Violence and new religious movements : book review

Abstract

The book Violence and New Religious Movements, edited by James R. Lewis of Tromsų University in Norway, approaches the problem of relationship between new religions and violence, which attracts public attention because of incidents that were widely depicted in the media. As the editor of this new book puts it, it is intended to “research the general model of all NRM-related violence, to examine violence in less prominent new religions and violence against new religions” (p. 6). This book consists of five parts and nineteen contributions. The first part “Theorizing NRM violence” has three contributions by David G. Bromley, James T. Richardson and Dick Anthony et al. David G. Bromley in his chapter analyzes the factors for violence to emerge within NRMs, distinguishes two types of factors—external and internal—though he focuses on the latter factor. He discusses millennialism, totalism and charisma as the main characteristics related to radicalization of NRM but not necessarily related to violence. James T. Richardson in his chapter discusses relations between violence and NRMs from the perspectives of conflict and interaction and states “violence is embedded in the relationship between religion and its opponents and should not be viewed as something necessarily inherent in the structure and organization either” [...]