Anson D. Shupe is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct.

Work

Shupe is a Professor of Sociology at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne is the largest university in northern Indiana, United States, offering more than 200 Indiana University and Purdue University degrees and certificates. Since 1968, IPFW has conferred nearly 8,800 master’s degrees, 27,000 bachelor’s degrees, more...

 campus at Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...

. He completed his doctorate in political sociology at Indiana University in 1975 and has held office in various professional associations, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion was formed to advance research in the social scientific perspective on religious institutions and experiences.-Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion:...

 and the Association for the Sociology of Religion

Association for the Sociology of Religion

The Association for the Sociology of Religion is an academic association with more than 700 members worldwide. It publishes a journal, the Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review and holds meetings at the same venues and times as the American Sociological Association.-History:The ASR was founded...

. In his research, Shupe has often collaborated with other scholars, notably David G. Bromley

David G. Bromley

David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. He has written extensively about "cults", new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.- Education and career :Bromley received his...

 and Jeffrey K. Hadden

Jeffrey K. Hadden

Jeffrey K. Hadden was an American professor of sociology who began teaching at the University of Virginia in 1972. Hadden earned his Ph.D...

.

An articulate champion of religious freedom, Shupe has conducted fieldwork on the Unification Church

Unification Church

The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...

 and other new religious movements, as well as their opponents. Together with David G. Bromley

David G. Bromley

David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. He has written extensively about "cults", new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.- Education and career :Bromley received his...

, Shupe is considered one of the foremost social science authorities on the anti-cult movement

Anti-cult movement

The anti-cult movement is a term used by academics and others to refer to groups and individuals who oppose cults and new religious movements. Sociologists David G...

, based on a series of books and articles on the topic he coauthored with Bromley.

He co-authored and co-edited two books with Bronislaw Misztal in which they examined and pretty much anticipated the globalization's impact on religious fundamentalist movements. They have formed two important hypotheses about fundamentalist movements. In the stronger version they predicted the diffusion of fundamentalist movements as an antithesis to secularization, arguing that the more societies change the more likely they will be in opposition to modernity. In a weaker version of the globalization hypothesis they suggested that although the agendas of social action of various movements differ, they share, borrow and learn the methods of fundamentalist movements.

Other areas Shupe has researched include the New Christian Right, religious broadcasting

Religious broadcasting

Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...

, and the political impact of fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...

; he has also written about family violence and clergy misconduct, i.e. violent or exploitative behaviour on the part of pastors, ministers or gurus. He has frequently acted as a consultant to attorneys in lawsuits involving issues of religious freedom or clergy abuse.

Publications

• "Moonies" in America: Cult. Church. and Crusade. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications, 1979. (with David G. Bromley). Introduction by John Lofland
  John Lofland (sociologist)
  John Lofland is an American sociologist, professor, and author best known for his studies of the peace movement and for his first book, Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith which was based on field work among a group of Unification Church members in...
  
  . 269 pp.
• The New Vigilantes: Anti-Cultists, Deprogrammers and the New Religions. Beverly Hills, SAGE Publications, 1980. 267 pp.
• Six Perspectives on New Religions: A Case Study Approach. Lewiston and Queenston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1981. 235 pp. ISBN 0-88946-983-0
• Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare. Boston: Beacon, 1981. (with David G. Bromley) 249 pp. ISBN 0-8070-3256-5
• The Anti-Cult Movement in America: A Bibliography and Historical Survey. New York: Garland Press, 1984. (with David G. Bromley and Donna L. Oliver) i-xiii + 169 pp.
• A Documentary History of the Anti-Cult Movement. Arlington, TX, University of Texas Center for Social Research Press, 1986. (with David G. Bromley) 376 pp.
• The Mormon Corporate Empire. Boston: Beacon, 1986. (with John Heinerman) ISBN 0-8070-0406-5
• Televangelism, Power and Politics on God's Frontier, Anson Shupe and Jeffrey Hadden, Henry Holt & Co (April 1, 1988), 325pp. ISBN 0-8050-0778-4
• The Darker Side of Virtue: Corruption, Scandal, and the Mormon Empire, Prometheus Books (May 1, 1991), 168pp. ISBN 0-87975-654-3
• Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Revival of Religious Fundamentalism in East and West, Bronislaw Misztal & Anson Shupe (Eds.), Praeger Publishers (November 30, 1992), 240pp. ISBN 0-275-94218-X
• Anti-Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1994. (edited with David G. Bromley). ISBN 0-8153-1428-0
• The Violent Couple. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers (1994) (with William A. Stacey and Lonnie H. Hazlewood). 182 pp.
• "Religion, Mobilization, and Social Action". Bronislaw Misztal & Anson Shupe (Eds.), Praeger Publishers (1998), 260pp. ISBN 0-275-95625-3
• Bad Pastors: Clergy Misconduct in Modern America New York: New York University Press, 2000, Edited by Anson Shupe, William A. Stacey, Susan E. Darnell; ISBN 0-8147-8147-0
• "The Cult Awareness Network and the Anticult Movement: Implications for NRMs in America" (with Susan E. Darnell and Kendrick Moxon) in New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. edited by Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins. Waco: J.M.Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-929182-64-2
• "The North American Anti-cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure." in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements (with David G. Bromley and Susan E. Darnell), ed. by James R. Lewis. NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 184-205.
• "Anticult Movements" entry in Lindsay Jones, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd edition. Vol. 1 Thomson/Macmillan 2005, pp. 395-7.
• "Deprogramming" entry in Lindsay Jones, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd edition Vol. 4 Thomson/Macmillan 2005, pp. 2291–3.
• Agents of Discord: The Cult Awareness Network, Deprogramming and Bad Science. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2006. (with Susan E. Darnell) ISBN 0-7658-0323-2
• Spoils of the Kingdom - Clergy Misconduct and Religious Community. University of Illinois Press
  University of Illinois Press
  The University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
  
  , 2007. ISBN 0-25203-159-8, ISBN 978-0252031595.

Assessment

• Jackson W. Carroll, Review of In The Name of All That's Holy, Review of Religious Research 38 (1996): 90-91.
• Hans A. Baer, Review of The Darker Side of Virtue, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31 (1992): 242-243.
• A.J. Pavlos, Review of Six Perspectives on New Religions, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22 (1983): 95-96.
• Stephen A. Kent and Theresa Krebs, "When Scholars Know Sin: Alternative Religions and Their Academic Supporters," Skeptic, 6/3 (1988): 36-44. Also see J. Gordon Melton, Anson D. Shupe and James R. Lewis, "When Scholars Know Sin" Forum Reply to Kent and Krebs, Skeptic, 7/1 (1999): 14-21.
• Did Scientology Strike Back?, The American Lawyer, June 1997

External links

• Curriculum Vitae
• Anson Shupe's entry in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
• The Reconstructionist Movement on the New Christian Right by Anson Shupe