The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Active New Religions, Sects, and Cults

By Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi

Book Overview

An essential resource for both teens and teachers, this completely updated and revised edition features more than 650 entries. This reference guide is designed to provide information about all active cults and sects throughout the world, including religious movements that your students might come into contact with or want to know about. Get historical information on such groups as the Order of Solar Temple and the apparent mass suicide of forty-six of its members in Switzerland and Quebec. In addition, you will find up-to-date information on Aum Shinrikyo, the group accused of releasing nerve gas into a subway in Japan, as well as an overview of the Heaven's Gate cult, with a synopsis of its history and the events leading up to the mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Learn about the origins of well-known groups such as the Scientologists or Theosophists or more obscure groups such as the Cosmic Star Temple. Groups are easy to locate through four comprehensive indexes, including personal names; geographic, alternative, and former group names; and a categorical index that organizes religions according to their type (e.g., Pentecostal, New Thought, Wiccan).

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823925862
• ISBN13: 9780823925865
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Rosen Publishing Group
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.5" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher