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Massimo Introvigne
head and shoulders photograph of a man
Born (1955-06-14) June 14, 1955 (age 69)
Rome
NationalityItalian
Occupation(s)Sociologist, Author

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955, in Rome) is an Italian independent scholar. He is a founder and the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), a Turin-based organization which has been described as "the highest profile lobbying and information group for controversial religions". Swedish academic Per Faxneld, writing for Reading Religion, described Introvigne as "one of the major names in the study of new religions." Sociologist Roberto Cipriani has called Introvigne "one of the Italian sociologists of religion most well-known abroad, and among the world's leading scholars of new religious movements".

Life and work

Introvigne was born in Rome on June 14, 1955. From 1970 to 1973, Introvigne attended the Instituto sociale, the Jesuit high school of Turin. In 1972, he joined conservative group Alleanza Cattolica. He Introvigne earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Rome's Gregorian University in 1975, and in 1979 his J.D. from University of Turin. In 1980, Introvigne began work as an intellectual-property attorney at the firm Jacobacci & Partners. In 1986, he became a partner.

In 1988 he founded the CESNUR and has since served as the group director.

From 2008 to 2016 he has served as vice-president of the Catholic movement Alleanza Cattolica

In 2010, Introvigne was included in an advisory board to the Italian Ministry for Internal Affairs, advising on issues related to Islamic minority in Italy. In 2011, Introvigne was the "Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions" of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Beginning in 2012, Introvigne was listed as a "invited professor of sociology of religious movements" by the Pontifical Salesian University In 2012, Introvigne was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be chairperson of the newly instituted Observatory of Religious Liberty.. He maintained this position until 2016.

In 2013, Introvigne theorized that the election of Pope Francis led some 'lapsed' Catholics to return to the church. In 2016, Introvigne published Satanism: A Social History (Leiden, Brill). In 2018, Oxford University Press published his book on the Plymouth Brethren.

Beginning in 2018, Introvigne was editor-in-chief of the daily magazine on religion and human rights in China, Bitter Winter. In 2019 Introvigne said that Vladimir Putin "had made it clear that he believed Western values, such as a belief in human rights and religious liberty, were not universal rights and did not necessarily apply in Russia."

Introvigne is a member of the board of the journal Nova Religio and the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion..

Introvigne is a proponent of the theory of religious economy developed by Rodney Stark. Introvigne has participated in a series of academic projects on the influence of esoteric movements on modern art, including "Enchanted Modernities", "Theosophical Appropriations" and others, and was called by the Spanish daily newspaper El País "one of the leading world experts on these themes."

Introvigne and new religions

Introvigne has been described as a "persistent critic of any national attempts to identify or curtail so-called 'cults'". He is the director, and a founder, of the Center for Studies on New Religions CESNUR. Writing in 2001, scholar Stephen A. Kent criticized Introvigne and his group, arguing:

"In the context, therefore, of the debate over Scientology in France and Germany, CESNUR is a think-tank and lobbying group, attempting to advance Scientology's legitimation goals by influencing European and American governmental policies toward it. It is not a neutral academic association, even less so because on its web page Introvigne intermingles ideological positions within solid research and information. On issues, however, that are key to the religious human rights debates-apostates, brainwashing, undue influence, compromised academic research, 'sect' membership and the potential for harm, critical information exchange on the Internet, etc. - he advocates doctrinaire positions that favour groups like Scientology."


In the mid-1990s, Introvigne testified on behalf of Scientologists in a criminal trial in Lyon.

Particularly in France, after the publication of the 1997 report on cults by the French government, of which Introvigne was one of the main critics, journalists hostile to the cults called Introvigne a "cult apologist" and tried to construct his relations with the Catholic Alliance and Silvio Berlusconi's then ruling party as "right-wing extremism," a serious accusation in France. Introvigne himself answered this criticism by stressing that his scholarly and political activities were not connected. In 2016, Introvigne left all his positions in the Catholic Alliance. Critics continue to object, however, to what they see as his defense of "cults" under the banner of religious liberty.

Activists and scholars such as Thomas Gandow, Stephen Kent, as well as Benjamin Zablocki see Introvigne's framing of scholars and academics (those who agree with CESNUR) vs. anti-cult movement (those who do not agree with CESNUR regardless of their academic qualifications) as biased.

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 what he calls the "APA-Lie" (i.e. the way Introvigne presented the position of the American Psychological Association on brainwashing) as a scientific scandal. Introvigne's reply 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 lengths to obtain, post on the Internet, and later publish crucial and previously unavailable documents of the original U.S. brainwashing controversy. He published an Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy.

As recently as 2019, Introvigne noted that CESNUR's critics have accused the group of being 'cult apologists', as when journalist and Scientology-critic Tony Ortega penned a series of 2018/19 articles criticizing "CESNUR" as an unreliable "apologist journal".

Popular Culture and Vampires

Introvigne is also director of CESPOC, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

He was the Italian director of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, which included the leading academic scholars in the field of the literary and historical study of the vampire myth. 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".

