New Era - New Religions

Having studied at universities in Manchester, Chicago, Liverpool and Oxford, Andrew Dawson holds degrees in the study of religion and the social sciences. Research interests centre upon religion and late-modern society, with particular focus upon South America and Brazil. He has published a book, articles, chapters, and encyclopaedia pieces on religion and society in Brazil and South America. For example, ’The Gnostic Church of Brazil: Contemporary Neo-esotericism in Late-Modern Perspective’, Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, vol.1 (2005); ’South American Indigenous Religions’ in C.H. Partridge (ed.) Lion Handbook of Religions (London: Lion, 2004); ’Mystical Experience as Universal Connectedness: Leonardo Boff’s trans-cultural phenomenology’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, vol.19, no.2 (2004); The Emergence and Impact of the Base Ecclesial Community and Liberative Theological Discourse in Brazil (Bethesda: University Press of America, 1998).

• Contents: Introduction; Mapping the religious landscape; Neo-esoteric religiosity; Ayahuasca religions of Brazil; New era discourse; New era religiosity in late-modern perspective; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.