"Legitimating New Religions has all the qualities of both careful scholarship and also lucid writing: it is well-argued, theoretically aware, meticulously researched, perceptive, and insightful. Drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the area, this fine book is the first systematic study of the strategies employed by new religions to legitimate their authority. As such it is an important contribution to our understanding of the new religious landscape, which will be a key text for many years to come."-Christopher Partridge, editor of Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities (forthcoming)

"Lewis addresses an issue long recognized in the sociology of religion¾ 'how do religious leaders achieve their legitimacy?'¾ but he asks the question about leaders of new, and often controversial, religions. A true contribution."¾ Phillip Hammond, D. Mackenzie Brown Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

James R. Lewis has written the first book to deal explicitly with the issue of how emerging religions legitimate themselves. He contends that a new religion has at least four different, though overlapping, areas where legitimacy is a concern: making converts, maintaining followers, shaping public opinion, and appeasing government authorities. The legitimacy that new religions seek in the public realm is primarily that of social acceptance. Mainstream society's acknowledgement of a religion as legitimate means recognizing its status as a genuine religion and thus recognizing its right to exist. Through a series of wide-ranging case studies Lewis explores the diversification of legitimation strategies of new religions as well the tactics that their critics use to de-legitimate such groups. Cases include the Movement for Spiritual Inner Awareness, Native American prophet religions, spiritualism, the Church of Christ-Scientist, Scientology, Church of Satan, Heaven's Gate, Unitarianism, Hindu reform movements, and Soka Gakkai, a new Buddhist sect.

Since many of the issues raised with respect to newer religions can be extended to the legitimation strategies deployed by established religions, this book sheds an intriguing new light on classic questions about the origin of all religions.

James R. Lewis teaches at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and is author of The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects and New Religions. He has been interviewed by major media outlets including ABC's World News Tonight, the Los Angeles Times, NBC's Meet the Press, and the Washington Post.