REL 235 - Emerging Religions

3.00 credits.

This course is a comparative and interdisciplinary introduction to the growing number of New Religious Movements (NRMs) appearing worldwide in the last 175 years. Topics focus on charismatic leaders, the Anti-cult Movement, gender issues, and violence and abuse within NRMs. The course also explores why NRMs have formed in increasingly greater numbers, especially in the United States., since World War II, and the role that secularization and environmental concerns has played in their formation. Spring semester, alternating years.