Most new or replacement non secular are gravely misunderstood through participants of the spiritual mainstream. classified cults or sects, teams and their individuals are frequently ridiculed or another way ignored as bizarre and possibly risky via the population at huge. regardless of their efforts at instructing most of the people, a few of the anti- and counter-cult activists have actually promoted even more mis-understanding than exact figuring out of the spiritual lives of a few in their fellow electorate. hence, they've got helped to create a really opposed setting for someone whose non secular practices don't healthy inside of a so-called mainstream. This set rectifies the placement through providing exact, finished, authoritative and obtainable money owed of varied new and substitute non secular events which were and are lively in American society, and it addresses methods of figuring out new and replacement religions inside of a broader context.
Determining what truly constitutes a brand new or substitute faith is a topic of continuous debate. Questions come up as to a brand new faith's legitimacy, ideals, tools of conversion, and different features of a non secular movement's viability and position in a given tradition. How a faith profits reputation by way of the mainstream, which regularly labels such new routine as cults, is fraught with trouble, pressure, and worry. the following, specialists delineate the bounds and think about many of the teams, ideals, activities, and different concerns regarding new faiths and substitute ideals. Readers will come away with a fuller knowing of the non secular panorama in the USA this day.
Volume 1: historical past and Controversies discusses the rules of latest and substitute religions within the usa and addresses the controversies that encompass them. This quantity is helping readers larger comprehend what makes a brand new or substitute trust approach a faith and the problems concerned.
Volume 2: Jewish and Christian Traditions explores a number of the new religions that experience grown out of those Abrahamic faiths. teams comparable to the Shakers, the People's Temple, the department Davidians, Jehovah's Witnesses and others are tested.
Volume three: Metaphysical, New Age, and Neopagan Movements seems to be at Shamanism, Spiritualism, Wicca, and Paganism, between different activities, as they've got built and grown within the U.S. those faiths have discovered new and committed fans but are usually misunderstood.
Volume four: Asian Traditions specializes in these new and substitute religions which have been encouraged by means of Asian non secular traditions. From Baha'i to Soka Gakkai, from Adidam to the Vedanta Society, members examine a whole variety of teams practising and worshiping within the U.S. this day.
Volume five: African Diaspora Traditions and different American Innovations examines a number of the traditions associated with the African diaspora comparable to Rastafarianism, Santeria, and the state of Islam, along traditions which are really American incarnations like Scientology, flying saucers religions, and Heaven's Gate. a number of the new and substitute religions lined in those pages include:
; Shamanism
; Wicca
; Black Israelites
; Santeria
; Scientology
; Elan Vital
; Hare Krishna
; Soka Gakkai
; and lots of more
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