The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life: 3 (Routledge Library Editions: Sociology of Religion)

Roy Wallis

ISBN 10: 0367025035 / ISBN 13: 9780367025038

Published by Routledge 2019-03-27, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 6666-TNFPD-9780367025038

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life: 3 (Routledge Library Editions: Sociology of Religion)
• Publisher: Routledge 2019-03-27
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367025035
• ISBN 13: 9780367025038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book, first published in 1984, examines the whole range of new religious movements which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. It develops a wide-ranging theory of these new religions which explains many of their major characteristics. Some of the movements are well-known, such as Scientology, Krishna Consciousness, and the Unification Church. Others such as the Process, Meher Baba, and 3-HO are much less known. While some became international, others remained local; in other ways, too, such as style, belief, organisation, they exhibit enormous diversity.

The movements studied here are classified under three ideal types, world-rejecting, world-affirming and world-accommodating, and from here the author develops a theory of the origins, recruitment base, characteristics, and development patterns which they display. The book offers a critical exploration of the theories of the new religions and analyses the highly contentious issue of whether they reflect the process of secularisation, or whether they are a countervailing trend marking the resurgence of religion in the West.

About the Author

Roy Wallis