new religious movements

Syncretism, Religious Freedom and Revival: Taiwan’s Yiguandao

By Joanna Eva - Religioscope, 9 June 2024

Having originated in mainland China one hundred years ago, Yiguandao is a fast growing religious movement and one the largest religions in Taiwan, where it relocated the center of its activities in the mid-20th century. Today, it exists as a highly adaptive transnational religious movement devoted to self-cultivation and social harmony. Moreover, in contrast with other Chinese religious traditions, the group’s millenarian teachings lend believers a sense of urgency as they carry out proselytizing activities across the world.

The Murshidiyya in Syria: a modern religious movement – Interview with Dmitry Sevruk

By Olivier Moos - Religioscope, 28 October 2022

The Murshidiyya is a Syrian religious community whose members are mainly distributed between Western Syria and Damascus. This new religious movement emerged in the 1920s around the figure of Salman al-Murshid, a political leader, member of the parliament and religious preacher whose career ended in 1946 when he was executed in Damascus. The Murshidis started as a split-off group from the Alawi sect before eventually developing into an independent religious community.

The colourised version of the 1944 photograph of Salman Al-Murshid on the homepage was created using the online tool Palette.fm.

China: the list of “heterodox teachings” and the historical roots of the proscription of religious groups – Interview with Edward Irons

By Massimo Introvigne - Bitter Winter, 20 December 2018

In this interview, Hong Kong scholar Edward Irons explains the historical roots of the proscription of certain groups as xie jiao (heterodox teachings) in China, and how being on the list of the xie jiao means being a main target for persecution.

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion.

Research: a brief overview of the attitudes of Western European states towards new religious movements

By Jean-François Mayer, 5 November 2016

In the 1990s, some Western European countries published reports and established state agencies or state-sponsored information centres to deal with “cults”. Why did such an intriguing development occur? This phenomenon deserves attention, in order to understand the dynamics leading to concerns about some groups, especially in an historical context where state neutrality in religious matters has become increasingly emphasized.

Note: An initial version of this paper was presented in February 2014 at a conference in Istanbul that was part of the programme “New Religiosities in Turkey”, which is a collaborative research project of the Orient-Institut Istanbul (OII) and the Centre d’études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques at the EHESS in Paris. A similar, but partly different paper in French was presented in May 2015 at the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (Paris) and has been published separately.

Jean-François Mayer is the founder and chief editor of Religioscope. For additional biographical and bibliographical information: www.mayer.info.

New religious movements: alternative religions serving up innovations in food and faith

By Richard Cimino - Religion Watch, 15 November 2014

From popularizing organic granola to creating vegetarian restaurant chains, alternative religions have made lasting changes in the diet of many Americans, even if they may not realize the spiritual origins of the food they are eating, according to University of Oregon sociologist Marion Goldman.

Richard Cimino is the founder and editor of Religion Watch, a newsletter monitoring trends in contemporary religion. Website: www.religionwatch.com.

Analysis: new religious movements in Western Europe

By Silvio Ferrari, 23 October 2006

“In Western Europe public opinion became aware of the presence of new religious movements in the 1970s. two questions started being asked: Are these movements real religions? and: Are they dangerous to individuals and society? These questions are far from simple, and answering them requires reconsidering some crucial notions that are at the foundation of the relationship between law and religion in Western Europe.” – Analysis by Silvio Ferrari, Professor of Church and State Relations at the University of Milano.

New religions: an encyclopedia offers rich information on contemporary religious movements

By Jean-François Mayer, 23 June 2004

Over the past two decades, there have been several volumes in various languages on “new religious movements”. A newly-published encyclopedia provides a well-documented introduction to the flourishing field of alternative spiritualities – both for scholars and for a more general audience.

Christopher Partrige (ed.), Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, Oxford, Lion, 2004, 446 pp. If you would like to know its current price and want to order it from our partner Amazon, just click on the title.
The book is distributed in the USA under the title: New Religions: A Guide. If you reside in North America and wish to order this book, click on the second link for faster service.

France and “cults”: a new orientation – Interview with Jean-Louis Langlais

By Willy Fautré - Compass Direct, 15 April 2003

Compass Direct met with Jean-Louis Langlais, president of the Inter-ministerial Mission for Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Deviances (MIVILUDES), a task force created by government decree in France in November 2002 to replace the Inter-ministerial Mission for the Fight Against Sects (MILS).

Sects and New Religious Movements: Questions and Challenges for Armed Forces and National Security

By Jean-François Mayer, 4 April 2003

Paper presented at the symposium “Minorities and Armed Forces II: Ethnic and Religious Minorities Within the Military” (NATO / Partnership for Peace), Vienna, National Defence Academy of the Austrian Armed Forces, 12-15 May 1998. This paper was originally published by the Department of Study of Religions of the University of Fribourg. This article can also be […]

From deprogramming to strategic interaction – Interview with Steven Alan Hassan

By Religioscope, 19 January 2003

Steven Alan Hassan has been a familiar name among those involved in the “cult controversies” for over twenty-six years. A former member of the Unification Church, he is one of the leading figures among experts counseling people away from groups that they consider destructive. He has explained to Religioscope what his approach is and how it has evolved over the years.