Product Description

This book gives readers a comprehensive map of 200 of the most significant new religions and alternative spiritualities to have emerged in the last 100 years. It is written by specialists but with the non-specialist in mind. The groups are categorised according to their religion of origin - those with roots in Judaism (e.g. Havurot Movement, Messianic Judaism), Christianity (e.g. Christian Science, Rastafarianism), Islam (e.g. Bah'ai), Hinduism (e.g. Sahaja Yoga), Buddism (e.g. Santi Asoke), Sikhism, Japanese religion (e.g. Omoto, Reiki), Chinese religion and philosophy (e.g. Feng Shui), Zoroastrianism, primal or pagan religion (e.g. Shamanism) and western culture (e.g. Scientology, Psychedelic spirituality).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85245 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
CHRISTOPHER PARTRIDGE is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Contemporary Religion at Chester College. He has published research in the areas of both contemporary Christian theology and also western alternative spiritualities. He is the general editor of The New Lion Handbook: The World's Religions (2005) and has also written books on UFO religions, mystical experiences and fundamentalisms.

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive book with excellent background material
Hundreds of new religious movements are detailed, some from multiple points of view. They are organized geothematically (Western, Eastern, etc) and as such the book is easy to read from beginning to end, without finding yourself skipping suddenly from one worldview to another.

Most new religions spring from fusions of old ones, so, Partridge has supplied a masterly and comprehensive introduction to major religions and religious themes. Becuase of the excellent background material, you can read up on new religions without previously knowing anything about mainstream religion.

My favorite oddities are the so-called Cargo Cults: isolated island nations who come to devise rituals to worship planes, in order to be blessed with cargo.

This is not a flowery, rose-tinted view of modern religious history; it concentrates on the hard facts so you will find negative and positive aspects of religion described in a factual, referenced, impartial manner.

Scholars of religion and laymen who want nothing more than material for exasperated conversations down the pub, will both find much to absorb in this book!

A great resource
Glancing at the list of contriubutors assures the reader that what you are going to get is a comprehensive and learned guide, and that just what this is. It takes a dispassionate and non-judgemental tone and combines it with good scholarship.

For anyone interested in alternative or 'new' religions this is the book to get.