The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements

The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) is one of the fastest-growing areas of religious studies, and since the release of the first volume ofThe Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements in 2003, the field has continued to expand and break new ground. In this second volume, contributors from the fields of sociology and religious studies address an expanded range of topics, covering traditional religious studies topics such as "scripture," "charisma," and "ritual," and also applying new theoretical approaches to NRM topics. Other chapters cover understudied topics in the field, such as the developmental patterns of NRMs and subcultural considerations in the study of NRMs.

Divided into five sections, the first part of this book examines NRMs from a social-scientific perspective, particularly that of sociology. In the second section, the primary factors that have put the study of NRMs on the map, controversy and conflict, are considered. The third section investigates common themes within the field of NRMs, while the fourth examines the approaches that religious studies researchers have taken to NRMs. As NRM Studies has grown, subfields such as Esotericism, New Age Studies, and neo-Pagan Studies have grown as distinct and individual areas of study, and the final section of the book investigates these emergent fields.

James R. Lewis is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tromso (Norway). He currently co-edits three book series and is the general editor for theAlternative Spirituality and Religion Review. Recent publications include: (with Henrik Bogdan)Sexuality and New Religious Movements (2014), (with Carole Cusack) Sacred Suicide (2014), (with Bengt-Ove Andressen)Textbook Gods (2014), Sects & Stats: Overturning the Conventional Wisdom about Cult Members(2014), (with Siv Ellen Kraft and Trude Fonneland) Nordic Neoshamanisms (2015), and (with Inga Bardsen Tollefsen)The Brill Handbook of Nordic New Religions (2015).

Inga Bardsen Tollefsen is a PhD student at the University of Tromso (Norway). Her main research interest is NRMs and gender, and her thesis work focuses on gender in the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission, as well as other Hindu-inspired global meditation movements. She has published several articles on the Art of Living Foundation, and she is a co-editor of several anthologies, such as Nordic New Religions(with James R. Lewis), and Female Leaders in New Religious Movements (with Christian Giudice).