This thesis is based on ethnographic data collected across two Mormon congregations in the Republic of Ireland. I explore the experiences of a religious minority who are part of a wider society experiencing rapid religious and social change. Engaging with concepts of tradition, continuity, and change, this research explores how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experience their status as a minority religion in modern Ireland. As part of a growing number of new religious movements in Ireland, Mormonism represents a simultaneous continuation and rupture of Ireland’s previous religious traditions. This research suggests that a continuing influence of Catholicism in Irish society shapes Irish Mormon perceptions of self, of others, and of faith. Yet, by identifying with a religion which is viewed in Ireland as a ‘foreign’ faith, Irish Mormons represent a clear break with previous religious tradition. Irish Mormons’ relationship with Mormonism as a global religion also demonstrates the complexity of continuity and change within modern religion. This research shows that Irish Mormons reject what they perceive as an Americanisation of Mormonism and often emphasise the uniquely Irish nature of Mormonism in Ireland. Thus, Irish Mormons are adapting Mormon tradition into new forms far from the Mormon heartland of Utah. This research concludes that Mormons in Ireland utilise complex and interconnected understandings of tradition, community, and Irishness to create and maintain a minority religious identity in modern Ireland.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chechens fought against the Russians for independence. The focus in the literature available has been on the wars and the atrocities caused by the wars. The literature then hypothesizes that the insurgency of today is just a continuation of the past. They do not focus on a major event in Chechen history: the Soviet liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944. It is this author’s assertion that the liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR forever changed the mindset of the people because it fractured a society that was once unified. This project will compare the Chechen insurgency from the beginnings until the deportation and after the deportation. This will allow me to show how the deportation changed the Chechen mindset and disprove the assertion that these two Chechen wars were just a continuation of the past.

Depuis sa création en 1838, le mouvement New Thought poursuit son chemin à la tête de la mouvance religieuse métaphysique aux Etats-Unis. Considéré comme un croisement d’idées politiques et religieuses, le mouvement constitue un élément incontournable de la construction de l’identité américaine. Se présentant comme un métissage de théologies occidentales et orientales, ce mouvement thérapeutique s’impose comme un phénomène culturel pertinent dans l’étude du champ religieux. Evoluant de la substantialité vers le procès, le mouvement s’est engagé tout récemment vers une transformation idéologique, à la recherche d’un renouveau spirituel et d’une ré-activation de son pluralisme religieux et de son dynamisme sous la forme du Process New Thought. / Since its creation in 1838, the New Thought Movement has led the metaphysical religious movement in America. It is a landmark in the construction of the American identity since it has always been at the crossroads of spiritual and political ideas. As a blend of Western and Eastern theologies, this therapeutic movement stands out as a cultural landmark in religious studies. Moving from Substance New Thought to Process New Thought, it has recently engaged in an ideological transformation leading to both a spiritual renewal and a re-activation of its dynamic religious pluralism.

This thesis explores the use of identity politics within the atheist movement at both the national and individual levels. I conducted a content analysis of two national atheist groups and three best-selling atheist authors in order to assess the use of atheist identity politics at the national level. I then conducted 15 in-depth interviews with a sample of atheists in Portland, Oregon about their atheist identity and their reactions to and identification with national atheist movement strategies. Findings suggest that national atheist organizations and atheist authors are using a strategy of identity politics that encourage atheists to "come out" as atheists, complain about church/state violations, and criticize religion's influence in American society. They liken their movement to the gay identity movement and argue that as more atheists "come out", they will see less stigma and more respect towards atheists. However, individual atheists do not always identify with these movement strategies. Most participants said that atheism is not a particularly salient identity for them and thus most did not see themselves participating in atheist activism. Further, they implied that they experience little stigma in their everyday lives and are more concerned with promoting religious tolerance and secular policies. I argue that the lack of social identification with atheism, combined with limits to the gay analogy, are likely inhibitors to the success of an atheist movement.

