Anna Lutkajtis (University of Sydney), Review of Steven J. Sutcliffe and Carole M. Cusack (eds), The Problem of Invented Religions (original) (raw)
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 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).
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Special Editors' Introduction: Making it (All?) Up: 'Invented Religions' and the Study of Religion
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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.
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 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.
William Arfman (Tilburg University), in Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2016, pp. 306-307. This review is favourable and mentions my chapter.
The Church of All Worlds: From Invented Religion to a Religion of Invention
2019
Author(s): Lanahan-Kalish, Damian | Advisor(s): Blankholm, Joseph | Abstract: The Church of All Worlds is a Neo-Pagan religious group that took its inspiration from a work of fiction. The founders of this church looked at the religion that Robert Heinlein created in his science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land and decided to make it a reality. This puts them squarely in the company of what Carole Cusack has termed “invented religions.” These are religions that seek validity in works that are accepted as fiction. The Church of All Worlds, now over fifty years old, has grown beyond its science fiction roots, adopting practices and beliefs that have made them an influential part of the modern Pagan movement. Though fiction no longer plays as strong a role in their practice, they have remained dedicated to an ethic of invention. Through ethnographic research with Church members in Northern California, this paper explores how this ethic of invention manifests in official Church h...
Kevin Whitesides (Humboldt State University), in International Journal for the Study of New Religions, Vol. 3, No 2, 2012, pp. 301-303.
Alex Norman (University of Sydney), in Culture and Religion, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2013, pp. 494-495.
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