New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements
eBook - PDF

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements

Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America

  1. 328 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements

Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America

About this book

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements is the most extensive study to date of modern American alternative spiritual currents. Hugh B. Urban covers a range of emerging religions from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, including the Nation of Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, ISKCON, Wicca, the Church of Satan, Peoples Temple, and the Branch Davidians. This essential text engages students by addressing major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of new religions and is organized to guide students in their learning. Each chapter focuses on one important issue involving a particular faith group, providing readers with examples that illustrate larger issues in the study of religion and American culture.

Urban addresses such questions as, Why has there been such a tremendous proliferation of new spiritual forms in the past 150 years, even as our society has become increasingly rational, scientific, technological, and secular? Why has the United States become the heartland for the explosion of new religious movements? How do we deal with complex legal debates, such as the use of peyote by the Native American Church or the practice of plural marriage by some Mormon communities? And how do we navigate issues of religious freedom and privacy in an age of religious violence, terrorism, and government surveillance?



 

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements by Hugh B. Urban in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Teologia e religione & Religioni comparate. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
2

Introduction
and 
other 
groups. 
Just 
a 
few 
weeks 
after 
the 
Universal 
Life 
Expo 
is 
the 
neopagan 
holy 
day 
of 
Samhain 
(corresponding 
to 
Halloween 
and 
falling 
on 
the 
autumn 
equinox). 
Our 
own 
local 
Druid 
group, 
called 
ADF 
(Ár 
nDraíocht 
Féin, 
or 
“A 
Druid 
Fellowship”), 
welcomes 
the 
public 
to 
attend 
its 
major 
holy 
days 
and 
always 
performs 
its 
major 
rituals 
in 
public 
spaces 
such 
as 
metro 
parks, 
where 
anyone 
is 
invited 
to 
attend 
(figure 
1.2).
Even 
closer 
to 
home, 
I 
can 
walk 
just 
a 
few 
blocks 
from 
my 
campus 
offi
ce 
down 
to 
the 
Krishna 
House, 
the 
local 
center 
for 
the 
International 
Society 
for 
Krishna 
Consciousness 
(ISKCON). 
Perhaps 
the 
most 
successful 
new 
religious 
movement 
to 
come 
from 
India 
to 
the 
United 
States, 
ISKCON 
began 
in 
the 
mid-1960s, 
and 
the 
Columbus 
Krishna 
House 
is 
one 
of 
its 
oldest 
centers. 
The 
Columbus 
Krishna 
House 
has 
been 
visited 
by 
such 
figures 
as 
the 
Beat 
poet 
Allen 
Ginsberg, 
who 
had 
a 
famous 
exchange 
with 
the 
ISKCON 
founder 
Swami 
Prabhupada 
here 
in 
1969. 
To 
this 
day, 
the 
Krishna 
House 
remains 
a 
popular 
center 
for 
spiri-
tual 
instruction, 
free 
food, 
and 
high-energy, 
often 
ecstatic 
devotional 
music, 
attracting 
a 
large 
crowd 
of 
both 
curious 
college 
students 
and 
first- 
and 
second-generation 
South 
Asians. 
FIGURE 
1.1 
Aura 
photography, 
Universal 
Life 
Expo, 
Columbus, 
Ohio, 
2013. 
Photo 
by 
the 
author.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. List of Illustrations
  4. Preface and Acknowledgments
  5. 1 Introduction: The Rise of New Religions in Modern America
  6. 2 The Native American Church: Ancient Tradition in a Modern Legal Context
  7. 3 Mormonism and Plural Marriage: The LDS and the FLDS
  8. 4 Spiritualism: Women, Mediums, and Messages from Other Worlds
  9. 5 The Nation of Islam and the Five Percenters: Race, Religion, and Hip-Hop
  10. 6 Rastafari: Messianism, Music, and Ganja
  11. 7 The Church of Scientology: New Religions and Tax Exemption
  12. 8 Wicca and Neopaganism: Magic, Feminism, and Environmentalism
  13. 9 The Church of Satan and the Temple of Set: Religious Parody and Satanic Panic
  14. 10 ISKCON (Hare Krishna): Eastern Religions in America and the “Brainwashing” Debate
  15. 11 Channeling and the New Age: Alternative Spirituality in Popular Culture and Media
  16. 12 Peoples Temple: Mass Murder-Suicide, the Media, and the “Cult” Label
  17. 13 The Branch Davidians: Millenarian Movements, Religious Freedom, and Privacy
  18. 14 The Raëlians: UFOs and Human Cloning
  19. Appendix: Method and Theory in the Study of New Religions
  20. Index