العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolMASSIMO INTROVIGNE
'Massimo Introvigne' (b. June 14, 1955 in Rome) is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the ''Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia'' (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion [1]. He is also an attorney specializing on intellectual property rights.
Massimo Introvigne has a B.D. Philosophy, and Dr. Jur. of the University of Turin, Italy, and has been a part-time professor at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum Rome, Italy, a Vatican-accredited institution, and its related university accredited by the Italian government Università Europea di Roma [2]. He is also a member of the "Sociology of Religion" group of the Italian Association of Sociology a society joined by invitation only [3].
Introvigne is a partner and attorney specialized on intellectual property at the Jacobacci & Associati law firm in Turin, Italy. He is married and has four children. In 2002, Massimo Introvigne ranked at place 160 in the list of the 200 wealthiest people in Italy.
In 2005 and 2006, Introvigne teached a course in Sociology of Religions at the Pontifical Atheneum of the Holy Cross in Rome and one in Sociology of Immigrant Religions to the post-graduate Master in Immigration Studies at the European University of Rome.[1]
Introvigne started collecting books on minority religions and esoteric-gnostic schools in the 1970s. His collection now includes more than 50,000 volumes - see online catalogue[4] - that are made available to the public via the CESNUR library. He founded CESNUR in 1988.
He is a leading member of the Catholic movement Alleanza Cattolica [5] and one of the founding members of the Italian think tank Nova Res Publica [6] initiated 1999 by Silvio Berlusconi to whose Forza Italia it is closely connected [7] Introvigne is also a member of the National Council of the Italian Christian Democrat party UDC. In the academic year 2005-2006, he gave one course at the Opus Dei affiliated Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome.
Introvigne is the author of more than 40 books including ''Le Nuove Religioni'' ("The New Religions". 1989), and ''I Mormoni'' ("The Mormons", 1991), and editor of nine books in the field of sociology of religion. In 2001, he was the main author of the ''Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia'' (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy), one of the most reviewed Italian books in this field. A second edition, ''Le Religioni in Italia'', was published in 2006.
He has also written hundreds of articles published in scientific journals in 12 countries. His extensive bibliography can be found in the Cesnur Web site. After 9/11 an important part of his work has been devoted to the study of Islamic fundamentalism and to the application to this field of the methodology developed by scholars of new religious movements. Introvigne has also emerged with books and articles in several languages (see bibliography quoted above) as one of the main Catholic critics of the novel The Da Vinci Code and of the documentary on pedophile priests ''Sex Crimes and the Vatican'' by Colm O'Gorman. In 2006, Introvigne published what he admitted was a book very different from his previous production, ''Il dramma dell'Europa senza Cristo'' (The Drama of an Europe without Christ), where he proposed a militant criticism of secular humanism based on the teachings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This book eventually generated dozens of study groups throughout Italy, which regarded Introvigne's work as a tool for a revival of conservative Catholicism along the lines of Benedict XVI's documents and speeches (the story was told by Introvigne himself in the liberal Catholic journal "Orientamenti Pastorali", vol. LV, n. 1, January 2007, pp. 75-80; although normally promoting a very different kind of approach to Catholicism, the Italian journal noticed the phenomenon associated with the book and asked Introvigne to tell the story himself). The book ''Il dramma dell'Europa senza Cristo'' was also sympathetically reviewed (although with some criticism on specific issues) by the Vatican-connected Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica: see review by G. Esposito in ''La Civiltà Cattolica'', vol. 156, n. 3763, 7 April 2007, pp. 96-97.
CESNUR, which is one of Introvigne's achievements, has been described by Roberto Gervaso of "Il Giornale" (29 May 2001) as "the irreplaceable and inexhaustible landing for any one who wants to get acquainted with religions." The collection of books on religion in the International Center and Library "is regarded as the largest collection in Europe and the second in the world in its field," according to its website. [8]
He is also the main editor of the website www.cesnur.org. He has participated in several activities of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion and the International Federation of Catholic Universities and is a member of the group "Religions" of the Italian Association of Sociology (AIS). He is also a director of CESPOC, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture [9], an institution which now hosts his large collections of dime novels and comics, and collects his articles (see bibliography above) on these subjects. Introvigne's CESPOC collection hosts inter alia the largest collection in Europe of dime novels and other materials featuring the literary character Nick Carter. In 2006, Introvigne published a bibliography of Nick Carter's Italian translations in the specialized magazine ''Dime Novel Round-Up'' (vol. 75, no. 1, February 2006, pp. 12-15). The collection has also important holdings and earlier editions of Fantômas, Zorro, Dracula (see also following section), and other characters which defined the popular culture of the 20th century (see catalogue at [10]).
