Oxford handbook of new religious movements

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Overview / James R. Lewis -- 1. An Introduction to New Religions / J. Gordon Melton -- Pt. I. Modernization and New Religions -- 2. Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions, and the Reenchantment of the West / Christopher Partridge -- 3. The Sociocultural Significance of Modern New Religious Movements / Lorne L. Dawson -- 4. Science and Religion in the New Religions / Mikael Rothstein -- 5. Virtually Religious: New Religious Movements and the World Wide Web / Douglas E. Cowan and Jeffrey K. Hadden -- Pt. II. Social Conflict -- 6. Violence and New Religious Movements / David G. Bromley -- 7. Legal Dimensions of New Religions / James T. Richardson -- 8. The North American Anti-Cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure / Anson Shupe, David G. Bromley and Susan E. Darnell -- 9. Something Peculiar about France: Anti-Cult Campaigns in Western Europe and French Religious Exceptionalism / Massimo Introvigne -- 10. Satanism and Ritual Abuse / Philip Jenkins -- 11. Conversion and "Brainwashing" in New Religious Movements / Dick Anthony and Thomas Robbins -- 12. Leaving the Fold: Disaffiliating from New Religious Movements / David G. Bromley -- Pt. III. Social and Psychological Dimensions -- 13. Psychology and the New Religious Movements / John A. Saliba -- 14. Millennialism / Richard Landes -- 15. The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process / Diana G. Tumminia and R. George Kirkpatrick -- 16. Women in New Religious Movements / Susan J. Palmer -- 17. Children in New Religious Movements / Charlotte E. Hardman -- Pt. IV. Neo-Pagans, UFOs, and Other Heterodoxies -- 18. Waiting for the "Big Beam": UFO Religious and "Ufological" Themes in New Religious Movements / Andreas Grunschloss -- 19. Esotericism in New Religious Movements / Olav Hammer -- 20. The Dynamics of Alternative Spirituality: Seekers, Networks, and "New Age" / Steven J. Sutcliffe -- 21. New Religious in East Asia / Michael Pye -- 22. Witches, Wiccans, and Neo-Pagans: A Review of Current Academic Treatments of Neo-Paganism / Sian Lee Reid and Shelley TSivia Rabinovitch.