Carole Cusack | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)

Monographs & Edited Books by Carole Cusack

by Carole Cusack, Venetia Robertson, Raymond Radford, Bettina E Schmidt, Ryan M Wittingslow, Benjamin Zeller, Elisha McIntyre, Cato Christensen, George D Chryssides, Zoe Alderton, Ioannis Gaitanidis, and Francisco Santos Silva

This edited volume for the BHCR series is focused on Contemporary Religion, Television, and Film.... more This edited volume for the BHCR series is focused on Contemporary Religion, Television, and Film. Chapters can be based on a theme and discuss multiple pieces of work: e.g., depictions of Mormonism in the television series Big Love, the animated comedy South Park, Mormon comedy Sons of Provo, and documentaries like Prophet’s Prey; or can compare depictions of de-programming in television series like Signs and Wonders (1995), and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and films like Holy Smoke! (2000). Another approach might address genres, like the Christian Romantic Comedy, the Iranian Horror Film, evangelical talk shows; and reality TV series that seek to prove the existence of ghosts, cryptids, and paranormal phenomena. We also welcome chapters dealing with theoretical or methodological aspects of this area of study from any discipline as long as it remains relevant to the academic study of religion.

Bloomsbury, 2020 forthcoming.

The religious field is in flux and religions change. There is innovation and solidification, but ... more The religious field is in flux and religions change. There is innovation and solidification, but also torpor and attrition in the sphere of religions. Usually, it is heightened religious change that draws public and academic attention, for examples the creation of movements of reform or the emergence of new groups, especially those surrounded by tension or conflict with their environments. Much less attention tends to be paid to later stages of these movements or groups, once they no longer are considered a challenge or have disappeared from the news. While these groups become older – perhaps more mature or maybe more fragile – other developments divert attention from them. The beginnings of religions are often well documented – by enthusiastic insiders and interested outsiders – but little is known about how and why religions end.

Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements (Brill 2021). Open Access Digital Book

Since the Iranian hostage crisis, and particularly since 9-11, Islam has been a topic of increas... more Since the Iranian hostage crisis, and particularly since 9-11, Islam has been a topic of increasing interest among politicians, diplomats, journalists, and scholars, among others. Though associated in the public consciousness with fanaticism and terrorism, there is a broad awareness that Islam is a complex tradition which, on the whole, does not promote religiously-motivated violence. Nevertheless, many believe that a deeper understanding of the larger phenomenon of Islam is necessary in order to understand and combat militant Islamism.
As a consequence, the demand for reliable information on Islam has been steadily growing. However, with the exception of entries in general encyclopedias on Islam and encyclopedias of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), there are no reference books on the diverse sects and movements within Islam. Even “Twelver” Shi’a – the dominant form of Shi’a Islam in Iran and Iraq – has no separate reference book (though there is A Shi’ite Encyclopedia being compiled by the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Project Team (https://www.al-islam.org/shiite-encyclopedia-ahlul-bayt-dilp-team).
There is a paucity of books devoted to this topic, primarily because, in contrast to religious traditions like Christianity and Buddhism, Islam appears remarkably uniform. On the surface at least, most of the world’s Muslims are either Sunni or Twelver Shi’a, which is why Islamic sects/ denominations/ movements has not become the subject of monographs or reference books. Yet, beneath this apparent uniformity there is greater diversity than might be anticipated. There are, for example, important movements within Sunni Islam that are, in effect, sectarian – such as Islamic Modernism (on the liberal end) and the Taliban (on the ultra-conservative end). Then there are the various Sufi orders, which often constitute de facto sects. Within Shi’a Islam there is a complex spectrum of Shi’a factions that has largely gone unnoticed, due to the dominance of Twelver Shi’a. There are also syncretistic groups like the Yezidi among the Kurds that mix (nominally Sunni) Islam with pre-Islamic beliefs and practices. Finally, there are splinter groups from Islam, like the Druze and the Baha’i, that have established themselves as separate religions.

McFarland, 2019

This project was originally conceived by John Morehead as an academic yet accessible anthology of... more This project was originally conceived by John Morehead as an academic yet accessible anthology of papers that explore the sacred aspects of ‘fantastic’ fandoms, those communities and personal engagements that celebrate texts of the fantasy and science fiction genres. When we, Carole Cusack and Venetia Robertson, were invited by John and McFarland to contribute to the volume and complete the project as the editors we were excited to see the breadth and depth of the contributions. The essays that have been selected for this volume represent innovative intellectual engagements with the relationship of religion to fandom. A considerable portion of the authors are early career researchers and, with the field being emergent and quickly evolving, the studies here are appositely fresh. While some of the fandoms and their media sources that feature in these pages have been subject to much academic assessment over the years, the following essays offers an insightful take on what these cultures can tell us about spirituality in the contemporary world.

Employing fieldwork, discourse analysis, digital ethnography, and theory from film studies, religious studies, and cultural studies amongst other disciplines, each essay demonstrates yet another layer of the imbrication of the religious and the fannish in participatory cultures and textual devotion. The case studies discussed in this collection will be of interest to many—consumers, scholars, fans and aca-fans—but we are proud to say that, both independently and as a whole, this work provides valuable voices in the conversation between Religious Studies and Fandom Studies on

4 volume Routledge edited series, co-edited with Danielle Kirby (Independent Scholar), 2017

The intersection of religion and media is to date an emergent field of inquiry, yet is already ar... more The intersection of religion and media is to date an emergent field of inquiry, yet is already arguably central to any understanding of religion in the contemporary world, and will likely yield an abundance of scholarship in the foreseeable future. The development and adoption of myriad new media has accelerated in recent times, and late modernity in particular has seen a massive expansion in Internet and communication technologies and a proliferation of accessible media. The dominance of personal computing and mobile technologies are but some recent developments in just slightly over a century that has also seen the invention and popularisation of photography, radio, film, and television. This era has also been marked by rapid and wide-ranging changes in religion. These include: the visibility and intensity of various fundamentalisms (Almond et al 2003); a falling off in traditional forms of religious participation such as mainline church attendance in the West (Bouma 2006); a substantial rise in atheism, secularity, and non-religion in the developed world (Bullivant and Lee 2012); and a proliferation of new and alternative religions and spiritualities (Partridge 2006). The complex interactions of these two distinct areas of human endeavour merit detailed consideration, and this reprint series is an attempt to capture the state of scholarship in the first quarter of the twenty-first century.

Brill, 2017

The era of Modernism is one of the great periods of world literature. For convenience, it may be ... more The era of Modernism is one of the great periods of world literature. For convenience, it may be said to embrace the years 1900-1960, but its relation to those periods that it supplanted, and to those in turn that have challenged its hegemony, is complex. One lasting paradox of Modernism is its integration of the traditional with the innovative, as in the dictum of Confucius, reshaped by Ezra Pound: “Make it new.” By this Pound meant a respect for the best of the past as formative in the creation of the new, innovation tempered by a “radical” sense of tradition (the pun in radical - “root” - reflects the paradox of a tradition that yet looks forward). Modernism has been well served by scholars who have discussed various aspects of its dialogue with tradition. For example, Jeffrey Perl offers a profound study of the ideology of cultural rebirth in The Tradition of Return (1984); however, Perl’s “nostos” focuses on antiquity, and largely ignores the parallel strain of medieval tradition in the Modernist canon. No major study has assessed the medieval doctrines that inform so much of the Modernist aesthetic. There is a need for such a study.

Routledge, 2016, 2016

This book is a reprint of the Special Issue of Culture and Religion on 'Invented Religions' publi... more This book is a reprint of the Special Issue of Culture and Religion on 'Invented Religions' published in 2013. In the Introduction, the editors outline the aims of the volume and place it in the context of debates on ‘invented religions’ and the ‘invention of tradition’. We introduce key concepts employed by contributors, place the category of ‘invented religion’ in a wider constructionist context, contrast it with the seminal notion of ‘invention of tradition’ and note some of its specific features which reward analysis as a separate category. We argue that the category of ‘invented religions’ is descriptively interesting and theoretically useful, and we suggest that developing the latter aspect in particular can encourage this new area of enquiry away from an exotic niche and into the mainstream of explanatory theorising in the academic study of religion/s.

The academic field encompassed in Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality: From Popular Culture to R... more The academic field encompassed in Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality: From Popular Culture to Religion is that of contested contemporary religions that are: based on fictional texts (films, novels, manga, and so on) or include fictional texts in their canon of scriptures or inspirational phenomena. Scholarly investigation of these religions formally commenced in the early 2000s, but is still a small (though rapidly expanding) subfield. In their studies, scholars include both self-identified religious groups and non-self-identified, non-institutionalized religious and spiritual practices that are pursued by unorganized movements or by individuals under the rubrics ‘fictional’, ‘invented’ or ‘hyper-real’ religions. Various methodological lenses have been applied to the study of such phenomena; the most common being sociological and psychological approaches to questions arising about the claims to legitimacy of these religious groups and practices, such as how can they be distinguished from mock or parody religions (Chidester 2005) or from fandoms and fan communities; that is, groups of enthusiasts for certain film and music stars, and cult or popular film, television, and literary phenomena (Jindra 1994). Issues which follow on from such preliminary definitional questions include further questions concerning the motives of the movements’ originators (if there are known founders) in creating religions based on obviously human-generated stories or characters, when there are many other religions from which to choose (Lewis 2003). This question is particularly important as traditional religions claim to be authentically transcendent, ancient and true; many of the religions included in this volume sidestep or repudiate the usual legitimating claims that underpin the reputation of most existing religious groups. Within Religious Studies the closest subfield to that of ‘fictional’, ‘invented’ or ‘hyper-real’ religions is the study of new religious movements (NRMs).

"The field encompassed by the four-volume reprint series ‘Religion, Sexuality, and Spirituality’ ... more "The field encompassed by the four-volume reprint series ‘Religion, Sexuality, and Spirituality’ is a vast and controversial one. It encompasses both normative and non-normative sexual identities and behaviours in the so-called ‘world religions’ (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism) and also such modes of being and conduct in the multitudinous indigenous religions, new religions and spiritualities, and smaller long-established traditions (for example, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Shinto, and so on). Yet the field extends far beyond the relatively unproblematic notions of sexual identities and behaviours in the context of religions and spiritualities. A major subfield concerns the body as site of religio-spiritual beliefs and practices (for example, ideas of cleanness and uncleanness at specific times or due to certain conditions), clothing as signals of sexual virtue or misconduct, and the built environment as gendered and manifesting varying degrees of spatial sacredness (for example, the Second Temple in ancient Jerusalem, with its outer court that was open to non-Jews, and inner courts that were open to Jewish men and women, then Jewish men only, until the final Holy of Holies, which was accessible only to the High Priest and his deity, Yahweh).

Further, research in the area is multi-disciplinary, and encompasses perspectives from religious studies, cultural studies, cultural history, sociology, history, psychology, theology, and a range of other disciplines including human geography, planning, law, health and environmental studies. The field is controversial for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is often misunderstood by traditionally religious people who are offended by the intimate and taboo nature of the subjects under investigation. Secondly, confusion exists among secular scholars, especially those who advocate the separation of sexuality from all forms of religion and spirituality, which they regard as oppressive. Thirdly, the body, sexuality and religion are typically treated in a prurient manner in public discourses such as news media and print journalism.

The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific case studies from traditional religious groups etc), and Volume 4 (examples from contemporary religions and alternative spiritualities).
"

"The field encompassed by the four-volume reprint series ‘Religion, the Occult, and the Paranorma... more "The field encompassed by the four-volume reprint series ‘Religion, the Occult, and the Paranormal’ is both fascinating and frustrating. The fascination stems (in part) from the contested nature of the content, and the multi-disciplinary nature of the existing scholarly literature, which includes perspectives from religious studies, cultural studies, cultural history, sociology, history, psychology, and a range of other disciplines including art history and literary criticism. The frustration stems chiefly from the misunderstood and much-maligned nature of the content, and the way in which specific elements – for example, tarot or astral travel – are taken out of context, or treated in a frivolous manner as is often the case with tabloid journalism.

It is important to remember that many ‘occult’ (in the sense of esoteric or ‘hidden’) practices exist within both mainstream religions and new religious movements, as well as in the lives of otherwise quite ‘secular’ Western individuals (for example, bibliomancy, the use of books in divination). Further, ecstatic and mystical elements exist in ‘Eastern’ religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism. There is also significant overlap with the New Age, which is a major market, cultural and religious force in the contemporary West, and synergies with conspiracy culture and other sources of ‘rejected knowledge’.

The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific examples of modern occult and paranormal phenomena, defined groups etc), and Volume 4 (the occult and the paranormal in contemporary religion and popular culture).""

""In the early twenty-first century two distinctive, traditional forms of Japanese culture have a... more ""In the early twenty-first century two distinctive, traditional forms of Japanese culture have achieved widespread global status in the world of visual culture. These are manga (comic books) and anime (animated television series and films). This acceptance follows on from the recognition of other Japanese cultural products including origami (paper folding), ikebana (flower arranging), and karate and other martial arts. Anime and manga have achieved some considerable resonance with people, both young and old, and become popular and achieved market share in parts of the world far from their homeland. The appeal of Japanese cultural products for the West is predicated upon aesthetic considerations. The popularity of manga and anime was cemented in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly through the dissemination of the cartoons of the medical doctor and prodigiously talented illustrator Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989). The global penetration of manga and anime has been steadily growing since, with a significant acceleration since the start of the 1980s, propelled by the success of film directors such as Mamoru Oshii (b. 1951), the director of Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984) and Ghost in the Shell (1995), and Hayao Miyazaki (b. 1941), the director of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), and Princess Mononoke (1997). The work of Oshii and Miyazaki is an important continuation of two preoccupations of Tezuka: the limits of the human, expressed particularly through robots and cyborgs; and the devastation of the natural environment.

This book investigates anime, focusing on its historical antecedents (graphic and narrative), its religious and supernatural content, its generic and thematic variety, and its popularity and reception among fans. Here it is important to clarify that the reasons for the popularity of anime, both inside and outside of Japan, and the development of emerging consumer behaviours related to anime are not the focus of this book. Having said this, Chapter 4 contains a basic discussion about a number of features of anime which the audience in the West might find attractive, as well as a brief consideration of Western fandom and fan activities, but the unifying thread woven through this chapter is that of the supernatural. It is in the area of the graphic, religious and supernatural content of anime that this study contributes most to scholarly discourse on the subject.""

With the possible exception of suicides committed in response to prolonged, painful illnesses, th... more With the possible exception of suicides committed in response to prolonged, painful illnesses, the general social consensus in advanced industrialized nations seems to be that suicide is an irrational act, explainable chiefly in terms of some form of mental derangement. As a consequence of this widespread cultural judgment, religious groups that commit mass suicide as well as individuals identified as religious-motivated suicide bombers or self-immolators are quickly categorized as people motivated by “fanaticism.” In contrast, however, people who willingly sacrifice their lives for a national cause such as war are valorized as heroic. The conclusion that a suicide bomber or a strange religious group committing mass suicide is crazy is also reinforced by a broader cultural judgment that associates religion with irrationality, so that any sort of violence perpetrated by a person identified as a religious actor is immediately viewed as an example of religious violence that, seemingly by definition, is not open to rational examination (as discussed in, e.g., Cavanaugh 2009).

Though this sort of xenophobia likely plays a role in our judgment of Middle Eastern suicide bombers and Buddhist self-immolators, we tend to make parallel evaluations when members of alternative religions carry out group suicides. Of the major violent incidents involving new religious movements (NRMs) – the Jonestown murder-suicides (1978), the ATF/FBI raid on the Mt Carmel community (1993), the Solar Temple murder-suicides (1994, 1995, and 1997), the Tokyo subway poison gas attack (1995), the Heaven’s Gate suicides (1997), and the murder-suicides of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Uganda (2000) – the focal violence of four out of six of these events were acts of mass suicide. It has also been argued (most recently by Kenneth Newport in his The Branch Davidians of Waco [2006]) that the members of the Mt Carmel community intentionally committed suicide. If Newport is correct, then that would mean that every NRM involved in a major act of violence except AUM Shinrikyo was a ‘suicide cult.’ Additionally, other NRMs, from Falun Gong to Chen Dao, have been portrayed as suicidal.

When discussing ‘suicide cults,’ contemporary analysts also often refer to what they think of as being historical precedents, such as the ancient community of Masada that famously committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. Another frequently-mentioned historical example of religiously-motivated mass suicide were the Russian Old Believers, who burned themselves (sometimes along with others trapped inside churches they had torched) rather than adopt liturgical changes they believed would cause them to lose their salvation. Is there some common thread that unites these various phenomena? Despite surface similarities, the situations of the communities involved in suicide violence turn out to be too diverse to bring together under one explanatory scheme. In a handful of cases one can point to religion as being a key motivator. But in most cases, specific local sociological and political factors offer more compelling explanations.

For as long as human beings have existed they have been interested in travel. Their homelands and... more For as long as human beings have existed they have been interested in travel. Their homelands and cultural norms have always been constructed with reference to, or contrasted with, the lands and habits of ‘the Other’. Implicit in this statement is the notion that some places are more special (perhaps sacred) than others, and this is the core of the intimate relationship between human beings, place and travel, and religion. The field encompassed by this four-volume reprint series “Religion, Pilgrimage, and Tourism” is a vast one. Its content ranges from those incidences of travel which are sanctified by the so-called ‘world religions’ (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism), such as the Hajj, the Camino de Santiago, the Shikoku Circuit, the Kumbh Mela, and the hope expressed at the Passover meal, “next year in Jerusalem”.

However, the field extends far beyond these “official” journeys, and encompasses the nomadic wanderings of Australian Aboriginal people through their tribal lands, travel to participate in Native American potlatch gatherings, the gathering of Ancient Greeks every four years to honour Zeus Olympios at the Olympic Games, and the modern Druids who perform rituals at Stonehenge during the midsummer solstice. Yet beyond the immediately religious lies journeying that is motivated by individual ‘spiritual’ needs, which may involve traditional sacred routes and sites (Westerners going to Indian ashrams), and radically eclectic, non-traditional pathways (for example, Wagner aficionados who travel to experience productions of the Ring Cycle). In the post-religious milieu of the 21st century, almost any journey to almost any site may be religious and/or spiritual, a journey “redolent with meaning” (Digance 2006).

The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific examples of modern pilgrimage and spiritual tourism), and Volume 4 (secular and civil religious/spiritual travel).

The guiding principles for this four-volume collection of reprinted articles and chapters are str... more The guiding principles for this four-volume collection of reprinted articles and chapters are straightforward and were reached by consensus among the editors. First, in addition to those classics that are rightly known and respected, we have sought to also include studies of an equal standard that have been neglected or have otherwise failed to reach the deserved broad audience, usually as a result of initial publication in obscure journals or small print-run edited volumes and conference proceedings. Second, we have aimed for a balance between the usual emphasis upon either a broad theoretical orientation, or conversely, a bias towards case studies, with an equal and complementary focus on both. Third, we have selected works that are representative of the academic study of new religious movements (NRMs), with a range of methodological approaches being included, including sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, and psychology. Thus, we hope that the methodological rigour of the content is matched by the empirical richness of the panoply of new religions examined.

It is a truth generally acknowledged that religions have been the earliest and perhaps the chief ... more It is a truth generally acknowledged that religions have been the earliest and perhaps the chief progenitors of cultural products in human societies. Mesopotamian urban centres developed from large temple complexes, Greek drama emerged from religious festivals dedicated to deities including Dionysos and Athena, and in more recent times Christianity has inspired artistic masterpieces including the ‘St Matthew Passion’ by the Lutheran Johann Sebastian Bach (1686-1750), the motets of the Catholic William Byrd (1540-1623), and the striking paintings of the Counter-Reformation Spaniards Ribera, Zurbaran and Murillo in the seventeenth century. The Indian religious tradition contributes the magnificent Hindu and Buddhist temples of Angkor (Cambodia), and the exquisite Chola bronze statues, and Islam the sophisticated Timurid illustrated manuscripts of Firdausi’s Shahnama. Many more examples could be adduced, including forms of dance, systems of education, theories of government, special diets, and modes of costume and fashion.

Yet the cultural products of new religions and spiritualities are generally ignored, derided or deemed to not exist. Much of this prejudice stems from the tendency to exclude new religions from the category of ‘real religions’. This edited collection seeks to remedy a scholarly lacuna by investigating the cultural products of new religions, both as exemplifications of the theological and spiritual principles of particular movements, and also in terms of their impact on wider society. Appropriate subjects for investigation might include: the architecture of Mormon and Baha’i temples; Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical education system; the music composed by the Russian Theosophist Alexander Scriabin; the iconography of Mythic Images, the company owned by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart of the Church of All Worlds; and the diet advocated by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The fundamental nature of the tree as a symbol for many communities reflects the historical reali... more The fundamental nature of the tree as a symbol for many communities reflects the historical reality that human beings have always interacted with and depended upon trees for their survival. Trees provided one of the earliest forms of shelter, along with caves, and the bounty of trees, nuts, fruits, and berries, gave sustenance to gatherer-hunter populations. This study has concentrated on the tree as sacred and significant for a particular group of societies, living in the ancient and medieval eras in the geographical confines of Europe, and sharing a common Indo-European inheritance, but sacred trees are found throughout the world, in vastly different cultures and historical periods. Sacred trees feature in the religious frameworks of the Ghanaian Akan, Arctic Altaic shamanic communities, and in China and Japan. The power of the sacred tree as a symbol is derived from the fact that trees function as homologues of both human beings and of the cosmos.

This study concentrates the tree as axis mundi (hub or centre of the world) and the tree as imago mundi (picture of the world). The Greeks and Romans in the ancient world, and the Irish, Anglo-Saxons, continental Germans and Scandinavians in the medieval world, all understood the power of the tree, and its derivative the pillar, as markers of the centre. Sacred trees and pillars dotted their landscapes, and the territory around them derived its meaning from their presence. Unfamiliar or even hostile lands could be tamed and made meaningful by the erection of a monument that replicated the sacred centre. Such monuments also linked with boundaries, and by extension with law and order, custom and tradition. The sacred tree and pillar as centre symbolized the stability of the cosmos and of society.

