Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religious Movements

Margo Kitts is Professor and Coordinator of religious studies and eastwest classical studies at Hawai’i Pacific University in Honolulu. She has authored 50 chapters/articles and edited or authored twelve books on religion and violence and/or ancient studies. Most recent of her books are Cambridge Companion to Religion and War (Cambridge 2023); Sacrifice: Themes, Theories, and Controversies (Cambridge 2022); Elements of Ritual and Violence (Cambridge 2018), and Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide (Ed. Oxford 2018). For updates see https://mkitts.netlify.app/.

• Violence, Conspiracies,and New Religions: IntroductionMargo KittsPart I: Religion andViolence1. Researching ReligiousTerrorismMark Juergensmeyer,University of California, Santa Barbara2. Conspiracy TheoriesAcross BordersMichael Barkun,Syracuse University3. Lost Cause: The Riseand Fall of a Symbolic Crusade MovementDavid G. Bromley,Virginia Commonwealth University4. By the CleansingFlames of Fire: Koran Burnings, Racialized Religion and PolitizedNostalgia in SwedenMattias Gardell,Uppsala UniversityPart II: New ReligiousMovements5. James R. Lewis andJonestown StudiesRebecca Moore, SanDiego State University6. The Charisma of DavidKoreshCatherine Wessinger,Loyola UniversityPart III: Media andthe Law7. Invented Religions andthe Law: The Significance of Colanders, Hoods, and Pirate Costumesfor Members of Jediism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti MonsterCarole Cusack,University of Sydney8. Director’s Cu(l)ts,Reel Researchers: Exploring Sects in the MoviesStefano Bigliardi,Abdelmojib Chouhbi, Mohamed Amine Ghafil, Amine Nakari, Danya TaziMokha, and Salma Zahidi, all at AlAkhawayn University 9. The ComplicatedRelationship between Xie Jiao and Cult in the PRC Zhang Xinzhang and XuWeiwei, both at HangzhouCity University