Encyclopaedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities

This Encyclopedia is a refreshing resource on the subject of new religions, at least new from a Western perspective in most of the cases, which have become prominent in the twentieth century. The editor, Christopher Partridge, begins with a useful discursive introduction about different academic definitions and typologies of new religious movements, sects and alternative spiritualities, and in turn introduces the typology used to organize the book. In short, the volume is organized around the principle of context: the previous religious context from which new religions arise and changing social and cultural context where old and new religions (re)form and...