When the Pagan peoples of Europe adopted Christianity the sacred trees and pillars, visible signs of the presence of the gods in the landscape, were popular targets for axe-wielding saints and missionaries who desired to force the conversion of the landscape as well as the people. Yet Christianity had its own tree monument, the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, and which came to signify resurrected life and the conquest of eternal death for the devout. As European Pagans were converted to Christianity, their tree and pillar monuments were changed into Christian forms; the great standing crosses of Anglo-Saxon northern England played many of the same roles as Pagan sacred trees and pillars. Irish and Anglo-Saxons Christians often combined the image of the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden with Christ on the cross, to produce a Christian version of the tree as imago mundi.

Utilizing contemporary scholarship on secularisation, individualism and consumer capitalism, this... more Utilizing contemporary scholarship on secularisation, individualism and consumer capitalism, this book explores religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the SubGenius, and Jediism. Their continued appeal and success, particularly in America but gaining wider acceptance throughout the 1980s and 1990s, is chiefly as a result of underground publishing and the Internet. This book deals with immensely popular subject matter: Jediism developed from George Lucas' 'Star Wars' films; the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded by 26-year-old student Bobby Henderson in 2005 as a protest against the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools; and Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius, which retain strong followings and participation rates among American college students. The Church of All Worlds' focus on Gaia theology and environmental issues makes it a popular focus of attention. The continued success of these groups of Invented Religions provide a unique opportunity to explore the nature of late/post-modern religious forms, including the use of fiction as part of a bricolage approach to spirituality, identity-formation, and personal orientation.

Bloomsbury, 2020 forthcoming.

Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements (Brill 2021). Open Access Digital Book

McFarland, 2019

4 volume Routledge edited series, co-edited with Danielle Kirby (Independent Scholar), 2017

Brill, 2017

Routledge, 2016, 2016

The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific examples of modern occult and paranormal phenomena, defined groups etc), and Volume 4 (the occult and the paranormal in contemporary religion and popular culture).""

The series comprises four volumes, which reprint 70 articles and chapters (of which no more than 25% will be chapters from edited volumes). The final shape of the four volumes is not yet definitively known, but is likely to be: Volume 1 (methodology and definition of the field), Volume 2 (historical material, ancient, medieval, early modern etc), Volume 3 (specific examples of modern pilgrimage and spiritual tourism), and Volume 4 (secular and civil religious/spiritual travel).

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia (JDTREA), Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024, pp. 121-146.

In the nineteenth century, Chinese gold prospectors built between 100 and 200 joss houses (templ... more In the nineteenth century, Chinese gold prospectors built between 100 and 200 joss houses (temples) in Australia, from Darwin in the north to Weldborough, Tasmania, in the south. In 1988, nine were still standing, though some were in poor repair. In the nineteenth century, non-Christian places of worship were unpopular and missionaries sought to convert the `heathen Chinese'. In the twentieth century, the major threat to their survival was declining congregations (as non-White migrants were prohibited from entering Australia under the White Australia Policy). From the 1960s onwards, some surviving temples were restored. Yet they remain vulnerable to racism (Sze Yup Temple in Sydney was set on fire by an arsonist in 2008), neglect (in 2024 old electrical wiring caused a fire at the See Yup Temple in Melbourne), and modern development (in the 1960s the Castlemaine, Victoria temple was demolished). This article examines the material history of the Chinese in Australia, noting the White preference for a ‘heritage' presentation (as at the goldfields theme park Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria, where the joss house is a reproduction, or at Launceston Museum, where the dismantled Weldborough temple was erected as an exhibit) rather than actual knowledge of the history, archaeology, and lived religion of historic Chinese settlers in Australia.

The Journal of CESNUR, Vol. 9, Issue 1, 2025, pp. 3-15.

On 14 August 1987, police raided a property called Kai Lama (familiarly known as “Uptop”) at Lake... more On 14 August 1987, police raided a property called Kai Lama (familiarly known as “Uptop”) at Lake Eildon, 120 kilometers north of Melbourne. The raid was triggered by the escapes of two teenage girls, Leeanne Creese and Sarah Moore (both formerly Hamilton-Byrne). They went to police alleging that Anne Hamilton-Byrne, putatively their mother, had seven further children held in horrific conditions, starved, beaten, and guarded by “cult” members who believed her apocalyptic teachings. Australia has few home-grown new religious movement (NRM) leaders; Hamilton-Byrne is the best‐known. This article considers two books that appeared in 2022 and 2023, the first “insider” sources available to scholars. It is argued these books were published to give voice to members of Hamilton-Byrne’s group—usually called The Family, but to insiders, The Brotherhood—that stayed faithful to the Teacher. It is now impossible to join The Brotherhood, and the few remaining members are aging. Their testimonies are useful as they provide a view of what it was like to be a disciple of Hamilton‐Byrne as an adult (where the critical ex-member sources usually give voice to the children), and they add to the little that is definitively known about a group with the motto “Unseen, Unheard, Unknown.”

Francois Gauthier, Katri Ratia, and Isabelle Kostecki (eds), Routledge Handbook of Ritual Studies, London and New York, Routledge, 2025, forthcoming.

The most basic definition of ritual is the movement of (human) bodies in space, though issues of ... more The most basic definition of ritual is the movement of (human) bodies in space, though issues of intention, structure, repetition, and meaning arise when attempting to craft a framework via which to analyse examples of rituals, religious and non-religious (Grimes 1992). Dance, too, involves moving bodies, though the form may be distinguished from ritual by being viewed primarily as of aesthetic, rather than spiritual significance (Hanna 1988). Other considerations include the role of tradition and innovation, of the individual and the collective, and of the values attached to the activity in question (Schechner 1987). Arguably, esoteric dance forms cross the boundary between aesthetic activity and ritual transformation, partaking in defined choreography yet directed to spiritual transformation rather than aesthetic experience (Weig 2018). This chapter examines two forms of esoteric dance from the early twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner’s Eurythmy and George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s Movements. The relationship of these body-based disciplines to secular dance forms, ritual activities, and transformative religio-spiritual and esoteric practices (prayer, contemplation) is examined and historically situated, and cosmological and anthropological parallels between the two are identified (Cusack 2023).

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2024

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) was an esotericist and spiritual teacher whose charisma... more George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) was an esotericist and spiritual teacher whose charisma and authority were recognised and celebrated by his pupils. He attained a measure of fame during his life, and after his death in 1949 several pupils published memoirs that contained literary portraits of their teacher, making it possible for seekers who had never met Gurdjieff to experience his charisma. Over time, fictional portraits of Gurdjieff were created by novelists, playwrights, and authors of short stories, ranging from deferential and ennobling (Peter Neagoe’s The Saint of Montparnasse), to humorous and mocking (Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet). The majority of novels featuring Gurdjieff were written during or close to his lifetime, by people who had first-hand knowledge of his teachings, or of his direct pupils. Few of these fictions garnered large readerships, yet they are interesting as they reflect the cultural context in which Gurdjieff lived and taught, and are attempts to transmit, however faultily, those qualities that made him a ‘remarkable man’ in textual form. This article examines several fictional portraits of Gurdjieff, focusing on his image as a ‘remarkable man’, and his impact on the characters and plots, which authors crafted as evidence of his transformative power.

Religions (MDPI Journal), 2024

Wulfila (c. 311-c. 383) translated the Bible into Gothic, creating the first literary text in a ... more Wulfila (c. 311-c. 383) translated the Bible into Gothic, creating the first literary text in a Germanic language. His biography is contested; his parentage, place of birth, episcopal consecration, and theological position are all disputed. The fourth century saw heated debates about the Trinity, and the Goths were often termed ‘Arians’, despite the fact that the teachings of the African presbyter Arius (c. 256-336) were not directly transmitted to them. This article notes a rebirth of interest in Wulfila, his mission, and the Gothic Bible, employing the notion that ‘Homoian’ (a more neutral term than ‘Arian’) theology was a possible bridge between Catholic monotheism and Gothic polytheism as the starting point for a re-examination of Wulfila’s evangelism as both an imperially mandated strategy and the creation of a route into civilisation and modernity for the Goths. Christianity was modern and fashionable in the fourth century; Germanic tribes wishing to abandon their status as pagani (rustics), or heathens (heath-dwellers, not civilised city dwellers), viewed conversion as a move ‘up’. The Gothic Bible played a role in developing Gothic literacy, but was also a magical object, the first of its kind, a book/ roadmap for a people undergoing a great cultural transformation.

Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, under consideration, 2024

The emergence of the academic study of Esotericism was closely linked to both Religious Studies a... more The emergence of the academic study of Esotericism was closely linked to both Religious Studies and Sociology. In the 1970s sociologists Colin Campbell, Marcello Truzzi and Patricia A. Hartman, with historian of religion Mircea Eliade, wrote pioneering studies on occult and esoteric subjects. These initially marginal works gained traction in the study of new religious movements (NRMs) and of non-religious subcultures. The study of Western Esotericism proper is dated to Antoine Faivre’s Access to Western Esotericism (1994); in the three decades since, the field has expanded, developed, and fissured. This article argues that the same process of rejection of universalist typologies and text-based scholarship to focus on lived experience can be mapped in both Religious Studies and Esotericism Studies. Current methodological frameworks have shifted of late, with the deconstructive relativism of previous decades giving way to a retheorized realism, albeit one aware of researcher positionality and contested access to knowledge.

Handbook of Contemporary Religion, Film and Television, Brill, 2024 forthcoming

The Church of Scientology, a controversial new religion, has featured significantly in film and t... more The Church of Scientology, a controversial new religion, has featured significantly in film and television. This chapter considers cinematic representations of Scientology, focusing on: Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) based on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book of the same name (Zeller 2017); Louis Theroux’s documentary My Scientology Movie (2015), directed by John Dower, which breaks the boundaries of representation simpliciter by engaging in reconstructions of Scientology practices by actors and former Scientologists (Bushon 2020); and Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature film The Master (2012), which shows Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014) as Lancaster Dodd, an L. Ron Hubbard-type figure, founder of a group called the Cause (Petsche 2017). The directors of these films have different intentions and their art results in a multi-faceted examination of Scientology. Gibney focuses on ex-Scientologists who are unsympathetic to their former religion, and he crafts a realistic interview-based image of Scientology, situated within a historical overview of the founder and the Church. Dower and Theroux focus on ex-Scientologists who have also rejected Hubbard’s worldview, but they incorporate reconstructions of key events and personnel for the benefit of the audience. Anderson’s fictional story conveys something of Hubbard’s personal charisma and the appeal he had for those who sought an alternative religio-spiritual path in the 1950s and 1960s. Scientology on film is first contextualised within the culture of writing about Scientology by both insiders and outsiders, and the three films are then examined. I conclude that film is a powerful medium to communicate information about Scientology to a wider audience than is usually gained by the Church’s outreach, academic publications, ex-member memoirs, or popular ‘cult-busting’ books about the religion.

Marzia Coltri and Enea Franza (eds), The Importance of the Humanities in Higher Education: Conferences Proceeding Papers, UniverseItalia, 2024, pp. 25-51.

Twenty-first century societies are confronted with: the challenges of AI and robotics, which thre... more Twenty-first century societies are confronted with: the challenges of AI and robotics, which threaten human creativity and meaningful employment; the rapid progress of environmental devastation and loss of biodiversity; widespread wars, military coups, and the erosion of liberal democracy; and a pervasive sense of hopelessness and lack of agency in the face of a hostile future. In this chapter I argue that the neoliberal economy devalues important parts of human life, including education in the humanities and the social sciences, and creative arts (including painting, sculpture, music, and dance). These activities do not translate directly into a high-paid career or demonstrate clear financial benefit. Yet in a future dominated by insufficient work and the need to produce meaning in the face of a hostile environment and an uncertain future, this is precisely the type of training that people need. Visual arts, music, narrative, and the rich panoply of traditional human studies strengthen identity and build resilience for communities, and encourage recognition of all, both the human and the natural environment. These activities, with Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a fiscal means to create sufficient equality to mitigate conflict amongst individuals and groups, are necessary for humans in the future, and must be defended against detractors and destructive policies today.

Suzanne Owen and Angela Puca (eds), Pagan Religions in Five Minutes, Equinox, 2023 forthcoming.

Modern Pagans are people who have consciously decided to revive the worship of ancient and mediev... more Modern Pagans are people who have consciously decided to revive the worship of ancient and medieval deities which at some point in history had died out, for example ancient Egyptian gods or medieval Scandinavian gods.
Modern Pagans engage with the reinvention of an imagined past, though there are differing attitudes as to how creative or forensically grounded in history and archaeology these reinventions can be. There are also Pagans who engage with the invention of new deities and religious forms, often based on popular fictions, including novels and films. I would argue that this process is not so different from animating an ancient source text or illustration on the wall of an archaeological site.

Margo Kitts (ed.), Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions: A Tribute to the Work of James R. Lewis, Equinox, 2023, forthcoming

In 2018 a Dutch law student, Mienke de Wilde (Radboud University, Nijmegen) went to the highest c... more In 2018 a Dutch law student, Mienke de Wilde (Radboud University, Nijmegen) went to the highest court in the Netherlands to plead for her right to wear a colander (or in her case, a quite chic hat based on a pasta strainer) on her head in official documents (for example, her driver’s license). This seemingly extraordinary action was because she is a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (or Pastafarianism), a third millennium “invented religion” founded by American physics graduate Bobby Henderson in 2005 (Henderson 2006a: 33-37). De Wilde’s Netherlands court case failed, and she subsequently filed an application in Strasbourg to the European Court of Human Rights, resulting in that court’s first judgement on Pastafarianism (Wolff 2021). This chapter opens with a discussion of invented religions (also known as “fiction-based religions,” ‘”hyper-real religions,” or “hypothetical religions”), examining their history, defining qualities, and legal status (Wolff 2022). A range of invented religions including Jediism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are then analysed with regard to wearing ritual garb in public and official contexts (hoods in public for Jedis, colanders - and in some cases full pirate attire - for Pastafarians). I argue that the distinction between Jedis and Pastafarians, on the one hand, and traditional religions with mandated religious attire like Sikhs and Jews, on the other hand, is not as clear-cut as non-religious studies scholars think (Cusack 2010: 32-34).

Sydney Society for Scottish History Journal, Vol. XXI, 2023, pp. 69-82.

This study analyses the discourses of history, tourism, and identity that are used in the marketi... more This study analyses the discourses of history, tourism, and identity that are used in the marketing of the Border Abbeys Way, a 68 mile (109 kilometre) heritage walk which was opened in 2006. The Border Abbeys Way is one of Scotland’s Grand Trails, and winds between the Tweed and the Teviot Rivers. It intersects with three other long-distance walks: the Southern Upland Way; Saint Cuthbert’s Way; and the Cross Borders Drove Road.2 The featured medieval churches that give the walk its title are Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh Abbey, Kelso Abbey, and Jedburgh Abbey. These great churches were all built during the reign of King David I of Scotland (1084-1153, reigned from 1124), the youngest son of King Malcolm Canmore and Queen (later Saint) Margaret, his Anglo-Saxon wife. David spent much of his youth in the court of his brother-in-law, Henry I of England (who married his elder sister Matilda of Scotland), and wished to bring Scotland into the international church structure and governmental culture he encountered in England.

Journal of the Korean Association for New Religions (JKANR), Vol. 49, 2023, pp. 61-77.

Sports and religions appear to be very different things and tracing the relationships between the... more Sports and religions appear to be very different things and tracing the relationships between these two contrasting human activities is complicated. The American sociologist Ernest Becker (1924-1974) termed religion an “immortality system,” a complex intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional construction that humans use to fend off awareness of their mortality and to construct ideas about human immortality. It can be argued that sport is also an immortality system that pushes away the fear of death and builds beliefs about living forever, but through the body rather than the spirit. Sport has been described as: quasi-religious (a dismissal, as etymologically quasi means only to seem like, not to be like); para-religious (more positive, as para means “beside” and suggests that sport and religion are engaged in the same business, in parallel with each other); and as actually religious (a radical claim that is substantiated only in few contexts). This article examines these three positions in various sporting contexts, including the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and individual practices generating altered states such as running, surfing, and yachting. It is concluded that the links between sport and religion (sports and religions) are more subtle and deep than is usually accepted, and that sport may be quasi-religious, para-religious, or religious depending on the context being researched.

Journal of the BASR, Vol. 25, 2023, forthcoming.

After the death of Mircea Eliade in 1986 the academic field of Religious Studies splintered acros... more After the death of Mircea Eliade in 1986 the academic field of Religious Studies splintered across multiple fault-lines, including: tensions between theological (faith-based, internal) perspectives and secular (critical, external) perspectives; intellectual struggles between positivist (accepting the validity of historical and contemporary textual and other sources) and deconstructivist (sceptical about the validity of evidence and certain methodological frameworks) approaches to the study of religions; and the relative value of broad narratives and specific instances in establishing credibility as a scholarly authority. This article discusses David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021) in light of the emergence of “Global History” and “Big History” and the possibilities for reshaping the academic study of religion that these perspectives offer. This approach harnesses current research trends to craft new narratives through the reassessment of evidence. The Dawn of Everything does not address religion directly, yet its revisionist view of colonial encounters between Christian Europeans and Indigenous cultures, for example, is a powerful inversion of common assumptions, revealing Indigenous agency and European Christian co-option of Indigenous worldviews. The full impact of this rethinking, in tandem with new perspectives from within Religious Studies, could transform the study of religion in the twenty-first century.

Kelly Sentence and Gregory Eddy (eds), Irreland: Paper Presented to the 1998 Country Women's Association Country of Study School, University of New England, 13-15 February 1998

Before Ireland was Christian it was polytheistic. The Irish were a Celtic people, and theCelts ha... more Before Ireland was Christian it was polytheistic. The Irish were a Celtic people, and theCelts had worshipped a pantheon of gods which may be recognised across thousands of miles and more than ten centuries. The Celts were an Indo-European people' whose culture rose to prominence originally in Austria around 800 BC. Much ofthe evidence for the Celts in the ancient world is archaeological, and hte major sites ofHallstatt in Austria and La Tene in Switzerland have yielded much marvellous metalwork, lavish funerary fixtures, and other evidence of a complex and sophisticated people. The Celts spread westward and settled in areas which are now France, Spain, Belgium and Britain.

Wuhan Journal of Cultic Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022, pp. 34-49

Keith Raniere, the founder and charismatic leader of NXIVM, was arrested by FBI agents in Mexico ... more Keith Raniere, the founder and charismatic leader of NXIVM, was arrested by
FBI agents in Mexico in 2018 and sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020. The charges included sex trafficking, racketeering, child pornography possession, and other crimes. The question of whether NXIVM is a religion or a group that can be classified as “religious” arises due to the stereotype of new religious movements (NRMs) that emerged in the 1960s, which posited a charismatic leader (usually male) who predated sexually (and financially) upon members. The archetypes of this form of leadership include Jim Jones, who had sexual relationships with both male and female members of Peoples Temple, and David Berg (Moses David), the founder of the Children of God (later The Family International), whose movement has been accused of sexualizing young children, and abusing them in the context of an allegedly “sex positive” religion, as well as pimping female members as “hookers for Jesus” as a missionary technique. Memoirs by ex-members of the Children of God, Peoples Temple, the Church of Scientology, and many other NRMs have proliferated since the 1990s, and in the 2020s documentaries and books about NXIVM appear regularly. This article analyses NXIVM, its founder, its members, and group practices, identifying certain tropes familiar from the study of NRM leaders, in order to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to merit classifying it as a new religious movement (NRM) or a “cult.”

Magic, Religion and Witchcraft, under consideration

Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was established by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) in ... more Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was established by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) in 1991, after the demise of Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions (the radical industrial band and performance art collective led by P-Orridge). Similarly, TOPY was partnered with P-Orridge’s next band, Psychic TV, and for ten years the two groups engaged with chaos magick, made art, crafted esoteric practices, and played with the imagery of ‘destructive cults’, including Peoples Temple, the Manson Family, and the Process Church of the Final Judgment. In 1991 TOPY fractured and ended; Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web interface was only two years old, and the internet was still a new space. In the three decades that have elapsed since then, P-Orridge and TOPY have been rediscovered, hailed as pioneers, and are venerated by contemporary occultists. This article investigates the magickal footprint of TOPY, studying a range of publications, YouTube clips and online archives to evaluate the legacy of TOPY in the twenty-first century deregulated online environment, where Chaos Magick is the dominant tendency and individualism the dominant mode.

Publication from the Dance, Esotericism and the Avant-Gardes International Seminar, Museo Picasso Málaga, 2021 (in Spanish)

In the first half of the twentieth century several esoteric teachers developed dance forms intend... more In the first half of the twentieth century several esoteric teachers developed dance forms intended to facilitate spiritual transformation. Anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner’s Eurythmy was devised in collaboration with his wife Marie von Sivers and Lory Maier-Smits in 1912. After World War I ended on 11 November 1918 Steiner sent a Eurythmy troupe on a European tour to reinvigorate the depleted culture and enrich exhausted souls. George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, the focus of this article, began teaching Movements (‘sacred dances’) in 1919 while in Tiflis (now Tblisi). Jeanne de Salzmann, a teacher of the Dalcroze method, introduced Gurdjieff to her eurhythmics class, and the first demonstration of the Movements was given on 22 June 1919 at the Tblisi Opera House. These dance techniques belong to a spiritual milieu that includes Peter Deunov, Rudolf von Laban and Steiner, and a secular milieu that includes Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, and Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe production of The Rite of Spring (1913) in Paris. This article analyses the transformative spiritual potential of Gurdjieff’s Movements and locates this body-based discipline in the context of his anthropological and soteriological teachings. Wim van Dullemen’s classification of Gurdjieff’s Movements, music, and writings as a Gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’) is endorsed.

Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2021, pp. 223-235.

G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) emerged as a spiritual teacher in St Petersburg and Moscow in 1912... more G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) emerged as a spiritual teacher in St Petersburg and Moscow in 1912. In his early phase of teaching, he emphasised a complex cosmology that was recorded by P. D. Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous (1949), and after leaving Russia during the Revolution he introduced the Movements or Sacred Dances in Tiflis in 1919. At the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the Prieuré des Basses-Loges at Fontainebleau-Avon south of Paris Gurdjieff initiated a communal life in which pupils pursued a program of spiritual activities devised to lead them from false personality to true self, from a multitude of ‘I’s to a ‘real I’. After Gurdjieff’s death in 1949, various of his pupils published memoirs of their time with the Master; notable examples include Margaret Anderson’s The Unknowable Gurdjieff (1962) and Kathryn Hulme’s Undiscovered Country: A Spiritual Adventure (1966). This article argues that the pupil memoirs function in the Work as hagiography, cementing the holiness and authority of Gurdjieff in a similar way to the lives of the saints in medieval Europe; additionally, they operate as a substitute for the personal encounter with Gurdjieff in life, constructing his charisma and extraordinary powers for later generations of pupils.

