Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Theoretical. How religions appeal to the authority of science / James R. Lewis ; From analogies to narrative entanglement : invoking scientific authority in Indian New Age spirituality / Kathinka Frøystad ; We demand bedrock knowledge : modern Satanism between secularized esotericism and "esotericized" secularism / Jesper Aagarad Peterson -- Buddhism and East Asian traditions. Buddhism as the "religion of science" : from colonial Ceylon to the laboratories of Harvard / David L. McMahan ; Falun Gong and science : origins, pseudoscience, and China's scientific establishment / Helen Farley ; Metaphorical and metonymical science : constructing authority in a Japanese new religion / Christal Whelan ; When science fiction becomes science fact ; the role of science, science fiction, and technology in Aum Shinrikyo / Martin Repp -- South Asian traditions. Vivekananda and the scientific legitimation of Avaita Vedānta / C. Mackenzie Brown ; Inverted orientalism, Vedic science, and the modern world : Bhaktivedanta and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness / Benjamin E. Zeller ; Madame Blavatsky's children : modern Hindu encounters with Darwinism / Meera Nanda ; The transcendental meditation organization and its encounter with science / Cynthia Ann Humes ; The Sikh scientific ethic : worldly and mystical / Richard Cimino ; The God experiment : Radhasoami's version of science and the rhetoric of guru succession / David Christopher Lane -- Judaism and Islam. The use of medicinal legitimizations in the construction of religious practice : the dietary laws of Judaism / Damián Setton ; Science is just catching up : the Kabbalah Centre and the neo-enlightenment / Hanna Skartveit ; Islamic opposition to the Darwinian theory of evolution / Martin Riexinger -- Christian tradition. Fighting science with science at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network / Carie Little Hersh ; Christian science, new thought, and scientific discourse / Jeremy Rapport ; The unification movement : science, religion, and absolute values / Sarah M. Lewis -- Spiritualism and spiritism. Spiritualism and psychical research / Cathy Gutierrez ; Popular epistemologies and "spiritual science" in early twentieth-century Buenos Aires / Gustavo Andrés Ludueña ; Parapsychology : naturalising the supernatural, re-enchanting science / Egil Asprem -- New Age and occult. The "scientific" presentation and legitimation of the teaching of synchronicity in New Age literature / Jochen Scherer ; Science as legitimation for spirituality : from The aquarian conspiracy to channelling and A course in Miracles / Ruth Bradby ; Modern Western magic and altered states of consciousness / Nevill Drury ; Legitimizing belief through the authority of science : the case of the Church of Scientology / Régis Dericquebourg -- Alternative archaeologies. New religions and the science of archaeology : Mormons, the Goddess, and Atlantis / Carole M. Cusack ; Is dialogue between religion and science possible : the case of archaeology and the Goddess Movement / Kathryn Rountree ; Mormon archaeology and the claims of history / Charles W. Nuckolls -- Theories and sceptics. Folklore and discourse : the authority of scientific rhetoric, from state atheism to new spirituality / Ülo Valk ; The phlogiston theory : a late relic of pre-enlightenment science / Christopher McIntosh ; "Oh no, it isn't." : sceptics and the rhetorical use of science in religion / Asbjørn Dyrendal.

Description based on print version record.