Demise of Religion

Why do religions fail or die? Taking a multidisciplinary approach this open access book explores this important question that has received little scholarly attention to date. International contributors provide case studies from the United States England Sweden Japan New Guinea and France resulting in a work that explores processes of attenuation disintegration transmutation death and extinction across cultures. These include: instances where mass suicides or homicides resulted in religious dissolution; the fall of Mars Hills Church and its larger-than-life megachurch pastor accused of plagiarism and bullying in 2012; the death of the last member of the Panacea Society in England in 2012; and the disintegration of Knutby Filadelfia a religious community in Sweden with Pentecostal roots that ceased to exist in May 2018 after a pastor shot his wifebining case studies and theoretical contributions The Demise of Religion: How Religions End Die or Dissipate fills a gap in literature to date and paves the way for future researchThe eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license on bloomsburycollections. Open access was funded by the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.