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Alternative religions : a sociological introduction / Stephen J. Hunt.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Hunt, Stephen, 1954-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Cults.
- Sects.
- Religions.
- Religion and sociology.
- Christianity and other religions.
- Physical Description:
- xix, 268 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Aldershot, Hampshire, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, [2003]
- Contents:
- 1 Alternative religion in perspective 1
- The post-Christian society 6
- The alternatives: the religions of the gaps? 9
- Variations on a theme 12
- Problems of objectivity 14
- 2 Cults 17
- The social significance of cults 20
- Cults and cultural innovation 23
- Cult controversies 24
- Doomsday cults 26
- Societal reaction to cults and new alternative religions 29
- 3 Sectarianism 33
- Church-sect transformations 36
- Sects and deprivation 37
- Sects as an integrating force 39
- Recruitment to sects 40
- Some major Christian sectarian movements 41
- The Brethren movement 42
- Christadelphians 44
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 45
- Jehovah's Witnesses 47
- Quakers 50
- Seventh-day Adventists 51
- Swedenborgians 53
- Unitarians 54
- Worldwide Church of God 54
- 4 Christian fundamentalism 61
- Fundamentalism defined 61
- Fundamentalism as anti-modernism 62
- A phenomenological approach 64
- The New Christian Right and political activism 64
- Who are the fundamentalists? 66
- Fundamentalism appraised 68
- The global significance of Christian fundamentalism 70
- Fundamentalist movements within Roman Catholicism 72
- 5 Pentecostalism and movements of Christian renewal 75
- The Charismatic Renewal movement 76
- The nature of Pentecostalism 78
- Who are the Pentecostals? 79
- Strands within neo-Pentecostalism 81
- Restorationism and the house church movement 82
- The Third Wave movement 83
- Reconstructionism 85
- Social activism 85
- The black Pentecostal churches 85
- 6 New Religious Movements 89
- Varieties of NRMs 89
- The 1960s and getting saved from them 91
- NRMs and contemporary society 93
- Accounting for success 95
- Who joins NRMs? 96
- Social class 96
- The young and NRMs 98
- Women and NRMs 99
- NRMs: conversion and disengagement 100
- The 'causes' of conversion 101
- Learning processes 103
- Social networks 103
- The convert's point of view 104
- Disengagement from the new religions 105
- 7 Some major New Religious Movements 109
- NRMs derived from Christianity 109
- The Family 110
- The Messianic Communities 111
- The Jesus Fellowship 113
- The Central London Church of Christ 115
- NRMs derived from Hinduism 115
- The Divine Light Mission 116
- The International Society for Krishna Consciousness 117
- Sai Baba 118
- Shri Swaminarayan 119
- Brahma Kumaris 120
- Healthy Happy Holy Organization 121
- NRMs derived from Islam 122
- Subud 122
- The Baha'i Faith 123
- Syncretic movements 124
- The Unification Church 124
- Rastafarianism 126
- Rajneeshes 127
- 8 The New Age 131
- What is the New Age movement? 131
- New Age: the religion of post-modernity? 133
- New Age: empowerment and identity 134
- Inherent contradictions of the New Age 136
- Strands of the New Age 137
- Eastern mysticism 138
- New Age environmentalism 139
- New Age feminism 140
- The New Age-Christian wing 140
- Who are the New Agers? 142
- New Age travelling 143
- Levels of involvement 143
- The impact of the New Age 144
- 9 Neo-Paganism and esoteric spiritualities 147
- Neo-Paganism 147
- Strands within neo-Paganism 149
- Heathenism 149
- Wicca 150
- Druidry 153
- Related neo-Pagan practices 155
- Magic 155
- Shamanism 155
- Astral travelling 156
- Satanism 157
- Esoteric movements 158
- Freemasonry 159
- Rosicrucianism 160
- Contemporary esoteric movements 161
- Locating neo-Paganism and esotericism 163
- 10 Popular forms of religiosity 169
- Superstition 170
- Astrology 171
- Divination 173
- Tarot 174
- Dowsing 174
- Numerology 175
- Palmistry 176
- Spiritualism 177
- Practices related to oriental occultism 178
- I Ching 178
- Feng Shui 178
- The social backgrounds of occult practitioners 179
- 11 Human potential and healing movements 183
- The contemporary concern with health and healing 183
- Healing of mind, body, and spirit 185
- Healing in the new religions 186
- Christian healing 189
- Christian Science 189
- Neo-Pentecostal healing 190
- The Faith movement 192
- Programmes of self-improvement 193
- Scientology 194
- Transcendental Meditation 197
- Fringe religiosity and alternative medicines/therapies 198
- 12 World religions and the faiths of ethnic minorities 201
- Religion and ethnicity 202
- The implications of global fundamentalism 203
- World religions in the Western context 205
- Islam 205
- Judaism 208
- Hinduism 212
- Sikhism 213
- Jainism 215
- Buddhism 217
- 13 Quasi-religions 221
- Defining quasi-religions 221
- The rise of quasi-religions 222
- The 'religious' nature of secular organizations 223
- Sport 224
- Television and rock stars 224
- Consumerism 225
- Environmentalism 226
- UFO cults 226
- Ethical eating 228
- 14 The 'rise' of the alternatives: some implications 231
- The alternatives: a revival of religion? 231
- The demise of mainstream Christianity revisited 232
- The decline of Christianity: does it matter? 236.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-255) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0754634108
- OCLC:
- 50645595
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