Carole M. Cusack, Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction, and Faith (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2010), 179 pp., $89.96 (cloth), $79.96 (e-book).
2014; Equinox Publishing; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1558/pome.v14i2.317
ISSN1743-1735
Autores Tópico(s)Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
ResumoDespite the fact that all religions were in some sense "invented"in other words, each was once an innovative deviation from the norm-scholars and others have been reluctant to take some new religions seriously.In Invented Religions, Carole Cusack looks at six religions that were self-consciously created and have their roots in works of fiction or popular culture.Cusack argues that these religions are expressions of, or reactions to, the consumer capitalism and secularization of the historical moment.Cusack understands "secularization" through a revision of Peter Berger's definition: secularization in this case does not mean the decline and disappearance of religion, but rather the weakening of traditional religious institutions and symbols.In the space left by the Christian institutions of the past, Cusack sees the free-for-all consumerism of the spiritual marketplace filling the gap: individuals and groups innovate beliefs and practices freely, but those same beliefs and practices are rapidly commodified and sold as religious "products" to the spiritually discerning buyer.In this postmodern environment, the institutional structures that once mediated truth no longer have authority, and the line between the religious and secular is blurred.Scripture has no more inherent authority than fiction, and so inspiring fictions can be appropriated for religious purposes, regardless of whether their creators had anything more than commercial intent.Cusack profiles three new religions in depth: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, and the Church of the SubGenius.Jediism (from the Star Wars series), Matrixism, and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are covered more briefly in an additional chapter.The greatest strength of the book is in the detailed historical attention given the first three groups.She carefully traces the development of Discordianism from the first five photocopies of the hilariously anarchic spiritual text Principia Discordia through its popularization in the Illuminatus!novels of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea to its increasing ties with and integration into the contemporary Pagan movement.The religion and its founders, Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill, are situated in the context of Cold War politics while Thornley's
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