new religious movements
Single Sister
I wondered if she wanted to leave. If she asks me to drive her away, would I take her?
Means of Demolishing Thetans
JonJ in Philadelphia writes, responding to J. C. Hallman’s recent essay, “Killing the Thetan,” a critique of Lawrence Wright’s widely-discussed story on Scientology: Yes, Wright’s piece in the New Yorker…
A Conflict of Interest?
I’ve had a subscription to The Atlantic for about a year now and find it increasingly unreadable. They’ve entrusted advice on dealing with Iran to Jeffrey Goldberg (an attack is inevitable!)…
New Revelation from a “Son Of My Mother”
Leland Mellott has been kind enough to share with us some more details about his discoveries, of which he told us a bit earlier: By way of a powerful, transformative River…
Long Live the Occult
Over at BigThink, Mitch Horowitz gives a whirlwind tour of American occultism, from its Renaissance origins to New Age spirituality, from Lincoln’s White House séances to quantum physics, from the…
Studying Religion Is Revolutionary in China
Like pretty much everything else over there right now, religion is a growth industry in China. After decades of official repression a whole bunch of new religious movements—and, even more,…
Hipster Xians in Brooklyn
If you didn’t get enough Jay Bakker from Joseph Huff-Hannon’s “Happy Hour Gospel” last week, be sure to check out our friend Nicole Greenfield’s new essay at Religion Dispatches: “Cooler…
Maybe Religion Has a Future After All
Travel back in time to, say, the early seventies and—obviously, first things first—get thee to the closest sociology department. What you’ll probably find when you start asking about religion is…
The Politics of Big Questions
As I’ve worked on questions of religion and reason, both in the academy and as a journalist, the John Templeton Foundation has been around every turn. As I called, corresponded,…
In Jews-for-Jesus Heaven
Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, the founder of Jews for Judaism, sounds forth on Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, who died last week. Rabbi Kravitz, as my mother used…
Terence, the Messiah
It has been a while since we’ve been contacted by a Chosen One. It used to happen fairly often, but the stream has tapered off some in recent months. That’s…