America is the most religiously diverse nation in the world. There are more than 2,500 separate religious organizations in the U.S., and the number of groups has increased steadily through our history. This is an introductory course in contemporary religious movements in North America. The focus of the course is on groups that emerged during the last half of the twentieth century, New Religious Movements (NRMs). The overall objective of the course is to examine the diversity of these movements and to make sense of them from a sociological perspective. This project involves understanding how these movements are distinctive, what gives rise to them, how they differ from one another, and how they develop through their histories.
David BromleyAuthor
Virginia Commonwealth UniversityInstitution
Public College or University Institution Type
Resource Type
Undergraduate Course Class Type
2007 Date Published
Religious Studies, Sociology Discipline
Buddhism, New Religious Movements Religous Tradition
Topics