by
Lewis, James R.
Call Number
200.904 22
Publication Date
2003
Summary
James R. Lewis has written the first book to deal explicitly with the issue of how emerging religions legitimate themselves. He contends that a new religion has at least four different, though overlapping, areas where legitimacy is a concern: making converts, maintaining followers, shaping public opinion, and appeasing government authorities. The legitimacy that new religions seek in the public realm is primarily that of social acceptance. Mainstream society's acknowledgement of a religion as legitimate means recognizing its status as a genuine religion and thus recognizing its right to exist. Through a series of wide-ranging case studies Lewis explores the diversification of legitimation strategies of new religions as well as the tactics that their critics use to de-legitimate such groups. Cases include the Movement for Spiritual Inner Awareness, Native American prophet religions, spiritualism, the Church of Christ-Scientist, Scientology, Church of Satan, Heaven's Gate, Unitarianism, Hindu reform movements, and Soka Gakkai, a new Buddhist sect. Since many of the issues raised with respect to newer religions can be extended to the legitimation strategies deployed by established religions, this book sheds an intriguing new light on classic questions about the origin of all religions.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0778
by
Austin, Victor Lee.
Call Number
262.8 22
Publication Date
2010
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0615
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by
Koltun-Fromm, Ken.
Call Number
296.8341092 22
Publication Date
2006
Summary
"Abraham Geiger's Liberal Judaism explores how religious authority and personal meaning interweave to produce a liberal mosaic of Jewish practice in Geiger's religious works. Discussing Geiger's views of history, memory, text, education, ritual, gender, and the rabbinate in nineteenth-century German Jewry, Koltun-Fromm uncovers Geiger's appeal to personal meaning to create religious authority for modern Jews. This is essential reading for scholars, rabbis, rabbinic students, and informed Jewish readers interested in Conservative and Reform Judaism."--Jacket.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0573
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