Friday, February 4, 2011

Ireland's new religious movements: book now out

The book Ireland's new religious movements, edited by Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland, is now available from Cambridge Scholars (2011). Selected papers from the "Alternative spiritualities, the New Age and new religious movements in Ireland" conference were thoroughly edited and rewritten into a systematic overview of the field, marking the first such research-based publication.

Empirical topics include neo-paganism, Buddhism, Islam, evangelical Christianity, New Age groups, traveller religion and visions. Themes include Ireland as global homeland, "Celticity", migrant religion, the commodification of religion, gender, healing and the meaning of "spirituality".

The first half of the introduction is available as a sample PDF here; the dust cover, blurb and endorsements are online here. The table of contents is as follows:

Ch. 1) Editors’ Introduction: Understanding Ireland’s New Religious Movements. Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland

Ch. 2) Mapping the “New Religious Landscape” and the “New Irish”: Uses and Limitations of the Census. Malcolm Macourt

Part I: The Changing Religious Faces of Ireland

- The Long History of New Religions in Ireland

Ch. 3) The Wild Irish girl and the “Dalai Lama of Little Thibet”: The Long Encounter between Ireland and Asian Buddhism. Laurence Cox and Maria Griffin

Ch. 4) Inventing the Concept of Celtic Buddhism: A Literary and Intellectual Tradition. John L. Murphy

- Alternative Spiritualities and New Religious Movements in Contemporary Ireland

Ch. 5) Irish Travellers and “Powerful” Priests: An Alternative Response to New Age Healing Techniques. Attracta Brownlee

Ch. 6) Irish Neo-paganism: World-view and Identity. Jenny Butler

Ch. 7) The Changing Face of Irish Christianity: The Evangelical Christian Movement in the Republic. Ruth Jackson Noble

Ch. 8) A Course in Miracles in Ireland: From Channelled Authority to Therapy and Self-help. Ruth Bradby

- Making Sense of Religious Experience

Ch. 9) The Psychological Dimension of Religious Experience: Spirituality and Schizotypy. Diarmuid B. Verrier and Brian M. Hughes

Ch. 10) Marian Apparitions, the New Age and the FÁS Prophet. Peter Mulholland

Part II: Irish religion as global

- The Globalised Irish Religious Market

Ch. 11) New Age Re-enchantment in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Carmen Kuhling

Ch. 12) “Becoming Whole”: An Exploration of Women’s Choices in the Holistic and New Age Movement in Ireland. Ciara O’Connor

Ch. 13) A Crucial Site of Difference? Minority Religions and Attitudes to Globalisation in Ireland. Olivia Cosgrove

- Ireland as Global Homeland

Ch. 14) Irish Base, Global Religion: The Fellowship of Isis. Catherine Maignant

Ch. 15) “Celticity” in Australian Alternative Spiritualities. Carole M. Cusack

Ch. 16) “Celtic Spirituality” in Contemporary Ireland. Bożena Gierek

- Migrant Religion in Ireland

Ch. 17) Islam in Ireland: Organising a Migrant Religion. Oliver Scharbrodt

Ch. 18) Turkish Islam in Ireland: Exploring the Modus Operandi of Fethullah Gülen’s Neo-brotherhood. Jonathan Lacey

NB that some online booksellers still list the book by its working title, "New religion in Ireland". It is available from the publishers, Cambridge Scholars, as well as Amazon and Blackwells under the correct title, and other online listings are in the process of changing (25.2.2011). Apologies for any difficulties caused by this.