Gandow, Kent, as well as Benjamin Zablocki see Introvigne's framing of scholars resp. academics (those who agree with CESNUR) vs. anti-cult movement (those who do not agree with CESNUR regardless of their academic qualifications) as biased, not to mention the term ''anti-cult terrorism'' he coined. [2]
One of the main points which are questioned regarding Introvigne's work is his attitude regarding brainwashing and the CESNUR information he presents on that subject. Gandow refers to the "APA-Lie" as a scientific scandal. [3] Introvigne's reply [4] was regarded as useful even by critics (see e.g. the review by Jean-Bruno Renard in "Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions", 52ème année, avril-juin 2007, no. 138, p. 97-99, of the book on the controversy Introvigne co-authored in French with Dick Anthony) since he went to great length to obtain, post on the Internet and later publish crucial and previously unavailable documents of the original U.S. controversy (on the Internet these documents are now posted at http://www.cesnur.org/testi/APA_Documents.htm).
While there are many critics from the world of the anti-cult, a number of whom are called by Introvigne as anti-cult activitists, from the world of scholars and writers there are more people who support Introvigne's work. His Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy was one of the most reviewed books in Italy for the year and those reviews were positive for the most part. Many of the reviews came from the most important newspapers of the country (see list of reviews and their texts at http://www.cesnur.org/2001/enciclopedia.htm#Anchor-49575).
Also, the fact that 12 scientific journals have published his works and that many scholars support CESNUR shows wide acceptance of his scholarship and leadership in the field of sociology of religion: see Introvigne's bibliography at http://www.cesnur.org/testi/introvigne_biblio.htm
In 1997, J. Gordon Melton and Introvigne organized an event at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles where 1,500 attendees came dressed as vampires for: ''"creative writing contest, Gothic rock music and theatrical performances"''[5] Melton came dressed as Dracula[6].
Melton is the American President of the The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, and Introvigne is the Italian director of the society, which includes the leading academic scholars in the field of the literary and historical study of the vampire myth5[7]. An informative page in Italian about the society is hosted at Introvigne's CESNUR institute for the study of new religious movements, of which Melton is actively involved[8].
Melton and Introvigne also participated in the Transylvanian Society's conference "Buffy, the vampire slayer", in Nashville, TN in 2004. Introvigne was titled as: "president" of the Transylvanian Society in Italy, and Dr. Melton was titled as the "Count Dracula Ambassador to the U.S."[9].
★ ''The Unification Church (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 2)'', Signature Books (September 1, 2000) ISBN 1-56085-145-7
★ ''Osho Rajneesh: Studies in Contemporary Religion (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 4)'', Signature Books (August 1, 2002), ISBN 1-56085-156-2
★ ''Les Mormons'', Brepols (December 30, 1996), ISBN 2-503-50063-3
★ ''I nuovi movimenti religiosi: Sètte cristiane e nuovi culti'', Editrice Elle Di Ci (1990), ISBN 88-01-14260-9
★ ''Il ritorno dello gnosticismo (Nuove spiritualità) '', SugarCo (1993), ISBN 88-7198-216-9
★ ''I nuovi culti: Dagli Hare Krishna alla Scientologia (Uomini e religioni)'', Mondadori; 1. ed. Oscar Uomini e religioni edition (1990), ISBN 88-04-34057-6
★ ''Il satanismo (Collana religioni e movimenti)'', Elle Di Ci (1997), ISBN 88-01-00799-X
★ ''New Age is Mistaken Answer to Search For Meaning'', Interview with Introvigne, Turin, Italy, 19 March 2003 (Zenit News Agency). Available online
★ "The Secular Anti-Cult and the Religious Counter-Cult Movement: Strange Bedfellows or Future Enemies?" in ''New Religions and the New Europe'', Robert Towler, ed. (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1995), pp. 32-54.
