In France, a UFO group known as the Raelian Movement works to create the first Embassy welcoming extra terrestrials from space, claiming that the world is the work of an alien people who built it from DNA. The Aetherius Society of Great Britain claims to receive cosmic transmissions from space intelligences, offering the chance to listen to online recordings of a spoken transmission from Jesus Christ. In San Diego, March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group commited mass suicide at the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet, believing that heavenly beings on a UFO wait there to gather them...
In France, a UFO group known as the Raelian Movement works to create the first Embassy welcoming extra terrestrials from space, claiming that the worl...
The spectre of the UFO, as popularized by shows such as The X-Files, has brought an astonishing slant to the face of modern religious practice. But what motivates the fantastical and sometimes sinister beliefs of UFO worshippers? UFO Religions critically examines some of the fascinating issues surrounding UFO worship - abduction narratives, UFO-based interpretations of other religions, the growth of pseudo-sciences purporting to explain UFOs, and the responses of the core scientific community to such claims. Focusing on contemporary global UFO groups including the Raelian...
The spectre of the UFO, as popularized by shows such as The X-Files, has brought an astonishing slant to the face of modern religious practic...
As a book about emergent spirituality in the contemporary West, this books focuses on the nature, evolution and significance of new forms of religion and alternative spiritualities.
Part One of the book provides the theoretical background and guides the reader through some of the principal debates. After an overview of the secularization thesis, which argues that the West is becoming increasingly disenchanted, the second chapter turns to the sociological analysis of new religions and alternative spiritualities. Particular attention is given to the ideas of the sociologist of...
As a book about emergent spirituality in the contemporary West, this books focuses on the nature, evolution and significance of new forms of religi...
Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has only recently begun to be explored. 'The Lure of the Darkside' brings together the work of some of the most important and creative scholars in the field of Biblical and Religious Studies. The essays explore demonology in popular culture from a range of perspectives: Satanism within contemporary music; the relationship between hymn and horror film; the career of Hannibal Lecter; the portrayal of Satan in films about Christ; and spiritual perversion...
Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has on...
Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has only recently begun to be explored. 'The Lure of the Darkside' brings together the work of some of the most important and creative scholars in the field of Biblical and Religious Studies. The essays explore demonology in popular culture from a range of perspectives: Satanism within contemporary music; the relationship between hymn and horror film; the career of Hannibal Lecter; the portrayal of Satan in films about Christ; and spiritual perversion...
Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has on...
Dub reggae and the techniques associated with it have, since the late-1980s, been used widely by producers of dance and ambient music. However, the term was originally applied to a remixing technique pioneered in Jamaica as far back as 1967. Recording engineers produced reggae tracks on which the efforts of the producer were often more evident than those of the musicians these heavily engineered tracks were termed versions. The techniques used to produce versions quickly evolved into what is now known as dub. The term, in this sense, arrived in 1972 and was largely the result of experiments...
Dub reggae and the techniques associated with it have, since the late-1980s, been used widely by producers of dance and ambient music. However, the te...
The authors of religious scriptures had little difficulty enhancing sacred narratives with the rhetoric of violence. The phenomenon continues in the habitual linkage of violence and religion in contemporary film, music and literature. 'Holy Terror' brings together scholars of religious studies, biblical studies, film studies and sociology to examine the social function of violence in popular discourse. The book questions how violent rhetoric shapes belief and values, how audience empathy with violent protagonists can be understood, and the significance of the association of violence with...
The authors of religious scriptures had little difficulty enhancing sacred narratives with the rhetoric of violence. The phenomenon continues in the h...
Popular music is no stranger to apocalyptic discourse. Whether focusing on biblical or secular apocalypses, musicians often want to tell us things about the end of the world we may not have wanted to know in ways we may not have thought about before. This volume seeks to introduce readers to some of these messengers and their anthems of apocalypse. Roland Boer's discussion of Nick Cave indicates that references to the portents and monsters of the apocalypse have been used to refer, not to an age to come, but to the authorities and demons of the present world. Likewise, Kennet Granholm's...
Popular music is no stranger to apocalyptic discourse. Whether focusing on biblical or secular apocalypses, musicians often want to tell us things abo...
The myth of Orpheus articulates what social theorists have known since Plato: music matters. It is uniquely able to move us, to guide the imagination, to evoke memories, and to create spaces within which meaning is made. Popular music occupies a place of particular social and cultural significance. Christopher Partridge explores this significance, analyzing its complex relationships with the values and norms, texts and discourses, rituals and symbols, and codes and narratives of modern Western cultures. He shows how popular music's power to move, to agitate, to control listeners, to shape...
The myth of Orpheus articulates what social theorists have known since Plato: music matters. It is uniquely able to move us, to guide the imagination,...
The myth of Orpheus articulates what social theorists have known since Plato: music matters. It is uniquely able to move us, to guide the imagination, to evoke memories, and to create spaces within which meaning is made. Popular music occupies a place of particular social and cultural significance. Christopher Partridge explores this significance, analyzing its complex relationships with the values and norms, texts and discourses, rituals and symbols, and codes and narratives of modern Western cultures. He shows how popular music's power to move, to agitate, to control listeners, to shape...
The myth of Orpheus articulates what social theorists have known since Plato: music matters. It is uniquely able to move us, to guide the imagination,...