Wiley International Encyclopaedia of Anthropology, Wiley, 2022

The English word ‘celebrity’ is derived from Latin ‘celeber’, which meant frequented or honoured.... more The English word ‘celebrity’ is derived from Latin ‘celeber’, which meant frequented or honoured. The modern phenomenon of celebrity has been traced to the mid-eighteenth century, when it emerged from a confluence of material consumption, the invention of the fashion industry, and the mass circulation newspaper. Celebrity entwined with spectacle to separate the image of the famed person from their real existence, and by the twenty-first century the mediatisation of celebrity ensured its global dominance. Yet this origin point is disputable, with the cult of the saints in the high Middle Ages being a strong contender for the beginning of celebrity culture. Celebrity interacts with religion in multiple ways: celebrities are like saints in medieval Christianity, functioning as role models for the faithful; some celebrities more closely resemble deities, avatars, and bodhisattvas; and fans and fandoms can be understood as worshippers and nascent churches. Many scholars reject these parallels as superficial; an alternative is that celebrity is a form of disposable polytheism, saturated in object fetishism and powered by erotomania. In the twenty-first century it is arguable that ‘celebrity culture’ is a form of ‘world religion’.

Implicit Religion, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2020, pp. 89-101.

David Robertson: So we’re here at the BASR Conference 2018, in Belfast. And I have gathered sever... more David Robertson: So we’re here at the BASR Conference 2018, in Belfast. And I have gathered several colleagues together today to have a discussion about Scientology: the idea of new directions in the study of Scientology, and how do we move the conversation about Scientology forward? There’s a large number of different directions we can go in that conversation, so I’m not going to constrain it at this point by saying exactly what I mean by that. But we’re going to start off by looking at some interesting data and approaches and move into a discussion of the larger methodological issues about the study of Scientology in relationship to NRMs and other more established religious traditions. And then we’ll end the conversation by opening it out to some interesting responses, in the coming week. But for now I’m going to start by going round the table and asking my colleagues to introduce themselves.

Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 5-6 December

This paper addresses tensions existing between confessional approaches (insider discourses assumi... more This paper addresses tensions existing between confessional approaches (insider discourses assuming the truth of a tradition) and social scientific approaches (discourses engaged in classification, comparison, and contextualization of teachers and traditions). The academic study of G. I. Gurdjieff and the Work is a recent subfield at the crossroads of religious studies, Western esotericism, and psychology. Studies of occult and esoteric phenomena traditionally were undertaken by members of various esoteric schools and tendencies, and the value of outsider- oriented ‘scientific’ research on such topics and groups has frequently been questioned.

Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard: World Religions Cafe, 17 October 2024.

During the pandemic two important new sources were published which impact the study of the Family... more During the pandemic two important new sources were published which impact the study of the Family, the Australian New Religious Movement (NRM) led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne. First was Alan Moore's Raynor Johnson: Scientist of the Soul (Lakeland Publications, 2022); second, Cyril G. Scott’s, The Blue Book (Australian Handmade Books, 2023). The latter is especially important in establishing a different narrative from inside the movement, a narrative that remains committed to the truth of Anne Hamilton-Byrne's story and the value of her spiritual teachings.

Esotericism and Global Visual Culture, University of Tokyo, 5-6 October 2024

This paper analyses two symbols used in rituals by the NRMs Konkokyo and Donghak. Konko Daijin (1... more This paper analyses two symbols used in rituals by the NRMs Konkokyo and Donghak. Konko Daijin (1814-1883) founded Konkokyo in 1859 after being healed, and declared himself a living kami in 1868. In 1873 he revealed the Tenchi Kakitsuke (‘Divine Reminder’): ‘Through Ikigami Konko Daijin to Tenchi Kane no Kami pray with a single heart. The divine favor depends upon one’s own heart. On this very day pray’. Tenchi Kane no Kami’s name is in large characters in the centre; Konko Daijin’s name (as mediator) appears on the right, and the believers are represented on the left in the text commencing ‘Pray with a single heart’. Su-un (1824-1864) encountered the Lord of Heaven in 1860 and Donghak (Eastern Learning), the first Korean NRM began. After three years’ ministry, Su-un was executed in 1864. Su-un received two symbols from the Lord of Heaven, the Jumun (‘Sacred Incantation’) and the Yeongbu (‘Mystical Talisman’). The latter (which Su-un called ‘the medicine of immortality’) was lost until Paul Beirne published Su-un and His World of Symbols (2009). Both symbols heal, and join human and divine, through esoteric calligraphy, and the Yeongbu is burned and consumed (iconophagy).

Center for the Study of World Religions Research Meeting, 30 September 2024

The most basic definition of ritual is the movement of (human) bodies in space, though issues of ... more The most basic definition of ritual is the movement of (human) bodies in space, though issues of intention, structure, repetition, and meaning arise when attempting to craft a framework via which to analyse examples of rituals, religious and non-religious (Grimes 1992). Dance, too, involves moving bodies, though the form may be distinguished from ritual by being viewed primarily as of aesthetic, rather than spiritual significance (Hanna 1988). Other considerations include the role of tradition and innovation, of the individual and the collective, and of the values attached to the activity in question (Schechner 1987). Arguably, esoteric dance forms cross the boundary between aesthetic activity and ritual transformation, partaking in defined choreography yet directed to spiritual transformation rather than aesthetic experience (Weig 2018). This presentation examines two forms of esoteric dance from the early twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner’s Eurythmy and George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s Movements. The relationship of these body-based disciplines to secular dance forms, ritual activities, and transformative religio-spiritual and esoteric practices (prayer, contemplation) is examined and cosmological and anthropological parallels between the two are identified (Cusack 2023).

Invited Lecture, Plantagenet Society of Australia, Turramurra Uniting Church, 20 July 2024.

Medieval divorce did not technically exist from approximately 1000 onwards. Marriages were annull... more Medieval divorce did not technically exist from approximately 1000 onwards. Marriages were annulled, which is a different situation; rather than ending, the marital relationship was declared to have been invalid and non-existent from the start.

Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia Conference, Daesoon Academy of Sciences, 25 June 2024.

In the nineteenth century Chinese gold prospectors built between fifty and one hundred temples in... more In the nineteenth century Chinese gold prospectors built between fifty and one hundred temples in Australia, from Darwin in the north to Weldborough, Tasmania, in the south. In 1988 nine were still standing, though some (like Darwin’s Si Yi Temple) were in poor repair. In the nineteenth century non-Christian places of worship were unpopular and missionaries sought to convert the ‘heathen Chinese’. In the twentieth century, the major threat was declining congregations (as non-White migrants were prohibited from entering Australia under the White Australia Policy). From the 1960s onwards some surviving temples were restored. Yet they remain vulnerable to racism (the Sze Yup Temple in Sydney was set on fire by an arsonist in 2008), neglect (in 2024 a fire at the See Yup Temple in Melbourne was due to old electrical wiring), and modern development (the temple at Castlemaine, Victoria was demolished in the 1960s). This paper examines the history of the Chinese in Australia, noting the White preference for a ‘heritage’ presentation (such as is found in the goldfields theme park Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria (where the joss house is a reproduction) rather than actual knowledge of the history, archaeology, and lived religion of historic Chinese settlers.

The Contribution of Minority Religions to Society, CESNUR Conference, Universite Bordeaux Montaigne, 12-15 June 2024.

Recent scholarship of New Religious Movements (NRMs) has emphasised that charismatic leadership i... more Recent scholarship of New Religious Movements (NRMs) has emphasised that charismatic leadership is a co-creation of the leader and his/ her followers, with both sources projecting desirable qualities into the emotional space of the intimate community that is developing around the religious, spiritual, or esoteric teacher. The increased importance of seekers who “convert” themselves, often through reading practices (books and websites) and YouTube lectures, podcasts, and other new media has also garnered attention. This paper addresses one area of esoteric/ spiritual cultural production that the Fourth Way has engaged with; fictional portraits of the guru for seekers wanting to encounter him postmortem. I have published on Peter Brook’s film of Meetings With Remarkable Men (1979), a paradigmatic example, Alma de Groen’s play, The Rivers of China (1988), and the hagiographic impressions given by pupil memoirs. Yet, there are other sources that support my argument, including fictions by outsiders (J. B. Priestley’s Angel Pavement [1930], Peter Neagoe’s The Saint of Montparnasse [1965], and Stuart Holroyd’s play The Prophet [1950s], and fictions by Work members (C. Daly King’s The Complete Curious Mr Tarrant [2003] and Richard Heron Ward’s A Gallery of Mirrors: Memories of Childhood, Boyhood, and Early Youth [1956]). Gurdjieff has also been depicted in a musical (John Maxwell Taylor’s Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Legend of Gurdjieff [2002]), critical comic novels (Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet [1974] and Zaza Burchuladze’s The Inflatable Angel [2018]), and poems and short stories (by Keith Althaus and Joy Williams, among others). This presentation considers the impact of fictions on public perceptions of Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way, and the extent that they can be seen as an evangelistic tool, that has the capacity to attract a broader audience than anticipated.

Lecture, Sydney Medieval and Renaissance Group, 10 April 2024.

European settlers in Australia and New Zealand were powerfully struck by the alienness of the lan... more European settlers in Australia and New Zealand were powerfully struck by the alienness of the landscapes they encountered and the strangeness of the First Nations peoples inhabiting them. The aims of British colonial administrations included the replication of Anglo-Saxon culture (language, the arts, built environments, agricultural and pastoral practices, to name but a few elements), and the conversion of Indigenous peoples to the Christian religion. During the nineteenth century the preferred architectural style for ecclesiastical structures changed from the neo-Classical mode that predominated in the Georgian era to the Gothic Revival style, which was redolent of both the medieval ‘age of faith’ narrative of Christian dominance and a hierarchical, orderly society based on ‘godly’ principles. This chapter examines a range of churches and church-related sites (including cemeteries, chapels, and public monuments) and interrogates how the introduction of this arguably incongruous (even inappropriate) ecclesiastical architecture established overtly Christian sacred spaces that covertly disparaged and disestablished both the religions and sacred sites of the Indigenous Australian and Maori peoples. While Indigenous and settler relations followed different paths in the two nations, the ideology of European Christianity was emphatically opposed to, and exclusionary of, First Nations beliefs and practices concerning the sacred. Neo-Gothic architecture was a material demonstration of this opposition, in political, aesthetic, and theological terms.

Australian Association for the Study of Religion, University of Notre-Dame, Australia, 30 November – 2 December 2023.

Since the academic study of new religious movements (NRMs) began in earnest in the 1960s, scholar... more Since the academic study of new religious movements (NRMs) began in earnest in the 1960s, scholars have been wary of the term ‘cult’, arguing that it was of no analytical use. Rather it was associated with tabloid journalists and aggrieved parents of young people who had joined NRMs, abandoning their education, careers, and Christianity, as well as their family and friends. However, from 2010 there has been a shift in the perception of the term. Some older scholars still maintain that there are no true ‘cults’, just religions that are delegitimised and found wanting compared to the established World Religions, while younger scholars (notably Aled Thomas and Edward Graham-Hyde) argue that the plethora of memoirs by ex-members of NRMs mean scholars must listen to ex-members, and (via #MeToo) understand them as victims and traumatised. This framework is here applied to three books (The Messiah’s Bride by Megan Norris [2023], the story of Stefanie Hinrichs, a victim of the Little Pebble; Daniella Mestanyek Young’s Uncultured [2022], about The Family International; and Jenna Miscavige-Hill’s Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape [2013]) and assesses the impact of these harrowing testimonies on the academic study of NRMs.

Katherine Mansfield 100, New Zealand (KM100NZ) Festival, 17-19 November, 2023.

The New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) died at G. I. Gurdjieff’s Institute for th... more The New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) died at G. I. Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the Prieuré des Basses Loges, Fontainebleau-Avon on 9 January 1923. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1918, she had little time left when she arrived at the Prieuré on 17 October 1922, having joined A. R. Orage’s circle of Gurdjieffians in London in August 1922 and heard P. D. Ouspensky lecture a few times. Gurdjieff was held responsible by for her death by hostile critics, but there is evidence that his teachings, and the care of his pupils, comforted her last months. This presentation examines the record of Mansfield and Gurdjieff’s interactions and compares it to a fictional about Mansfield’s time at the Prieuré, the play The Rivers of China by Alma de Groen (b. 1941), herself a female writer from New Zealand, for whom Mansfield’s life and death are primarily read through the lens of feminism.

Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA) Conference, University of Sydney, 28-30 September.

Wulfila (c. 311-c. 383) translated the Bible into Gothic, creating the first literary text in a G... more Wulfila (c. 311-c. 383) translated the Bible into Gothic, creating the first literary text in a Germanic language. His biography is contested (his parentage, place of birth, consecration as a bishop, and theological orthodoxy are all disputed). The fourth century saw heated debates about the Trinity, and Goths were often termed ‘Arians’, though the African heresiarch Arius (c. 250-336) and his teachings were not directly transmitted to them. This paper builds on a recent rebirth of interest in Wulfila, his mission, and the Gothic Bible, taking Marilyn Dunn’s suggestion that Homoian (a more neutral term than Arian) theology was a bridge between Catholic monotheism and Gothic polytheism as the starting point for a re-examination of Wulfila’s evangelism as both an imperially mandated strategy and the creation of a route into civilisation and modernity for the Goths. Christianity was modern and fashionable in the fourth century, and Germans wishing to abandon their status as pagani (rustics) or heathens (heath-dwellers, not civilised city dwellers) viewed conversion as a move ‘up’. The Gothic Bible played a role in developing Gothic literacy, but was also a magical object, the first of its kind, a book/ roadmap for a people undergoing a great cultural transformation.

European Association for the Study of Religion (EASR) Conference, Vilnius, Lithuania, 4-8 September. Panel: Minority Religions (with Erica Baffelli, Alexander van der Haven, Titus Hjelm, Rosalind Hackett, and Cristiana Facchini.

Religious Minorities Online (RMO) is the premier academic resource on religious minorities worldw... more Religious Minorities Online (RMO) is the premier academic resource on religious minorities worldwide, reflecting the state of the art in scholarship. It is written by leading scholars and is rigorously peer-reviewed.

Religious minorities are part of the social map of many countries on the globe. Some of these are ancient communities, but others are more recent. Some are a minority in one place while a majority in another cultural context (or had been in the past), whereas others have always lived in the shadow of majorities. Most minorities have little power, but others are actively engaged in the wider society and exercise significant political, economic, or military influence.

While religious minorities are relevant as social and religious phenomena in their own right, equally important is how they are viewed and treated by others. Suspicions and fears of minorities as well as admiring and exoticizing them reveal much about the societies they live in.

Australian Celtic Conference, University of Sydney, 25-27 September.

The Scottish Government promotion of 2009 as the “Year of Homecoming” was both a tourist marketin... more The Scottish Government promotion of 2009 as the “Year of Homecoming” was both a tourist marketing exercise and an opportunity to connect with the worldwide Scottish diaspora. Australia and Aotearoa/ New Zealand have a sizeable population with ties to Scotland, and the tradition of homecoming specific to Shetland, Hamefarin (in the Norn dialect, first held in 1960) has a particular connection with the Southern Hemisphere. The Hamefarin is linked to Up-Helly-Aa, the boat-burning festival held in Shetland on the last Tuesday of January at twelve locations throughout the islands, with the capital Lerwick being the most important. The reigning Lerwick Guizer Jarl and his Jarl’s Squad began a new tradition of “reverse Hamefarin” in 1987 by visiting New Zealand, and this event inaugurated an ongoing “tradition” and a new touristic attraction in Aotearoa. This paper examines the creation of new traditions and the construction of imagined communities using the two Hamefarins as a case study.

KADIT (Karsilastirmali Dinler Okulu – School of Comparative History of Religion), Turkey. 22 July 2023.

Human beings have sought to understand the origins of both the world they live in, and their own ... more Human beings have sought to understand the origins of both the world they live in, and their own selves. This lecture considers two Indo-European myths of creation (Indian and Scandinavian) before discussing the Biblical account of creation and various Mesopotamian myths that relate to the book of Genesis..

ERSKINE PARK HIGH SCHOOL UNIVERSITY LECTURE AND TUTORIAL EXPERIENCE: 9 JUNE 2023

ERSKINE PARK HIGH SCHOOL @ STUDIES IN RELIGION, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY UNIVERSITY LECTURE AND TUTO... more ERSKINE PARK HIGH SCHOOL @ STUDIES IN RELIGION, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

UNIVERSITY LECTURE AND TUTORIAL EXPERIENCE: 9 JUNE 2023

Dr Christopher H. Hartney (Chair of Discipline)
Dr Carole M. Cusack (Professor of Religious Studies)
Mr Ray Radford (Casual Lecturer and Tutor)

10 AM Ms Chelsea Neubronner and Erskine Park High School Students arrive.
10.10-10.30 Dr Christopher H. Hartney, “The Idea of Soul and Self in Early Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Ancient Egypt, and Han China.”
10.40-11 AM Dr Carole M. Cusack, “Approaching the Study of Invented Religions.”
11.10-11.30 Three Tutorial Groups in Studies in Religion’s rooms in the Main Quadrangle. Lunch followed by visit to the Chau Chak Wing Museum

Western Esotericism and Practice, European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) Conference, University of Malmo, Sweden, 26-28 June 2023.

Australia has few home-grown new religious movement (NRM) or esoteric teachers. To date there has... more Australia has few home-grown new religious movement (NRM) or esoteric teachers. To date there has been limited research on figures like: Anne Hamilton Byrne and Raynor Johnson (co-founders of The Family); Kenneth Emanuel Dyers and Jan Hamilton (co-founders of Kenja); and Lindsay Grant and Del Agnew (co-founders of Tinker Tailor). Attention is more often focused on international esoteric teachers who were visitors or temporary residents, like Charles Webster Leadbeater (Theosophical Society), and Sister Nivedita (Ramakrishna Mission). This paper analyses the life work of Barry Long (1926-2003), journalist and spiritual teacher, who travelled to India in 1964 and experienced a religious awakening. As he honed his spiritual craft he worked as a journalist in London, and in 1986 returned to Australia. He established an ashram at Tamborine Mountain in Queensland and taught a tantric doctrine that de-emphasised Western ideas of sexuality in favour of a cosmic, impersonal idea of love. He acknowledged a debt to Jiddu Krishnamurti and was influential on New Age teacher Eckhardt Tolle. It is argued that Long’s distinctive sexual mysticism is a neglected area of research for scholars of esotericism, and that Long, as a Western guru adapting Eastern teachings, is part of a distinctive late twentieth century milieu that is best represented in academia by Andrew Rawlinson’s pioneering The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions (1997).

New and Minority Religions, Crises, and Resilience: Overcoming Inner and External Obstacles, CESNUR Conference, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University, 20-23 June.

G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) engaged in creative activities connected to his esoteric teaching:... more G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) engaged in creative activities connected to his esoteric teaching: composing music with Thomas de Hartmann; choreographing Movements or Sacred Dances; creating literature, notably Meetings With Remarkable Men, a fictionalised autobiography of a spiritual seeker and Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, a science fiction epic; and a range of ephemeral endeavours (devising a script with Alexandre de Salzmann, decorating his living environs, and improvising on the harmonium). These aesthetic or cultural activities were teaching tools. This paper examines Gurdjieff’s creative activities to pinpoint when he developed them, and to identify possible influences on the cultural products.

Framing New Religious Movements: New Perspectives and Challenges, University of Turin, 24 May 2023

The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) emerged in the 1960s and was initially largely the ar... more The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) emerged in the 1960s and was initially largely the area of sociologists who often were participant observers in the NRMs they researched. These groups were generally quite restricted and exclusive in the manner of older religions, and two broad evaluations of them emerged; ‘cultic studies’, which viewed the groups as illegitimate and their members as deviant, and ‘NRM studies’, which argued for the authenticity of NRMs as religions, and in some cases studied them as a laboratory case of how older religions (the so-called World Religions, for example) originated and developed over time. In the twenty-first century NRM studies has significant overlap with contemporary religious trends, and the focus on individual groups has been challenged by studies of sport as religion/ religious, raves and dance parties as mystical experiences, all manner of consumerist and self-improvement behaviours as spiritual, ecology as pantheism, tourism, dress, and even body modification as exemplifying the desire for transcendence of mundane/ profane life. This lecture argues that what unites the fields of NRM studies and contemporary religious trends is a commitment to a secular worldview and methodological agnosticism, and a desire to open up the full range of ways that individuals and groups seek to live to the fullest, and the inventiveness of the immortality systems that they construct. Fiction, invention, the online realm, and all manner of popular cultural phenomena combine with older beliefs and practices in a dizzying array of new religious and spiritual forms, which offer scholars of NRMs and CRTs near-limitless possibilities for research and teaching.

"Our Digital Lives", St Vincent's School, Potts Point, 14 August 2013

The Internet has given rise to profound transformations within the spheres of religion and spirit... more The Internet has given rise to profound transformations within the spheres of religion and spirituality. Stephen O’Leary, one of the first to analyze the role of new media for religious communities, claims that the advent of the Internet has been as revolutionary for religious growth and dissemination as was the invention of the printing press. The Internet has provided users with new and unique ways of exploring religious beliefs and experiences through a growing number of web sites, chat rooms, and discussion groups.

For many, cyberspace is a ‘real’ space and an appropriate medium for religious and spiritual participation. It is becoming an environment where people can be religious if and when they choose to be. Customizing religious experiences to suit one’s modern, hectic, work-oriented lifestyle is attractive to many in the contemporary world. Take for example the 10-minute spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, which are so highly appreciated by those confined all day to office computers.

The majority of traditional, mainstream religions now have elaborate and increasingly interactive websites, enabling the faithful to go on virtual pilgrimages, participate in cyber-worship, and access information about their religion quickly and inexpensively. In this way the Internet does more than offer religions a convenient public face: religions can change by existing in a ‘cyber’ environment’. At the same time, completely new and unique, Internet-based religious communities have arisen. The Internet is playing an increasingly dominant role in shaping the spiritual landscape of the contemporary West

Otherscapes, Centennial Park (organised by Sarah Breen Lovett, Architecture), 10 October 2015

Groves of trees have been engaged with in sacred and metaphysical ways that go beyond normal visi... more Groves of trees have been engaged with in sacred and metaphysical ways that go beyond normal visible or audible perception. Centennial Park in Sydney has an abundance of different groves of trees planted for different social, cultural, ecological and spiritual reasons. Otherscapes is a contemporary art project which researches both of these fields of inquiry and brings the results together in a new mapping of the Centennial Park groves.

This report was commissioned at the 1990 Annual Council Meeting of the Council of Australian Post... more This report was commissioned at the 1990 Annual Council Meeting of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA).

This Report was commissioned by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) at the... more This Report was commissioned by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) at the 1989 Annual Council Meeting at Monash University, Melbourne.

I have no named articles in this Manual but as Publications Officer I oversaw its production and ... more I have no named articles in this Manual but as Publications Officer I oversaw its production and contributed to many unattributed articles.

BASR Bulletin, Vol. 145, May 2024, pp. 24-25.

Bryan Rennie’s An Ethology of Religion and Art is an important study resulting from the realisati... more Bryan Rennie’s An Ethology of Religion and Art is an important study resulting from the realisation that “the history and philosophy of religion and the history and philosophy of art are critically in need of integration and mutual consideration” (p. 3), given the intimate links between religion and art throughout human prehistory and history. Rennie sites religion and art as human behaviours perceived from an evolutionary standpoint.

Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2022, pp. 99-104.

Representing Religion and Film opens with editor Tenzan Eaghll’s ‘Introduc- tion. Three Film Crit... more Representing Religion and Film opens with editor Tenzan Eaghll’s ‘Introduc- tion. Three Film Critics Walk into a Theatre: The Ideological Blindspot in the Academic Study of Religion and Film’, in which three hypothetical critics with different perspectives (theological, mythological, and ideo- logical) view The Ten Commandments in 1956 and their conclusions are evaluated. There is no prize for guessing that the ‘ideological’ critic wins, because for them ‘the point of reviewing the film is not to find evidence for religion in film—either in theological or mythological form—but to expose how the cinematic representations identified as religious by the first two critics privilege a particular type of human subjectivity, class, or community’ (p. 2).

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2022, pp. 96-98.

The first chapter of Joseph P. Laycock’s short study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) opens with... more The first chapter of Joseph P. Laycock’s short study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) opens with the ‘category’ of new religions, a ques- tion that is connected to the ‘category’ of ‘cults’. There is no doubt that many people are unable to perceive a NRM without saying it is a cult.

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2022, pp. 93-95.

New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion is a welcome publication in a subfield that has ... more New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion is a welcome publication in a subfield that has tendencies to become stuck in a negative narrative of ‘cults’, ‘brainwashing’, social scientific concerns about fieldwork and informant status, the anti-cult movement, and so on, despite the area being over fifty years old. Olav Hammer and Karen Swartz-Hammer’s intention is to consider NRMs in the same way as a scholar might con- sider any religion.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2024, pp. 110-112.

Kélina Gotman’s Choreomania: Dance and Disorder is an ambitious study that covers vast geographic... more Kélina Gotman’s Choreomania: Dance and Disorder is an ambitious study that covers vast geographical areas and historical eras, broadly investigating the relationships between dance, science, and colonialism. It is not typical of research in dance studies, in that it connects dance (as human body movement) with religious mania, political rebellion, and psychiatric disorders.

Hiperboreea, 4 August, 2024.

Joshua M. Cragle has published the first book-length study to mount the argument that the Christi... more Joshua M. Cragle has published the first book-length study to mount the argument that the Christianization of the Saxons (and by extension, of all early medieval European peoples who were conquered and forced to take on the religion of their Christian conquerors) was not the unproblematic positive that Christian triumphalist historians, and other non-aligned scholars who were broadly accepting of the idea that conversion to Christianity represented progress for ‘barbarian’ peoples, have promoted.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2024, pp. 145-146.

David Weis s’s The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory: Ancient Myths and Modern ... more David Weis

s’s The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory: Ancient
Myths and Modern Empire is a revision of his 2017 University of
Tübingen PhD thesis.
The book is an ambitious study that ranges from the earliest Japanese and Korean chronicles to the twentieth century political history of the two nations that demonstrates links between ancient and modern uses of myth. Myths connect Japan’s national identity as descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu, and Korea’s colonised identity as descended from her younger brother, Susanoo.

Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Vol. 19, 2023, pp. 220-222.

This short book is a tightly focused study of Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis, drawing on t... more This short book is a tightly focused study of Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis, drawing on the history of ideas/ mentalities as a methodological frame to interpret the text, situate its author, and assess its significance for the history and historiography of the conversion period in Scandinavia.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 14, Issue 2, 2023, pp. 325-326.

This slim volume is a fascinating contribution to the literature on Mircea Eliade’s (1907- 1986) ... more This slim volume is a fascinating contribution to the literature on Mircea Eliade’s (1907- 1986) links with right-wing politics in Romania prior to becoming a dominant scholar in the United States, where he was a leading authority in the field of Religious Studies for decades. It also expands the pioneering study by Ted Anton (DePaul University), about the murder by gunshot of Eliade’s protégé Ioan Petru Culianu (1950–1991) on 21 May 1991 in the men’s toilets of Swift Hall, the divinity school of the University of Chicago.

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2021, pp. 272-274.

The Cambridge Elements series on New Religious Movements (NRMs) are brief, to the point, and up t... more The Cambridge Elements series on New Religious Movements (NRMs) are brief, to the point, and up to date. Laycock’s excellent Satanism is no exception. From Chapter 1, “What is Satanism?” which opens with the FBI response to the Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) scare of the early 1990, the pace never slackens, with discussions about how to identify Satan- ism, the invention of Satanism as a NRM by Anton LaVey in the 1960s, and ways to classify different Satanist movements being delivered in clear, lively prose.

BASR Bulletin, Vol. 142, May 2024, pp. 28-29.

This entertaining book is delightful to read and yet academically excellent. Elisha McIntyre open... more This entertaining book is delightful to read and yet academically excellent. Elisha McIntyre opens with a joke – “Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible? Samson. He brought the house down” (p. 3) – and builds a fascinating argument about the way humour is deployed in conservative religious cultures. Humour is potentially anarchic and offensive, especially humour that deals with the sacred and religion. McIntyre’s interest is in religious humour, not humour about religion; that is, it is intended to be experienced and enjoyed by people in the faith community.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol 14, No. 1, 2023, pp. 154-155.

This short book is the tenth in the Cambridge Elements series devoted to New Religious Movements ... more This short book is the tenth in the Cambridge Elements series devoted to New Religious Movements (NRMs), which was initiated by the late James R. Lewis (Wuhan University) and Rebecca Moore (San Diego State University), who continues to edit the series. George D. Chryssides is a veteran NRM scholar with extensive experience in fieldwork situations, and he reminds readers that happenstance may govern interactions with NRMs as much as formally planned research projects. Chryssides’ focus is on issues that may arise in fieldwork (and not a ‘how to’ manual).

Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2023, p. 103.

Og, the king of Bashan is a character found in the Hebrew Bible, where he appears as the leader o... more Og, the king of Bashan is a character found in the Hebrew Bible, where he appears as the leader of an army defeated by Moses in Numbers 21: 33-35 and Deuteronomy 3: 1-13. Og is a giant, and scriptural giants are traceable to the Nephilim, the sons of God who descended to earth and had children with human women. After Og’s defeat Deuteronomy states, “Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites, it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide ...” This status as the last giant, a lone figure, informs Mark Reid’s 2012 poetic cycle.

Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2023, p. 102.

This small book, exquisitely illustrated by Lotte Lara Schröder, is a series of short meditations... more This small book, exquisitely illustrated by Lotte Lara Schröder, is a series of short meditations on human fragility, the precariousness of emotional connection, and the immense value of aesthetic immersion in creating opportunities for open, warm connections between people and people, people and plants, people and animals, and on the larger level of universities with local communities, and humanity as a whole and the planet.

BASR Bulletin, Vol. 143, November 2023, pp. 22-23.

The academic study of religion, especially from a historical standpoint, resembles nothing so muc... more The academic study of religion, especially from a historical standpoint, resembles nothing so much as a crime scene investigation, a police procedural in which the smallest pieces of evidence can build a case to identify a perpetrator. I first heard about U Dhammaloka at the new religious movements conference organised by Laurence Cox in late 2009, and this book is the wonderful culmination of a long journey in which Cox, Alicia Turner, and Brian Bocking reconstructed the life of this extraordinary Irishman in the context of British Colonial Burma. There are several names that the Irish monk used; for example, William Colvin, Laurence O’Rourke and Laurence Carroll. The authors found most evidence for Carroll, and tentatively track his life in Dublin, as an itinerant worker in the United States, as a sailor to Japan, with a period of time in Ceylon, and finally Burma, where he lived in Rangoon, worked as a tally-clerk, and studied Buddhism prior to being ordained in 1900.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023, pp. 167-169.

The Elements in New Religious Movements (NRMs) series published by Cambridge University Press are... more The Elements in New Religious Movements (NRMs) series published by Cambridge University Press are useful for researchers and students alike, as they are compact, well-researched and clearly written, and have a contemporary focus. Angela Burt’s study of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has five chapters (including an Introduction and Conclusion); this review will address each chapter in turn.

Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Vol. 18, 2022, pp. 239-243.

This interesting volume celebrates the work of Frans Theuws, who “for a long time was the only pr... more This interesting volume celebrates the work of Frans Theuws, who “for a long time was the only professor of Medieval Archaeology in the Netherlands” (p. 6), and collects papers given at a symposium celebrating his sixty-fifth birthday in July 2018. The opening part considers Roman sites, and includes Stijn Heeren and Nico Roymans, “Contextualising ethnicity and the rhetoric of burial rites in Late Antique Northern Gaul: the evidence from settlements and precious metal circulations,” which revisits the issue of whether grave goods belonged to the deceased, and notes Theuws’ extension of Guy Halsall’s argument that the objects reflected Roman ideals, and the related issue of whether ethnically distinctive settlements are identifiable. This focus on Theuws’ critical perspective is continued Mayke de Jong’s “From Cordoba to Bellagio: Frans Theuws and the transformation of the Roman world (1993-1998),” which reviews recent digs, and introduces new evidence, such as DNA, in the mapping of the field.

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2021, pp. 145-148.

This book is of interest to scholars of new religious movements, and in particular those who focu... more This book is of interest to scholars of new religious movements, and in particular those who focus on nationalist and ethnic forms of Paganism in central and eastern Europe. Slavic Pagan mythology is fragmentary; the “Introduction” notes that complex mythological texts are available from Iceland, Ireland, and Finland, but the Slavic medieval texts are exclusively written by Christians, and texts authored in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were forgeries, the most important of which was the Book of Veles, published in 1957, which remains popular and the subject of attempts to establish its authenticity. Judith Kalik and Alex- ander Uchitel are equally dismissive of the efforts of the “Mythological School” (p. 2) who “tried to fill the vacuum that the absence of authen- tic pagan texts created by using medieval and early modern anti-pagan compositions written by Slavic clerics and mythological motives (sic motifs) in Slavic folklore” (pp. 2-3). They argue that their study is inno- vative and will succeed where others have failed by looking for Slavic religion/ mythology in the right rather than the “wrong place” (p. 4).

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2021, pp. 149-151.

Falun Gong is a peculiarly visible new religious movement; I have seen exhibitions of exercises a... more Falun Gong is a peculiarly visible new religious movement; I have seen exhibitions of exercises and protests by yellow-shirted members in cit- ies in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, and the ubiquity of both The Epoch Times and Shen Yun Performing Arts advertising means that Falun Gong is vaguely familiar to a large number of people, who are nevertheless incurious about what the group believes and why the Chinese government banned it in 1999. Benjamin Penny’s The Religion of Falun Gong (2012) is a landmark study that locates the movement in the media, in discourses about human rights (claims regarding organ harvesting in PRC prisons), and analyses the role of founder Li Hongzhi (b. 1952) who inaugurated Falun Gong in 1992, during the qigong boom of the 1980s and 1990s.

Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2023, pp. 199-200.

Jocelyn Harris’s fascinating and very impressive book argues that Jane Austen “was a satirist, a ... more Jocelyn Harris’s fascinating and very impressive book argues that Jane Austen “was a satirist, a celebrity watcher, and a politician in the historical sense of one keenly interested in practical politics” (p. 1) Individual chapters deal with Austen’s knowledge of and interactions with the celebrities of her day, and the different ways she incorporated this material into her novels.

Late Night Live, ABC Radio, with David Marr, 27 November 2024.

Can an essay change a nation? Meanjin editor Esther Anatolitis believes that some of the essays p... more Can an essay change a nation? Meanjin editor Esther Anatolitis believes that some of the essays published over the journal's long history have - including one from Michael Mohammed Ahmed. We also bust a few Christmas myths with Professor of Religion, Carole Cusack.

North Queensland Mornings, ABC Radio Newcastle, with Susan Graham-Ryan, 31 October 2024.

NSW Mornings, ABC Radio Newcastle, with Paul Turton, 30 October 2024.

Sunday Brunch, ABC Radio Canberra, with Kate Midena, 27 October 2024

The origins of Hallowe'en lie in the pre-Christian religion of the Celts, and were transplanted t... more The origins of Hallowe'en lie in the pre-Christian religion of the Celts, and were transplanted to America and Australia when Irish and Scottish migrants arrived in the nineteenth century. However, the modern consumerist festival of Hallowe'en owes more to the commercialization of important dates and the global acceptance of American pop culture in recent decades.

Life Matters, ABC Radio, with Hilary Harper, 25 March 2024

Why do we keep falling for fads again and again, and what can we expect from the future of trends... more Why do we keep falling for fads again and again, and what can we expect from the future of trends? And while church attendance has declined over the decades, parishioners are still gathering. So, how have churches themselves transformed?

"God Forbid", ABC Radio, 19 April 2024

Today, billions of people adhere to one of the “Big Five” major religions, but there are many mor... more Today, billions of people adhere to one of the “Big Five” major religions, but there are many more religions from history that have died out. Conquests, cultural change and conversions have all caused religions to shift, shrink and disappear. But when can we truly declare a religion “dead”? And could the religions of today die out in the distant future?

ABC Radio with Jess McGuire, 24 December 2023

ABC Drive Hobart, with Kylie Baxter, 31 October 2023

ABC Tasmania, with Kim Napier, 31 October 2023

ABC Radio Adelaide, with Sonya Feldhoff, 26 October 2023

Breakfast, ABC Melbourne, with Dylan Lewis, 6 April 2023.

What makes Easter about rabbits and eggs? It is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the co... more What makes Easter about rabbits and eggs? It is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the coming of new life, which fits neatly with the Christian feast of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God Forbid, ABC Radio, with James Carleton (with panelists Jenny Valentish and Carole Cusack), 28 January 2023

Despite the continuing advances of medical science, an increasing number of us are seeking out an... more Despite the continuing advances of medical science, an increasing number of us are seeking out ancient healing rituals and psychedelic medicines, all under the guidance of a shaman, or spiritual healer.

The most recent census in the United Kingdom revealed a twelve-fold increase in those identifying as followers of shamanism.

Contemporary shamanism was revived in the West by spiritual movements of the 60s. In recent years, it has regained popularity via social media, with a proliferation of Instagram and Tik Tok healers and a boom in shamanic tourism.

But there is debate about to what degree these contemporary versions connect to their Indigenous origins.

Arts Wednesday, Eastside Radio, with Sylvia Rosenblum, 23 November 2022

King Henry VI inherited the English throne aged 9 months, on the death of his father, the legenda... more King Henry VI inherited the English throne aged 9 months, on the death of his father, the legendary Henry V and he inherited the French throne from his grandfather, Charles VI some months later. He was crowned as a boy in November 1429. Henry was simply not meant to be a ruler and his reign, during the Wars of the Roses simply made the situation worse. His reign included imprisonment in there Tower of London and prolonged periods of madness. What a comparison to the orderly nature of the British monarchs today!

The Party Show, with Headly Gritter, 3RRR FM.

Arts Wednesday, Eastside Radio, with Sylvia Rosenblum, 26 October 2022

Halloween was not part of growing up for many of us. We just assumed it was an American custom we... more Halloween was not part of growing up for many of us. We just assumed it was an American custom we acquired via popular television. Actually it started as a Celtic festival more than 2,000 years ago. Dr Carole Cusack Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, tells us more about the Celts, how the festival became part of Christianity and now a mainstream celebration.

Soul Search, ABC Radio, with Rohan Salmond (with panelists Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos), 29 September 2022

It turns out, people really do take things from fiction and incorporate them into their spiritual... more It turns out, people really do take things from fiction and incorporate them into their spiritual lives, either as modern mythology, or even as full-blown religious systems.

In the past it’s been a joke to put Jedi as your religion on the census, but there are people who practise Star Wars-inspired faiths quite seriously. The Big Lebowski, The Matrix, Star Wars and the novel Stranger in a Strange Land are just some of the cultural artefacts that have inspired people to invent brand-new religions.

Professor Carole Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith.

Dr Vivian Asimos is a writer, researcher and academic specialising in religion and contemporary mythology. She is the author of Digital Mythology and the Internet’s Monster: The Slender Man, and co-host of the Religion and Popular Culture podcast.

Dr Aled Thomas is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds and Associate Lecturer at the Open University. He is the author of Free Zone Scientology: Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion and co-host of the Religion and Popular Culture podcast.

Read the Guardian's report about Church of Jediism founder Morda Hehol's expulsion from a supermarket for refusing to lower his Jedi hood.

Wide Open Air Exchange with Christine Gallagher, 2SER FM

Professor Carole Cusack shares insights from her studies of new religious movements and thoughts ... more Professor Carole Cusack shares insights from her studies of new religious movements and thoughts on being an activist in your life.

God Forbid, ABC Radio, with James Carleton (with panelists Shyla Mills and Christopher Hall), 19 August 2022

It's a simple fact of life that we will inevitably, one day, die. Yet we still find death, dying ... more It's a simple fact of life that we will inevitably, one day, die. Yet we still find death, dying and grief difficult to talk about. On God Forbid, it's the second episode in our three-part series on births, deaths and marriages. Join James Carleton and the panel as they figure out what it means to die, and to grieve, in this current moment in Australia.

ABC Radio with Paul Culliver, 15 April 2022

Wednesday Daily with Oscar Byrne, 2SER FM.

Easter might be the sweetest holiday around but do you really know where one of its most popular ... more Easter might be the sweetest holiday around but do you really know where one of its most popular mascots, the Easter Bunny, has come from? And where do eggs and chocolate fit into the picture?

This morning I’m chatting to Carole Cusack, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, to learn more.

ABC TV, 8:30 PM Tuesday 21 December, 2021

From hot, sunny summer days and motorbike riding Santas to the vibrant mix of cultures that have ... more From hot, sunny summer days and motorbike riding Santas to the vibrant mix of cultures that have contributed their own flair to the annual tradition, join Christine Anu as she uncovers what makes Christmas in Australia like nowhere else in the world.

Christine shares memories from her childhood in the Torres Strait and shows how Christmas songs first inspired her to sing. She also joins children from around Australia in a special performance of her iconic song ‘Island Christmas’.

Celebrating the resilience of Australians, Christine connects with families around Australia and learns about their own Christmas traditions. As we hear her mother and daughter singing Silent Night in traditional language, Christine reveals that – like many Australians - COVID-19 kept them apart for nearly two years. Christine visits a community in the Adelaide Hills who rallied together when the 2019 Summer Bushfires cancelled a decades-long Christmas light tradition.

Heading back in time, Christine shows us how to make a traditional Christmas Pudding recipe from the 1800s, while food historian Jacqui Newling tells us the history of our edible traditions. And we discover the earliest example of an Australian Christmas carol, our very own Australian Christmas Song from 1863.

Get in the Christmas spirit with Christine Anu this December as she explores the reason for the season.

ABC Compass, 7 April 2020

Jeremy Fernandez explores the most significant event on the Christian calendar. Investigating the... more Jeremy Fernandez explores the most significant event on the Christian calendar. Investigating the mystery of transformation and renewal at the heart of the Easter story.

SBS World News, with Lydia Feng, 16 May 2018., 2018

Compass, ABC Television, 28 October 2017., 2017

What does the Reformation mean to Australians? In the 500th anniversary of Luther’s challenge to ... more What does the Reformation mean to Australians? In the 500th anniversary of Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church, Kumi Taguchi explores the relevance of the event that kickstarted a revolution that continues to resonate in Australian lives today.

with Kathryn Stolarchuk, ABC News 24, 24 December 2015., 2015

Episode 5 of television series 'Forbidden', made by Beyond Productions, Sydney.

Episode of television series 'Taboo', made by Beyond Productions, 2007., Feb 2007

Panel discussion on 'Couch', segment of the community television programme, 'News Review', 21 May 2006., May 2006

Episode of Channel 7 breakfast show 'Sunrise', 28 August 2005., Aug 2005

Segment in ABC Television documentary 'Australia's Favourite Book', hosted by Jennifer Byrne, 5 December 2004., Dec 2004

Episode of ABC Television series 'Mondo Thingo', hosted by Amanda Keller, 13 May 2004., May 2004

Episode of ABC Television programme, 'Compass', June 2002., Jun 2002

Film by Media Unit, University of Sydney, for the Faculty of Arts promotional video, 'You want to Study What?', 1996., Mar 1996

Interview on CTV1 (community television station) with Dr Rachael Kohn, 20 November 1995., Nov 1995

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2024

G. I. Gurdjieff (c 1866-1949) is a neglected figure in the study of esotericism and alternative s... more G. I. Gurdjieff (c 1866-1949) is a neglected figure in the study of esotericism and alternative spirituality. His teaching, called the ‘Fourth Way’ or the ‘Work’, is a strikingly original form of esotericism that has been increasingly influential outside of Gurdjieffian circles since around 1980. This special issue brings together four research articles that shed new light on the Work and its place in the twenty-first century cultural context.

Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 2021

This special issue investigates the role of texts in the Fourth Way or the Work, the teaching tra... more This special issue investigates the role of texts in the Fourth Way or the Work, the teaching tradition established by G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949). Gurdjieff's books, and especially Beelzebub'sTales to His Grandson (1950), rae examined in terms of their relation to other religious texts (Christian, Sufi, and so on). Attention is paid to what constitutes a canonical Fourth. Way text, and also to whether Gurdjieff was engaged in crafting a theology. Finally, literary portraits of Gurdjieff are contextualised in the study of saints and the hagiography as a literary form.

Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism, Vol. 8, 2020

This special issue contains four articles (by Joseph Azize, Michael Pittman, Vrasidas Karalis, an... more This special issue contains four articles (by Joseph Azize, Michael Pittman, Vrasidas Karalis, and Carole M. Cusack) that address various aspects of esotericism, secrecy and hiddenness in the Fourth Way tradition of G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949). There is also a special feature, an essay by Anthony Blake, and four themed book reviews.

Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Vol. 32, Nos 2-3, 2019

This Special Issue of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion is an original and timely co... more This Special Issue of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion is an original and timely contribution to our understanding of Religion Studies and related disciplines in the twenty-first century. It contains ten autobiographical reflections on the experience of being a Religion Studies academic. We invited scholars in Australia and New Zealand to reflect on their academic biography and the intersection with their field of expertise. The relevance of this exercise is highlighted by the shift in emphasis in the tertiary education sector since the 1980s from traditional Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines, and the resultant soul-searching that HASS academics the world over have been engaged with (Robbins 1993). The contemporary world is characterised by materialism, individualism, resurgent right-wing populism and a politics of affect; certain commentators have seen these trends as a direct result of the disempowerment of Humanities cultural critics (Furedi 2004), the corporatisation of higher education institutions (Davidson 2015), and the instrumentalist directing of school, college and university education towards preparedness for the workplace and skills-based training (Vaatstra and de Vries 2007).

Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2020, 2020

In Gurdjieff’s system, humans are machines who pass through life asleep. There are four states of... more In Gurdjieff’s system, humans are machines who pass through life asleep. There are four states of consciousness; sleep, waking consciousness (which is very close to sleep), self-remembering, and finally, objective consciousness, the attainment of which accompanies the attainment of a kesdjan or ‘higher-being’ body (equivalent to a soul). In Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (1950) Gurdjieff articulated a genealogy of his teachings that reached back to Atlantis, via ancient Babylon (identifying it as both a manifestation of the eternally true philosophia perennis and of the prisca theologia, a doctrine that was pure and true in antiquity, but has undergone dilution and corruption over time). This special issue explores issues of esotericism, secrecy and hiddenness in the Work.

Journal of Religious History, Virtual Issue, 2017

2017 is the five hundredth anniversary of the promulgation of the “Disputation on the Power and E... more 2017 is the five hundredth anniversary of the promulgation of the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” better known as the “Ninety-Five Theses,” a Latin text that invited academic debate on the Catholic practice of selling indulgences written by Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian friar and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. On 31 October 1517, Luther allegedly affixed his text to the door of All Saints’ Church Wittenberg.The intended academic debate did not eventuate and in 1521 after being excommunicated, Luther appeared before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms. When he refused to recant, the Reformation was underway. It spread like wildfire and by Luther’s death in 1546 Europe and Christianity had been irrevocably changed. The eleven articles collected in this virtual issue were published between 1976 to 2014, and represent everything of relevance on the Reformation context, save for eight articles on Luther himself. They are arranged in three parts: “Protestant Practice;” "Catholic Contributions;" and "Reformation Historiography.

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018

It is easy for human beings to ascribe meaning to trees because they are satisfyingly homologous ... more It is easy for human beings to ascribe meaning to trees because they are satisfyingly homologous with people; they are alive in a way that stones, however impressive, cannot be. In the landscape trees are frequently dominant and inspirational, like the giant California redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which grow to remarkable heights, or the ancient Huon pines of Tasmania, which can live for up to three thousand years. Holy trees are part of sacred nature, the physical world that is infused with the divine. Ancient Pagans and Christians alike used trees to express profound cosmological and spiritual truths. Trees are used as an image of the world (imago mundi), and as the centre (axis mundi), which mapped territory and connected the earth to the heavens above and the underworld below. Trees marked out physical territory, conferred identity on the peoples who lived in the vicinity of their sheltering branches, functioned as meeting places for religious and political assemblies, and were places of ritual.

In the twenty-first century trees are again spiritually significant, not only for religious people, due to the devastating impact of environmental destruction, and the loss of biodiversity and animal habitats resulting from the industrialized nations’ rapacious exploitation of natural resources. This special issue traces the sacred tree: from the theological writings of the Orthodox monk St Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century; through its depiction in the Byzantine Christian architecture of medieval Italy; to Glastonbury (UK) where the Holy Thorn signified the resurrection of Christ. The relevance of sacred trees beyond the Christian tradition and in the modern world is probed in articles that consider four disparate cases: the sacred grove on Joseph Smith’s estate in New York state, now a major Mormon pilgrimage site; the aesthetics of tree veneration in contemporary India; trees in nature-oriented modern Paganism; and trees in the Australian national and social imaginary.

Religion and the Arts, 2017

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is acknowledged as one of the three most influential e... more George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is acknowledged as one of the three most influential early teachers of a hybridised Eastern-Western esoteric wisdom (the ancestor to the New Age, and a myriad other alternative spiritualities and new religions), along with the earlier Madame Blavatsky (Theosophy) and near-contemporary Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophy). Yet the ‘Work’ (as Gurdjieff’s system is commonly called) has received only a fraction of the attention that Theosophy or Anthroposophy have garnered. In fact, there is little published academic work on Gurdjieff: much of Gurdjieff’s biography is speculative, and his teaching (termed the ‘Fourth Way’, or the ‘Work’) is contested in terms of its sources (Christian, Sufi, original standalone system) and its proper scholarly classification (religion, spirituality, esotericism). This special issue examines various aspects of the ‘Work’, focusing on artistic productions including: Gurdjieff’s. writings, the sacred dances or ‘Movements’, and his spiritual exercises; the pupil memoirs about Gurdjieff; the cultural contributions of teachers in the ‘Gurdjieffian’ tradition such as theatre director Jerzy Grotowski and musician Robert Fripp; fictional portraits of Gurdjieff; the phenomenology of being that emerges from the Gurdjieff teachings; and an examination of praxis as the art of doing the ‘Work’.

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is acknowledged as one of the three most influential e... more George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is acknowledged as one of the three most influential early teachers of a hybridised Eastern-Western esoteric wisdom (the ancestor to the New Age, and a myriad other alternative spiritualities and new religions), along with the earlier Madame Blavatsky (Theosophy) and near-contemporary Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophy). Yet the ‘Work’ (as Gurdjieff’s system is commonly called) has received only a fraction of the attention that Theosophy or Anthroposophy have garnered. In fact, there is little published academic work on Gurdjieff: much of Gurdjieff’s biography is speculative, and his teaching (termed the ‘Fourth Way’, or the ‘Work’) is contested in terms of its sources (Christian, Sufi, original standalone system) and its proper scholarly classification (religion, spirituality, esotericism). This special issue examines fieldwork issues in researching Gurdjieff and the ‘Work’ tradition. Among the topics covered are: the difficulty in establishing details of Gurdjieff’s biography with reference to documented events and archival collections; travel to countries which Gurdjieff allegedly visited and the spiritual teachings of which he had as an influence; studying Gurdjieff through participation in Movements classes; field research among Gurdjieff groups in the United Kingdom; and studying the ‘Work’ online.

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is often spoken of as one of the three foundational fi... more George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) is often spoken of as one of the three foundational figures of both new religious movements (NRMs) and modern ‘secularised’ esotericism. His teachings have been accorded significant influence on the ‘New Age’, yet he is far less studied than the two other foundational figures, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), co-founder of Theosophy, and Rudolf Steiner (1851-1925), founder of Anthroposophy. Much of Gurdjieff’s biography is speculative, and his teaching (termed the ‘Fourth Way’, or the ‘Work’) is contested in terms of its sources (Christian, Sufi, original standalone system) and its proper scholarly classification (religion, spirituality, esotericism). The academic study of the Gurdjieff tradition has been slow to develop, and insider, sui generis accounts still dominate publications about Gurdjieff. This issue considers issues including Gurdjieff’s sources and teaching techniques, the proper scholarly placement of Gurdjieff in Religious Studies, and orthodox and heterodox continuations of the Gurdjieff teaching.

Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2009.

The 20th century has witnessed a renewed expression of religious imagination through modern liter... more The 20th century has witnessed a renewed expression of religious imagination through modern literary, artistic and philosophical forms. These articles, discussing new religious creativity as found in the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, Philip Pullman and others beyond any religious or cultural boundaries, resulted from a conference held at the University of Sydney on 26-27 September 2008. Special emphasis is given to new forms of religious imagination through the internet, cinematic transformations and new movements both in East and West. Issues concerning both traditional and contemporary spirituality and religion, as expressed through the mytho-poetics of fantasy and imagination, are addressed.

The complex interrelationships between religion and war (or, to be more precise, particular relig... more The complex interrelationships between religion and war (or, to be more precise, particular religions and particular wars) has generated a vast body of research, some of which has appeared between the covers of Journal of Religious History since the publication of its first issue in 1960. 2014 is the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I, a conflict that looms large in collective memory for a number of reasons. These include: its seemingly global reach; the impact that it had on relationships between Western colonial powers and their dependent (yet rapidly maturing) colonies; its rich legacy in art, literature, and drama; and its stark, moving rituals of commemoration, perhaps best exemplified by the bugler’s rendition of the ‘Last Post’ at the Menin Gate in Ypres (Ieper, Belgium), which has been played every day at 8 PM since 1928, a remembrance of the fallen intended to continue in perpetuity.

The centenary of World War I, the ‘Great War’, is an opportunity to present readers with a collection of fine scholarship from Journal of Religious History on various aspects of religion and war. This virtual issue collects scholarship across over fifty years: the earliest article in the collection was published in 1966, P. S. O’Connor’s “Storm Over the Clergy: New Zealand, 1917;” and the most recent appeared in 2013, James Boyd’s “Undercover Acolytes: Honganji, the Japanese Army, and Intelligence-Gathering Operations.” Rather than restricting content to World War I, I have selected twelve articles in three historical “blocks.”

Culture and Religion, Vol. 14, No. 4, 2013.

The editors of the special issue ‘Invented Religions: Creating New Religions through Fiction, Par... more The editors of the special issue ‘Invented Religions: Creating New Religions through Fiction, Parody and Play’ outline the aims of the collection and place it in the context of debates on ‘invented religions’ and the 'invention of tradition'. We introduce key concepts employed by contributors, place the category of ‘invented religion’ in a wider constructivist context, contrast it with the seminal notion of 'invention of tradition', and note some of its specific features which reward analysis as a separate category. We argue that the category of ‘invented religions’ is descriptively interesting and theoretically useful, and we suggest that developing the latter aspect in particular can encourage this new area of enquiry away from an exotic niche and into the mainstream of explanatory theorising in the academic study of religion/s.

This virtual issue of the Journal of Religious History is titled ‘Missions, Colonialism, and Reli... more This virtual issue of the Journal of Religious History is titled ‘Missions, Colonialism, and Religious Identity in the Nineteenth Century’, and unites a group of ten articles published between 1962 and 2010. This collection of scholarship addresses a range of crucial issues for the scholar of mission and colonialism, a subfield that in current religious history is undergoing rapid growth due to innovative and interested researchers, some of whom are engaged in revisionist projects, such as the re-evaluation of the role of Christianity as the normative religion against which the religions of colonised subjects are judged, and the ethical implications of the process of evangelisation and conversion, in which Christians generally repudiated and debased indigenous religions, which tended to result in the destruction of the fabric of indigenous culture, and the consignment of indigenous people to a history of oppression, marginalisation and poverty. That such suffering people often clung to Christianity and the Bible, the religion and holy text of their oppressors, adds further levels of complexity for the historian committed to disciplinary integrity, the clear presentation of the assumptions of the particular historical era, and yet also to the ethical assessment of the outcomes of the actions of both the colonisers and the colonised.

This issue of Australian Religion Studies Review examines the intersection of religion and celebr... more This issue of Australian Religion Studies Review examines the intersection of religion and celebrity, both major discourses in the modern world. The six articles examine the imbrication of celebrity with: three traditional religions, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; the new religion of Candomblé; and contemporary spiritual trends such as spiritual tourism, secular equivalents of religion like the Olympic Games, and the veneration of sports stars by fans. The study of the impact of celebrity on religion is still in its infancy, and the contributions to this special issue of Australian Religion Studies Review demonstrate both the rich results that such studies can yield, and the range and diversity of subjects that would repay future research.

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be at the helm of this special issue of Alternative Spiritual... more It is a pleasure and a privilege to be at the helm of this special issue of Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (ASRR), which has come together in a comparatively effortless fashion that is not often encountered in the academic publishing process. My thanks are due to James R. Lewis, the Editor of ASRR, for his invitation to edit a collection of scholarly work from Australia and New Zealand, and to Nicole Ruskell of Academic Publishing, who assisted me with the editing and production of the issue.

BASR Bulletin, No. 145, November 2024, pp. 14-15.

“Esotericism and Global Visual Culture” was an excellent two-day academic meeting at University o... more “Esotericism and Global Visual Culture” was an excellent two-day academic meeting at University of Tokyo’s beautiful Hongō Campus, where the neo-Gothic architecture of Yoshikazu Uchida (1885-1972) and the magnificent avenue of gingko trees were a visual feast for participants. The conference was organised by Per Faxneld (Södertörn University), Orion Klautau (Tohoku University), Kristoffer Nohedon (Stockholm University) and Ioannis Gaitanidis (Chiba University). The structure was no parallel sessions so that every participant could listen to and comment on every presentation. The subject matter was vast and disparate.

BASR Bulletin, No. 143, November 2023, pp. 12-13.

CESNUR 2023 was organised by the Center for Studies on New Religions (Turin), the International S... more CESNUR 2023 was organised by the Center for Studies on New Religions (Turin), the International Society for the Study of New Religions (ISSNR), the Religions Research and Information Center (Lithuania), the Lithuanian Society for the Study of Religions, and Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science. Sessions were in the Institute building on Vokieciu Str. 10. The program began with a walking tour of Vilnius, a fascinating, compact city that is home to 570,000 people and was celebrating 700 years in 2023.

BASR Bulletin, No. 137, November 2020, pp. 20-21.

The two-day conference ‘Place, Space and Religious Identity’ was organised by Dr Sarah Parkhouse,... more The two-day conference ‘Place, Space and Religious Identity’ was organised by Dr Sarah Parkhouse, a research fellow at ACU’s Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. It was originally scheduled for 29-30 October 2019. Given that Covid-19 appeared in Australia in late January and the borders were closed to non-residents on 20 March 2020, I am fortunate to have very positive memories of ‘Place, Space’, the only academic conference I’ve attended in person this year. The conference began at 9 AM on Monday 17 February with acknowledgement of the traditional Indigenous owners of the land on which ACU stands, and a welcome by Sarah Parkhouse. There was one keynote address on Monday, Professor Len Collard (School of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia) on “Nyungar Placenames: Looking out from Kaart Geenunginyup Bo,” which was a lesson in Indigenous environment and identity formation, as well as a wealth of information regarding Nyungar/ Noongar culture. All other speakers were given 45 minutes to present and take questions.

BASR Bulletin, No. 136, May 2020, pp. 17-18.

The seventh international conference of ESSWE, on the theme “Visions, Voices, Altered States,” wa... more The seventh international conference of ESSWE, on the theme “Visions, Voices, Altered States,” was organized by a team based at University of Amsterdam and coincided with the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP) at that institution. Delegates were fortunate that several excellent events accompanied the main conference; on Monday 1 July at 6 PM there was a guided visit to the Kabbalah Exhibition at the Jewish Historical Museum, and the Welcome Reception on Tuesday 1 July was held at the “House With the Heads” in Keizersgracht, which houses the Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica (Ritman Library) and the Embassy of the Free Mind. The Head of the Ritman Research Institute is Peter Forshaw, former editor of Aries and well-known scholar at University of Amsterdam. In addition, every delegate received an elegant and informative hardback, Hermes Explains: Thirty Questions About Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter Hanegraaff, Peter Forshaw and Marco Pasi (Amsterdam University Press 2019).

BASR Bulletin, No. 135, November 2019, pp. 25-26

This conference was co-hosted by the Donner Institute and the “Seekers of the New: Esotericism an... more This conference was co-hosted by the Donner Institute and the “Seekers of the New: Esotericism and Religious Transformation in Finland during the Era of Modernisation, 1880-1940” Research Project, which is funded by the Kone Foundation for three years from 2018. The venue was Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), in Turku. A warm welcome by Ruth Illman (Director of the Donner Institute) and Ulrika Wolf-Knuts (Chancellor of ÅAU) was followed by the opening keynote by Olav Hammer (University of Southern Denmark, Odense), on “Esotericism and Mysticism: Two Essentially Contested Concepts.” This lecture was remarkable for its clarity of argument and provided a foundation for the presentations that ensued. There were parallel sessions so I can only comment on those papers I heard. Olli Pitkänen and Oskari Koskela’s “Esotericism in Black Metal and the Contemporary Occult Milieu” was the opener in an entertaining and informative session on popular culture. Next was a fascinating comparison of the two soundtracks of Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising (1980[1972]) by Kimi Kärki, and the last speaker was Tilman Hannemann on “Conceptualising Magic in 1950s Germany”. After lunch Day 1 continued with a session on esotericism in literature: Carles Magrinyà discussed cave symbolism in Cervantes’ early modern Don Quixote and Tiina Mahlamäki discussed Emanuel Swedenborg’s ideas in Laura Lindstedt’s Oneiron (2014).

BASR Bulletin, No. 134, May 2019, pp. 17-18

The Bath Readings gatherings are organised by editor and founder of the prominent publishing hous... more The Bath Readings gatherings are organised by editor and founder of the prominent publishing house New Literary Observer (NLO), Irina Prokhorova. NLO publishes three journals, hosts two annual conferences, publishes around 80 books per year, and is involved in a range of education and research projects. The 2019 conference was at InLiberty, a cultural centre in the Presnensky district, on the theme "Between Reason and Faith: Secular and Religious Worlds in the (Post)Modern Age."

BASR Bulletin, No. 132, pp. 27-28, 2018

The joint 2017 AASR/ NZASR annual conference was organized by Dr Rosie Hancock (University of Not... more The joint 2017 AASR/ NZASR annual conference was organized by Dr Rosie Hancock (University of Notre Dame, Australia), and was hosted by UNDA’s Institute for Ethics and Society. Prior to the start of the conference on Thursday morning there was an information session by the Australian Research Council regarding funding applications for Centres of Excellence, which was well-attended by staff and students from a number of universities around Australia. The opening session was the International Sociology Association Plenary Panel on the theme “Thinking Beyond the West: Exploring New Approaches to the Sociology of Religion. The four speakers drew upon many cultures and historical eras: Raewyn Connell’s “Decolonising God” considered colonial relations between invaders and indigenous peoples; Jim Spickard discussed Navajo ideas of time; Adam Possamai moved from medieval Islamic Cordoba to the present; and Cristina Rocha discussed Brazilian faith-healer John of God. That evening, the Charles Strong Trust Lecture was delivered by Jim Spickard (Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Redlands) on the topic: ‘Is Pluralism Enough? Reflections

BASR Bulletin, No. 132, pp. 27-28, 2018

The sixth international conference of ESSWE, on the theme “Esotericism and Deviance,” was organiz... more The sixth international conference of ESSWE, on the theme “Esotericism and Deviance,” was organized by Dr Bernd-Christian Otto (University of Erfurt), in association with University of Erfurt’s Max Weber Centre for Advance Cultural and Social Studies. The opening had speeches from the Director of the Weber Centre Hartmut Rosa, the President of ESSWE Andreas Kilcher, and Bernd Otto, welcoming a sizeable attendance to what promised to be a fascinating meeting in a picturesque small city. The presence of drinks, finger food, and a musical ensemble only added to the pleasure of this reception. The first real session was a Plenary Panel of three speakers: Olav Hammer (University of Southern Denmark), Jay Johnston (University of Sydney) and Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Groningen). These opening remarks on differing views of deviance set the tone for the four parallel streams of paper sessions.

BASR Bulletin, No. 130, May 2017, p. 26.

The 2016 AASR annual conference was a one-day event hosted by the Australian Catholic University’... more The 2016 AASR annual conference was a one-day event hosted by the Australian Catholic University’s Melbourne-based Institute for Religion, Politics and Society. The opening keynote was the Penny Magee Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dr Angela Coco (Southern Cross University), “Touching Taboos: Sex, Gender and Universal Medicine.” This research examined a little-known alternative spiritual movement headquartered in Australia but with centres in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. Founder and charismatic leader Serge Benhayon teaches esoteric philosophy, ancient wisdom, and esoteric medicine, and espouses strongly gender-essentialist models of male and female relationships: https://www.universalmedicine.co.uk.

The Religious Studies Project, 27 July, 2015

BASR Bulletin, No. 124, May 2014, p. 18.

The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism’s fourth conference since its foundatio... more The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism’s fourth conference since its foundation in 2005 took place at University of Gothenburg, and was focused on esotericism and health, though there were many papers that did not directly address this theme. There were three keynote lectures. 1) Peter Forsberg (Assistant Professor of the History of Early Modern Western Esotericism, Centre for the History of Hermeneutics, University of Amsterdam) spoke about “ ‘Medicina Hermetica’: The Early Modern Promotion of a Hermetic Way to Health”. 2) Carole M. Cusack (Professor of Religious Studies, University of Sydney) spoke on “The Enneagram: An Esoteric Model of Psychological Health”. 3) Mark Sedgewick (Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, Aarhus University) spoke about “Western Esotericism and Islamic Studies”.

BASR Bulletin, No. 120, May 2012, pp. 10-11.

