The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant

Review
"The great strength of this very useful and important resource comes from its reliance on both the work of scholars in the field of Indian religions and the evaluations of those who have personally experienced this movement over years of change...Highly recommended" -- Choice


Review
"This volume of splendid and uncensored reports and reflections from the front lines of the Krishna Consciousness movement contains a degree of intelligence and wisdom unexpected, and in my experience, unprecedented for a "movement" that still actively propogates its teachings. Almost all of the contributors are devotees, many of them still active, who have become scholars, and have both the temerity and a ruthless commitment to honesty to look upon not only the Krishna Consciousness movement with equal degrees of passion and dispassion, but at their own lives as well. This is as clear a window into the trajectory of a modern spiritual movement as we are likely to see." -- Frederick M. Smith, University of Iowa


Book Description
This comprehensive study includes more than twenty contributions from members, ex-members, and academics who have followed the Hare Krishna movement for years. Providing a privileged look at the people and issues shaping ISKCON, this volume offers insight into the complex factors surrounding the emergence of religious traditions, including early Christianity, as well as a glimpse at the origins and growth of a religious tradition putting down roots in foreign soil.


About the Author
Edwin F. Bryant is assistant professor of Hinduism at Rutgers University. His publications include The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Cultureand Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God, Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book Ten. Maria L. Ekstrand is a psychologist on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco who was involved in the development of ISKCON's child abuse investigation guidelines.


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The death of the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the Hare Krishnas) a quarter century ago initiated a period of doctrinal controversy and other turmoil. Particularly concerned with this post-charismatic era in the West, Bryant (Hinduism, Rutgers U.) and Ekstrand (medicine, U. of California at San Francisco) bring together papers from academics outside the tradition and "insiders," including disillusioned and still believing writers, to explore the theology, history, and social legacy of the religious movement. The major theme is schism, with discussion of the context of Hinduism, controversies over the lineage of the tradition, orthodoxy and heresy, sociocultural issues related to interactions between the movement and the wider society, and issues pertaining to reform, revision, and reevaluation. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


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