Gurus, Cults, and Utopias

(Cross-listed as CVS 34.) Introduction to the study of modern and contemporary New Religious Movements (NRMs) in specific regional contexts (South Asia, the United States, and Japan) and as a global phenomenon. Explores central questions in the study of religion around charismatic leadership, sect formation, utopianism, social mobility, gender, and violence. Influential 20th-century theories of religion and recent critical analyses of transnational, new age, esoteric, and alternative spiritualities.