Scarecrow Press
Pages: 416
•
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-8108-6194-7 • Hardback • November 2011 • $132.00 • (£102.00)
978-0-8108-7967-6 • eBook • November 2011 • $125.00 • (£96.00)
George D. Chryssides is senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, England. He has acted as Consultant on New Religious Movements to the United Reformed Church in England and served for several years as Chair of the Board for the Centre for the Study of New Religious Movements at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England.
This volume has its good points: a decent chronology, a list of web resources, and an informative introduction.
— Library Journal
For all of its existence, Scarecrow’s Historical Dictionary series has provided a place for information on remarkably narrow and specific topics to find a home. Each of the volumes, with the standard features of a chronology, introductory essay, alphabetical entries, bibliography, and index, offers the individual authors the format and space to fully cover the topic while remaining within the template, which lets researchers know what they can expect. The three new additions to the Religions, Philosophies, and Movements subset cover Calvinism, new religious movements, and the Friends (Quakers)....The volume on new religious movements has a different style and purpose. Instead of covering one faith, it offers information on many faiths and offshoots of faiths that fall under the umbrella designated as “new.” Druidism, Opus Dei, the People’s Temple, Templarism, Wicca, and many more are defined briefly and put into their historic context. The biographical entries in this volume give information on founders and historical figures in many faiths. Since this covers a multitude of beliefs, there are few entries that define specific doctrines or aspects of doctrine. The three books have authors, rather than editors, and all of them have has appropriate credentials for their subjects. The bibliographies are thematically arranged, and the Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements features extensive web references. These volumes are essential purchases for theological libraries and should be strongly considered by academic and public libraries where there is a subject interest.
— Booklist
Chryssides (Univ. of Wolverhampton, UK) defines a new religious movement (NRM) as an "organization or current of thought that has arisen within the past 150 or so years and that cannot be uncontentiously placed within a traditional world religion." This new edition (1st ed., CH, Mar'02, 39-3693) adds entries for over 100 NRMs, but evidences few other major changes. Other NRMs (or topics that are referenced within articles) now appear in boldface to catch readers' attention, but oddly, the same is not true for the official see also references concluding the articles. The chronology, glossary, and abbreviations sections have been updated. Chryssides wrote all the entries, which lack individual "further reading references" sections. Unfortunately, the first edition's extensive print bibliography has been replaced by a much briefer general bibliography of recent works. Fortunately, the extensive website bibliography remains....Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.
— Choice Reviews