{"title":"Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times or New Goddesses from Ancient Times?","authors":"Meret Fehlmann","doi":"10.1558/ijsnr.37402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.37402","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deals with the way the goddess(es) of ancient Crete and Greece are imagined and reappropriated in the feminist spirituality movement. It offers an overview over the different metamorphoses of these ancient goddesses in the twentieth century, and takes a closer look at the goddess-related work of Carol P. Christ.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/ijsnr.37402","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44466199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exes speak out, Narratives of apostasy","authors":"Nicola Pannofino, M. Cardano","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.34152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.34152","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents a study of the trajectories of apostasy from three religious movements, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Soka Gakkai Buddhist institute and the Church of Scientology, through the analysis of a body of autobiographical narratives posted online by Italian apostates. Even more than being the account of a past religious experience, these narratives are the last stage in the gradual articulation of a voice with which the disaffected believers publicly express a critical view of the organizations they have left, charging them with using practices of interdiction to prevent dissent by their members. The common theme that emerges from these stories is not the loss of faith, but the discovery of a hidden deception, the breach of the implicit pact of trust that bound the narrator to the religious group.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/IJSNR.34152","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48388630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Role of Conspiracy Mentality and Paranormal Beliefs in Predicting Conspiracy Beliefs Among Neopagans","authors":"Asbjørn Dyrendal, L. Kennair, James R. Lewis","doi":"10.1558/ijsnr.36716","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.36716","url":null,"abstract":"Recent studies on conspiracy thinking has concluded that the strongest predictor of the tendency towards conspiratorial thinking is a one-dimensional construct-conspiracy mentality-that is relatively stable over time and valid across cultures. Lantian et al. (2016) found that a single, elaborate question can work as a measure of conspiracy beliefs. We assess the validity of this question for an untypical, religious group: self-identified Neopagans. We also test some recent findings on the relation between conspiracy thinking and paranormal beliefs, attitudes towards group equality, political identification, age, gender, and education. The general patterns hold up well in our investigation, but there was a clear distinction between conspiracy theories about powerful actors and those about minorities. The single-item measure was the largest predictor of the former kind of conspiracy belief followed by level of paranormal beliefs. Anti-egalitarianism and holding a right-wing political identity were the strongest predictors of conspiracy beliefs about minorities. Education was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs of all kinds.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/ijsnr.36716","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48175736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'The Mormon Jesus: A Biography', by John G. Turner","authors":"Daniel N. Gullotta","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.33546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.33546","url":null,"abstract":"The Mormon Jesus: A Biography, by John G. Turner. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. 368pp., 27 halftones. Hb. $29.95 / £21.95 / €27.00. ISBN-13: 9780674737433.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/IJSNR.33546","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43248849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creating Otherness","authors":"G. Pocė, Milda Ališauskienė","doi":"10.1558/ijsnr.25989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.25989","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to the ongoing theoretical and empirical discussions within the studies of media and religion on the interaction of these social institutions in contemporary society. Firstly, we locate our research questions within the recent theoretical debates on relations between media and religion in contemporary society, the US, Western Europe and, particularly, postcommunist countries. Secondly, we discuss the representations of minority religions in Lithuanian media grounding on the empirical research of Lithuanian media in 2000-2012. Results of the empirical research showed that minority religions in Lithuanian media were represented mostly in a negative and scandalous context. The majority of articles contained various rhetorical strategies which strengthened the proposed viewpoints. Opinions of the members of minority religions, experts and society were the most common information source dealt with in the analysed articles.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44932042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“We have even locked out the very Zeitgeist itself”","authors":"Aslak Rostad","doi":"10.1558/ijsnr.35577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.35577","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the discourse employed by Norwegian fraternal organizations, based on Hugh B. Urban’s postulate that secrecy is a strategy for ‘adornment’, i.e. conveying a special status to certain values and beliefs. The discourse is analysed in terms of the fraternities’ idea of reality, identity, and mission, and claims that these organizations regard themselves as defenders of society’s core values which they claim are threatened by moral corruption and decay.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49399224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Weird Naturalism of the Brothers McKenna: Esoteric Media and the Experiment at La Chorrera","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31944","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":"7 1","pages":"175-198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31944","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67498501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aleister Crowley on drugs","authors":"C. Partridge","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31941","url":null,"abstract":"While much has been written about the life, work and influence of Aleister Crowley, relatively little attention has been directed to his drug use. This is a little surprising because, not only did he become addicted to heroin, but he incorporated psychoactive substances into his occult work, discussed their psychological effects, commented on drug-related social issues, critiqued contemporary drug legislation, published drug literature, and even translated Charles Baudelaire’s “Poem of Hashish.” This article discusses his thought on drugs and religious experience and suggests that they were, largely because of his addiction, a more important force in his life than has thus far been acknowledged.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":"7 1","pages":"125-151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67498458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The First Psychonaut? Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Narcotics","authors":"W. Hanegraaff","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I2.31939","url":null,"abstract":"This article calls attention to the important but neglected French Mesmerist, Spiritualist, Swedenborgian, and occultist Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet (1809–1885), while concentrating on his significance as a forgotten pioneer of modern entheogenic esotericism. Like other occultist practitioners during the period prior to modern Theosophy (notably Emma Hardinge Britten and Paschal Beverley Randolph), Cahagnet was convinced about the spiritual potential of narcotics as a powerful tool for inducing transcendental vision. The article describes and contextualizes his systematic experiments with narcotic suffumigations made from plants traditionally associated with necromancy and witchcraft, as well as his spiritual visions induced by the eating of Hashisch dissolved in coffee. Cahagnet appears to stand at the origin of an underground tradition of visionary practice that would be continued and further developed by Britten, Randolph, and other esoteric practitioners since the 1860s. While most scholars have tended to play down the role of narcotics in these contexts, these may well have been crucial to how spiritual vision came to be understood in the occultist movement.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":"7 1","pages":"105-123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67498368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Removing MOVE : A case study of intersectional invisibility within religious and legal studies","authors":"Anthony T. Fiscella","doi":"10.1558/IJSNR.V7I1.20308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I1.20308","url":null,"abstract":"How is it that a group that self-identifies as “religious” and is associated with one of the most dramatic events in the United States during the 1980s could receive almost no attention from religious studies scholars? Furthermore, how is it that the court case in which said group was determined to not qualify as a “religion” has been discussed and challenged by legal scholars while being virtually ignored by religious scholars? This article documents and examines the treatment of The MOVE Organization within both religious and legal studies. Drawing on intersectionality theory, it is posited that the social locations of many MOVE members including racial status, commitment to the defense of animals, legal religious status, and incarceration status combine together and contribute strongly to the marginalization of them and their voices from the scope and concerns of dominant scholarship. If colorblind racism is one factor in sustaining racial domination, then exposure of the complexity of intersectional dynamics might help untangle, in the words of Patricia Hill Collins, a “matrix of domination.”","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":"7 1","pages":"3-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/IJSNR.V7I1.20308","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67497576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}