- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Categorizing Religious Organizations: In Search of a Theoretically Meaningful Strategy
- Conversion
- Charisma and Authority in New Religious Movements
- Disaffiliation and New Religious Movements
- Seekers and Subcultures
- Quantitative Approaches to New Religions
- Psychology and New Religious Movements
- As It Was in the Beginning: Developmental Moments in the Emergence of New Religions
- The North American Anticult Movement
- The Christian Countercult Movement
- Legal Dimensions of New Religions: An Update
- Brainwashing and “Cultic Mind Control”
- From Jonestown to 9/11 and Beyond: Mapping the Contours of Violence and New Religious Movements
- Conspiracy Theories and New Religious Movements
- Satanic Ritual Abuse
- Cult Journalism
- Invention in “New New” Religions
- Children in New Religions
- Media, Technology, and New Religious Movements: A Review of the Field
- New Religions and Science
- Gender and New Religions
- Sex and New Religions
- Occulture and Everyday Enchantment
- Rituals and Ritualization in New Religions Movements
- The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process
- Religious Experiences in New Religious Movements
- New Religious Movements and Scripture
- Material Religion
- Hagiography: A Note on the Narrative Exaltation of Sect Leaders and Heads of New Religions
- Millennialism: New Religious Movements and the Quest for a New Age
- What Does God Need with a Starship?: UFOs and Extraterrestrials in the Contemporary Religious Landscape
- Late Modern Shamanism in a Norwegian Context: Global Networks—Local Grounds
- Modern Religious Satanism: A Negotiation of Tensions
- Western Esotericism and New Religious Movements
- The New Age
- The Study of Paganism and Wicca: A Review Essay
- Native American Prophet Religions
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Among the basic elements found in older and more recent religions alike are striking experiences such as visions, out-of-body experiences, and mystical union. On the one hand, such experiences as psychological phenomena. On the other, they are also social facts; something as intangible as a personal experience is somehow transformed into the bedrock of a religious movement. The present chapter argues that the “religious” element of an experience is an effect of the way these experiences are categorized and interpreted. Quite a few people have had striking experiences, far fewer insist that their experiences have any validity for others, and fewer yet manage to convince other people of the supernatural origin and of these experiences and derive authority from them. A new religious movement will derive legitimacy from such experiences if they are presented in a narrative that frames them as “religious,” and if others are willing to accept this narrative.
Keywords: Religious experience, mysticism, interpretation of experiences, authority, religious narrative
Olav Hammer is Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at Amsterdam University. His research focuses on the application of various modes of critical theory in order to understand the processes of religious change and innovation. His publications include Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Claiming Knowledge from Theosophy to the New Age (2001), a study of the construction of authority through religious discourse.
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- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Categorizing Religious Organizations: In Search of a Theoretically Meaningful Strategy
- Conversion
- Charisma and Authority in New Religious Movements
- Disaffiliation and New Religious Movements
- Seekers and Subcultures
- Quantitative Approaches to New Religions
- Psychology and New Religious Movements
- As It Was in the Beginning: Developmental Moments in the Emergence of New Religions
- The North American Anticult Movement
- The Christian Countercult Movement
- Legal Dimensions of New Religions: An Update
- Brainwashing and “Cultic Mind Control”
- From Jonestown to 9/11 and Beyond: Mapping the Contours of Violence and New Religious Movements
- Conspiracy Theories and New Religious Movements
- Satanic Ritual Abuse
- Cult Journalism
- Invention in “New New” Religions
- Children in New Religions
- Media, Technology, and New Religious Movements: A Review of the Field
- New Religions and Science
- Gender and New Religions
- Sex and New Religions
- Occulture and Everyday Enchantment
- Rituals and Ritualization in New Religions Movements
- The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process
- Religious Experiences in New Religious Movements
- New Religious Movements and Scripture
- Material Religion
- Hagiography: A Note on the Narrative Exaltation of Sect Leaders and Heads of New Religions
- Millennialism: New Religious Movements and the Quest for a New Age
- What Does God Need with a Starship?: UFOs and Extraterrestrials in the Contemporary Religious Landscape
- Late Modern Shamanism in a Norwegian Context: Global Networks—Local Grounds
- Modern Religious Satanism: A Negotiation of Tensions
- Western Esotericism and New Religious Movements
- The New Age
- The Study of Paganism and Wicca: A Review Essay
- Native American Prophet Religions
- Index
