new religions at religious, societal and political levels is also included.
 

Contenido

1 Methodological issues
1
2 The suicide cults
33
3 The old new religions
77
4 The New Christian movements
120
5 New religions in the Hindu tradition
164
6 New forms of Buddhism
204
7 Independent new religions
244
8 The Human Potential Movement
278
9 New Age witchcraft and Paganism
315
10 The countercult movement
342
Statistical data
366
Compendium
370
Bibliography
377
Index
392
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Acerca del autor (1999)

George D. Chryssides is Honorary Research Fellow at York St John University, UK, and was formerly Head of Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

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