World Religions and Spirituality Project
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| This article, World Religions and Spirituality Project, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
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Comment: This MUST have references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements , not just references to its own web page. And it needs to be written like an encyclopedia article, not a web page. Watch out for adjectives and jargon, and make sure none of it is copied or closely paraphrased from its web page or other source. DGG ( talk ) 17:06, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
| Founder | David G. Bromley |
|---|---|
| Established | 2010 |
| Location | , Richmond , Virginia , United States |
| Website | wrldrels |
The World Religions and Spirituality Project (WRSP, formerly known as the New Religious Movements Homepage Project[1]) publishes academic profiles of new and established religious movements, archive material related to some groups, and articles that provide context for the profiles.[2][3]
History
WRSP developed from Jeffrey K. Hadden's Religious Movements Homepage Project, which he founded in 1995. After Hadden's death in 2003, Douglas E. Cowan became the Project Director. In 2007, it was described as "one of the largest information sites on new religious movements".[4] In 2010, David G. Bromley became the Project Director.[5] He expanded the scope of the project to recruit international scholars instead of local students and he renamed it the World Religions and Spirituality Project.[6][7]
Purpose
In an article that discusses the challenge of teaching students about new religious movements, Douglas E. Cowan explains that, because of "the thousands of NRMs that exist in the world at any one time, only a relative handful are ever discussed in the various print resources [...], and the Internet is, by default, the only source of information available. The issue then becomes how credible the information is that they obtain online."[8] Websites like CESNUR, the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, the Internet Sacred Text Archive, the Association of Religion Data Archives, and WRSP are understood as examples of websites that respond to this problem.[9] These websites serve to popularize the academic study of new religious movements.
Special projects
In addition to publishing profiles, it has ten special projects, thematic or regional, which are directed by recognized scholars.[10]
- Thematic Special Projects
- Marian Apparitional and Devotional Groups
- Joseph Laycock (Texas State University)
- Religious and Spiritual Movements and the Visual Arts
- Spiritual and Visionary Communities
- Women in the World’s Religions and Spirituality Project
- Rebecca Moore San Diego State University) and Catherine Wessinger (Loyola University)
- Marian Apparitional and Devotional Groups
- Regional Special Projects
- Australian Religious and Spiritual Traditions
- Carole M. Cusack (University of Sydney) and Bernard Doherty (Charles Sturt University)
- Canadian Religious and Spiritual Traditions
- Susan Palmer (McGill University) and Hillary Kael (Concordia University)
- Japanese New Religions
- Ian Reader (University of Lancaster), Erica Baffelli (University of Lancaster), and Birgit Staemmler (University of Tubingen)
- Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe
- Kaarina Aitamurto (University of Helsinki) and Maija Penttilä (University of Helsinki)
- Spiritual and Religious Traditions in Italy
- Stefania Palmisano (University of Turin) and Massimo Introvigne (CESNUR)
- Australian Religious and Spiritual Traditions
- Local Special Projects
- World Religions in Richmond
References
- ^ "Nova Religio and the World Religions and Spirituality Project". University of California Press. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
- ^ Bromley, David G.; Willsky-Ciollo, Lydia. "The World Religions & Spirituality Project". Fairfield University. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
- ^ "About Us". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ Cowan, Douglas E. (2007). Bromley, David G. (ed.). Teaching New Religious Movements on the World Wide Web. Oxford University Press. p. 300. ISBN 9780195177299.
- ^ "About Us". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ "About Us". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ "Nova Religio and the World Religions and Spirituality Project". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 19 (2): 130. November 2015. doi:10.1525/nr.2015.18.4.140. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2015.18.4.140.
- ^ Cowan, Douglas E. (2007). Bromley, David G. (ed.). Teaching New Religious Movements on the World Wide Web. Oxford University Press. p. 294–295. ISBN 9780195177299.
- ^ Cowan, Douglas E. (2007). Bromley, David G. (ed.). Teaching New Religious Movements on the World Wide Web. Oxford University Press. p. 295–296. ISBN 9780195177299.
- ^ "Organization & Leadership". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Retrieved 12 July 2019.