Book Description

Introducing the field: conspiracy theory in, about, and as religion / David G. Robertson, Egil Asprem and Asbjorn Dyrendal -- Conspiracy theories and the study of religions: what we are talking about, and why it is important / Asbjorn Dyrendal, Egil Asprem and David G. Robertson -- Rational enchantments: conspiracy theory between secular scepticism and spiritual salvation / Stef Aupers and Jaron Harambam -- Is a belief in providence the same as a belief in conspiracy? / Brian L. Keeley -- Are conspiracy theories a surrogate for God? / Michael Wood and Karen Douglas -- A web of conspiracy: Internet and conspiracy theory / Joseph E. Uscinski, Darin DeWitt and Matthew D. Atkinson -- The Satanism scare in apartheid South Africa / Nicky Falkof -- "Trust me, you can't trust them": stigmatised knowledge in cults and conspiracies / Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist and Suzanne Newcombe -- Popular music, conspiracy culture, and the sacred / Christopher Partridge -- Close companions: esotericism and conspiracy theories / Egil Asprem and Asbjorn Dyrendal -- The counter-elite: strategies of authority in millennial conspiracism / David G. Robertson -- Buddhism endangered by hidden enemies: conspiracy narratives in Sri Lankan Buddhist present and past / Sven Bretfeld -- Buddhist Islamophobia: actors, tropes, contexts / Iselin Frydenlund -- Islamism and the instrumentalisation of conspiracism / Willow J. Berridge -- Anti-Jewish and Anti-Zionist conspiracism in the Arab world: historical and political roots / Barbara De Poli -- A fantastic people and its enemies: an analysis of an emerging Albanian mythology / Cecilie endresen -- Was Aristotle an anti-Semitic alien? conspiracy theory, ufology, and the colonisation of the past in contemporary Greece / Tao T. Makeeff -- The role of conspiracy theory in the Aum Shinrikyo incident / Tsuji Ryutaro -- Framing of a conspiracy theory: the Efendi series / Turkay Nefes -- The third Rome against the third temple: apocalypticism and conspiracism in post-Soviet Russia / Michael Hagemeister -- Alexander Dugin: between eschatology, esotericism, and conspiracy theory / Victor Shnirelman -- Conspiracy theories and neo-Nazism in the cultic milieu / Paul Jackson -- Evil cult or persecuted minority: conspiracy theories surrounding Falun Gong and the government of the People's Republic of China / Helen Farley -- The messiah is a salesman, yet consumerism is a con(spiracy): the Church of the Subgenius, work, and the pursuit of slack as a spiritual ideal / Carole M. Cusack -- Afterword: further reflections, future directions / Egil Asprem, David G. Robertson and Asbjorn Dyrendal