Revelatory Events – Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

"Ann Taves uses her skills as a historian to demonstrate that it is not spiritual experience itself that makes revelatory events, and her skills in cognitive science to unpack how events become revelatory. A deeply fascinating book, Revelatory Events helps us rethink spirituality itself."--T. M. Luhrmann, author of When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God

"Students of religion have routinely emphasized the importance of exceptional events or experiences--visions or revelations--in the emergence of religious movements. In Revelatory Events, Ann Taves combines history and cognitive psychology in an entirely new way to investigate how small networks of believers can turn an individual's revelation into a social movement, and possibly into a religion. This outstanding book will set the agenda for the psychological and historical study of religious innovation."--Pascal Boyer, author of Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought

"Revelatory Events is Taves at her best. She weaves together careful historical description and insightful psychological analysis to examine the biographical, experiential, and social substrates of new religious systems. This is the kind of brilliant scholarship we have come to expect of Taves."--Robert C. Fuller, author of The Body of Faith: A Biological History of Religion in America

"Revelatory Events offers significant promise for advancing our understanding of the emergence of new religious traditions, and will draw serious interest from scholars in several disciplines."--David G. Bromley, director of the World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University