{"id":13168,"date":"2022-12-24T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13168"},"modified":"2022-12-27T16:39:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T23:39:50","slug":"the-passing-of-jim-lewis-noted-scholar-of-new-religious-movements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13168","title":{"rendered":"The Passing of Jim Lewis, Noted Scholar of New Religious Movements"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Yep, that’s a well-worn cover.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I was new to Pagan studies \u2014 actually, “Pagan studies” had not even coalesced as a field of study \u2014 Jim Lewis’s edited volume Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft<\/em> <\/a>(SUNY Press, 1996) was one of my go-to volumes.<\/p>\n

I had an essay in it, not something I am proud of, but definitely a product of “fake it till you make it.”((It has not been cited often. Once was in a court brief over a prisoners’ rights case.))<\/p>\n

Jim was there early. Before The Triumph of the Moon<\/em><\/a>, although after Drawing Down the Moon.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As a good scholar of new religious movements, he was out ahead of of the main group, asking “Who are they? Where did they come from? What do they do? Are they friendly?”<\/p>\n

Branch Davidians, Satanists, Scientologists, New Pagans, Space Aliens, Neoshamanism, Falung Gong \u2014 he was there. His publication record would be enough for six typical professors.<\/p>\n

Jim was also known for encouraging younger researchers, particularly during the time he taught. In the early 1970s, he had been a yoga teacher and founded his own short-lived “community” in Tallahassee, Florida, before going entering postgraduate work.<\/a><\/p>\n

And like many scholars of new religious movements (NRMs), he had a hard time making a living in academia.<\/strong>\u00a0 Despite the vibrancy and relevance of NRM research, it just does not draw the funding and respect. You’re better off specializing in New Testament studies and writing yet another book about the Apostle Paul, or developing some new slant on gender-and-theology, if you want to be hired.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Born in 1949, Jim died October 11, 2022. I did not learn this until the American Academy of Religion meeting in late November, sadly. He was hugely prolific as an author and editor<\/a>, but he was also working right up to the end \u2014 because he had to.<\/p>\n

After some para-academic publishing work, Jim had taught in the University of Wisconsin system for some time but apparently never had a solid position. Then he was hired by the Arctic University of Norway i<\/a>n Tromso, which really is so far north that you lose the Sun for a while. Seasonal affective disorder aside, it seemed like a good gig, and I for one was happy for him. And presumably there would be enough petro-kroner<\/a> for a pension.<\/p>\n

He published several articles in The Pomegranate<\/em> <\/a>in those years , with special attetion to the growth of Paganism in nations that collect religious-membership statistics.<\/p>\n

But apparently there was a problem in Norway<\/strong> \u2014 he had not put in enough years \u2014 he could not get a full-time appointment past age 66 \u2014 or some such thing. I don’t how this worked, but he ended up at Wuhan University<\/a> in China, although he was working remotely in 2020, luckily for him.<\/p>\n

If you look at his publications from 2018\u2013202<\/a>1, you will see a lot about Falun Gong, the large, international new religious movement that has been a particular target of the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

To be honest, the Chinese government, after a period of general hands-off, has been realy hard on all religions: Tibetan Buddhism, Islam, Chinese Christian groups, ancient Daoist temples, family and clan ancestral shrines \u2014 all have been shut down, bulldozed or forced to turn themselves into government billboards.<\/p>\n

No rivals to “President Xi Thought” are permitted,<\/a> it appears.((For more, read the Bitter Winter<\/em> NRMs webzine.<\/a>))<\/p>\n

Beyong writing critically about Falun Gong, he tried cutting some corners in order to pad the r\u00e8sum\u00e8s of his new Chinese colleagues. As far as\u00a0The Pomegranate<\/em> was concerned, I refused to play along, and he cut all communications.<\/p>\n

But whatever he did, I suspect he took the Wuhan gig to make some last good money as a senior scholar for himself and his wife. Which loops me around to where I started, that the study of new religous movements still, after fifty or sixty years, is not taken as seriously in academia as it ought to be \u2014 and hence not compensated.<\/p>\n

And that is why too that I don’t expect to see any endowed chairs in Pagan studies in my lifetime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was new to Pagan studies \u2014 actually, “Pagan studies” had not even coalesced as a field of study \u2014 Jim Lewis’s edited volume Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft (SUNY Press, 1996) was one of my go-to volumes. I had an essay in it, not something I am proud of, but definitely a product […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,203,275,175,229,7,4],"class_list":["post-13168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-china","tag-new-religious-movements","tag-norway","tag-pomegranate","tag-publishing","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3qo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7724","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":0},"title":"Core Books in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently completed an article on contempoary Paganism for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, so when it appears, I can at least say that I have been published by Oxford UP. Yay me. But is there still a market for academic encyclopedias in this day when undergrads must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"magical religion","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/magical-religion.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":476,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=476","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":1},"title":"Pagan archivesI recently sent my\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan archivesI recently sent my eighth carton of Pagan magazines, dating from the 1970s to last year, to the University of California, Santa Barbara.That particular UC campus is known for its religious-studies department. J. Gordon Melton, a well-known scholar of new religious movements, is also affiliated with the university, although\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=772","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":2},"title":"The "fastest-growing" religion?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jason Pitzl-Waters links to a survey showing \"nature religion\" to be the fastest-growing religious category in Australia.Jim Lewis, a long-time scholar of new religious movements, presented a similar roundup last week at AAR-SBL. Interestingly, he found the number of Pagans in English-speaking countries to come in consistently at about 0.1\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":3},"title":"Ronald Hutton Responds to His Critics","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Even before his interview with Australian scholar\/blogger Caroline Tully, Ronald Hutton had written a lengthy article for The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies titled \"Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View.\" It is now available as a free download from Equinox Publishing. In it, Professor Hutton discusses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=493","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":4},"title":"Pagan studies, nature religion at\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan studies, nature religion at AAR-SBLFor anyone attending the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion and Society for Biblical Literature in Philadelphia in November, here is a quick--and not necessarily definitive--list of the Pagan-studies sessions.First, the all-day Conference on Contemporary Pagan Studies, which has been happening since 1998\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13604,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13604","url_meta":{"origin":13168,"position":5},"title":"Four Notable Books in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"From Reading Religion, the book review website of the American Academy of Religion, a post by Ethan Doyle White, who writes, From Wiccan covens assembling in English drawing rooms to Rodnover midsummer gatherings in rural Russia, the modern Pagan religions represent a fascinating and diverse component of our contemporary religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Heathenry\"","block_context":{"text":"Heathenry","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=heathenry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/being-viking.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13168"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13195,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168\/revisions\/13195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}