Demise of Religion

<b><i>This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the</i></b><b><i>Centre for Advanced Study at th</i>e</b><b><i> Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.</i></b><br/><b><i><br/></i></b>Why do religions fail or die? Taking a multidisciplinary approach this book explores this important question that has received little scholarly attention to date. <br/><br/>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 wife.<br/><br/>Combining case studies and theoretical contributions <i>The Demise of Religion: How</i><i>Religions End Die or Dissipate</i>fills a gap in literature to date and paves the way for future research