Handbook of Contemporary Paganism

Contemporary Paganism is a movement that is still young and establishing its identity and place on the global religious landscape. The members of the movement are simultaneously growing, unifying, and maintaining its characteristic diversity of traditions, identities, and rituals. The modern Pagan movement has had a restless formation period but has also been the catalyst for some of the most innovative religious expressions, praxis, theologies, and communities. As Contemporary Paganism continues to grow and mature, new angles of inquiry about it have emerged and are explored in this collection. This examination and study of contemporary Paganism contributes new ways to observe and examine other religions, where innovations, paradoxes, and inconsistencies can be more accurately documented and explained.

Review:

James R. Lewis' and Murphy Pizza's new collection offers readers the most comprehensive overview of the historical sources and contemporary features of the broad Neopagan movement that has yet been published, and is a welcome addition to the numerous monographs published on Neopaganism over the past two decades. The editors have gathered an impressive line-up of scholars with wide-ranging perspectives on the international scope of the movement, its deepening sense of its own history, its internal struggles and tensions, and its obvious strength in terms of numbers and established communities. - Sarah M. Pike (California State University, Chico) in: Nova Religio, Vol. 14, 2010.