What In the World?
Do you have any idea what’s going in in the name of religion and spirituality in the world around you? Are you aware of the many new religions and how they differ from the newly invented religions? Did you know that some religious groups construct their beliefs on known fictional sources such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and The Matrix? And if you think that is silly, have you heard of the (atheist) Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? And more seriously, have you considered how many “fringe cultist” beliefs have made it to the mainstream of contemporary religion?
Keeping Up?
Sometimes it seems that every next left breeze brings another religious movement of some kind, and often they gain considerable traction before we’ve even heard of them. One aspect of our service here at Books At a Glance is to help our members keep up with current trends in the culture and the wider religious world – Christian and otherwise. Michael John Plato, professor of film, cultural studies, and world religion at Seneca College in Toronto oversees this for us as Book Review Editor for Contemporary Religion and Culture.
Today’s “Bonus” Review for Members
Today’s review highlights The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements, by George D. Crisside and Benjamin E. Zeller (editors) – an impressive new textbook loaded with the latest on the subject. The Bloomsbury Companion is a collection of thirty one essays by nearly as many contributors from around the world and introduces the methods of study and the most pressing issues in current New Religious Movement studies.
Michael John Plato, whose reviews are consistently marked by insight and good humor, tells us about this new book today. Keep up, and enjoy!