The 2011 AASR annual conference was organized by Dr Angela Coco (Southern Cross University, Lismo... more The 2011 AASR annual conference was organized by Dr Angela Coco (Southern Cross University, Lismore Campus), with assistance from colleagues Des Tramacchi and Robert Lingard. The conference opened on Friday evening with the Charles Strong Trust Lecture (see http://www.charlesstrongtrust.org.au/), delivered by Dr Anne Gardner (La Trobe University). The topic was: ‘The Apocalyptic Visions of Daniel 7:2-14; 12:1-3: Their Persistent Appeal and the Notion of Revelation.’ Dr Gardner linked the emergence of apocalyptic literary forms in the Hebrew Bible with their contemporary manifestations in film, television and literature employing psychological and other insights into end-times mentalities.

BASR Bulletin, No. 120, May 2012, pp. 11-12.

The 2011 CESNUR conference was held at Aletheia University, Taiwan, and was organized by Dr Clyde... more The 2011 CESNUR conference was held at Aletheia University, Taiwan, and was organized by Dr Clyde R. Forsberg. The theme was ‘New Religions in a Globalized East: Taiwan, Southeast Asia, the World’. There were no plenary lectures, although the address by Massimo Introvigne (President of CESNUR) at the conference dinner at the Hotel RegaLees, Danshui, on Wednesday 22 June, ‘Confessions of a Reluctant Diplomat: My Mandate as OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe)’s Representative on Combating Religious Intolerance and Discrimination’ performed something of that function. As CESNUR is an organization that welcomes founders and members of new religions, there were ‘insider’ papers from members of the Family (Daniel Tarpey), the Unification Church (Eungtae Jo), Christian Science (Shirley Paulson), and the little-known Neo-Human Institute in Korea (Gang-Hyen Han).

BASR Bulletin, No. 121, November 2012, p. 18.

The 2012 AASR/AABS annual conference was organized by Associate Professor Adam Possamai (Universi... more The 2012 AASR/AABS annual conference was organized by Associate Professor Adam Possamai (University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus), assisted by UWS colleagues including Professor Julia Day Howell, Associate Professor Judith Snodgrass (President of the AABS), Dr Alphia Possamai-Inesedy and Dr Irena Veljanova, and PhD student Alan Nixon. The conference opened on Friday evening with the AASR Presidential Lecture delivered by Professor Douglas Pratt (University of Waikato, New Zealand), ‘The Persistence and Problems of Modernity: Continuity and Diversity’. Professor Pratt the considered a range of contemporary manifestations of religion, including the recent espousal by popular philosopher Alain de Botton of the concept of ‘religion for atheists’, concluding that religion remained strong in modernity.

BASR Bulletin, No 121, November 2012, p. 18.

This interdisciplinary conference, which was organised by Matthew Feldman (Teesside University) a... more This interdisciplinary conference, which was organised by Matthew Feldman (Teesside University) and Erik Tonning (University of Bergen) married literature, history, theology, and religious studies in considering the interactions of modernism, Christianity and the concept of the apocalypse. The conference was quite small, with 4 keynotes and 2 invited lectures, and 36 papers in parallel sessions. The keynotes were Professor Paul S. Fiddes (University of Oxford), speaking on ‘Versions of the Wasteland: The Sense of an Ending In Theology and Literature in the Modern Period’, Professor Emerita Marjorie Perloff (Stanford University), speaking on ‘ “To Change Your Life”: Wittgenstein on Christianity’, Professor Hans S. Ottomeyer (formerly of the Stiftung Deutches Historisches Museum, Berlin) speaking on ‘The Reason of Nature: The New Cosmos Around 1900’, and Professor John Milbank (University of Nottingham), speaking on ‘Sublimity and Apocalyptic: Christianity, Modernity, and the Future’. The invited speaker sessions were Professor Mary Bryden (University of Reading) on ‘ “History is Done”: Thomas Merton’s Figures of Apocalypse’ and Professor Chris Ackerley (University of Otago) on ‘The Nordic Vision of Malcolm Lowry’s In Ballast to the White Sea’.

Mons Meditari, December 1991, pp. 8-9.

The 1991 Celtic Studies Exhibition made me realize how much (or hoe little) the term “Celtic” mea... more The 1991 Celtic Studies Exhibition made me realize how much (or hoe little) the term “Celtic” means to most people. The exhibition embraced the usual range of vaguely medieval/romantic artefacts and paintings, and the speeches at the opening told me things about the Celts that I had never heard before.

The Pagan Flier: Official Newsletter of the Pagans and Gnostics of the University of Sydney, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 1995, p. 19.

As various forms of pagan and new age beliefs and practices become more “mainstream” it is intere... more As various forms of pagan and new age beliefs and practices become more “mainstream” it is interesting to ask whether such beliefs and those who hold them are portrayed sympathetically in literature and cinema? It seems to me that Savina, the occultist/Satanist who is one of a quartet of outsiders in Geoffrey Wright’s third “suburban Gothic,” Metal Skin, is such a positive portrayal.
"

Season 3, Episode 17, 4 November 2024.

Aujourd’hui, on part loin. Très loin. On va remonter le cours de l’Histoire jusqu’à la fin du VI... more Aujourd’hui, on part loin. Très loin. On va remonter le cours de l’Histoire jusqu’à la fin du VIIIème siècle, dans une Europe qui n’a pas grand-chose à voir avec ce que l’on connaît aujourd’hui. Si je vous emmène aussi loin, c’est pour vous faire découvrir l’obsession d’un homme prêt à toutes les extrémités pour soumettre à son pouvoir un territoire qui va le tourmenter pendant 33 ans. Ce territoire, c’est la Saxe, et cet homme, c’est Charlemagne. Prenez votre crucifix et accrochez-vous à vos âmes, aujourd’hui c’est reportage de guerre en plein cœur d’une Saxe à feu et à sang.

The ReMembering and ReEnchanting Podcast: Episode 29, 5 August 2023

Prof Carole Cusack, a professor in Religious Studies at The University of Sydney, shares from her... more Prof Carole Cusack, a professor in Religious Studies at The University of Sydney, shares from her research on the shift into Christianity and the loss of indigenous European traditions, which were then referred to as "pagan" traditions. We explore some of how Christianity was brought, sometimes violently, to Europe, and the subsequent shifts in spiritual, cultural, political and geographical imagination. This is immensely significant in understanding subsequent patterns of colonization and christianization.

1:35 - Introduction to Prof Carole Cusack
2:35 - What got you interested in the early period of medieval history?
7:30 - Conversion then vs Conversion today
17:50 - The parallels between the moment of the Christianization of Europe, and the colonization and attempted Christianization of indigenous peoples around the world in modern times.
33:00 - How much did this shift to Christianity change peoples’ life?
37:28 - “The template for conversion and for conquest and for colonization is a very ancient one.”
51:46 - Suggested resources from Dr. Cusack

Strange Customs Podcast, Episode 10, March 2023.

Sasha Sagan talks with humanist rabbi GREG EPSTEIN about an ancient tradition they both participa... more Sasha Sagan talks with humanist rabbi GREG EPSTEIN about an ancient tradition they both participate in each year, with themes and messages they find both inspiring and abhorrent. How can a thoughtful person engage a tradition shot through with such contradictions?
We'll also hear from historian of religion DR. CAROLE CUSACK about how this tradition and others like it connect with the deep cycles of the earth and its creatures.

The Religious Studies Project, 29 May 2023

Ray Radford and Carole Cusack unpack the latest in religious news in Australia. Hold on, it's a w... more Ray Radford and Carole Cusack unpack the latest in religious news in Australia. Hold on, it's a wild ride.

Christmas Past, 28 November 2022.

It's the universal symbol of the Christmas season: a tree (typically a fir) adorned with ornament... more It's the universal symbol of the Christmas season: a tree (typically a fir) adorned with ornaments and lights. But ... what does any of that have to do with Christmas? The Christmas tree has a long history. But only fairly recently it has become especially common in homes at Christmas time.

Thoth-Hermes Podcast, 16 January 2022

I’m happy to welcome Prof. Carole Cusack who has been working and teaching in the field of religi... more I’m happy to welcome Prof. Carole Cusack who has been working and teaching in the field of religious studies at the University of Sydney for more than 40 years. Carole is not only well-known and highly respected in the world of academia but also among practicing occultists despite of not being a practitioner herself. She has been involved in teaching undergraduate courses since 1984 and her work covers many different topics of religion, esotericism and spirituality. Growing up in a strict Catholic family Carole decided for herself that she didn’t believe in those concepts and went on to graduate from university with a PhD as a mediaevalist in 1996. Soon after that she started to teach contemporary religion and as she knew quite a few practitioners in different new religious movements she discovered her interest in writing and working in this specific area. Having a passion collecting articles, books and a lot of other material, the ability to connect the dots quickly and the attitude of a forensic criminal investigator ties in pretty well with her excellent work which is frequently published online on academia.edu.

In this month’s episode of discourse we have an update from Australia. Professor Carole Cusack (U... more In this month’s episode of discourse we have an update from Australia. Professor Carole Cusack (University of Sydney) and Ray Radford (University of Sydney and RSP) sit down with Dr. Breann Fallon (Sydney Jewish Museum and RSP) to discuss religion in Australian current affairs. This team of three first consider a conservative article on the amendments Equal Opportunity Bill in Victoria which claims “religion cancelled” and “parents cancelled.” Yet, there is no denying that the three are speaking from lockdown and the conversation turns to religious exemption from vaccination, including the history of this in Australia, as well as religious symbolism at anti-lockdown protests. To end the episode, the trio discuss the interesting timing of opening up in time for Christmas — is this an offering at the temple of consumerism? Whilst there is no answer, it is an interesting take on the impact of COVID-19 on religious festivals.

Radical Education Week, 2021

Come along to the next Radical Education Week event at 6pm today - Studying Religion in Australia... more Come along to the next Radical Education Week event at 6pm today - Studying Religion in Australia: A Discussion with Carole Cusack and David Smith!
This event will involve hearing Professor Cusack (Religious Studies), David Associate Professor Smith (American Politics and Foreign Policy), and Ranuka Tandan (Studies in Religion student) discuss how and why Religious Studies are seen as expendable by the university, and the role of religion in politics.
This is an especially relevant discussion with the appointment of Dominic Perrottet as NSW Premier, someone who has used his religious beliefs to push against abortion decriminalisation and marriage equality, and the recent win by students and staff in opposing the threats to USyd's Religious Studies Department.
https://uws.zoom.us/j/4785153660

The Religious Studies Project, 2021

What are manifestos? How are they employed in society? What can the academic study of religion of... more What are manifestos? How are they employed in society? What can the academic study of religion offer to help understand them? The faculty and students in the Dept. of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney have a few thoughts on that. Tune in to learn more!

The Religious Studies Project, 2021

In this March 2021 episode of Discourse! we have a University of Sydney reunion with Professor Ca... more In this March 2021 episode of Discourse! we have a University of Sydney reunion with Professor Carole Cusack, Dr Breann Fallon, and Ray Radford. Covering current affairs in Australia the USyd team discuss three recent news items. The first item is framed around civil religion and nationalism: it’s the controversial upgrade of Australian Tennis Player Margaret Court AC MBE’s honours on Australia Day. What happens when we honour individuals whose views on sexuality, marriage equality, and gender are deeply controversial? Moving to the motorways, the second news item involves the demolishing of sacred Indigenous trees to accommodate a freeway expansion. This ongoing story reveals deep divides between stakeholders over the environment and Australia’s cultural heritage laws. Finally, in the most recent news piece, the group discusses legislation banning gay-conversion therapies in the Australian state of Victoria. In this instance, the bill explicitly names and bans religiously-informed conversion practices. Bringing the three items together, the episode turns to the notion of human rights as a significant thread running between all stories.

Open Div Summit: 4 Day Pod Conference, 25-28 February 2021.

Open Div is a new project that aims to translate divinity for a secular world. We've brought to... more Open Div is a new project that aims to translate divinity for a secular world.

We've brought together top academics, theologians, clergy, and secular experience designers to offer frameworks around creating meaning for oneself and others.

The event is free, and is open to those of any faith and no faith. We hope that you come away from this summit with new ideas for how to bring matters of ultimate concern into your life and the lives of others.

Angela's Symposium, 4 February 2021

Prof Carole Cusack tackles Invented Religions, Provisional Beliefs, Magical Practices and Witchcr... more Prof Carole Cusack tackles Invented Religions, Provisional Beliefs, Magical Practices and Witchcraft in the contemporary Western world

1 February 2021

In this episode, RSP co-editor Breann Fallon talks to Professor Carole Cusack about trees in reli... more In this episode, RSP co-editor Breann Fallon talks to Professor Carole Cusack about trees in religious mythology, belief, and practice.

11 January 2021

Can you believe it has been 10 years? After more than 350 episodes, over 600 contributors, and th... more Can you believe it has been 10 years? After more than 350 episodes, over 600 contributors, and the rapidly approaching milestone of a million downloads, we’re still here doing the weekly work of sharing research in the critical study of religion.

In this special episode of the Religious Studies Project podcast, the RSP team reflects on the legacy of the project and the future of our work. Co-hosts Breann Fallon and David McConeghy solicited reflections from current and former team members, and this episode features some of the highlights including comments by founders Chris Cotter and David Robertson; interviewers Candace Mixon, Sidney Castillo, and Dan Gorman; board members Russell McCutcheon and Carole Cusack, and editors Thomas Coleman and Lauren Osborne. With extreme gratitude for the many, many contributors and listeners to the Religious Studies Project for a decade of scholarship, we’re proud to say, “Thanks for listening!”

Interview with Benjamin E. Zeller (Lake Forest College), 2020

This podcast is one of three related to the recently released Australian new religions issue of N... more This podcast is one of three related to the recently released Australian new religions issue of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions (Vol. 24, No. 1, August 2020): https://online.ucpress.edu/nr

Interview with Sarah Harvey, INFORM (King's College London)

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, No.14, 2019, pp. 73-78.

Carole Cusack est professeure de sciences des religions à l’Université de Sydney, Australie. Elle... more Carole Cusack est professeure de sciences des religions à l’Université de Sydney, Australie. Elle est spécialiste des religions de l’Europe du Nord médiévale ainsi que du paganisme médiéval aussi bien que moderne. Elle s’intéresse en outre aux religions inventées, notamment le jediisme, religion construite à partir des films de science-fiction de George Lucas Star Wars. Elle est l’auteure notamment de Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction, and Faith, Farnham and Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2010 et l’éditrice de The Sacred in Fantastic Fandom : Essays on the Intersection of Religion and Pop Culture, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2019.

The Religious Studies Project, 4 May 2020

Happy May the Fourth! Today we bring you a special episode of The Religious Studies Project to ce... more Happy May the Fourth! Today we bring you a special episode of The Religious Studies Project to celebrate 2020’s International Star Wars Day. After the release of Star Wars film in 1977, it became obvious that creator George Lucas had tapped into something profound. Over the next few decades, Star Wars became a behemoth worth billions of dollars and a multi-media franchise spanning film, television, video games, comic books, novels, theme parks, toys, and much more. Since 2012, the RSP has touched on Star Wars many times, most often in discussions of invented, fictional, or hyper-real religions. Enjoy the selections from six different episodes as we learn why this franchise and other popular cultural institutions are important sites for the production of identity and the construction of the category of religion.

The Religious Studies Project, 18 June 2019.

This week’s episode is a bit special. We’re sharing the newest episode of Discourse, a spin-off s... more This week’s episode is a bit special. We’re sharing the newest episode of Discourse, a spin-off show our Patreon supporters have been enjoying this year. Discourse has a globally rotating cast of RSP editors, friends and guests, who take a critical look at the discourse on ‘religion’ in the news and media! If you enjoy the episode, you can enjoy monthly episodes by subscribing just a dollar a month at patreon.com/projectrs.

This month on Discourse, Breann Fallon, Carole Cusack and Ray Radford approach the Australian news from a Religious Studies perspective. We cover the appeal of Cardinal George Pell, the drama around Israel Folau, and the impact of Christianity on the recent Australian federal election results.

The Religious Studies Project, 2014

There are some traditions that make this time of the year special. End-of-year listicles, the “Wa... more There are some traditions that make this time of the year special. End-of-year listicles, the “War on Christmas” debate, animations of elves dancing with your family’s heads pasted on… and of course, the RSP “Christmas” Special!

This year, Jonathan Tuckett is your host (ably assisted by Ethan Quillen) for MasterBrain, recorded live at the BASR Annual Conference in Milton Keynes this past September. Hear him grill Carole Cusack (Sydney) on Bob Marley and religion, Steven Gregg (Wolverhampton) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and religion, Beth Singler (Cambridge) on Game of Thrones (and Religion) and your humble Editor-in-Chief David Robertson on the Beatles etc. Who will win the coveted RSP trophy? Is Jon Snow really dead?

Philosophy and the Phenomenology of Religion, Religious Studies III, 1983

Matthew Arnold, noted English poet and religious and educational thinker, was born on 24 December... more Matthew Arnold, noted English poet and religious and educational thinker, was born on 24 December 1822. In his youth he manifested an interest in religion, and among other things, had listened to John Henry Newman, and perused the Bhagavad Gita. His religious reputation rests on three volumes published between 1870 and 1875: Saint Paul and Protestantism (1870), Literature and Dogma (1873) and God and the Bible (1875).

D3 The Arthurian Legend and Its Social Context - English III (Honours) Early English Literature and Language, 1983

The Arthurian legend has fascinated both scholars and the public alike for centuries, and has, in... more The Arthurian legend has fascinated both scholars and the public alike for centuries, and has, in this age of mass production, become something of an industry. Novelists produce retelling of the stories, and scholars search for the "historical" Arthur, and write volumes on the relationships between the various texts, and Arthurs, which have survived the years Most of these treatments of the Arthurian legend are historical, but view the legend independently of its social context. This becomes a handicap when it is apparent that the subject matter of the legend, and its primary purpose, is political, and therefore inextricably bound up with the. working of the societies in which the multifarious Arthurian texts were produced.

The Concept of Deity, Religious Studies III, 1983

Very little is known of the personal life of Chuang Tzu, or Master Chuang. Ssu-Ma Ch'ien (145? - ... more Very little is known of the personal life of Chuang Tzu, or Master Chuang. Ssu-Ma Ch'ien (145? - 89? BCE) in Chapter 61 of his Records of The Historian (Shih Chi), says that his personal name was Chou, he was "a native of a place called Meng, and he once served as an official in the lacquer garden in Meng." He is said to have lived during the reigns of King Hui (370-319 BCE) of Liang, and King Hsuan (319-301 BCE) of Ch'i, in which case he would be a contemporary of Mencius; and that he was the author of a book which was "mostly in the nature of a fable".1

1. Burton Watson, Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, ed. William Theodore de Bary (1868), p. 1.

Religious Studies III (Honours), 1983

"The forces before which the believer owe are not simple physical energies, such as are presented... more "The forces before which the believer owe are not simple physical energies, such as are presented to the senses and the imagination; they are social forces" (Emile Durkheim).

Psychology of Learning, Knowing and Thinking, Master of Education unit taught by Dr Richard Walker, University of Sydney, 2000

This paper is an integrative review, covering the theory and praxis of constructivism and social ... more This paper is an integrative review, covering the theory and praxis of constructivism and social constructivism. It seeks to explicate the commonalities between the two approaches to learning, and to note the differences. The philosophical and pedagogical criticism of the two positions are discussed, in addition to the successful empirical studies.

Medieval History I, 1986

Avignon was 'Babylon on the Rhone' to the scholar and cleric Francesco Petrarca for several reaso... more Avignon was 'Babylon on the Rhone' to the scholar and cleric Francesco Petrarca for several reasons, all of which were related to the sojourn of the Papacy in that city from 1305-1403. The Papacy had settled in Avignon partly as a result of the conflict between Philip the Fair of France and Pope Boniface VIII, which resulted in a resounding victory for the French throne; and partly because because of political disturbances in the Papal States in Italy, which were exacerbated by the rivalry of the Guelph and Ghibelline factions.

EDPE 6016 Adult Learning and Development, 1999

Over the past fifteen years the area known as Lifespan Psychology has been developing. This paper... more Over the past fifteen years the area known as Lifespan Psychology has been developing. This paper will discuss the theoretical position associated with Paul Baltes and his collaborators, followed by that associated with Richard Schutz and Jutta Heckhausen. Central to this subfield is the belief that human development does not cease with the attainment of physical maturity, but continues throughout the life process.

Introduction to University Teaching, Learning & Assessment, Master of Education unit, University of Sydney, 1998

You will redesign the assessment for one of your courses. You will present both your reasons for ... more You will redesign the assessment for one of your courses. You will present both your reasons for changing the assessment and your new design as if you were making a report to your Faculty Board. Your reasons must take account of the literature on assessment and must include an analysis of student responses, staff concerns, and resource implications. You must also give the reason for your choice of strategy and reasons for rejecting other approaches. Your new design must be realistic in terms of the resource constraints you are under and it must enhance student learning. It must in some way integrate learning and assessment and it must take account of new developments in student learning.

Medieval History I, 1986

It has been said of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and of the other Crusader states that "Wester... more It has been said of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and of the other Crusader states that "Western Europe perpetuated itself under oriental skies." But in order to survive in the Middle Ages, the Franks (as they were called by the Muslims) had to make notable adjustments to their traditional, feudal way of life.

Religious Studies III (Honours), University of Sydney, 1983

Question 13 of the Summa Theologica deals with the application of human language to God. The firs... more Question 13 of the Summa Theologica deals with the application of human language to God. The first sub-section asks whether or not God can be named? Aquinas notes first the objections: for example, names are either abstract or concrete, and neither apply to God, as He is simple, and perfectly subsisting. His conclusion is that God can be named, as words are signs of ideas, and humans can give a name to everything, insofar as they can understand it. They have no knowledge of the essence of God, but can know him from his creatures, and thus can name him from his creatures.

English II (Course II), Arts Non-Degree, 1986

The two versions of the "Knight of the Cart" story to be considered in this essay, that of Chreti... more The two versions of the "Knight of the Cart" story to be considered in this essay, that of Chretien de Troyes and that of Sir Thomas Malory, were composed respectively in the late twelfth and the late fifteenth centuries; and although the same story line is employed, they are vastly different in emphases and intentions. Malory's tale is some fifteen pages in length, Chretien's is six times as long.

