Utilizing contemporary scholarship on secularization, individualism, and consumer capitalism, this book explores religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the SubGenius, and Jediism. Their continued appeal and success, principally in America but gaining wider audience through the 1980s and 1990s, is chiefly as a result of underground publishing and the internet. This book deals with immensely popular subject matter: Jediism developed from George Lucas' Star Wars films; the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded by 26-year-old student Bobby Henderson in 2005 as a protest against the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools; Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius which retain strong followings and participation rates among college students. The Church of All Worlds' focus on Gaia theology and environmental issues makes it a popular focus of attention. The continued success of these groups of Invented Religions provide a unique opportunity to explore the nature of late/post-modern religious forms, including the use of fiction as part of a bricolage for spirituality, identity-formation, and personal orientation.

Author: Carole M. Cusack
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 06/30/2021
Series: Routledge New Religions
Pages: 188
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.41d
ISBN: 9781032099361

About the Author
Carole M. Cusack is an Associate Professor of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. She is a medievalist and her doctorate was published as Conversion Among the Germanic Peoples (Cassell, 1998). Her research and teaching interests are divided between the Middle Ages and contemporary Western alternative religions.