- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions, and The Reenchantment of the West
- The Sociocultural Significance of Modern New Religious Movements
- Science and Religion in the New Religions
- Virtually Religious: New Religious Movements and the World Wide Web
- Violence and New Religious Movements
- Legal Dimensions of New Religions
- The North American Anti-Cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure
- Something Peculiar about France: Anti-Cult Campaigns in Western Europe and French Religious Exceptionalism
- Satanism and Ritual Abuse
- Conversion and “Brainwashing” in New Religious Movements
- Leaving the Fold: Disaffiliating from New Religious Movements
- Psychology and the New Religious Movements
- Millennialism
- The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process
- Women in New Religious Movements
- Children in New Religious Movements
- Waiting for the “Big Beam”: UFO Religions and “Ufological” Themes in New Religious Movements
- Esotericism in New Religious Movements
- The Dynamics of Alternative Spirituality: Seekers, Networks, and “New Age”
- New Religions in East Asia
- Witches, Wiccans, and Neo-Pagans: A Review of Current Academic Treatments of Neo-Paganism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article argues that, despite the significant body of theoretical work that has been carried out by anthropologists and others, the mythological dimension of new religions has been largely ignored. Using Unarius Society, feminist witchcraft, and the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness as examples, it suggests that new religious movement myths are not fixed, but, rather, change in response to the ongoing process of reality construction taking place within such movements.
Keywords: reality construction, mythology, Unarius Society, feminist witchcraft, anthropology
Diana G. Tumminia teaches at California State University at Sacramento. She studied social psychology and ethnography at UCLA. Her publications address various topics in the sociology of religion, the psychology of belief, and excellence in teaching. Her expertise also extends into the areas of race and gender studies.
R. George Kirkpatrick is a scholar in the fields of sociological theory, collective behavior, and social movements. His notable studies have been of antipornography crusades, UFO religions, and American witches. He has taught with distinction for more than thirty years at San Diego State University.
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- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions, and The Reenchantment of the West
- The Sociocultural Significance of Modern New Religious Movements
- Science and Religion in the New Religions
- Virtually Religious: New Religious Movements and the World Wide Web
- Violence and New Religious Movements
- Legal Dimensions of New Religions
- The North American Anti-Cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure
- Something Peculiar about France: Anti-Cult Campaigns in Western Europe and French Religious Exceptionalism
- Satanism and Ritual Abuse
- Conversion and “Brainwashing” in New Religious Movements
- Leaving the Fold: Disaffiliating from New Religious Movements
- Psychology and the New Religious Movements
- Millennialism
- The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process
- Women in New Religious Movements
- Children in New Religious Movements
- Waiting for the “Big Beam”: UFO Religions and “Ufological” Themes in New Religious Movements
- Esotericism in New Religious Movements
- The Dynamics of Alternative Spirituality: Seekers, Networks, and “New Age”
- New Religions in East Asia
- Witches, Wiccans, and Neo-Pagans: A Review of Current Academic Treatments of Neo-Paganism
- Index