★ "Christian New Religious Movements: A Roman Catholic Perspective" and "New Religious Movements and the Law: A Comparison between Two Different Legal Systems - The United States and Italy," in ''New Religions and New Religiosity'', Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg, eds., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1998), pp. 243-261 and 276-290.
★ "Children of the Underground Temple: Growing Up in Damanhur," in ''Children in New Religions'', Susan J. Palmer and Charlotte E. Hardman, eds., (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999), pp. 138-149.
★ "After the New Age: Is There a Next Age?" in ''New Age Religion and Globalization'', Mikael Rothstein, ed., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2001), pp. 58-69.
★ "Lectorium Rosicrucianum: A Dutch Movement Becomes International," in ''New Religions in a Postmodern World'', Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg, eds., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2003), pp. 11-22.
★ "Occult Masters and the Temple of Doom: The Fiery End of the Solar Temple," (co-authored with Jean-Francois Mayer) in ''Cults, Religion and Violence'', David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton, eds., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 170-188.
Associazione Italiana di Sociologia
1. Massimo Introvigne, Dr.
2. "So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet, by Massimo Introvigne, August 1999
3. Berliner Dialog 1-98 [11]
4. [12]
5. "Coffin Break To Vampires Everywhere, Fangs For The Memories", ''The Los Angeles Daily News'' - July 23, 1997. Carol Bidwell.
6. J. Gordon Melton dressed as Dracula, 1997, "Dracula 97 Photo Album", Melinda Hayes page.
7. The Board of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, American Chapter.
8. The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, CESNUR
9. Buffy, the vampire slayer, (May 28-30, Nashville, TN)., CESNUR website.
Dr. Massimo Introvigne, president of the TSD chapter in Italy, Count Dracula Ambassador to Italy - Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Count Dracula Ambassador to the U.S.
★ CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions
★ [http://www.massimointrovigne.com Massimo Introvigne's own site
★ CESNUR critical page
| Contents |
| Life |
| Work |
| Views of his work |
| Vampirism hobby |
| Bibliography |
| Books |
| Other |
| References |
| Notes |
| External links |
Life
Massimo Introvigne has a B.D. Philosophy, and Dr. Jur. of the University of Turin, Italy, and has been a part-time professor at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum Rome, Italy, a Vatican-accredited institution, and its related university accredited by the Italian government Università Europea di Roma [2]. He is also a member of the "Sociology of Religion" group of the Italian Association of Sociology a society joined by invitation only [3].
Introvigne is a partner and attorney specialized on intellectual property at the Jacobacci & Associati law firm in Turin, Italy. He is married and has four children. In 2002, Massimo Introvigne ranked at place 160 in the list of the 200 wealthiest people in Italy.
In 2005 and 2006, Introvigne teached a course in Sociology of Religions at the Pontifical Atheneum of the Holy Cross in Rome and one in Sociology of Immigrant Religions to the post-graduate Master in Immigration Studies at the European University of Rome.[1]
Introvigne started collecting books on minority religions and esoteric-gnostic schools in the 1970s. His collection now includes more than 50,000 volumes - see online catalogue[4] - that are made available to the public via the CESNUR library. He founded CESNUR in 1988.
He is a leading member of the Catholic movement Alleanza Cattolica [5] and one of the founding members of the Italian think tank Nova Res Publica [6] initiated 1999 by Silvio Berlusconi to whose Forza Italia it is closely connected [7] Introvigne is also a member of the National Council of the Italian Christian Democrat party UDC. In the academic year 2005-2006, he gave one course at the Opus Dei affiliated Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome.
Work
Introvigne is the author of more than 40 books including ''Le Nuove Religioni'' ("The New Religions". 1989), and ''I Mormoni'' ("The Mormons", 1991), and editor of nine books in the field of sociology of religion. In 2001, he was the main author of the ''Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia'' (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy), one of the most reviewed Italian books in this field. A second edition, ''Le Religioni in Italia'', was published in 2006.
