Bromley David G. - Cults and new religions: a brief history

Wiley Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion Series

This series offers brief, accessible, and lively accounts of key topics within theology and religion. Each volume presents both academic and general readers with a selected history of topics which have had a profound effect on religious and cultural life. The word history is, therefore, understood in its broadest cultural and social sense. The volumes are based on serious scholarship but they are written engagingly and in terms readily understood by general readers.

Other topics in the series:

Published

Second Edition

Douglas E. Cowan

Renison College, University of Waterloo

and

David G. Bromley

Virignia Commonwealth University

This edition first published 2015
2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (1e, 2008)

Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial Offices
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cowan, Douglas E.
[Cults and new religions]
Cults and new religions : a brief history / Douglas E. Cowan, Renison College, University of Waterloo, David G. Bromley, Virginia Commonwealth University. Second edition.
pages cm. (Wiley blackwell brief histories of religion)
Revision of: Cults and new religions. Malden, MA ; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2008.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-72210-7 (paperback)
1.Religions. 2.Cults. I.Bromley, David G. II.Title.
BL80.3.C69 2015
200.904dc23

2015005385

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Moon over Lake Geneva nagelestock.com / Alamy

For Joie and Donna, our soul mates

We are very gratified by the reception of the first edition of this book. It has become a popular textbook in both Europe and North America for introductory courses on cults and new religions, and has been translated into German, Czech, and Japanese. We hope to see more translations in the future. We have tried to provide a detailed, yet accessible text for both students and instructors, something that will serve as much to inform their research as to spark their interest in further study. New religions continue to appear some contested, others less so. The issues and questions with which we deal remain central to the study not only of new religious movements, but religion itself. Both of us regularly field media inquiries about this new movement or that. Reporters still want to know, for example, if the Church of Scientology is a real religion. Our response to all these inquiries remains the same: there is so much more to new religious movements than you can capture in your newspaper, television report, or blog post.

Cults and New Religions: A Brief History is intended for instructors who have little formal preparation in the field and for students interested in the central questions that have defined new religions study for nearly half a century. We hope that it will encourage a broader and richer understanding of these movements, an appreciation for their diversity and resilience that moves far beyond the stock and superficial descriptions so common in society.

Much has happened since the first edition, some of which we were able to incorporate, much more of which happened so fast that it was simply impossible to include. Sun Myung Moon, for example, the founder of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity known colloquially as the Moonies passed away in 2012. As Max Weber, one of the founders of modern sociology, taught us, the death of a charismatic leader puts profound pressure on the organization, and we are seeing this in the Unificationist movement now. On the other hand, although we present JZ Knight, also known as Ramtha, as a foil to the notion of the dangerous cult, in 2014 she was sued by one of her former students because of racist and homophobic comments she made on a video. What we learn from all this is that religion is, for better or worse, a human phenomenon, subject to the foibles and fortes of our shared humanity.

In addition to a thorough updating of the groups included, this edition of