Overview

The Handbook of UFO Religions, edited by esteemed scholar of new religions Benjamin E. Zeller, offers the most expansive and detailed study of the persistent, popular, and global phenomenon of religious engagements with ideas about extraterrestrial life. The present work considers not only new religions founded on ideas about extraterrestrials and UFOs, but how those within more mainstream religions have responded to the science, scientific speculation, and popular culture involving extraterrestrials, UFOs, and related concepts. Global in reach, it includes chapters considering South and East Asia, Europe, and North and South America, and draws on several interdisciplinary methods. In addition, the handbook traces connections between UFO religiosity and cultural patterns such as science and scientism, esoterism and occultism, millennialism, and popular culture.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ben Zeller
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   20
Weight:   1.055kg
ISBN:  

9789004434370

ISBN 10:   9004434372
Pages:   542
Publication Date:   11 March 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors Introduction  Benjamin E. Zeller 1 Scholarship on UFO s and Religion: The First Seventy-Five Years  W. Michael Ashcraft Part 1: Religious Engagement with UFO s 2 Vimānas and Hindu Ufology  Layne R. Little 3 Judaism and the UFO; with Emphasis on the Vision of Ezekiel  David J. Halperin 4 Unmasking the Alien Deception: Why Evangelicals Are Studying Ufology  Joseph P. Laycock 5 Aliens among Native Americans?  Paul O. Myhre Part 2: Methods and Themes 6 Ancient Aliens  Olav Hammer and Karen Swartz 7 They Knew Too Much: The Entangled History of Conspiracy Theories, UFO s and New Religions  David G. Robertson 8 ‘I Figured That in My Dreams, I Remembered What Actually Happened’: On Abduction Narratives as Emergent Folklore  Erik A. W. Östling 9 ‘Focused Gatherings’?: Notes for a Study of a UFO Conference  Rafael Antunes Almeida Part 3: Case Studies: Individual Proponents 10 A Martian God: Eleanor Kirk’s Extraterrestrial Epiphany in The Christ of the Red Planet  Christa Shusko 11 Of Polenta and Elohim: Mauro Biglino’s “Ancient Aliens” between Anti-Religion and New Religiosity  Stefano Bigliardi 12 Maitreya, Crop Circles, and the Age of Light: Benjamin Creme’s UFO Thought  Lukas Pokorny 13 Raymond W. Bernard, Hollow Earth, and UFO s  Holly Folk Part 4: New UFO Religions Emerging from the American Context 14 Scientology  Hugh B. Urban 15 The United Nuwaubian Nation  Susan J. Palmer 16 Norman Paulsen and the Brotherhood of the Sun / Sunburst  Carole M. Cusack 17 Heaven’s Gate and Charismatic Leadership  George D. Chryssides 18 A Retrospective on the Unarius Academy of Science  Diana Tumminia 19 Starseeds  Susannah Crockford part 5: New UFO Religions Emerging from the Global Context 20 Spirits of the Space Age: The Valley of the Dawn as a UFO Religion  Kelly E. Hayes 21 The Aetherius Society: A Ritual Perspective  Mikael Rothstein 22 Rael and the Raelians  Régis Dericquebourg 23 UFO s as Players in History: A Japanese New Religious Movement, ‘Spiritual Technology,’ and Ancient Astronauts  Franz Winter 24 East Asian UFO Religiosity  Lukas Pokorny Index

Reviews

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 ... the text will surely serve as a significant starting point for future research into the intersections of religion and ufology. - Benjamin D. Grace, American University of Kuwait, in: Nova Religion, no. 3, 2022

Author Information

Benjamin E. Zeller is Associate Professor and Chair of Religion at Lake Forest College. He studies North American religion, focusing on such topics as new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food. Most recently he is author of Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion (NYU Press), and co-editor of The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements (Bloomsbury). Contributors are: Rafael Antunes Almeida, W. Michael Ashcraft, Stefano Bigliardi, Susannah Crockford, George D. Chryssides, Carole M. Cusack, Regis Dericquebourg, Holly Folk, David J. Halperin, Olav Hammer, Kelly E. Hayes, Joseph P. Laycock , Layne Little, Paul O. Myhre, Erik A. W. Östling, Susan J. Palmer, Lukas Pokorny, David G. Robertson, Mikael Rothstein, Christa Shusko, Karen Swartz, Diana Tumminia, Hugh B. Urban, and Franz Winter.

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