The captivating story of the religious group focused on transcending humanity and the Earth— and seeking salvation in the literal heavens on board a UFO.2015 Best Book Award from the Communal Studies AssociationIn March 1997, thirty-nine people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. This act was the culmination...

This handbook is the first comprehensive volume to feature multi-religious, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspectives on the intersections of religion and food. It highlights recent trends and methodologies in religious studies and food studies from the humanities and the social sciences. A team of international scholars provide theoretical frameworks presenting food as integral to the materiality of religions and religions' functions in daily life, with studies dr...

This in-depth study shows how new religious movements offer a variety of strategies for reconciling science and religious faith.By the twentieth century, established religious traditions were forced to grappled with the challenges presented by scientific knowledge and innovation. But emerging religions, still led by a living founder to guide them, found news ways to respond to science. The Hare Krishnas, the Unification Church, and Heaven's Gate each found distinct...

Clothing, dress, and ornamentation are crucial parts of individual and communal religious life and practice, yet they are too often overlooked. This book convenes leading scholars to explore the roles of attire and adornment in the creation and communication of religious meaning, identity, and community. Contributors investigate aspects of religious dress in North America in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, considering adornment practices in a wide range of religious ...

Clothing, dress, and ornamentation are crucial parts of individual and communal religious life and practice, yet they are too often overlooked. This book convenes leading scholars to explore the roles of attire and adornment in the creation and communication of religious meaning, identity, and community. Contributors investigate aspects of religious dress in North America in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, considering adornment practices in a wide range of religious ...

The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements covers key themes such as charismatic leadership, conversion and brainwashing, prophecy and millennialism, violence and suicide, gender and sexuality, legal issues, and the portrayal of New Religious Movements by the media and anti-cult organisations. Several categories of new religions receive special attention, including African new religions, Japanese new religions, Mormons, and UFO religions.This guide to New Religiou...

The way in which religious people eat reflects not only their understanding of food and religious practice but also their conception of society and their place within it. This anthology considers theological foodways, identity foodways, negotiated foodways, and activist foodways in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Original essays explore the role of food and eating in defining theologies and belief structures, creating personal and collective identities, establishing and chall...

More than almost anything else, globalization and the great world religions are shaping our lives, affecting everything from the public policies of political leaders and the economic decisions of industry bosses and employees, to university curricula, all the way to the inner longings of our hearts. Integral to both globalization and religions are compelling, overlapping, and sometimes competing visions of what it means to live well.   In this perceptive, deeply personal, and bea...

Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations, Third Edition is the ideal textbook for those coming to the study of religion for the first time, as well as for those who wish to keep up-to-date with the latest perspectives in the field. This third edition contains new and upgraded pedagogic features, including chapter summaries, key terms and definitions, and questions for reflection and discussion. The first part of the book considers the history and modern practi...

This comprehensive volume brings together a distinguished editorial team, including some of the field’s pioneers, to explore the aims, practice, and historical context of interfaith collaboration.Explores in full the background, history, objectives, and discourse between the leaders and practitioners of the world’s major religionsExamines relations between religions from around the world, moving well beyond the common focus on Christianity, to also cover over 12 maj...

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 der...

Karen Armstrong explains how to practise the religion of compassion that her last books have preached.In November 2009 Armstrong and TED launched The Charter of Compassion, which states that "We call upon all men and women to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion...to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings — even those regarded as enemies." To date, it's been signed by over 48,000 people on the Web, including such figures as The Dal...