Bloomsbury Academic The Demise of Religion: How Religions End, Die, or Dissipate

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.Why do religions fail or die? Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this book explores this important question that has received little scholarly attention to date. International contributors provide case studies from the U.S., England, Sweden, Japan, New Guinea, and France resulting in a work that explores processes of attenuation, disintegration, transmutation, and/or death and extinction across cultures. These include instances where mass suicides or homicides resulted in religious dissolution; the fall of Mars Hills Church and its larger-than-life megachurch pastor accused of plagiarism and bullying in 2012; the death of the last member of the Panacea Society in England in 2012, and Knutby Filadelfia, a religious community in Sweden with Pentecostal roots that ceased to exist in May 2018 after a pastor shot his wife. Combining case studies and theoretical contributions, The Demise of Religion: How Religions End, Die or Dissipate fillsa gap in literature to date and paves the way for future research. Review The present volume will serve as a foundation for future work on this underresearched topic.Olav Hammer, Professor of Religion, University of Southern Denmark, DenmarkThis is an erudite compilation of theoretical work on the demise of religion offered by some major figures in the sociology of religion. The collection also is interspersed with some excellent in-depth case studies that include newer religions that failed to gain traction for the longer term. This is a much-needed addition to the growing scholarship on what happens to new religions over time, and it will be welcomed by scholars from different areas of study.James T. Richardson, Foundation Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, USA About the Author Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen, Norway.Carole M. Cusack is Professor in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, Australia.Stuart A. Wright is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Lamar University, USA.