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Containing some 1500 entries, this new bibliography will be widely welcomed for its comprehensive brief, and for the sub-section profiling principal NRMs convering history, beliefs and practices, main publications, braches worldwide and membership.
Containing some 1500 entries, this new bibliography will be widely welcomed for its comprehensive brief, and for the sub-section profiling principal NRMs convering history, beliefs and practices, main publications, braches worldwide and membership.
Since the 1960s virtually every part of the world has seen the arrival and establishment of Japanese new religious movements, a process that has followed quickly on the heels of the most active period of Japanese economic expansion overseas. This book examines the nature and extent of this religious expansion outside Japan.
THE PUBLICATION of this book will meet a conscious need among students of Japanese religion and culture because it presents in a series of factual and scholarly, yet not pedantic, expositions one of the significant developments of postwar Japan: the emergence and development of shinko shukyo, or "new religions." Mr. Thomsen, who has given himself to the study of these religions and is one of the younger missionaries who herald a return to the scholarly tradition so greatly neglected among postwar Christian missionaries and students, estimates that the new religions have about eighteen million followers, or one out of every five Japanese. Probably never before in the history of Japan have there been so many kinds of religious innovations and interests. This book is significant on several counts: it reflects the vitality of Japanese religion through the new religions, which perhaps are as representative of this vitality as any of the older traditional religions. It seriously considers this unique phenomenon of Japanese culture, which because of fanatical and superstitious acts among some of the followers has been treated with a reproach mingled with contempt, and because of obvious materialism and even charlatanry has led many to dismiss them with a quip or a laugh. On the other hand, some of the older religious groups are obviously alarmed over the increasing power of the new religions because they are seemingly able to meet many of the felt needs of the Japanese people. Mr. Thomsen considers the religious and sociological factors that have created these movements--the roots from which they have sprung--and goes a considerable distance toward establishing their common bonds. The book is important for the Christian student because it not only describes the encounter which Christianity has had with these new religions, but it also makes clear the difficulties missionaries have had in facing the Oriental syncretic concept of religion
New Religious Movements (NRMs) can involve vast numbers of followers and in many cases are radically changing the way people understand and practice religion and spirituality. Moreover, many are having a profound impact on the form and content of mainstream religion. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements provides uniquely global coverage of the phenomenon, with entries on over three-hundred movement from almost every country in the world. Coverage includes movements that derive from the major religions of the world and to neo-traditional movements, movements often overlooked in the study of NRMs. In addition to the coverage of particular movements there are also entries on topics, themes, key thinkers and key ideas, for example the New Age Movement, Neo-Paganism, New Religion and gender, NRMs and cyberspace, NRMs and the law, the Anti-Cult Movement, Swedenborg, Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, Lovelock, Gurdjieff, al-Banna, Qutb. The marked global approach and comprehensiveness of the encyclopedia enable an appreciation of the innovative energy of NRMs, of their extraordinary diversity, and the often surprising ways in which they can propagate geographically. The most ambitions publication of its sort, the Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements is a major addition to the reference literature for students and researchers of the field in religious studies and the social sciences. Entries are cross-referenced with short bibliographies for further reading. There is a full index.
“This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book examines the trajectory and development of the Japanese religious movement Agonshu and its charismatic founder Kiriyama Seiyu. Based on field research spanning 30 years, it examines Agonshu from when it first captured attention in the 1980s with its spectacular rituals and use of media technologies, through its period of stagnation to its response to the death of its founder in 2016. The authors discuss the significance of charismatic leadership, the 'democratisation' of practice and the demands made by movements such as Agonshu on members, while examining how the movement became increasingly focused on revisionist nationalism and issues of Japanese identity. In examining the dilemma that religions commonly face on the deaths of charismatic founders, Erica Baffelli and Ian Reader look at Agonshu's response to Kiriyama's death, looking at how and why it has transformed a human founder into a figure of worship. By examining Agonshu in the wider context, the authors critically examine the concept of 'new religions'. They draw attention to the importance of understanding the trajectories of 'new' religions and how they can become 'old' even within their first generation.
