Lmh Official Dictionary Of Jamaican Religious Practices And Revival Cults

What is obeah? What is Pukkumina? This addition to the highly successful LMH Dictionary Series answers these and many more questions and takes the reader on an interesting excursion into the religious beliefs and practices of the islands of the Caribbean.

Up-to-date, well-documented, comprehensive coverage of cults, sects, and world religions, from the historical to the contemporary INCLUDES • Well-known groups and world religions, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Islam, and Baha’i • Groups with a significant North American influence, including Santeria, Rastafarians, Haitian Voodo, white supremacy groups, Wicca, and Satanism REVISED, UPDATED, AND EXPANDED TO INCLUDE NEW ENTRIES AND NEW INFORMATION • Updated information on Islam and its global impact • New entries: the Branch Davidians, Native American religions, Heaven’s Gate, Aum Supreme Truth, the Boston Movement, the Masonic Lodge, and many others • Developments in the world of cults and the occult Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions is arguably the most significant reference book on the subject to be published. Formerly titled Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions, and the Occult, it provides reliable information on the history and beliefs of nearly every form of religion active today. This extensively revised edition includes new topics, updated information, and a brand-new format for a clearer, more organized approach. The authors evaluate the beliefs and practices of each group from the perspective of the Bible and the historic creeds of the Christian church. You’ll also find group histories, numerous illustrations, charts, current statistics, websites, bibliographies, and other useful information.

Studies of African-derived religious traditions have generally focused on their retention of African elements. This emphasis, says Dianne Stewart, slights the ways in which communities in the African diaspora have created and formed new religious meaning. In this fieldwork-based study Stewart shows that African people have been agents of their own religious, ritual, and theological formation. She examines the African-derived and African-centered traditions in historical and contemporary Jamaica: Myal, Obeah, Native Baptist, Revival/Zion, Kumina, and Rastafari, and draws on them to forge a new womanist liberation theology for the Caribbean.

In a complete survey of cults, sects, and religions around the world, Mather and Nichols provide definitions and brief descriptions that evaluate each group on the basis of the historic creeds of Christianity. Included are Santeria, Rastafarians, Haitian Voodoo and more.

Maria A. Robinson-Smith presents an overview and genealogy of Revivalism in this work. She explores the role of the Revival iconography in building a culture of shared understanding among Revivalists and, by extension, African Jamaicans. The Watt Town setting, with bands coming together from communities all over Jamaica, engaging in the same practices, is a symbolic homeland where people celebrate their Africanness and sustain the collective memory of Revivalists. Revival iconography is explored through its many modes: visual, sound and movement. Seals, symbols and colour symbolism are presented as a representation of the repertoire of images that make up the Revival iconography. Revival cosmology in the rituals and ceremonies are explored and the spaces created by the seals are treated as liminal ones for the enactment of cultural performances. Smith makes the point that the iconography makes it possible for Revivalists to interpret events and rituals in much the same way across Jamaica. Iconography is the symbolic language and carrier of culture that is central to the practice and production of shared meanings, and this language gives Revivalists a sense of identity. The Revival iconography stores information that makes it possible for Revivalists to reconnect with African metaphysics, thus reclaiming the African self.

A Concise Dictionary of Cults and Religions provides thumbnail sketches of peripheral religious groups, cults, and personalities connected with such movements or organizations.

First trace the rise of new religious movements throughout history, with special emphasis on the past century, then learn about contemporary movements that have arisen since the Second World War, and finally discover the differences from previous generations of New Religious Movements that make them more controversial.