Humor has long been an effective way to engage difficult sociopolitical topics in a way that avoids polemical confrontation and provides opportunity for pleasure, catharsis and self-knowledge. In the context of today’s polarized politics and protest, creative satirical performance that deploys “symbolic tinkering” can provide a “comic frame of reference” that, according to Kenneth Burke, more effectively conveys its message while providing reflexive insight. The satirical Church of the SubGenius naturally practices this rhetorical frame in their multimedia creations. Using the lens of Burke’s Attitudes Toward History, this essay is an analysis of SubGenius rhetoric with a focus on their Hour of Slack live radio program and the book Revelation X to provide an informative example of Burke’s comic frame applied, and clarify the nature of its utility by exploring the rhetorical impact of the Church of the SubGenius and the relevance of its “comic corrective.” Politically cynical, SubGenii are nevertheless keen cultural critics whose sophisticated use of a complex comic rhetoric warrants more serious attention.

Denna uppsats analyserar och diskutera läroboksbilden av nya religiösa rörelser i fya läroböcker för religionskunskap på gymnasiet. De generella frågorna som ställs är hur läroboksbilden ser ut och vad man kan säga om den i jömförelse med nu gällande läro- och kursplan. Analysen görs i två steg. Först analyseras texten enligt innehållsanalysen som den presenteras av Hellspong och Ledin. Sedan analyseras resultatet utifrån tidigare forskning. Slutsatserna av undersökningen är att läroböckerna skulle limma beskriva de nya religiösa rörelserna mer ingående och använda sig mindre av begreppet sekt eftersom det är negativt laddat. Man skulle också kunna lägga mer fokus på individen, för att få en mer nyanserad bild. / The aim of the study that is presented in this essay was to analyze the image of new religious movements in four religion textbooks in the upper secondary school of Sweden and to discuss this image in comparison to the swedish curriculum for upper secondary school and the religion syllabus. The conclusions of the study are that the new religious movements are generalized in many ways inte the four textbooks that have been analyzed. Two books give a more neutral image. In comparison to the curriculum and the syllabus the books could give a deeper presentation of the new religious movements. They could also focus more on the individual, to reach the aims of the curriculum and syllabus, which is tolerance, understanding and a neutral education.

The previous research in the field of new religious movements has mostly focused on the spectacular parts where phenomena such as “brainwashing” and the “charismatic leader” have attracted both media and the scientific studies of religion. Professor Liselotte Frisks has done several enquiries about sects and new religious movements in Sweden. One of her main conclusions is that the relation between these new religious movements and the rest of society has changed; a relation that used to be characterized by conflicts and tension is now becoming more open as both parts are changing. This study does not focus on the spectacular parts. Instead I have studied something more common and general. I have studied how members from new religious movements are apprehending subjects as school and education. I have chosen two well-known religious movements: the church of Scientology and the Family Federation of World Peace and Unification. My comprehensive purpose is to analyze the members' opinions and views, to see whether their ideas are on terms with what the majority says or if it differs from the norm. My conclusion is that the members of the Church of Scientology criticize the Swedish school system. They find it too theoretical and believe that there is not enough focus on aspects such as word-understanding. The Church of Scientology has their own pedagogy which is based on word-understanding. The members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification shared the opinion of the majority to a larger extent, as they did not prescribe such harsh critics about the school. However, they do believe that the school has to take a huge responsibility raising the students since many young people of today come from broken families. Strong families are one of the corner pillars of this movement.

The aim of this essay is to investigate if there exists any relation between what is generally considered Britain’s foremost elite military unit, HM Royal Marines and a manipulative religious sect. With theoretical data defining a manipulative religious sect, and empirical data gathered from interviews with a number of former royal marines, this essay looks at the attributes common to these two very different organisations. Interestingly, even though the experiences of members of such organisations seemed to bare some resemblance; the motivation for any comparability was quite different. This phenomenon seemed to affect the whole study, and the findings did not confirm any substantial relation between the two organisations in accordance with the strict definitions applicable to a manipulative religious sect.

