New Journal: Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

Editor: James R. Lewis, ISSN: 1946-0538

Only three decades ago, one could count the number of new religious movements (NRM) specialists on one's fingers, and read everything that had been published in the field in about one month. Since that time the field has expanded radically, even giving birth to a number of sub-specialities (e.g., Pagan studies and new age studies). The explosive growth of NRM studies has been matched by an explosive growth in the number of new publications. Major academic presses, from Brill to Oxford University Press, publish an increasing number of NRM titles.

The Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (ASRR) has been created with the ambitious goal of providing NRM scholars with a vehicle for staying up-to-date with new publications in this expanding body of literature. Modeling itself on successful review journals such as Reviews in Religion and Theology, ASRR will be an online journal that will publish book reviews, review essays, and literature surveys in the NRM field.

For the purpose of reviewing books in ASRR, new religions is defined broadly to include the diverse subfields that have developed out of NRM studies, including - but not restricted to - Pagan Studies, Studies of Western Esotericism, New Age Studies, Masonic Studies, and Studies of New Thought. ASRR also reviews studies of new movements within traditional religions, such as the Charismatic movement in Christianity and Guru movements in Hinduism, and new religious movements in indigenous societies. Additionally, depending on the author's approach and specific focus, ASRR reviews certain quasi-religious phenomena, such as implicit religion and the holistic health movement.


---  Content of 1st Issue ---

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2009
Table of Contents

Review Essays

• Researching Scientology: Some Observations on Recent Literature, English and German
  Marco Frenschkowski
  
  
• Heaven's Gate: A Literature Review and Bibliographic Essay
  Benjamin E. Zeller

Reviews

• Peter Åkerbäck. De obeständiga religionerna. Om kollektiva självmord och frälsning i Peoples Temple, Ordre du Temple Solaire och Heaven's Gate
  Reviewed by Henrik Bogdan
  
  
• Eileen Barker, Ed. The Centrality of Religion in Social Life: Essays in Honour of James A. Beckford
  Reviewed by Milda Alisauskiene
  
  
• Helen Berger and Douglas Ezzy. Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and the Search for the Self
  Reviewed by Stephanie Martin
  
  
• James D. Chancellor. Life in The Family: An Oral History of the Children of God
  Reviewed by Audhild Skoglund
  
  
• Brenda Denzler. The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs
  Reviewed by Pia Andersson & Erik A. W. Östling
  
  
• Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions
  Reviewed by Nevill Drury
  
  
• Gail M. Harley. Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten Founder of New Thought
  Reviewed by Kristy L. Slominski
  
  
• Craig James Hazen. The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century
  Reviewed by Jeremy Rapport
  
  
• Reinhard Hempelmann et al. Eds. Panorama der neuen Religiosität. Sinnsuche und Heilsversprechen zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts
  Reviewed by Gerald Willms
  
  
• Lynne Hume. Portals: Opening Doorways to Other Realities Through the Senses
  Reviewed by Nevill Drury
  
  
• Philip Jenkins. Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History
  Reviewed by John A. Kieffer
  
  
• Michael Muhammad Knight. The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop and the Gods of New York
  Reviewed by Göran Larsson
  
  
• James R. Lewis, Ed. The Order of the Solar Temple: Order of Death
  Reviewed by Sean O'Callaghan
  
  
• Evelyn Lord. The Hell-Fire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and Secret Societies
  Reviewed by Jesper Aagaard Petersen
  
  
• Chris Mathews. Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture
  Reviewed by James R. Lewis
  
  
• David Ownby. Falun Gong and the Future of China
  Reviewed by Shawn Arthur
  
  
• David A. Palmer. Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China
  Reviewed by Shawn Arthur
  
  
• Carolyn Thomas de la Peña. The Body Electric: How Strange Machines Built the Modern American
  Reviewed by Asbjørn Dyrendal
  
  
• Jesper Aagaard Petersen, Ed. Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology
  Reviewed by Christopher Partridge
  
  
• Murphy Pizza and James R. Lewis, Ed. Handbook of Contemporary Paganism
  Reviewed by Marion Mason
  
  
• Diana G. Tumminia. When Prophecy Never Fails: Myth and Reality in a Flying-Saucer Group
  Reviewed by Adam Klin Oron

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