Radical Transformations in Minority Religions: (Routledge Inform Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements)

All religions undergo continuous change, but minority religions tend to be less anchored in their ways than mainstream, traditional religions. This volume examines radical transformations undergone by a variety of minority religions, including the Children of God/ Family International; Gnosticism; Jediism; various manifestations of Paganism; LGBT Muslim groups; the Plymouth Brethren; Santa Muerte; and Satanism. As with other books in the Routledge/Inform series, the contributors approach the subject from a wide range of perspectives: professional scholars include legal experts and sociologists specialising in new religious movements, but there are also chapters from those who have experienced a personal involvement. The volume is divided into four thematic parts that focus on different impetuses for radical change: interactions with society, technology and institutions, efforts at legitimation, and new revelations. This book will be a useful source of information for social scientists, historians, theologians and other scholars with an interest in social change, minority religions and ‘cults’. It will also be of interest to a wider readership including lawyers, journalists, theologians and members of the general public.

Table of Contents:
1 Radical Changes in Minority Religions: Reflections-Beth Singler;Part One: Internal Forces Leading to Radical Changes; 2 What Did They Do About It? A Sociological Perspective on Reactions to Child Sexual Abuse in Three New Religions-Eileen Barker; 3 Children of Heimdall: Ásatrú Ideas of Ancestry-Karl E. H. Seigfried; 4 Varieties of Enlightenment: Revisions in the EnlightenNext Movement around Andrew Cohen-André Van Der Braak; 5 “Not all Druids wear robes” Countercultural Experiences of Youth and the Revision of Ritual in British Druidry-Jonathan Woolley; Part Two: Technology and Institutions as Drivers of Change; 6 Santo Daime: Work in Progress-Andrew Dawson; 7 A Song of Wood and Water: The Ecofeminist Turn in 1970s-1980s British Paganism-Shai Feraro; 8 When Galaxies Collide: The Question of Jediism’s Revisionism in the Face of Corporate Buyouts and Mythos ‘Retconning’-Beth Singler;Part Three: Change as a Part of a Process of Legitimation; 9 Regulating Religious Diversification: A Legal Perspective-Frank Cranmer And Russell Sandberg; 10 Revision or Re-Branding? The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in Australia under Bruce D. Hales 2002-2016-Bernard Doherty And Laura Dyason; 11 Appendix to Revision or Re-Branding? The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church 2002-2016-PBCC; 12 Diversification in Samael Aun Weor’s Gnostic Movement-David G. Robertson; 13 Using the New Religious Movements Framework to Consider LGBT Muslim Groups-Shanon Shah; Part Four: New Prophecies or Revelations; 14 Digital Revisionism: The Aftermath of the Family International’s Reboot-Claire Borowik; 15 The Mexican Santa Muerte from Tepito to Tultitlán: Tradition, Innovation and Syncretism at Enriqueta Vargas’ Temple-Stefano Bigliardi, Fabrizio Lorusso, and Stefano Morrone; 16 From the Church of Satan to the Temple of Set: Revisionism in the Satanic Milieu-Eugene V. Gallagher; 17 The ‘Messenger’ as Source of Both Stabilization and Revisionism in Church Universal and Triumphant and Related Groups-Erin Prophet

About the Author :
Eileen Barker, FBA, OBE, is Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion at the London School of Economics. In 1988, with the support of the Home Office and the mainstream Churches, she founded INFORM, an educational charity, now based at King’s College, London, which supplies information about alternative religions that is as objective and up-to-date as possible. She has over 400 publications, translated into 27 languages. Beth Singler is a digital anthropologist whose first book, The Indigo Children: New Age Experimentation with Self and Science, was the first ethnography of this primarily online community. Currently the Junior Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, Beth applies her anthropological approach to the stories we have about AI, digital discussions of its nature and impact, and online communities promoting apocalyptic, transhumanist, and future focussed accounts of AI.