He has also written hundreds of articles published in scientific journals in 12 countries. His extensive bibliography can be found in the Cesnur Web site. After 9/11 an important part of his work has been devoted to the study of Islamic fundamentalism and to the application to this field of the methodology developed by scholars of new religious movements. Introvigne has also emerged with books and articles in several languages (see bibliography quoted above) as one of the main Catholic critics of the novel The Da Vinci Code and of the documentary on pedophile priests ''Sex Crimes and the Vatican'' by Colm O'Gorman. In 2006, Introvigne published what he admitted was a book very different from his previous production, ''Il dramma dell'Europa senza Cristo'' (The Drama of an Europe without Christ), where he proposed a militant criticism of secular humanism based on the teachings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This book eventually generated dozens of study groups throughout Italy, which regarded Introvigne's work as a tool for a revival of conservative Catholicism along the lines of Benedict XVI's documents and speeches (the story was told by Introvigne himself in the liberal Catholic journal "Orientamenti Pastorali", vol. LV, n. 1, January 2007, pp. 75-80; although normally promoting a very different kind of approach to Catholicism, the Italian journal noticed the phenomenon associated with the book and asked Introvigne to tell the story himself). The book ''Il dramma dell'Europa senza Cristo'' was also sympathetically reviewed (although with some criticism on specific issues) by the Vatican-connected Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica: see review by G. Esposito in ''La Civiltà Cattolica'', vol. 156, n. 3763, 7 April 2007, pp. 96-97.
CESNUR, which is one of Introvigne's achievements, has been described by Roberto Gervaso of "Il Giornale" (29 May 2001) as "the irreplaceable and inexhaustible landing for any one who wants to get acquainted with religions." The collection of books on religion in the International Center and Library "is regarded as the largest collection in Europe and the second in the world in its field," according to its website. [8]
He is also the main editor of the website www.cesnur.org. He has participated in several activities of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion and the International Federation of Catholic Universities and is a member of the group "Religions" of the Italian Association of Sociology (AIS). He is also a director of CESPOC, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture [9], an institution which now hosts his large collections of dime novels and comics, and collects his articles (see bibliography above) on these subjects. Introvigne's CESPOC collection hosts inter alia the largest collection in Europe of dime novels and other materials featuring the literary character Nick Carter. In 2006, Introvigne published a bibliography of Nick Carter's Italian translations in the specialized magazine ''Dime Novel Round-Up'' (vol. 75, no. 1, February 2006, pp. 12-15). The collection has also important holdings and earlier editions of Fantômas, Zorro, Dracula (see also following section), and other characters which defined the popular culture of the 20th century (see catalogue at [10]).
Views of his work
Gandow, Kent, as well as Benjamin Zablocki see Introvigne's framing of scholars resp. academics (those who agree with CESNUR) vs. anti-cult movement (those who do not agree with CESNUR regardless of their academic qualifications) as biased, not to mention the term ''anti-cult terrorism'' he coined. [2]
One of the main points which are questioned regarding Introvigne's work is his attitude regarding brainwashing and the CESNUR information he presents on that subject. Gandow refers to the "APA-Lie" as a scientific scandal. [3] Introvigne's reply [4] was regarded as useful even by critics (see e.g. the review by Jean-Bruno Renard in "Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions", 52ème année, avril-juin 2007, no. 138, p. 97-99, of the book on the controversy Introvigne co-authored in French with Dick Anthony) since he went to great length to obtain, post on the Internet and later publish crucial and previously unavailable documents of the original U.S. controversy (on the Internet these documents are now posted at http://www.cesnur.org/testi/APA_Documents.htm).
While there are many critics from the world of the anti-cult, a number of whom are called by Introvigne as anti-cult activitists, from the world of scholars and writers there are more people who support Introvigne's work. His Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy was one of the most reviewed books in Italy for the year and those reviews were positive for the most part. Many of the reviews came from the most important newspapers of the country (see list of reviews and their texts at http://www.cesnur.org/2001/enciclopedia.htm#Anchor-49575).
Also, the fact that 12 scientific journals have published his works and that many scholars support CESNUR shows wide acceptance of his scholarship and leadership in the field of sociology of religion: see Introvigne's bibliography at http://www.cesnur.org/testi/introvigne_biblio.htm
Vampirism hobby
In 1997, J. Gordon Melton and Introvigne organized an event at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles where 1,500 attendees came dressed as vampires for: ''"creative writing contest, Gothic rock music and theatrical performances"''[5] Melton came dressed as Dracula[6].
