Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

The present article proposes that the notion of forgery be incorporated as an analytic category within religious studies. Following a brief outline of three key periods of religious studies, the factors that have made researchers hesitant to deal with the topic are examined. Religious forgeries are then discussed in terms of different parameters, such as the age of the fabrication, the extent of the forgery and the mode of revelation. With the exception of forgeries created simply for “the fun of it,” religious document forgeries are motivated by the desire to legitimate the authority of certain opinions, systems of religious ideas, and/or the forger. For the most part, the people who manufacture sacred forgeries are not cynical or sinister. Rather, many religious forgers produce documents expressing ideas in which they really do believe and which they hope to promote via their fabrications.

This essay argues against the idea, frequently advanced by contemporary anti- and counter-cult writers, that the appearance of new religious movements in the last few decades is unprecedented. It shows that claim to be less a statement of fact than a rhetorical device that has been used frequently throughout history to incite and exacerbate fears about new religious groups that are perceived to be threatening to the status quo. It traces significant rhetorical and substantial continuities in the polemic against new religions not only to earlier American history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but also to the second and third centuries in the ancient Mediterranean world, where early Christian groups were subjected to the same types of criticisms as contemporary “cults.”

The tantric yoga organization MISA (Movement for Spiritual Integration in Absolute) has become one of the most successful European yoga schools. The teachings of MISA present a doctrine of synthesis wherein elements from Orthodox Christianity, esoteric Traditionalism, conspiracy theories, and New Age ideas are combined with Tantric philosophy and practice. The present paper presents (1) an exposition of the political intrigues and agendas surrounding the movement, and (2) the teachings of MISA as they appear in the outer and inner circles of the movement, taking the case of their Danish headquarters as an illustrative example.

Opinion surveys and media representations demonstrate the unpopularity of the Church of Scientology and its members, which is out of proportion to the group’s size or influence. Members have been persecuted and shunned in the United States and Europe. Monster theory, a form of critical theory that proposes that our monsters describe and circumscribe us, is used as a framework to evaluate the irrational side of this unpopularity. Monster theory identifies hybridity and boundary-crossing as hallmarks of monstrosity. While not arguing that members of these groups are in fact monsters, it is proposed that both hallmarks are found in New Religions Movements (NRMs) in general, but in Scientology to a greater degree. Scientology transgresses not only the borders of established religion, but also science, medicine, and psychiatry, foundation of the modern legal system and the secular state. While actual legal transgressions by the group’s leadership are acknowledged, it is argued that these are largely in the past and that residual antipathy has more to do with the group’s perceived “monstrosity” than with actual acts.

Nordic religion in the US takes the form of Heathenry, or Norse Paganism. Ranging from formal organizations like Asatru to eclectic mixes of Norse lore and Wiccan practice, Heathenry is a dynamic construction of Nordic religious and cultural identity in the midst of an increasingly ethnically pluralistic society. The present article provides ethnographic sketches of Heathen paths in Minnesota—a state notable for its large historically Scandinavian/Germanic cultural makeup—and explores how Heathenry is a way for Minnesotans to re-identify and redefine Nordic culture and identity in American terms.

The present paper surveys the NRMs and New Spirituality/New Age (NS/NA) that have arrived and/or emerged in Estonia after the collapse on the Soviet Union. During the Soviet period, Estonia became a spiritual center for some of the NRMs operating in the Soviet Union. At the same time, the esoteric and spiritual scene during that period laid foundations for the acceptance of the NS/NA in present day Estonia. The discussion focuses on general trends concerning the NRM and NS/NA in contemporary Estonia, and also on responses from state, society, media, and mainstream religions to the NRM and NS/NA.