Suchergebnisse

At the height of morning rush hour on March 20th, 1995, the deadly nerve gas sarin poured into the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and injuring 6,000 more. This horrifying attack on the public was carried out by the Aum Supreme Truth cult, a high-tech billion-dollar empire of New Age zealots led by Shoko Asahara, a charismatic charlatan. The story of Aum reads like science fiction or horror, but it is shockingly true. The cult recruited some of Japan's brightest

In March of 1995, agents of a Japanese religious cult attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin, a gas twenty-six times as deadly as cyanide. Attempting to discover why, Murakami conducted hundreds of interviews with the people involved, from the survivors to the perpetrators to the relatives of those who died, and Underground is their story in their own voices. Concerned with the fundamental issues that led to the attack as well as these personal accounts, Underground is a document of what happened in Tokyo as well as a warning of what could happen anywhere. This is an enthralling and unique work of nonfiction that is timely and vital and as wonderfully executed as Murakamiʹs brilliant novels

Chinese communist thought reform -- Revolutionary immortality -- Ideological totalism-the "eight deadly sins" -- On cultism and the larger society -- Aum Shinrikyō -- Nazi doctors -- Trump -- The apocalyptic twins: nuclear and climate threats -- The protean alternative -- Regaining reality.

Fight, flight or freeze? Reactions to the law by minority religions / Eileen Barker -- Stand up for your rights : (minority) religions' reactions to law in Estonia / Ringo Ringvee -- Jehovah's Witnesses and the law : "Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things to God" / Tony Brace -- Scientology behind the scenes : the law changer / Eric Roux -- No stranger to litigation : court cases involving the unification church/Family Federation in the United States / Michael L. Mickler -- Legal challenges posed to the unification church in Europe : perspectives from a unificationist advocate for religious freedom / Peter Zoehrer -- The "Doukhobor problem" in Canada : how a Russian mystical sect responded to law enforcement in British Columbia, 1903 to 2013 / Susan Palmer and Shane Dussault -- Making sense of the institutional demarcation : Tenrikyō's response to legal environments in France / Masato Kato -- Strategies in context : the essenes in France and Canada / Marie-Eve Melanson and Jennifer Guyver -- Reactions to legal challenges by Aum Shinrikyō and its successor organisations / Rin Ushiyama -- Religious persecution and refugees : legal and communication strategies of The Church of Almighty God in asylum cases / Massimo Introvigne And Rosita Šorytė -- Minority religion reactions to the European Court of Human Rights / Effie Fokas.

Cultural trauma theory has emphasised the role of social groups in narrating, and thereby attributing moral significance to, highly disruptive events. In contrast, this article draws attention to professions such as the police and the media, which act as "fact-finders" to establish the factual circumstances of events from which trauma narratives are created. The article offers a case study of the June 1994 Matsumoto Sarin Incident in Japan, a terrorist attack in which members of religious movement Aum Shinrikyō gassed residential streets using sarin. Factual uncertainties surrounding the attack, in combination with institutional failings by fact-finders that resulted in a false accusation, meant that carrier groups did not identify the event as one that brought a collectivity's underlying values into question; in other words, cultural trauma as a discourse did not develop. It was only after Aum's second sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995, when the true perpetrators and motives were finally uncovered, that Matsumoto belatedly became recognised as a traumatic assault on Japan's civic values. This article suggests that a collaborative approach combining science and technology studies (STS) with collective memory studies could provide a fruitful avenue of further research.

Japanese "new religions"shinshūkyō have used various media forms for
training, communicating with members, presenting their messages, reinforcing or protecting
the image of the leader and potentially attracting converts. In this book, the complex and dual
relationship between the media and new religions is investigated by looking at the tensions
groups face between the need for visibility and the risks of facing attacks and
criticism through the media. Indeed, media and new technologies have been extensively
used by religious groups not only to spread their messages and to try to reach a wider audience,
but also to promote themselves as a highly modern and up-to-date form of religion appropriate for a
modern technological age. In the 1980s and early 1990s, some movements, such as Agonshū, Kōfuku no
Kagaku and Aum Shinrikyō, came into prominence especially via the use of media (initially pub-
lications, but also ritual broadcasts, advertising campaigns and public media events). This created
new modes of ritual engagement and new ways of inter- actions between leaders and members. The aim
of this book is to develop and illustrate particular key issues in the wider new religions and
media nexus by using specific movements as examples. In particular, the analysis of the inter-
action between media and new religions will focus primarily on three case studies
predominantly during the first period of development of the groups.

Japanese "new religions" (shinshūkyō) have used various media forms for training, communicating with members, presenting their messages, reinforcing or protecting the image of the leader, and, potentially, attracting converts. In this book the complex and dual relationship between media and new religions is investigated by looking at the tensions groups face between the need for visibility and the risks of facing attacks and criticism through media. Indeed media and new technologies have been extensively used by religious groups not only to spread their messages and to try to reach a wider audience, but also to promote themselves as a highly modern and up-to-date form of religion appropriate for a modern technological age. In 1980s and early 1990s some movements, such as Agonshū , Kōfuku no Kagaku, and Aum Shinrikyō came into prominence especially via the use of media (initially publications, but also ritual broadcasts, advertising campaigns, and public media events). This created new modes of ritual engagement and new ways of interactions between leaders and members. The aim of this book is to develop and illustrate particular key issues in the wider new religions and media nexus by using specific movements as examples. In particular, the analysis of the interaction between media and new religions will focus primarily on three case studies predominantly during the first period of development of the groups.