Melton is the American President of the The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, and Introvigne is the Italian director of the society, which includes the leading academic scholars in the field of the literary and historical study of the vampire myth5[7]. An informative page in Italian about the society is hosted at Introvigne's CESNUR institute for the study of new religious movements, of which Melton is actively involved[8].
Melton and Introvigne also participated in the Transylvanian Society's conference "Buffy, the vampire slayer", in Nashville, TN in 2004. Introvigne was titled as: "president" of the Transylvanian Society in Italy, and Dr. Melton was titled as the "Count Dracula Ambassador to the U.S."[9].
Bibliography
Books
★ ''The Unification Church (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 2)'', Signature Books (September 1, 2000) ISBN 1-56085-145-7
★ ''Osho Rajneesh: Studies in Contemporary Religion (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 4)'', Signature Books (August 1, 2002), ISBN 1-56085-156-2
★ ''Les Mormons'', Brepols (December 30, 1996), ISBN 2-503-50063-3
★ ''I nuovi movimenti religiosi: Sètte cristiane e nuovi culti'', Editrice Elle Di Ci (1990), ISBN 88-01-14260-9
★ ''Il ritorno dello gnosticismo (Nuove spiritualità) '', SugarCo (1993), ISBN 88-7198-216-9
★ ''I nuovi culti: Dagli Hare Krishna alla Scientologia (Uomini e religioni)'', Mondadori; 1. ed. Oscar Uomini e religioni edition (1990), ISBN 88-04-34057-6
★ ''Il satanismo (Collana religioni e movimenti)'', Elle Di Ci (1997), ISBN 88-01-00799-X
Other
★ ''New Age is Mistaken Answer to Search For Meaning'', Interview with Introvigne, Turin, Italy, 19 March 2003 (Zenit News Agency). Available online
★ "The Secular Anti-Cult and the Religious Counter-Cult Movement: Strange Bedfellows or Future Enemies?" in ''New Religions and the New Europe'', Robert Towler, ed. (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1995), pp. 32-54.
★ "Christian New Religious Movements: A Roman Catholic Perspective" and "New Religious Movements and the Law: A Comparison between Two Different Legal Systems - The United States and Italy," in ''New Religions and New Religiosity'', Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg, eds., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1998), pp. 243-261 and 276-290.
★ "Children of the Underground Temple: Growing Up in Damanhur," in ''Children in New Religions'', Susan J. Palmer and Charlotte E. Hardman, eds., (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999), pp. 138-149.
★ "After the New Age: Is There a Next Age?" in ''New Age Religion and Globalization'', Mikael Rothstein, ed., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2001), pp. 58-69.
★ "Lectorium Rosicrucianum: A Dutch Movement Becomes International," in ''New Religions in a Postmodern World'', Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg, eds., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2003), pp. 11-22.
★ "Occult Masters and the Temple of Doom: The Fiery End of the Solar Temple," (co-authored with Jean-Francois Mayer) in ''Cults, Religion and Violence'', David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton, eds., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 170-188.
References
Associazione Italiana di Sociologia
Notes
1. Massimo Introvigne, Dr.
2. "So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet, by Massimo Introvigne, August 1999
3. Berliner Dialog 1-98 [11]
4. [12]
5. "Coffin Break To Vampires Everywhere, Fangs For The Memories", ''The Los Angeles Daily News'' - July 23, 1997. Carol Bidwell.
6. J. Gordon Melton dressed as Dracula, 1997, "Dracula 97 Photo Album", Melinda Hayes page.
7. The Board of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, American Chapter.
8. The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, CESNUR
9. Buffy, the vampire slayer, (May 28-30, Nashville, TN)., CESNUR website.
Dr. Massimo Introvigne, president of the TSD chapter in Italy, Count Dracula Ambassador to Italy - Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Count Dracula Ambassador to the U.S.
External links
★ CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions
★ [http://www.massimointrovigne.com Massimo Introvigne's own site
★ CESNUR critical page
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
