 Cover of the first edition | |
| Editor |
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|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Published |
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| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | December 9, 2004 |
| Pages | 480 (1st), 483 (2nd) |
| ISBN | 0-19-515682-X 978-0-19-931531-4 (2nd) |
| OCLC | 53398162 |
| 200/.9/04 | |
| LC Class | BP603 .C66 2005 |
Controversial New Religions is an edited volume discussing new religious movements, or cults, that have resulted in controversy. It was co-edited by James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, and was first published in 2004 by Oxford University Press. A second edition containing mostly new content was published with the same two editors in 2014. The first edition contains 19 essays, while the second contains 22. Both editions are divided into four sections by topic, and cover numerous groups.
Both editions contain content on Western or Christian inspired new religious movements like the Unification Church or the Peoples Temple, in addition to Asian-derived groups like the Falun Gong, the Rajneesh movement and Aum Shinrikyo. Groups related to western esoteric and New Age concepts are also subject to discussion: the Church of Scientology and the Order of the Solar Temple are covered in both volumes, as are unclassified other groups like Heaven's Gate and Raëlism.
Reviews for both editions were generally positive, though some reviewers described it as a typical example in this field. One reviewer raised criticisms of unevenness in the point of view and level of assumed prior to knowledge from chapter to chapter in the collection, though generally the book was viewed as a valuable resource.