Teaching New Religious Movements Historically: Distance, Empathy, and Cults in the Classroom.
Resistance to understanding the beliefs of modern New Religious Movements (NRMs) is well‐known to those who teach in the area. This paper builds on Eugene Gallagher's repurposing of "methodological belief" for college classes on NRMs by suggesting that scholars and teachers in the field of religious...
| Publicado en: | Teaching Theology & Religion Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 46 - 55 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jun2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=194919289&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 194919289 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13684868 7QH jtl: Teaching Theology & Religion issn: 13684868 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 29 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 194919289 10.1111/teth.70028 ppf: 46 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: Teaching New Religious Movements Historically: Distance, Empathy, and Cults in the Classroom. aug: au: Jones, Douglas FitzHenry affil: Binghamton University, Binghamton New York, , USA su: Cults Early modern history Contextualism (Philosophy) Higher education Teaching methods Religious studies sug: subj: Cults Early modern history Contextualism (Philosophy) Higher education Teaching methods Religious studies keyword: early‐modern history historiography methodological belief teaching NRMs ab: Resistance to understanding the beliefs of modern New Religious Movements (NRMs) is well‐known to those who teach in the area. This paper builds on Eugene Gallagher's repurposing of "methodological belief" for college classes on NRMs by suggesting that scholars and teachers in the field of religious studies engage methods and content drawn from the discipline of early‐modern history. Doing so, I argue, allows the instructor to make an end run around our assumptions about "cults" by providing students the space to hone their skills with less immediately charged subject matter from the distant past. I then offer two learning modules drawn from classes at a large public university in the United States, intended to show instructors how aspects of early‐modern minority religion might inform the teaching of NRMs. I conclude by analyzing papers and in‐class discussions in an effort to demonstrate the potential of this approach for fostering methodological belief. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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