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Healing is a major theme in, and explanation for, the global expansion of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity (or “Pentecostalism”) over the course of the twentieth century. During the famed Azusa Street Revival of 1906 that, in conjunction with similar revivals scattered across the world, spread Pentecostalism globally, claims of divine healing through prayer drew outsiders and inspired missionary zeal. Despite the emphasis that many observers of Pentecostalism give to glossolalia and fina…

The Vineyard church movement began in Southern California and appealed primarily to post-World War II Baby Boomers who felt dissatisfied with what they perceived as the routinization and cultural irrelevance of evangelical churches. Kenn Gulliksen, a leader in the Jesus People movement of the 1960s, started the first Vineyard in Los Angeles in 1974 as a home Bible study group under the umbrella of Calvary Chapel. In 1977 John Wimber, former jazz musician and manager of the Righteous Brothers, st…

[German Version] I. History and Sociology of Religion Under the term “new religious movements” (NRM), scholars class together a wide variety of religious groups of recent origin that presumably share a “new religious consciousness,” which draws in part upon old occult-theosophical teachings. Some definitions emphasize groups developed after World War II and especially after the 1960s, whereas other definitions include religions founded within the last 200 years. Some definitions include Eastern religion…

[German Version] I. Origin and Spread – II. Doctrine – III. Islamic Philosophy – IV. Islamic Art (Architecture and Book Art) – V. Islamic Studies – VI. Christianity and Islam – VII. Judaism and Islam – VIII. Islam in Europe – IX. Islam in North America – X. Political Islamism I. Origin and Spread 1. Muḥammad and his message In 569 ce, Muḥammad was born in Mecca, a city with the shrine of the Kaʿba at its center. Mecca enjoyed good relations with the Sasanian Empire and its Arab vassal princes in Ḥīra, but considered itself politically independen…