Religious Studies III (Honours), University of Sydney, 1983

The second of Saint Thomas Aquinas' ways of proving the existence of God is generally knows the A... more The second of Saint Thomas Aquinas' ways of proving the existence of God is generally knows the Argument from Causality. In it Aquinas points out that no thing is fun necessitate its being prior to itself. Also, no ,after how many intermediate causes there may be, there must first be a firs cause before there can be any intermediate causes at all.

Religious Studies II (Honours), University of Sydney, 1982

Introduction to University Teaching, Learning & Assessment, Master of Education unit, University of Sydney, 1998

The aim of this mandatory project is to improve participants' teaching by encouraging individuals... more The aim of this mandatory project is to improve participants' teaching by encouraging individuals to reflect on their own teaching practice and act on this reflection. This project involves a combination of peer-supported reflection, individually negotiated learning activities and practical teaching development. There are three phases to the Teaching Development Project (TDP). Phase 1: Reflecting on current teaching and planning the TDP. Phase 2: implementing strategies to improve teaching practice. Phase 3: collecting evidence for evaluation of the improvements in teaching practice.

Introduction to University Teaching, Learning & Assessment, Master of Education unit, University of Sydney, 1998

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 14, Issue 1, 2023, pp. 156-174.

The volume comprises thirty-three essays; it opens with a general introduction by the editors, an... more The volume comprises thirty-three essays; it opens with a general introduction by the editors, and it is divided into five parts, each one with its own brief introduction.

Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2023), pp. 113-115

Islam is not a majority religion in any Central or Eastern European country (unless one includes ... more Islam is not a majority religion in any Central or Eastern European country (unless one includes Turkey and, possibly, parts of the Caucasus). It is, however, a minority religion in all of them, and this is arguably a good reason why a collection of essays explaining both the similarities among and differences between the many different strands of Islam can be of particular use to scholars of religion in the region. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religions provide an invaluable reference source on a wide variety of faiths, and this volume of over 800 pages is no exception, devoting as it does, thirty-three chapters to some of the numerous manifestations of Islam.

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2023, pp. 404-406.

This fascinating study examines what are termed ‘invented’ religions, a provocative description w... more This fascinating study examines what are termed ‘invented’ religions, a provocative description which immediately brings to mind the assumption that some religions are not invented but rather, ‘true’. The book proposes that humans are meaning- making creatures that find certain types of narrative powerful, particularly those wherein unseen agents effect causality in the world. It aims to demonstrate that this human penchant for story can be expressed through religion which is now more secular and simply another form of consumption manifesting through personal selection and construction; and that the futuristic imagination exemplified in sci- ence fiction forms a large part of the inspiration of the invented religions that are the topics of this study.

Nova Religion: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2023, pp. 129-131.

Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion is an anthology of 25 short articles, by 23 scholars,... more Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion is an anthology of 25 short articles, by 23 scholars, on significant concepts in religious studies which can be contested among researchers or practitioners. Each essay is about 5 to 6 pages and covers a single topic. The editors say that the book should not be thought of as a dictionary or keywords book. Rather, its purpose is to critically explore various uses or misuses of religious con- cepts and terminology to shed light on those topics. These include general topics such as religion, belief, spirituality, world religion, and worship, having applicability across religions. Others include charisma, cult, magic, new age, prophecy, violence, and so on. All the terms selected are “problematic” for a variety of reasons, but typically this book focuses on how they are being used in scholarly and popular literature.

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2023, pp. 139-142.

Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2023, pp. 189-190.

A huge and crucial collection on virtually all the major sectarian strands and movements one can ... more A huge and crucial collection on virtually all the major sectarian strands and movements one can find in the Islamic world today, with additional information about their historical background or antecedents. Dr Afzal Upal, an ‘Indo-American’ authority of computer and cognitive science now based at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, cut his teeth in the study of Islamic new religious movements probing the Ahmadiyya movement, to which he formerly belonged and concerning which he wrote a multidisciplinary study Moderate Fundamentalists (Berlin, 2017), an important text in the Cognitive Science of Religion. His research has put him in touch with a wide range of scholars working on Muslim minorities across the northern hemisphere and has been wonderfully complemented in this volume by Carole Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney and surely one of the most accomplished editors of all time, whose wide-ranging interests have very much helped to enrich the mix.

BASR Bulletin, Vol. 142, May 2023, pp. 22-24.

Journal of Sakarya University Faculty of Theology, Vol. 23, Issue 44, 2021), pp. 534-538.

Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 26, Issue 4, 2023, pp. 110-111.

Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2022, pp. 80-82.

The Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion are one of the best sources for both general and spe... more The Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion are one of the best sources for both general and specific information on an increasingly wide selection of religion-related subjects. This one, Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, is no exception. It has 556 pages divided into three parts (Explanations, Correspondences, and Locations) with 23 chapters, as well as a foreword by Michael Barkun, the doyen of studies of conspiracy theories, and a lengthy introduction and an afterword by the editors, all of whom contribute to other chapters in the volume.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2022, pp. 122-124.

Over the past few years, events such as the assassination of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a... more Over the past few years, events such as the assassination of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and allegations regarding COVID-19 and The Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea have illuminated the need for scholarly attention to new and minority religions in East Asia. The Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia focuses on one particularly successful indigenous new religion in Korea: Daesoon Jinrihoe. Editor Carole Cusack has assembled a strong and diverse collection of articles from established experts in this first volume of the Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia. As the title of the journal suggests, each of the six articles in the volume engages with a different facet of Daesoon Jinrihoe and the journal concludes with a a review by Eileen Barker of an English translation of Daesoon Jinrohoe’s scriptures along with two accompanying texts: a guidebook for members and a short introductory text titled Essentials of Daesoon Jinrihoe (155–159).

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2022, pp. 244-245.

This volume is dedicated to the topic of invented religions, a category that Carole M. Cusack pre... more This volume is dedicated to the topic of invented religions, a category that Carole M. Cusack previously defined in her pioneering work Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (2010), a scholarly analysis of six invented religions which arose from the late 1950s onwards. The Problem of Invented Religions extends Cusack’s prior scholarship in this area. Originally published as a special issue of the journal Culture and Religion, the book con- sists of an introduction and eight chapters; four chapters address key theoretical issues and four chapters are devoted to case studies. In the Introduction, editors Steven J. Sut- cliffe and Cusack outline the aims of the volume, introduce key terms and place the cate- gory of invented religion in a wider theoretical context. While all religions are in a sense socially constructed, invented religions are posited to be unique in that they announce and embrace their invented status as a key feature of their identity. Instead of appealing to tra- ditional strategies of authorization, “invented religions by definition happily appropriate a term or label which might previously have been used to render them ‘other’ and hence inferior, and use it for their own self-definition” (p. 5).

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2022, pp. 246-247.

Throughout history, people have reported seeing strange phenomena in the skies. Modern interest i... more Throughout history, people have reported seeing strange phenomena in the skies. Modern interest in Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) traditionally dates to 1947, when American aviator Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a number of flying disc-shaped objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. Academic scholarship linking UFOs with religion commenced around the same time and attracts scholars from a wide variety of interdisciplinary fields. The Handbook of UFO Religions, edited by Benjamin Zeller, is the latest contribution to the aca- demic study of ufology and religion. The book, which consists of over five hundred pages, comprises an introduction and twenty-four chapters, divided into five parts. In the intro- duction, Zeller orients the reader by highlighting some of the key patterns that emerge in UFO scholarship and which unite the eclectic chapters in the current volume. Reoccurring themes include scientism, millennialism, occultism (in particular, the role of Theosophy) and synergies with popular culture. Following this is an excellent chapter by W. Michael Ashcraft which summarizes the first seventy-five years of academic research.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2022, pp. 119-121.

The Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science is a hefty volume and the articles within a... more The Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science is a hefty volume and the articles within are filled with delightfully interesting examples and ideas concerning the relationship between religion, science, and power. Be it a tradition that uses scientific arguments to legitimise its practice, a movement trying to utilize the scientific method to prove mythological history, or a parapsychological researcher seeking to understand the world beyond the veil—not forgetting sceptics seeking to prove religious miracles as frauds—this book presents various case studies for the reader to illuminate the intricate interplay of science and religion. It accomplishes this through the analytic medium of power discourses and authoritative rhetoric.

Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 26, Issue 1, 2022, pp. 102-103.

The Demise of Religion offers scholars of new religious movements a theoretical toolbox for analy... more The Demise of Religion offers scholars of new religious movements a theoretical toolbox for analyzing the nexus of factors that contribute to the decline and end of these groups. Drawing critical attention to an understudied aspect of new religions’ lifecycles, the volume’s contribu- tors reflect on internal difficulties and external oppositions that are faced while raising questions of legacy and persistence.

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, Vol. 10, Issue 2, 2021, pp. 301-305.

The impact of high technology has been felt everywhere in society, luminously enacting the deepes... more The impact of high technology has been felt everywhere in society, luminously enacting the deepest expressions of the human imagination. From its ori- gins fifty years ago, the history and theology of religion and technology has witnessed an explosion of work by academics such as Langdon Gilkey, Ian Barbour, and David Noble, and a more recent and even larger eruption in schol- arship on the history and philosophy of religion and computing. The editors of Believing in Bits, Simone Natale and D. W. Pasulka, join this growing body of work by arguing that “religious beliefs and practices are inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media” (3). In their collection, seventeen scholars share perspectives from a variety of humanities and social-science disciplines and cross-disciplinary specializations. The chapters are loosely organized into three parts: “Archaeologies of the Digital Supernatural,” “Believing in Digital Worlds,” and “Spiritual Relationships between Technology and Humans.” Using the combined lenses of media archaeology and digital-media studies, the authors present original approaches to the examination of religious beliefs in new media.

Magic Ritual and Witchcraft, Vol. 16, No. 12, 2021, pp. 136-138.

In Believing in Bits, Simone Natale and D.W. Pasulka collect twelve essays that track relations b... more In Believing in Bits, Simone Natale and D.W. Pasulka collect twelve essays that track relations between emergent types of media and always dynamic definitions of religion. “Situated at the theoretical interface between the fields of media studies and religious studies, the book aims to unveil the multiple ways in which new media intersect with belief in the supernatural” (2). The book considers the use of new technologies in traditional religions, the use of traditional religions in new technologies, psychological and social models of belief, and the questionable vitality of certain machines.

Reading Religion, 2019.

Enjoying Religion: Pleasure and Fun in Established and New Religious Movements provides a fascina... more Enjoying Religion: Pleasure and Fun in Established and New Religious Movements provides a fascinating compilation of scholarly work that explores the intersections between fun, enjoyment, pleasure, play, and religion. Enjoying Religion is the first academic text to explicitly interrogate these intersections. As such, the book provides a broad introduction to a number of important themes as well as a variety of theoretical lenses with which to investigate the ways both established religions and new religious movements engage with and categorize enjoyment.

Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 25, Issue 3, 2022, pp. 139-141.

Handbook of UFO Religions is a massive and significant contribution both on the critical study of... more Handbook of UFO Religions is a massive and significant contribution both on the critical study of ufology and on its ties to contemporary minority religions. Divided into five parts with twenty-four chapters, its eclectic, interdisciplinary, and international group of contributors extends the conversation beyond the Anglo-American confines that often circumscribe such endeavors. Several of the essays, however, are perhaps too specialized. Authored by second-language academics, the result is stilted, often-jargon laced, idiomatic prose that requires not a little extra focus to decode. Nevertheless, the text will surely serve as a significant starting point for future research into the intersections of religion and ufology.

Wuhan Journal of Cultic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021, p. 176.

Within the context of religious studies more and more attention has been paid recently to alterna... more Within the context of religious studies more and more attention has been paid recently to alternative forms of spirituality which are rooted in pop culture. The volume The Problem of Invented Religions investigates the theoretical concept of invented religions proposed by Carole M. Cusack in her Invented Religions. Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate, 2010) and is located on the intellectual route which leads to Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality, which she edited with Pavol Kosnáč in the Routledge Inform Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements (2017).

Center for the Study of World Religions, 11 December 2024.

The conference, the largest of its kind and marking the 100th anniversary of Gurdjieff’s visit to... more The conference, the largest of its kind and marking the 100th anniversary of Gurdjieff’s visit to Harvard University in 1924, featured leading scholars, academics, representatives from the Gurdjieff Foundation, and independent centers.

Connect Paranormal Blog, 23 October 2024.

Sylphs are ethereal elemental spirits of air, captivating cultures through history. Described as ... more Sylphs are ethereal elemental spirits of air, captivating cultures through history. Described as fragile and playful, they symbolize aspiration and freedom. Traditionally viewed as kind muses, their portrayal evolved from powerful beings to charming fairy-like figures. Today, they maintain their air connections in modern literature and spirituality, adapting to contemporary contexts.

The Living Church, 26 November, 2024

While a church’s presence in a community is a witness to the people who meet, learn, and pray the... more While a church’s presence in a community is a witness to the people who meet, learn, and pray there, maintaining a church building has never been easy. Declining congregations in Australia have meant more buildings have been sold off.

Center for the Study of World Religions Newsletter, 22 October 2024.

In the 1980s, the era-de1ning desires for material gain replaced goals of spiritual evolution amo... more In the 1980s, the era-de1ning desires for material gain replaced goals of spiritual evolution among New Age enthusiasts. Esoteric thinkers like Blavatsky, Steiner, and Gurdjieff were rediscovered and widely disseminated, but their teachings were divorced from their articulated programs of human transformation.

BASR Bulletin, No. 145, November 2024, pp. 32-34.

Cusack Publications Carole M. Cusack, ‘“Druids Down Under”: Australian Druidry as Adaptation and... more Cusack Publications

Carole M. Cusack, ‘“Druids Down Under”: Australian Druidry as Adaptation and Innovation’, in Ethan Doyle White and Jonathan Woolley (eds), Modern Religious Druidry: Studies in Paganism, Celtic Identity, and Nature Spirituality, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, pp. 191-211.

Carole M. Cusack, ‘How Do Pagans Use Fiction and Film?’ in Suzanne Owen and Angela Puca (eds), Pagan Religions in Five Minutes, Equinox, 2024, pp. 207-209.

Carole M. Cusack, “Portraying Charisma: The Representation of G. I. Gurdjieff in Fiction’, Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2024, pp. At: https://www.pdcnet.org/collection-anonymous/browse?fp=asrr&fq=asrr/Volume/8985%7C15/8999%7CIssue:%201/.

Carole M. Cusack, ‘Wulfila, the Gothic Bible, and the Mission to the Goths: Rethinking the ‘Apostle to the Goths’ in Light of Homoian Theology, Conversion as a Strategy of Empire, and Fourth Century Social and Cultural Transformations’, Religions, Vol. 15, 2024. At: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/10/1177.

Carole M. Cusack, ‘Invented Religions and the Law: The Significance of Colanders, Hoods, and Pirate Costumes for Members of Jediism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’, in Margo Kitts (ed.), Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions: A Tribute to the Work of James R. Lewis, Equinox, 2024, pp. 129-148.

Carole M. Cusack, ‘Nineteenth Century Chinese Temples in Australia: History, Religion and Heritagisation’, Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024. At: https://www.jdre.org.

The Harvard Gazette, 22 October 2024.

The mystical state of consciousness experienced by staring into a painting’s intricate brush stro... more The mystical state of consciousness experienced by staring into a painting’s
intricate brush strokes, listening to the rhythmic tones of a musical composition, watching mesmerizing dance movements, or reading lyric verse from poetic writing can transport us to deeper places where inner-spiritual experience flows freely. Art’s evocative expressions become symbolic road maps to possibilities of transcendence.

The Plantagenet Chronicle, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2024, pp. 4-6.

We had a good turn-out for our 20 July mee􏰀ng with a few new faces. Prof Carole Cusack is the Pla... more We had a good turn-out for our 20 July mee􏰀ng with a few new faces. Prof Carole Cusack is the Plantagenet History Society’s Honorary President and head of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. Carole took us through a history of divorce and annulment from the early years of the Chris􏰀an Church and how marriage changed over the years. Medieval divorce didn’t technically exist, though annulments were allowed.

The SocJournal, 25 June 2015

Practicing and exploring what it is to be a pagan means being part of a spiritual movement that h... more Practicing and exploring what it is to be a pagan means being part of a spiritual movement that has existed since the ancient Greek and Roman times. Most Pagan festivals and sacred locations are meant to celebrate its connection to the cycles of nature through rituals or ceremonies of various kinds. Pagans celebrate up to eight festivals known as Sabbats each year. They comprise the four solar quarters i.e. the two solstices (longest and shortest days) and the two equinoxes (day and night are the same length). All these mark important events in the cycle of life and also symbolize changes in the Goddess and God. If you would like to learn more about the eights Sabbats, my next blog will focus on the holy days of Paganism.

Tower of the Hawk, 6 April 2015

Formal scholarship for The Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire is still being developed as... more Formal scholarship for The Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire is still being developed as a discipline, however if there is one fixed fact about these works it is that there are no perfect parallels between the real worlds historical narrative and the events of Westeros. J. R. R. Martin pulls from all of history at once, picking parts he likes and
transcending both time and cultural barriers to tell his story his way. This is why in order to explore Game of Thrones in a scholarly manner one must not look for one-to-one parallels, but instead take a wider view and look for patterns in the narratives. This is true for the events that transpire, the places and customs practiced, the characters and their motivations as well as the faith or religious practices of those people. In regards to the religious focus, a broad range of historical events and practices originating primarily from the pre-Christianized European context influence The Old Gods ritual practices of Westeros as well as the events that surround their development and eventual destruction.

BASR Bulletin, No. 144, 2024, p. 34.

Nine Entertainment, 2016

When I was recently asked if I'd be interested in attending my first Samhain celebration on April... more When I was recently asked if I'd be interested in attending my first Samhain celebration on April 30 – the pagan New Year and one of eight great festivals according to the Wheel of the Year – I was a little hesitant.
Would there be goats? Weird chanting around a bubbling cauldron? And I hadn't been to spin class for a few weeks so the thought of being naked, or "skyclad", sent shivers down my back.
Upon my arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to find a backyard lit by a small army of candles, pumpkins and apples, and pictures of family members (who, I was soon to realise, had recently died). And everyone was, thankfully, fully dressed.

TheRHA: Newsletter of the Religious History Association, No. 13, March 2023, pp. 120-127.

2023 has been a year of changes for Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. The new posi... more 2023 has been a year of changes for Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. The new position we have in the School of Humanities is in flux, and became more so when the School Head, Professor Keith Dobney (Archaeology) resigned his position before his term as Head had expired, and took early retirement, returning to the United Kingdom. Keith Dobney had been a strong supporter of Religion and worked closely with Dr Chris Hartney, who in 2023 took on the role of Chair of Discipline for the first time, to cement Religion’s status within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).

Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December, 2023.

Behind the tinsel, there’s a cornucopia of customs and layers of legend in the festive season. Wh... more Behind the tinsel, there’s a cornucopia of customs and layers of legend in the festive season. What are some of them?

The Plantagenet Chronicle, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2023, pp. 6-9.

As always, our Hon/ President, Professor Carole Cusack gave an excellent talk. She chose pilgrima... more As always, our Hon/ President, Professor Carole Cusack gave an excellent talk. She chose pilgrimage as her topic and gave us a wonderful talk on how the practice of pilgrimage developed over the centuries, with a special focus on Santiago.

Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 2023.

T he trouble started before dark. A mob of more than 200 youths rampaged through the streets, ho... more T he trouble started before dark. A mob of more than 200 youths rampaged through the streets, hooting and whistling – armed with
bags of flour. Men, women, tram conductors, train passengers, a couple on their way to the theatre, were all coated in white. The gang smashed a streetcar window and threw flour inside. Then someone threw a stone that split a man’s head open. “Rowdyism has stamped out innocent fun,” wrote The New York Times. It was October 31, 1894, in Washington, DC.

SBS News, 31 October 2023.

Ri Kallady has been a self-described witch for 25 years. Each day, he makes offerings to pagan sp... more Ri Kallady has been a self-described witch for 25 years.
Each day, he makes offerings to pagan spirits. A couple of times a month, his group meets to perform secret rituals. Sometimes the witches gather at a temple or a forest – other times, in someone’s spare bedroom.
“[It’s] a lot of cleansing and banishing unwanted energies...it could be things like prosperity or for love or for fertility,” he told The Feed.
“Sometimes it can just be to help get rid of all the bullsh-t.”

The Open University: Local & Global, Issue 4, 2023, p. 28.

Although hugely popular now, podcasts were just taking off in 2011 when then-students Dr Chris Co... more Although hugely popular now, podcasts were just taking off in 2011 when then-students Dr Chris Cotter and Dr David Robertson co-founded theirs. Chris reveals what it was like to set up The Religious Studies Project.

TheRHA: Newsletter of the Religious History Association, No. 12, March 2023, pp. 15-22

After Studies in Religion’s existence was threatened in 2021, and reprieved along with Theatre an... more After Studies in Religion’s existence was threatened in 2021, and reprieved along with Theatre and Performance Studies, in 2022 the discipline was moved from the School of Literature, Art and Media and the John Woolley Building which we had occupied since 1991 to the School of Humanities (the former School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry) as part of the Future FASS restructure. Academic life continued to be disrupted by Covid-19, with some units being taught on campus and in remote mode, and others fully online. The Studies in Religion Research Seminars were delivered on Zoom.

Sydney Humanities Magazine, Issue 10, Summer 2023, pp. 18-21.

We are delighted to have the Discipline of Studies in Religion as part of our School. Can you tel... more We are delighted to have the Discipline of Studies in Religion as part of our School. Can you tell us a little about Studies in Religion at Sydney? Some might mistakenly get the impression it’s theology, but it’s not. How would you describe what you do?

Studies in Religion (Religious Studies, Religionswissenschaft) is a separate academic field from Theology, though the two disciplines have common research areas. Theology is usually defined as a faith-based inquiry, a conversation between believers. Originally, it referred only to Christian theology, but later was expanded to include faith-based or confessional work done in any religious tradition, ancient, modern, or contemporary. Studies in Religion is a secular discipline that approaches religion as a human cultural production; it’s still called the “scientific” study of religion regularly in Europe, and the “academic” study of religion is another term that’s widely used. Of course, it’s possible to write academic theology; Studies in Religion presumes a non-confessional stance, and includes a wide range of methodologies (historical, philosophical, cultural, literary, psychological and so on).

