Books in the Routledge New Religions series

Despite the fascinating nature of religious Satanism, it has attracted little scholarship until relatively recently. This book brings together a group of international scholars to produce the first serious book-length study of religious Satanism, presenting a collection that will have wide appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike. The first part contains broader studies of influential groups and important aspects of the Satanic milieu, especially regarding historical developments, the construction of tradition and issues of legitimacy. The second part narrows the view to regional variations, especially with studies on Northern and Eastern Europe. The third part consists of primary documents selected for their representational and informational value.

Takes readers on a journey into an African-American spiritual movement. This book follows the extraordinary career of Dwight York, who in his teens started out in a New York street gang, but converted to Islam in prison.

The Church of Satan was founded by Anton LaVey on April 30, 1966. Religious Satanism exists primarily as a decentralized subculture with a strong internet presence within a larger Satanic milieu in Western culture. This book brings together a group of international scholars to present a study of religious Satanism.

On March 26, 1997, the bodies of 39 men and women were found in an opulent mansion outside San Diego, all victims of a mass suicide. The Heaven's Gate suicides were part of a series of major incidents involving New Religions in the 1990s, as the new millennium approached. This anthology includes some original Heaven's Gate documents.

Brings together the best scholarship on the Solar Temple, including the selection of Solar Temple documents. This work is a book-length study of the Order of the Solar Temple.

Contemporary culture at the turn of the 21st century has been fascinated with teenage identity and the presence of magic and the occult. This anthology investigates the rise of the teenage Witchcraft phenomenon in Britain and North America. It also discusses key areas of interest within the teen Witch communities from the mid 1990s onward.

The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide terrorism, or to historical incidents of mass suicide.

In October 1994, fifty-three members of the Order of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Québec were murdered or committed suicide. This incident and two later group suicides in subsequent years played a pivotal role in inflaming the cult controversy in Europe, influencing the public to support harsher actions against non-traditional religions. Despite the importance of the Order of the Solar Temple, there are relatively few studies published in English. This book brings together the best scholarship on the Solar Temple including newly commissioned pieces from leading scholars, a selection of Solar Temple documents, and important previously published articles newly edited for inclusion within this book. This is the first book-length study of the Order of the Solar Temple to be published in English.

Paganistan - a moniker adapted by the Twin Cities Contemporary Pagan community - is the title of a history and ethnography of a regionally unique, urban, and vibrant community in Minnesota. As the first ever study of this long-lived community.

Investigates four religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the Sub-Genius, and Jediism. This book explores these groups as reactions against the religious marketplace of the 1950s and 1960s.