Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements: Over 400 Groups, Individuals & Ideas Clearly and Concisely Defined [Paperback]

Irving Hexham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2002 | Series: Pocket Dictionary

A 2003 Finalist in the Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards! Studying new religious movements can be like trying to learn several languages at once, each with its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax. The flourishing variety of these movements today makes the task even more difficult. Irving Hexham has designed Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements to be an indispensable companion for students of religion and a fascinating guide for curious and perplexed observers of the religious scene. Here are nearly 450 entries covering

• specific groups, from the Aetherius Society to the Zion Christian Church
• practices, from the Alexander technique to Yoga
• UFO religion, from alien abductions to Unarius Academy of Science
• symbols, from the ankh to yin-yang
• religious texts, from the apocryphal New Testament to the Vinaya-Pitaka
• religious leaders, from George Adamski to Rabbi Zalman

Reference books on religion tend to be too large, expensive and unwieldy for those who want quick information. Both handy and affordable, this Pocket Dictionary offers quick, concise and reliable answers to basic questions about new religious movements.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: IVP Academic (January 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830814663
• ISBN-13: 978-0830814664
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #846,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Encyclopedias > Religion
  • #32 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Cults & Demonism
  • #83 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Comparative Religion

More About the Author

Irving Hexham is professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary and adjunct professor of World Christianity at Liverpool Hope University. He has published twenty-seven academic books, including The Concise Dictionary of Religion, Understanding Cults and New Religions, and Religion and Economic Thought, plus eighty major academic articles and chapters in books, numerous popular articles, and book reviews. Recently he completed a report for the United Nations' refugee agency on religious conflict in Africa and another for the Canadian Government's Department of Canadian Heritage on Religious Publications in Canada. He is listed in Who's Who in Canada and various scholarly directories. In 2008, he was honored at the historic Humboldt University in Berlin with a Festschrift, Border Crossings: Explorations of an Interdisciplinary Historian (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements, February 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements: Over 400 Groups, Individuals & Ideas Clearly and Concisely Defined (Paperback)

Far from a bias towards New Religions, this is brillinaly presented. It is the best guide book I have ever known regarding new religious movements.

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing really "new" here!, December 9, 2008

By 

Crazy Horse - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements: Over 400 Groups, Individuals & Ideas Clearly and Concisely Defined (Paperback)

Irving Hexham, a professor of religion at the University of Calgary, provides brief definitions or descriptions of over four hundred "groups, individuals and ideas" associated in some way with what are now being called "new religious movements."

Hexham has provided a useful little reference tool that covers a host of exotic topics and individuals. One finds several entries on items of interest to Latter-day Saints, including "Joseph Smith," "Mormons," "cult," "cult apologist," "countercult," "Christian Research Institute," and "Martin, Walter (1928--1989)."

Hexham does not entirely shy away from difficult issues.

For example, he indicates that "Dr." Martin "shaped popular Christian attitudes to contemporary religions" but that he "had a penchant for ad hominem arguments."

The information in the Pocket Dictionary seems to be both nonpolemical and generally accurate. Hexham maintains an interesting Web page, found at www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/ as recently as 17 March 2003.

In addition to his interest in the contemporary array of different and competing religious movements, he manifests his own piety in a series of Christian travel guides, published by Zondervan, to such places as Great Britain, Italy, Germany, and France.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good overall.., July 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements: Over 400 Groups, Individuals & Ideas Clearly and Concisely Defined (Paperback)

This is a good summary of most of the alternative religions out there. Can also be read page by page like a regular book.