The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements

This comprehensive handbook examines the phenomenon of new religious movements (NRMs) through multiple disciplinary lenses, offering crucial insights into how contemporary religious innovation challenges traditional theological categories and assumptions about the divine. Lewis assembles leading scholars to analyze movements ranging from Scientology and the Unification Church to Wicca and UFO religions, demonstrating how these groups construct alternative conceptions of ultimate reality that often blur conventional distinctions between theism, pantheism, and naturalism.

The volume's significance for understanding contemporary approaches to God lies in its systematic analysis of how NRMs reimagine divine-human relationships outside established religious frameworks. Contributors examine how these movements develop novel theodicies, create new mythologies, and establish alternative sources of religious authority that bypass traditional scriptural or ecclesiastical channels. The handbook reveals how NRMs frequently synthesize elements from multiple religious traditions, scientific discourse, and popular culture to create hybrid theological systems that appeal to seekers dissatisfied with conventional religious options.

Methodologically, the work employs sociological, anthropological, and religious studies approaches to analyze how NRMs function as laboratories for religious experimentation. Several chapters explore how these movements respond to secularization by offering experiential practices, therapeutic benefits, and cosmic narratives that address modern anxieties while maintaining supernatural claims. The volume examines conversion processes, revealing how individuals adopt radically new conceptions of the divine through intense communal experiences and charismatic leadership.

The handbook's treatment of controversies surrounding NRMs illuminates broader debates about religious legitimacy and the boundaries of acceptable god-concepts in pluralistic societies. Contributors analyze legal battles, deprogramming efforts, and media representations that shape public discourse about which forms of religiosity deserve protection and recognition. This analysis exposes underlying assumptions about normative theism in Western societies.

For scholars of religion, the volume demonstrates how NRMs challenge academic categories by creating theological innovations that resist classification within traditional typologies. The work shows how these movements force reconsideration of fundamental questions about religious truth claims, the nature of revelation, and the criteria for distinguishing authentic from inauthentic spirituality. By documenting the proliferation of new god-concepts and salvific paths, the handbook reveals the continued vitality and mutation of religious imagination in supposedly secular contexts.