Twenty-eight scholars, many of them well known in the sociology of religion, examine a variety of faith traditions and sociological topics that illustrate the connection between religion and society in many different countries at the dawn of the 21st century. The faith traditions include Judaism, Roman Catholicism, evangelical and mainstream Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Yuruba religion, Chinese religion, and several new religious movements, including a UFO cult in Quebec.

The book will be of interest to scholars in the sociology of religion, but a special feature is its utility as a...

Lowell Streiker, a longtime expert on free church movements and cults, examines a vital and growing free church movement--an impressive movement that is yet largely unknown. Founded in Norway more than 90 years ago, it is a church without membership rolls, clergy, central administration, tithing, or even a name. Outsiders call them Smith's Friends after their founder, Johan Oscar Smith. On a worldwide basis, some 30,000 people participate in more than 200 churches in 50 countries.

As a phenomenologist of religion, Streiker attempts to be descriptive, analytic, and constructively...

More than 180 pastors exited the Seventh-Day Adventist ministry in Australia and New Zealand between 1980 and 1988--a loss that is equivalent to 40 percent of the total annual Adventist ministerial workforce in those two countries. This volume examines the processes whereby conservative and committed sectarian pastors began to entertain doubts concerning the sectarian cause, questioned their occupational calling, and turned their backs on the ministry. Using the data gathered from in-depth interviews with 43 expastors and from other sources, the author develops detailed case study...