After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression. "Religion Online" provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes the "Pew Internet and American Life Project" "Executive" "Summary," the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O'Leary's field-defining "Cyberspace as Sacred Space,"

What is a cult? Why do they emerge? Who joins them? And why do tragedies such as Waco and Jonestown occur? This Reader brings together the voices of historians, sociologists, and psychologists of religion to address these key questions about new religious movements.

The volume opens with an introductory essay by the editor, and each section is prefaced by a brief essay outlining the issues at stake, the state of current discussion, and the nature, value, and relevance of the selected readings. The readings themselves are broad-ranging and include coverage of topical questions, such as the 'brainwashing' controversy, sexual deviance and gender issues, and cults in cyberspace.

This collection enables readers to gain a clear understanding of the phenomenon of new religious movements in modern culture and to replace prejudice and speculation with reliable insights into the nature of cult activity.

Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, provides a sociological interpretation of the phenomenon of new religious movements. While the author does not offer an apologia for cults--in either a religious or a sociological sense--he does attempt to replace suspicion and misinformation with a greater knowledge of the facts (as best we know them) and a measure of sympathetic understanding.
Completely revised and updated in this second edition, the book examines all aspects of cults, while striving to delineate the very real limits of our knowledge. In addition to dealing with the troublesome aspects of the subject, including issues of violence, sexuality, and brainwashing, the author also considers the possibility that new religious movements are a source of spiritual satisfaction to their members. Offering up-to-date social science research about contemporary religious cults, Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, is ideal for undergraduate sociology of religion and new religious movements courses.