ABC News, 25 December, 2022

Santa isn't the only one checking if you've been naughty or nice this year. LIVE Australia rips t... more Santa isn't the only one checking if you've been naughty or nice this year.
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Kerry feared for her safety at home, but fleeing meant giving up Princess Henrietta, then she was offered a way out
'Acceptable solutions': Vladimir Putin says he's ready to negotiate, but blames Ukraine for not coming to the table
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Major international aid agencies halt work in Afghanistan after Taliban bar female staff
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1. ANALYSIS
Putin's 'ghost army' has come out of the shadows as they take over in Ukraine
2. LIVE
Australia rips through South Africa's top order yet again to start the Boxing Day Test
3. Why you should watch the
Sydney to Hobart yacht race
4. 'Some were found in cars':
Unprecedented monster storm across United States claims at least 28 lives
5. Ali moved to a regional town dreaming of a
short ride to work. But she faces a three- hour commute every day
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In the lead-up to Christmas, there are some amazing and unusual traditions that take place around the world, from a log that "poos" presents for well-behaved kids to a demonic goat creature that whips naughty children.
Many of the traditions have pagan roots, while others are newer but no less intriguing.
Here's a look at some of the more colourful festive season events that people will be enjoying this month.

Simone Natale and D. W. Pasulka (eds), Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural, Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 229-238.

Written from a cross-disciplinary perspective to interrogate the relationship between digital med... more Written from a cross-disciplinary perspective to interrogate the relationship between digital media and the supernatural, this book challenges established boundaries within fields and areas of expertise. In this afterword, we asked three leading scholars, whose work explores the intersections of media, communication and religion from different viewpoints, to enter in dialogue on the subject. Carole Cusack is a historian of religion, author of groundbreaking works about the relationship between religion, imagination and popular culture; Massimo Leone is a semiologist whose work has stretched the boundaries between the study of religion and the study of signs, both linguistic and non-linguistic; Jeffrey Sconce is a scholar in film and media studies whose pioneering monograph Haunted Media (2000) placed the theme of the supernatural at the forefront of studies in media and communication. Their responses provide a map of potential trajectories to further explore the connections between digital media and the supernatural.

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2024, pp. 1-2.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, JDTREA Vol. 3, Issue 2 (2024)

This is the sixth issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia in our fourt... more This is the sixth issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia in our fourth year of publication. It feels that the culture the publisher Daejin Academy of Sciences (DAOS) and the Editorial Board have sought to build through this new publication and the annual JDTREA Conference that serves as an incubator for articles featured in JDTREA have matured. JDTREA continues to build a global readership with interest in Asian religions, new religions from Asia now found in the West, and the Korean new religion Daesoon Jinrihoe. In particular, we are committed to bringing the work of Asian scholars, which to date has not been that prominent for Anglophone scholars, to a far greater audience.

Handbook of New Religions, Film and Television, Brill, 2024, forthcoming

The interface between contemporary religion and popular cultural forms may be treated as a new(is... more The interface between contemporary religion and popular cultural forms may be treated as a new(ish) subfield within religious studies or positioned as the latest manifestation of the generation of artistic and cultural genres by religions across geographically and historically separated societies. This tension between presentism and historicism in the analysis of religious and spiritual media reflects methodological fault lines in other subfields, such as the study of new religious movements, where groupings and typologies may be predicated on recent emergence and common features caused by global circumstances, or on links with parent religions and historical transmission of tradition (Barker 2004; Melton 2004). The former approach groups the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) with the Church of Scientology, for instance, as new religions founded in the twentieth century by charismatic leaders (Ashcraft 2018). The latter approach groups ISKCON with the broader religion of “Hinduism” and specifically the emotive Vaishnavism of Chaitanya (1485-1533). The Indian tradition is an exemplary case of religion intertwined with popular culture, as it has produced many forms of music and drama that combine the sacred and the secular (Beck 2019), and the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana have been adapted to film and television, and in these new forms continue to evoke religious devotion (Cusack 2012).

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, JDTREA Vol. 3, Issue 1 (2023)

It is difficult to believe that we have reached the fifth issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and... more It is difficult to believe that we have reached the fifth issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, as it seems only yesterday that we began the journey of producing a new academic journal. Over the past two years JDTREA has developed a strong profile for publishing material on Asian religions, chiefly new religious movements and contemporary Asian religious phenomena, and also has become a key channel for disseminating research on the Korean new religion of Daesoon Jinrihoe in the English language. The Editorial Board has been generous with its time and academic expertise, the team has learned a lot about academic publishing and each other’s strengths as scholars, and the modest success we are enjoying is a bright spot in today’s troubled world.

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2023, pp. 155-157.

This issue of Fieldwork in Religion marks the end of my eight-year term as co-Editor with Rachell... more This issue of Fieldwork in Religion marks the end of my eight-year term as co-Editor with Rachelle Scott. The sixteen issues I have been part of represent a vast array of diverse research from academics working around the world, all of which illumi- nated the fascinating subject of how to do fieldwork in and about religion. There were five special issues during my tenure, including one double special issue.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2023, pp. 9-10.

This new issue of the Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia is the fourth to ... more This new issue of the Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia is the fourth to date, and it has been a privilege to be associated with this ground-breaking Korean journal and to participate in its growth and academic development. That the focus is equally on the Korean new religion of Daesoon Jinrihoe and the contemporary religious climate of East Asia is a particular strength: the richness and diversity of new religions in Asia is often ignored by Western scholars, and JDTREA, as an English- language journal, offers a corrective to that.

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2023

The first issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2023 contains six research articles that all address... more The first issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2023 contains six research articles that all address issues in the fieldwork process, as well as exploring various contempo- rary religious phenomena, and how they are located in the wider academic study of religion.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022, pp. 9-10.

It is a pleasure for me to introduce the collection of articles and book reviews featured in this... more It is a pleasure for me to introduce the collection of articles and book reviews featured in this new issue of the Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia. Several contributions were first presented at the JDTREA Conference on the theme “New Frontiers in Daesoon Thought” which was held on Friday 1 July 2022 at Daijin University and online. The quality of the presentations was very high, and Don Baker, Zhihe Wang, and Livia Kohn have submitted their work for publication here, for which I am grateful.

Wuhan Journal of Cultic Studies, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2022, pp. v-vi

The first article by András Máté-Tóth (University of Szeged, Hungary), “Public Religion in Centra... more The first article by András Máté-Tóth (University of Szeged, Hungary), “Public Religion in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards an Investigation of José Casanova’s Theory,” is an ambitious study of the development of secularization theory by Casanova (and to a lesser extent his interactions with the work of Charles Taylor). Máté-Tóth is concerned to clarify inconsistencies in discussions of secularization, and to test Casanova’s extension of this theory against the post-1991 development of democracy (in various forms) in Central and Eastern Europe, and the role of “public religion” in these nations. This research contributes to knowledge about the interaction of religion and political systems in modern and contemporary cultures.

Louise Fowler-Smith, Sacred Trees of India: Adornment and Adoration as an Alternative to the Commodification of Nature, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2022, pp. xx-xxii.

In the twenty-first century the place of human beings in nature is arguably more fraught and less... more In the twenty-first century the place of human beings in nature is arguably more fraught and less honoured than in any previous era. The damaging consequences of the industrial revolution and the seemingly endless human desire for material goods and a secure place in the affluent late developed world, the attainment of which is dependent upon environmental devastation, has given many reflective people pause. More than fifty years have passed since historian Lynn White Jr’s ground-breaking “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” was published in Science (1967), one of the world’s top academic journals since it first appeared in 1880. In this article, which became his most-cited research output, Lynn White Jr argued that Western science and technology, which he understood as products of Christianity, were the cause of the chasm between modern humanity and nature.

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2022, pp. 121-123

The second issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2022 showcases six research articles from scholars ... more The second issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2022 showcases six research articles from scholars based in the Philippines, Scotland, Italy, Poland, Estonia, and Eng- land. It is a privilege to work with such a diverse group of scholars who engage with research in Religious Studies through a range of approaches, from partici- patory action research, through survey and interview techniques, to critical dis- course analysis, and autobiographical elicitation. The topic areas of the articles are as varied as the authors’ locations and research methods: Catholic religious vocations in the Philippines; Evangelicals working in the National Health Service (NHS) in England; participants in two identity-conferring sports in Italy; shifting attitudes to ecology and environmentalism in Catholic newspapers in Italy and Poland; researching in sacred spaces including the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route and English cathedrals; and residential immersive fieldwork among dancer- mediums in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2022, pp. 9-10

The publication of the first issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia (... more The publication of the first issue of Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia (JDTREA) in late 2021 was an important scholarly moment of pride for Daejin University and the Daesoon Academy of Sciences as academic institutions, and also for Daesoon Jinrihoe, South Korea’s largest new religious movement. For me as Editor, it signalled the start of an enterprise that will contribute significantly to the emergent body of research in English on Korean, and more broadly East Asian, new religions.

Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2021

To be at the beginning of a new scholarly venture – which the establishment of the Journal of Dae... more To be at the beginning of a new scholarly venture – which the establishment of the Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia (JDTREA) undoubtedly is – is a wonderful thing, as the quality of newness creates possibilities that more venerable bodies and publications cannot aspire to. My own journey to becoming Editor in Chief, an honour that I am grateful to acknowledge, began when I attended the “Religious Movements in a Globalized World: Korea, Asia, and Beyond” conference of the Centre for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an independent institute based in Turin, Italy from 5-10 July 2016. My partner Donald Barrett and I had been to several CESNUR conferences and were highly enthusiastic about visiting South Korea for the first time and being hosted by the Korean new religion Daesoon Jinrihoe, at Daejin University’s campus outside of Pocheon City near the North Korean border.

Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2021, pp. 147-149.

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) and the teaching he founded (the Work or the Fourth Way... more George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) and the teaching he founded (the Work or the Fourth Way) are hailed as a major site of contemporary esotericism and the inspiration for aspects of “New Age” spiritualities (Wellbeloved 2005). Yet the academic study of Gurdjieff was slow to develop, and arguably still lags behind that of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Theosophy, or Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy (Petsche 2011). James Webb’s The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky and Their Followers (Webb 1980) is an important precursor, and James Moore’s impressive Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth (1991) is the finest “hagiographical” treatment authored by a Work insider. Since the publication of Andrew Rawlinson’s The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions (1997), the academic approach to Gurdjieff has gained momentum. In the decade leading up to 2021 a body of scholarship has been established (Azize 2013; Pittman 2012; Pecotic and Cusack 2016; Seamon 2020), and in 2021 a group of international scholarly collaborators exists.

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2021

The second issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2021 has a truly international selection of six res... more The second issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2021 has a truly international selection of six research articles from scholars based in Israel, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Australia. The authors investigate fieldwork in multiple innovative contexts including LGBTQI Jewish congregations, Greek Orthodox devotion to the Virgin Mary on the island of Tinos, religious responses and adaptations during the current Covid-19 pandemic, the syncretistic religious practices of the Semelai Orang Asli Muslims in Malaysia, traditional Yoruba festivals, and religious and touristic pilgrimage trails in contemporary Britain.

Julie Brett, Belonging to the Earth: Nature Spirituality in a Changing World, Moon Books, 2022

It is undoubtedly true that religions and communities in the past were in a far more intimate rel... more It is undoubtedly true that religions and communities in the past were in a far more intimate relationship with nature and the planet Earth, the home of every human that has ever lived, and precious because this fact is the one indissoluble bond that exists between all peoples and cultures, even those that seem to be irrevocably opposed.

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2020, pp. 5-12.

The International Journal for the Study of New Religions owes a per- manent debt to Liselotte Fri... more The International Journal for the Study of New Religions owes a per- manent debt to Liselotte Frisk (1959–2020), who was its founding co-editor with me. Jim Lewis, then at University of Tromsø, pro- posed that a journal devoted to the study of new religions be estab- lished with a professional body attached to it. Initially Jim and Liselotte were going to be the editors, but he introduced me to Liselotte via e-mail and proposed that we work together to edit IJSNR. We divided the editor role into two distinct sets of tasks and what fol- lowed was a four-year tenure (2010–2013) that produced some excel- lent journal issues with wide-ranging content that encouraged new and emerging scholars and introduced Anglophone readers to work by Euro- pean scholars that might otherwise not have made it into an English language journal. Working together meant that we developed a friend- ship that became stronger after we met in the “real world” at CESNUR in Taiwan in 2011. That conference is for me a happy memory overlaid with great sorrow. The event was organized by Clyde Forsberg (Aletheia University) who died in February 2021, the same month my partner Donald Barrett (who in 2011 aided Liselotte with booking her flights and accommodation in Taiwan) died in hospital in Sydney.

Milad Milani, The Nature of Sufism: An Ontological Reading of the Mystical in Islam, Routledge, 2021

The business of scholarly research in the Humanities (and arguably in all disciplines) is the cre... more The business of scholarly research in the Humanities (and arguably in all disciplines) is the creation of new information or the revelation of existing knowledge that has been neglected or obscured for whatever reason (Gulbrandsen and Aanstad 2015). This is an easy statement to make, but in practice is a difficult and protracted task that in the twenty-first century often involves painstaking sifting of primary evidence, textual and material, and the interrogation of existing research, so as to shift perspectives or find unexpected and unexamined areas for development, whilst seeking competitive funding and a place in the “knowledge economy” (Hazelkorn 2015). The academic study of religion, and particularly of topics like mysticism and religious experience, esoteric fraternities and contested scriptures, is often underrated in the assessment of impactful or significant Humanities research. Since 2001, Islamic Studies has been subjected to “securitization,” which has directed a majority of funding to projects focused on anti-Western millenarian thought, radicalization, and terrorism (Kurzman and Ernst 2012). A research climate focused on such issues is hardly one in which the study of Sufism, or Islam’s contribution to mystical religion, or Islamic esotericism is likely to flourish.

Fieldwork in Religion, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2021

The first issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2021 contains five articles on a variety of methodol... more The first issue of Fieldwork in Religion for 2021 contains five articles on a variety of methodological considerations and fieldwork contexts that are of interest to researches in the field of religious studies.

11 May 1993

The Committee for Graduate Studies at its last meeting agreed that it should record its appreciat... more The Committee for Graduate Studies at its last meeting agreed that it should record its appreciation of the exceptional contribution you had made to the work of the Committee in recent years.

University of Sydney, 29 May, 2008

Plantagenet Society of Australia, 16 January, 2003

Plantagenet Society of Australia, 16 March, 2002

Jewish Centre on Ageing, Inc., 20 January, 1997

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 2013 - 2014

ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS 00026A

University of Sydney, Faculty of Arts, 2008

University of Sydney, 2010

Worker's Education Authority (WEA), 2011

Supervision involves professional mentoring, and facilitating access to resources and equipment. ... more Supervision involves professional mentoring, and facilitating access to resources and equipment. I encourage students to use PGARC, to offer papers at conferences and to publish in student journals such as Philament (University of Sydney), Khthonios (University of Queensland) and Limina (University of Western Australia). If their work is of superior standard I suggest sending the work to journals with a higher profile and greater cachet.

I consistently encourage students of mine (both Honours and Postgraduate) to publish. I have edited two volumes in the refereed series Sydney Studies in Religion that feature student articles. Many students also give papers and presentations that they do not publish. This experience is also valuable, and enables them to meet other academics and students with whom they have common interests, and to receive feedback on work in progress.

My area of specialisation is ‘alternative’ religion(s) in the West from the Middle Ages to the pr... more My area of specialisation is ‘alternative’ religion(s) in the West from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing on: 1) Christian marginalization of alternative religion(s); 2) inverse processes of medieval Christianization and de-Paganization, and contemporary de-Christianization and re-Paganization; and 3) the challenge alternative religion(s) pose to definitions of ‘religion’ and the discipline of ‘religious studies’.

My case for promotion to Level E rests on my international reputation in Studies in Religion and on my high-level contribution to the University of Sydney since my last promotion, evidenced by my outstanding research, teaching and service.

Sydney University Postgraduate representative Association (SUPRA), 2016

Supervision is a complex interaction between two people, supervisor and student, and difficulties... more Supervision is a complex interaction between two people, supervisor and student, and difficulties can arise. Strong evidence of my capability in this area is that I have often taken over the supervision of candidates when there have been problems with previous supervision arrangements, and successfully formed a working relationship with the student so that completion could occur. Of my nine PhD completions, seven were
inherited. Of my six Master of Philosophy completions, four were inherited. Of my current ten research students, two were inherited. That is more than 50% of students who either sought to have me as a supervisor or were allocated to me because of my record of success with ‘problem’ candidatures. Dr David Pecotic (PhD 2005) states: ‘I feel it was not until you took over that I learned how to construct the particular kind of argument that I now know a thesis to be. You helped to transform… an infinite regress of note taking into a modest yet definitive original finding – and all on time and within budget!’

I have been strongly influenced by scholarly literature that suggests that PhD students overestimate what is asked of them,1 and from the start I emphasise the manageable nature of the exercise and attempt to model for research students the value of concentrating on proximate, achievable goals. This is not to say that I give students the false impression that a research candidature is easy; I encourage critical engagement with the topic area and the methodology, but strongly discourage the angst-inducing situation where students identify too closely with their theses and thus find their self-esteem evaporating if the project falters (or even, in some cases, when the project is going well).

Outstanding teaching in Studies in Religion involves flexibility and variation: the ability to te... more Outstanding teaching in Studies in Religion involves flexibility and variation: the ability to teach very general RLST 1002 and RLST 1004 Junior units; through more advanced Senior units (such as RLST 2028 Religion and Film, the sample unit for this application), with targeted subject matter; to elite Honours IV and Masters units like RLST 6932 Pilgrimage in the Great Traditions, where methodology and subject matter are straining the very boundaries of the discipline. This result in variation in teaching methods (lecture, seminar, tutorial); a range of assessment tasks; and individual to team teaching.

I excel at all levels of teaching, and students consistently give feedback on the structured nature of my teaching, and the clarity of my delivery. My interest in the content and methodology of the discipline is evidenced in extensive involvement in curriculum development, resulting in the development of five new units (undergrad and postgrad) in recent years. In addition to this I have contributed to radically revising and reshaping the Department’s curriculum. Students nominating me for this award mentioned the depth of my knowledge base, and my concern to keep abreast of scholarship and integrate the latest research into my teaching.

University of Sydney, 1986

University of Sydney, 2001

University of Sydney, 1996

The TDP is a professional development opportunity that’s available to all teachers in the Faculty... more The TDP is a professional development opportunity that’s available to all teachers in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. It’s a 5-week long course where you’ll be required to attend a 2 hour session in each of those weeks. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences values the professional development of all academic staff. Your participation will be recognised and rewarded with a certificate that you can add to your CV.

It provides a forum in which you can deepen your understanding of what is involved in high quality teaching and student learning; it encourages discussion and reflection regarding how this understanding can be applied in your own teaching context.
You will be able to listen to the experiences of other academic staff and to voice any concerns or questions about teaching that you may have.

One of our key aims is to better connect and integrate teachers within the academic and social cultures of our faculty.
Finally, and most importantly, the program will better equip teachers to meet the needs of students, and will improve our students' learning experiences and outcomes.

Academy Travel, 2013

Scotland offers a range of fascinating sites that appeal to the eye, the mind and the heart, and ... more Scotland offers a range of fascinating sites that appeal to the eye, the mind and the heart, and we are delighted to offer this tour for the first time. The itinerary has been carefully designed to seamlessly combine historic, cultural and natural sites, and is led by historian Dr Carole Cusack, a specialist in medieval society and religion.
The tour has a relaxed pace, with extended stays in each destination. Our visits include the museums, cathedrals and palaces of the cities as well as journeys through Scotland’s renowned countryside and time in smaller centres in the north and the western isles.
We’ll explore prehistoric sites, the influence of the Scandinavian world, the castles and monasteries of the Middle Ages, the great battlefields of legend and some remarkable modern sites, such as those associated with Charles Rennie Macintosh.
Travelling in June, we’re assured of long daylight hours and mild temperatures. Accommodation is in comfortable, well-located hotels.

Academy Travel, 2010

Carole and Don will meet the Singapore Airlines flight arriving into Barcelona this morning and w... more Carole and Don will meet the Singapore Airlines flight arriving into Barcelona this morning and will be waiting in the Arrivals Hall. The transfer to the hotel in Barcelona Centre will take up to 40 minutes depending on traffic. Our rooms may not be ready till the early afternoon. After freshening up Carole and Don will lead a brief orientation walking tour of the area near our hotel.

Academy Travel , 2008

The corner of Mediterranean Europe between Barcelona and Nimes bristles with distinctive atmosphe... more The corner of Mediterranean Europe between Barcelona and Nimes bristles with distinctive atmosphere and a strong medieval heritage. The strategic position between the Mediterranean, the Iberian Peninsula and northern Europe has meant that civilizations from the Romans onwards have taken a strong interest in the region. Today the visitor encounters a unique tapestry of classical, Visigoth, Moorish and medieval influences, recognized by the Spanish as 'Catalonian' and by the French as 'Languedoc' culture. In the Middle Ages the region was a crossing-point for pilgrims travelling to and from Santiago, an embarkation point for crusaders, a refuge for popes escaping Rome and a hotbed of religious dissent, characterized by groups such as the Cathars and Albigensians. Visually, the region is noteworthy for its charming villages, such as Carcassonne and Pals, and its Mediterranean landscape, ranging from the mountainous Pyrénées to the river delta of the Rhône.

Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sydney, 1996

Strictly Medieval is a study tour of medieval Britain, encompassing Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Celtic a... more Strictly Medieval is a study tour of medieval Britain, encompassing Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Celtic and High Medieval sites. The tour is a carefully designed educational package, designed to appeal to those with a wide range of medieval interests.

Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sydney, 1991

In 1991 we will lead an exciting three week tour of the British Isles, which will take us across ... more In 1991 we will lead an exciting three week tour of the British Isles, which will take us across both lowlands and highlands of Britain and Ireland to Medieval, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Roman and Neolithic sites.

Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sydney, 1989

This year we will lead a Study Tour to Dark Age and Medieval sites in Britain and Ireland; taking... more This year we will lead a Study Tour to Dark Age and Medieval sites in Britain and Ireland; taking in High Medieval, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking sites of major importance - but with a particular Celtic flavour over all.

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, 2019