Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem brings together scholars of apocalyptic and millennial groups to explore aspects of contemporary apocalyptic fervor. Opening with a discussion of various theories of apocalypticism, the editors then analyze how millennialist movements have gained ground in largely secular societal circles. Section three discusses the links between apocalypticism and established churches, while the final part of the book looks at examples of violence and confrontation, from Waco to Solar Temple to the Aum Shinri Kyo subway disaster in Japan.

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This study of new religious movements in Quebec focuses on nine groups-including the notoriously violent Solar Temple; the iconoclastic Temple of Priapus; and the various "Catholic" schisms, such as those led by a mystical pope; the Holy Spirit incarnate; or the reappearance of the Virgin Mary. Eleven contributing authors offer rich ethnographies and sociological insights on new spiritual groups that highlight the quintessential features of Quebec's new religions ("sectes" in the francophone media). The editors argue that Quebec provides a favorable "ecology" for alternative spirituality, and explore the influences behind this situation: the rapid decline of the Catholic Church after Vatican Il; the "Quiet Revolution," a utopian faith in Science; the 1975 Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms; and an open immigration that welcomes diverse faiths. The themes of Quebec nationalism found in prophetic writings that fuel apocalyptic ferment are explored by the editors who find in these sectarian communities echoes of Quebec's larger Sovereignty movement.

This study of new religious movements in Quebec focuses on nine groups-including the notoriously violent Solar Temple; the iconoclastic Temple of Priapus; and the various "Catholic" schisms, such as those led by a mystical pope; the Holy Spirit incarnate; or the reappearance of the Virgin Mary. Eleven contributing authors offer rich ethnographies and sociological insights on new spiritual groups that highlight the quintessential features of Quebec's new religions ("sectes" in the francophone media). The editors argue that Quebec provides a favorable "ecology" for alternative spirituality, and explore the influences behind this situation: the rapid decline of the Catholic Church after Vatican Il; the "Quiet Revolution," a utopian faith in Science; the 1975 Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms; and an open immigration that welcomes diverse faiths. The themes of Quebec nationalism found in prophetic writings that fuel apocalyptic ferment are explored by the editors who find in these sectarian communities echoes of Quebec's larger Sovereignty movement.

This book explores the life stories of ten Uyghur women, all prominent political activists in the international Uyghur advocacy movement. Born and raised in East Turkestan/Xinjiang in the 1970s-90s, each woman departed from China before 2005 and chose to settle in Western countries. Today, they work tirelessly to defend the rights of Uyghurs and Turkic peoples in China, to raise public awareness of the PRC’s campaign of colonization and population reduction, recognized by eight countries today as a genocide. These narratives are based on interviews conducted over Skype or Zoom between 2020 and 2021, collected as a form of oral history. Relying on techniques of narrative analysis, the book focuses on the escalating tensions, turning points and other motivating factors (religious, political, psychological) that prompted their transformation in self-identity, ideology, and the emergence of a new Uyghur-Muslim feminism. The book describes how these women activists are navigating the competing reality constructions of the situation in Xinjiang, and effectively restorying a genocide that is ongoing in their homeland to bring about social and political change.

The late 1960s and early 1970s constituted a remarkable period for spiritual experimentation and for the proliferation of new religious groups. Now the children born into these religions have come of age. While their parents made the decision as adults to embrace alternative religious practices, the children have been raised with a very different orientation toward the larger society. While they take their religious communities for granted, many of these children gaze with curiosity at the surrounding secular world which their parents, not they, chose to reject. The contributors to this volume examine children from many different alternative religious movements worldwide, including The Family, Hare Krishna, Wiccans, and Pagans, Messianic Communities, and the Rajneesh (Osho) Movement. The essays explore two general questions: 1) What impact does the presence of children have on a new religion's lifestyle and chance of surviving into the future? 2) Is child abuse more likely to occur in unconventional religions, or are children born into them, the 'new' religions have grown up and have become an important and rapidly changing social force that we cannot reasonably dismiss or wisely ignore