From Early Christianity to Scientology, from the Church of England to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: Gerald Willms unraveals 2,000 years of religious movements in the West. Starting with the 'Sect of Nazarene' and its rise to a global player in the religious economy, the focus is on the pariahs in the history of religion: the nonconformists and outsiders of their times. The author documents the normality of religious deviance without judging 'abnormalities'. Its aim is neither an absolution nor justification nor even a trivialization of non-standard religions. Instead, the book aims at an understanding of these relions. That requires, above all, to grasp the ideas and beliefs of the religious phenomena studied and to contextualize them in their historical, cultural and social environments.
Thus, be it the Waldensians, Jesuits or Pius Brothers, Quakers, Amish or Mormons, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, or Illuminati, Swedenborgians, Theosophists, or Satanists, Moonies, Scientologists or Children of God: Willms is about looking at alternative religions, while avoiding the typical clichés about them, which are, by the way in historical perspective eerily similar over time and space. This accomplish a detached view of alternative religions is a challenge for both reader and author. The light tone of this book is thus somewhat misleading: It avoids sensationalist journalism, Christian moral teachings or personal concernment and instead relies on empirical facts and scientific evidence, while avoiding theory loaded philosophical jargon, which makes most academic treatises hard to read. This proceeding makes the text accessible to interested lay persons, who receive a unique opportunity here to get a real insight into a largely unknown religious landscape.