Bibliography

Books

  • Le nuove Religioni, SugarCo (1989), ISBN 978-8871980904.
  • Il cappello del mago: i nuovi movimenti magici dallo spiritismo al satanismo, SugarCo (1990), ISBN 978-8871980218.
  • Il ritorno dello gnosticismo , SugarCo (1993), ISBN 88-7198-216-9.
  • Les Mormons, Brepols (December 30, 1996), ISBN 2-503-50063-3.
  • The Unification Church (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 2), Signature Books (September 1, 2000) ISBN 1-56085-145-7.
  • Rodney Stark and Massimo Introvigne, Dio è tornato. Indagine sulla rivincita delle religioni in Occidente, Piemme (2003), ISBN 978-8838465840.
  • Laurence R. Iannaccone and Massimo Introvigne, Il Mercato dei Martiri. L'industria del terrorismo suicida, Lindau (2004), ISBN 978-8871805146.
  • Satanism: A Social History, Brill (2016), ISBN 978-90-04-28828-7.
  • The Plymouth Brethren, Oxford University Press (2018), ISBN 9780190842420.
  • Il libro nero della persecuzione religiosa in Cina, SugarCo (2019), ISBN 978-88-7198-753-8.

References

  1. ^ Kent, Stephen A. (January 2001). "The French and German versus American debate over 'new religions', Scientology and human rights". Marburg Journal of Religion. 6 (1): 15.
  2. Per Faxneld, “Satanism: A Social History, Review”, ‘’Reading Religion‘’, March 7, 2017.
  3. Roberto Cipriani, Nuovo manuale di sociologia della religione, 2nd ed., Rome: Borla, 2009, p. 470
  4. ^ www.moreorless.net, moreorless -. "Massimo Introvigne, Twenty Years of CESNUR". www.cesnur.org. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  5. https://www.jacobacci.it/chi-siamo/professionisti/massimo-introvigne
  6. https://www.ilsussidiario.net/autori/massimo-introvigne/
  7. Liaisons Dangereuses Des Universités Lyonnaises , L'Humanité, June 27, 2001 by Serge Garde
  8. "Alleanza Cattolica – Catholic Alliance – a deepening". Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
  9. "Viminale: presentato il "Comitato per l'Islam italiano"". www.immigrazioneoggi.it. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  10. "Italian Catholic activist to head OSCE office on religious discrimination : News Headlines". www.catholicculture.org. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  11. http://torino.unisal.it/uni/index.php/docenti/docenti-invitati/item/123-massimo-introvigne Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 20, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. www.moreorless.net, moreorless -. "Recensioni e interventi sull 'effetto Francesco'". www.cesnur.org. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  15. "Eileen Barker, "Book review of Satanism: A Social History." Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, vol. 9, no. 1 (2016), pp. 82-84.
  16. "Per Faxneld, Book reviev of Satanism: A Social History." Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, March 7, 2017.
  17. Massimo Introvigne, The Plymouth Brethren, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  18. "Bitter Winter". Bitter Winter. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  19. https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/it/2018/05/14/news/bitter-winter-in-italia-un-nuovo-quotidiano-online-su-religione-e-diritti-umani-in-cina-1.34016836
  20. Jason Horowitz, "A Clash of Worldviews as Pope Meets Putin", The New York Times, July 4, 2019.
  21. "Editorial - Nova Religio". nr.ucpress.edu. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  22. "Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion - Editorial Board". www.religjournal.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. Frank Bruni, "Faith Fades where It Once Burned Strong", The New York Times, October 13, 2003.
  25. "Enchanted Modernities - Theosophy and the arts". www.york.ac.uk. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  26. Video on YouTube
  27. Roberta Bosco, "El lado oscuro del arte", El País, December 30, 2014.
  28. See for example Serge Faubert, "Le vrai visage des sectes", L'Evenement du jeudi, 4-10.11.1993, pp. 44-48; Bruno Fouchereau, "Les sectes, cheval de Troie des Etats-Unis en Europe," Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2001, 1. Susan Palmer, The New Heretics of France: Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects", New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780199735211.
  29. See Massimo Introvigne, "CESNUR: a short history", In: Gallagher, Eugene V, (ed.), "Cult Wars" in Historical Perspective: New and Minority Religions. Routledge. pp. 23–31. ISBN 978-1-317-15666-6.
  30. See "Massimo Introvigne non è più il reggente nazionale vicario di Alleanza Cattolica," La fede quotidiana, 28 April 2016, "Massimo Introvigne non è più il reggente nazionale vicario di Alleanza Cattolica". Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  31. See e.g. the article by Italian anti-cultist Luigi Corvaglia (who, however, ignore that Introvigne left his role in Alleanza Cattolica the previous year), "Lo strano caso dell'avvocato Introvigne", "Lo strano caso dell'avvocato Introvigne". Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  32. Massimo Introvigne: "So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet (presented at the Association for the Sociology of Religion annual conf.), August 5, 1999
  33. Thomas Gandow: Die APA-Lüge – ein Wissenschaftsskandal (german), Berliner Dialog 1–98, 1998, p.27
  34. Massimo Introvigne: "Liar, Liar": Brainwashing, CESNUR and APA, 1998
  35. "CESNUR – APA Documents on Brainwashing". Retrieved January 5, 2008.
  36. Introvigne, Massimo, A Poisoned Source: Why Is ChinaSource Attacking Bitter Winter?
  37. https://tonyortega.org/2019/06/19/ignore-the-apologists-yes-l-ron-hubbard-lied-about-having-an-engineering-degree/
  38. https://tonyortega.org/2018/04/11/a-new-academic-book-takes-apart-scientology-and-pop-culture-and-the-apologists-hate-it/
  39. https://tonyortega.org/2019/06/21/scientology-founder-l-ron-hubbard-provost-marshal-another-apologist-claim-debunked/
  40. www.moreorless.net, moreorless -. "CESPOC - Center for Studies on Popular Culture - Centro Studi sulla Popular Culture". www.popularculture.it (in Italian). Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  41. ^ "Coffin Break To Vampires Everywhere, Fangs For The Memories", The Los Angeles Daily News – July 23, 1997. Carol Bidwell.
  42. The Board of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, American Chapter.

See also

External links

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