Inform Seminar: Changing Beliefs and Schisms in New Religious Movements

INFORM Seminar XLIX
CHANGING BELIEFS AND SCHISMS IN NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, London School of Economics, Saturday 1 December 2012
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.htm

To register: WE ARE NOW TAKING PAYPAL BOOKINGS:
http://www.inform.ac/seminar-payment
Or post a booking form (attached) and a cheque payable to ‘Inform’ to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE.
(Inform@lse.ac.uk; 020 7955 7677).
Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 12 November 2012 cost  £38 each (£18 students/unwaged).
NB. Tickets booked after 12 November 2012 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged).
A limited number of seats will be made available to A-Level students at £10 before 12 November 2012 (£20 after 12 November). A party of 5 or more A-Level students from one school can include one member of staff at the same price.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

The presence of speakers on an Inform programme does not mean that Inform endorses their position.
The aim of Inform Seminars is to help participants to understand, or at least recognise, different perspectives.
For Inform’s codes of practice see http://www.inform.ac/

9.30-9.50    Registration and coffee

9.50-10.00   Welcome and Introduction

10.00-10.25   Eileen Barker (Professor Emeritus, LSE; Chair & Honorary Director, Inform)
“Re-vision and Division in New Religions: Some Introductory Remarks”

10.25-10.50   Claire Borowik (Co-Director of the Worldwide Religious News Service, and member of The Family International)
“The Family International: Rebooting for the Future”

10.50-11.15   J. Gordon Melton (Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Baylor University)
“When Science Intervenes-Revising Claims in the New Age”

11.15-11.45 Coffee

11.45-12.10   Pat Ryan and Joe Kelly (International Cultic Studies Association; ex-members of TM and Society of Divine Love)
“Transcendental Meditation and Swami Prakashananda Saraswati”

12.10-12.35   Susan Palmer (Lecturer in Religious Studies, Dawson College / Concordia University)
“Dr. Malach Z. York’s Spiritual Divagations”

12.35-13.00   Masoud Banisadr (PhD in chemical engineering and engineering mathematics, and former member of MEK)
“The Metamorphism of MEK (Mujahedin e Khalgh) and its Schism”

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-14.25   James Tong (Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles)
“The Re-Invented Wheel: Revisioning and Diversification in the Falun Gong, 1992-2012”

14.25-14.50   Mike Mickler (Professor of Church History, Unification Theological Seminary)
“The Post-Sun Myung Moon Unification Church”

14.50-15.15   Eugene Clay (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University)
“Mother of God Derjavnaja / The New Cathar Church”

15.15-15.45 Tea

15.45-16.10   Eugene Gallagher (Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies, Connecticut College)
“The Branch Davidians”

16.10-16.35   Massimo Introvigne (Lawyer and Managing Director of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), Turin)
“Mormon Origins – Revisionism or Re-Interpretation?”

16.35-17.15 Panel Discussion

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