Fyra stycken lärares beskrivningar om hur de undervisar och definierar nyreligiositet och nya religiösa rörelser har studerats i föreliggande uppsats. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad verksamma religionskunskapslärare på högstadiet säger att de undervisar om i undervisningen kring nyreligiositet och nyreligiösa rörelser. En kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts för att få fram data till studien. Teorier om didaktiskt innehåll och undervisning som meningserbjudande har använts vid analysen av resultatet.   Uppsatsen utgår från tre stycken frågeställningar om hur definierar religionskunskapslärare begreppen nyreligiositet och nyreligiösa rörelser, om vad beskriver religionskunskapslärare att de undervisar kring nyreligiositet och nyreligiösa rörelser och hur beskriver lärare att de arbetar kring nyreligiositet och nyreligiösa rörelser i undervisningen?   Resultatet i studien visar att lärarna har problem med att definiera begreppet nyreligiositet, vilket kan vara en orsak till att området får en marginell plats i religionskunskapsundervisningen. Lärarna anser att kursplanen är den viktigaste faktorn i urvalet av undervisningsinnehåll, men skyller på att tiden är för knapp för att hinna med allt. Eleverna är ofta delaktiga i planeringen och urvalet av undervisningsinnehållet i området nyreligiositet och nya religiösa rörelser. / In this essay, the teaching on the subjects new religiousness and new religious movements and the definition of these subjects have been studied amongst four teachers. The aim of the study is to examine how religion teachers in secondary school say they teach the subjects. The data has been collected by semi-structured interviews, which is a qualitative method of data gathering. Theories on didactic content and teaching as provider of meaning have been used during the analysis of the result.   The essay is based on three questions about how the teacher defines the terms new religiousness and new religious movements, what the teachers include in his or her teaching on the subjects, and how the teachers describes his or her teachings on the subjects.   The result of the study shows that the teachers have problems defining the terms new religiousness, which may be one reason why the subject is neglected during the teaching on religion. The teachers think that the curriculum is the most important factor in the selection of content in their teaching, but blames time as the most important factor when they decide to focus on other content. The students are often involved in the planning and when selecting content in the area of new religiousness and new religious movements.

Because pronatalist sentiments may be an important aspect of Mexican-American ethnic heritage, this research focuses on cultural as well as socioeconomic factors which may contribute to higher Mexican-American fertility. Language use and nativity are used as indirect indicators of identification with an ethnic culture. Wives' characteristics are generally considered adequate to the study of couples' fertility, but in light of earlier research by the author indicating the importance of cultural factors to the fertility expectations of Mexican-American adolescent males, characteristics of husbands as well as wives are included in this analysis. For this reason, the sample, which is drawn from the 1980 Census data for Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, is limited to Mexican-American and Anglo women who have been married only once and live with their husbands. Two complementary methods of analysis are used. Linear regression describes the significance of husband's and wife's language use, nativity, and socioeconomic characteristics to mean family size. Parity progression ratios are used to study the contribution of these variables to the likelihood of the addition of one more child at each stage of the family building process. While wife's characteristics are sufficient to account for most of the variation observed in Anglo fertility, husband's socioeconomic characteristics significantly contribute to variation observed in the fertility of Mexican-American couples. Husbands' identification with Mexican-American culture may be somewhat more important to couples' fertility than that of their wives. This is consistent with research which suggests that children are more central to male sex role expectations as they are expressed in the context of Mexican-American culture than in that of Anglos. The measures of ethnic identity used in this study are clearly associated with socioeconomic status. The differential fertility of Anglos and Mexican Americans could be attributed to these differences. The association of Spanish language use and fertility has been linked to the lower opportunity costs represented by additional children to women who do not speak English proficiently. However, the analysis of these data, which compares structural and cultural explanations of fertility differentials, provides evidence of cultural effects as well as the effects of socioeconomic status on fertility.