James R. Lewis (scholar)

James Roger Lewis (November 3, 1949 – October 11, 2022) was an American philosophy professor at Wuhan University. He was a religious studies scholar, sociologist of religion, and writer, who specialized in the academic study of new religious movements, astrology, and New Age.

Early life and education

James Roger Lewis was born November 3, 1949 in Leonardtown, Maryland, and raised in New Port Richey, Florida. In his youth, in the early and mid-seventies, he was a member of Yogi Bhajan's 3HO, a new religious movement combining the teachings of kundalini yoga and Sikhism. Feeling disenchanted with the organization, he formed a small and short-lived breakaway movement.

He graduated summa cum laude from Appalachian State University in 1981, with a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies, later graduating from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Master's degree in Religious Studies in 1987. Lewis received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Wales, Lampeter in 2003. He pursued a career as a professional reference book writer in the 1990s.

Career

In 1992, Lewis formed an academic association called AWARE, with the primary goal "to promote intellectual and religious freedom by educating the general public about existing religions and cultures, including, but not limited to, alternative religious groups." Describing its outlook as "scholarly and non-sectarian", AWARE stated that it sought to educate scholars and the general public about the persecution of religious and cultural minorities in the United States and abroad, and to assist the United States in its efforts to counter prejudice.

Other scholars involved in the formulation of AWARE as an "anti-anti-cult organization" included Eileen Barker, David G. Bromley, and Jeffrey Hadden, who felt a need for an organization of academics prepared to appear as expert witnesses in court cases. AWARE proved controversial; critics complained that Lewis associated too closely with NRM members, and Lewis dissolved the body in December 1995 after concerns from members of its advisory board.

Some months prior, in May 1995, Lewis, fellow scholar J. Gordon Melton and religious freedom lawyer Barry Fisher had flown to Japan in the early stages of investigations into the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway to voice their concern that police behaviour, including mass detentions without charge and the removal of practitioners' children from the group, might be infringing the civil rights of Aum Shinrikyo members. They had travelled to Japan at the invitation and expense of Aum Shinrikyo after they had contacted the group to express concern over developments, and met with officials over a period of three days. While not having been given access to the group's chemical laboratories, they held press conferences in Japan stating their belief, based on the documentation they had been given by the group, that the group did not have the ability to produce sarin and was being scapegoated. Lewis likened the group's treatment to a Japanese Waco. The scholars' defense of Aum Shinrikyo led to a crisis of confidence in religious scholarship when the group turned out to have been responsible for the attack after all.

In 2003 he became an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and in 2009 at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where he became an honorary senior research fellow. He taught in the University of Wisconsin System, and, on an adjunct basis, at DePaul University. Lewis was an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Tromsø from 2010 to 2013 before becoming a professor at Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei, China.

In a December 2017 conference, Lewis was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as claiming that Falun Gong-founded media Sound of Hope and New Tang Dynasty Television "are in fact manipulated and sponsored by international anti-China forces". Lewis himself criticized his prior, initially sympathetic approach to the Falun Gong organization, saying he had been "naive" about the group and that after contacting ex-members and Chinese critics of the organization he believed his old feelings of outrage over treatment of the Falun Gong to be "naive and foolish".

Works

Lewis edited a series on Contemporary Religions for Brill, and co-edited a series on Controversial New Religions for Ashgate. He was a co-founder of the ''International Society for the Study of New Religions'' and editor-in-chief of the ''Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review'' (ASRR). While in China, he studied Chinese new religious movements (NRMs) and founded the ''Wuhan Journal of Cultic Studies''. His works focused on several NRMs, as well as religion and violence, radicalization, and terrorism. He edited several encyclopedias and reference works on these topics.

Reception

A prolific author, Lewis won a ''Choice'' Outstanding Academic Titles award in 1999 for ''Cults in America''. The ''Choice'' review described it as a "very readable book" that offered a "balanced overview of controversies centering on cults in America", containing basic information on several dozen groups, as well as the more general conflict between "anti-cultists" seeking government assistance to eliminate cults, and religious "libertarians" defending religious liberty even for disliked groups. The review stated that while Lewis differed with the anti-cult view, he presented "arguments and references from both sides – respectfully and in language free from insinuation or invective. Strongly recommended". Lewis won another ''Choice'' Outstanding Academic Title award for ''The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements'', with a second edition of this handbook published in 2016 with Inga Tøllefsen as co-editor.

The work of AWARE in the 1990s, led by Lewis, was criticized by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, who alleged that the organization was disseminating movement "propaganda", and used poor research methods. This echoed earlier criticisms in a ''Skeptic'' article by Stephen A. Kent and Theresa Krebs, who felt that materials produced by Lewis and J. Gordon Melton on the Church Universal and Triumphant and The Family in their joint work '' Sex, Slander, and Salvation'', were "as much an apology as a social scientific product". Anson Shupe and Susan E. Darnell in turn characterised Kent's and Krebs' paper as an ad-hominem attack, and part of a pattern of accusing scholars of bias when their field research produced findings at variance with anti-cult stereotypes. Melton defended their joint work, stating that far from being a public relations exercise, the AWARE report on the Church Universal and Triumphant had "startled and upset" the group's leadership, and led to wide-ranging changes in the organization. Jeffrey Kaplan stated that the aims of AWARE had been "laudable", but that the risks involved for academics in joining the "cult wars", as well as the organization's apparently unsuccessful appeals for funding from new religious movements, led to controversy. Further criticism was directed at Lewis from Kent and Kayla Swanson, who accused him of falsely claiming to have earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In 2018, Lewis authored ''Falun Gong: Spiritual Warfare and Martyrdom''. The book covers various aspects of the group, focusing primarily on the more controversial teachings of the Falun Gong and its leader Li Hongzhi, including the group's pattern of targeting critics and Lewis's changing opinions on the group. Reviewer Huang Chao praised the book, positively comparing it to David Ownby's work on the group, ''Falun Gong and the Future of China'', which Chao argued downplayed negative aspects of the Falun Gong. He said that Lewis's book was important in correcting these weaknesses "by highlighting these aspects without degenerating into an anti-cult diatribe." Chao did criticize Lewis's treatment of Hongzhi's "self-aggrandizing assertions", which he thought was overly lengthy and did not contribute much to the stated purpose of the book (the violent side of the group), though he described his criticisms of the book overall as "relatively minor". Another reviewer, Heather Kavan, praised the book for its content and style. Kavan argued that supporters of the group may find the book "confronting", saying that though Lewis did not support the treatment of the group, he did not whitewash the harmful beliefs of the group; she noted the book could have been subtitled "Why it is unwise to join Falun Gong."

Lewis edited ''Enlightened Martyrdom: The Hidden Side of Falun Gong'' (2019), alongside Huang Chao. Lewis argues in the book's final chapter that due to the media strategies of the group, they were presented largely sympathetically, but the tides were turning and they would soon be viewed as a dangerous group. Reviewer Carole M. Cusack recommended the book, though described the chapters as "of uneven quality". She described the book as timely due to the change in public opinion of the group at the time of its publication, with more coverage of the leader and the group's beliefs instead of previously sympathetic stories.

Death

Lewis died on October 11, 2022 in the United States, after suffering a cardiac arrest from respiratory failure.

Selected bibliography

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References

External links

Memorial site, with publications list

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, James R.
1949 births
2022 deaths
American astrological writers
American religion academics
Researchers of new religious movements and cults
Alumni of the University of Wales, Lampeter
People associated with the University of Wales, Lampeter
DePaul University faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Academic staff of Wuhan University
Western esotericism scholars
People from Leonardtown, Maryland