About

WRSP is an international scholarly consortium that collaboratively assembles and disseminates information on alternative and emerging religious and spiritual groups around the world. WRSP also offers supporting teaching and learning resources for educational purposes.

Projects

MARIAN APPARITIONAL AND DEVOTIONAL GROUPS (Project Directors: Joseph Laycock and Jill Krebs) NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND THE VISUAL ARTS (Project Director: Massimo Introvigne) SPIRITUAL AND VISIONARY COMMUNITIES (Project Director: Timothy Miller) WOMEN IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS AND SPIRITUALITY PROJECT (Project Directors: Rebecca Moore, Catherine Wessinger) Esotericism	Thematic Projects There are many forms and expressions of religious and spiritual organization and activity. Scholars with recognized expertise in selected areas have been invited to organize the Thematic Projects listed above.
CANADIAN RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS (Project Directors: Susan Palmer, John Peterson) SPIRITUAL & RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN ITALY (Project Directors: Dr. Stefania Palmisano, Dr. Massimo Introvigne) RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE (Project Directors: Dr. Kaarina Aitamurto, Dr. Maija Penttilä) JAPANESE NEW RELIGIONS (Project Directors: Ian Reader, Erica Baffelli, Birgit Staemmler) AUSTRALIAN RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS (Project Directors: Carole Cusack, Bernard Doherty)	Regional Projects The forms and traditions of religious and spiritual expression often coincide with geographic, political, and cultural boundaries. Scholars with recognized expertise in specific regional traditions have been invited to organize the Regional Projects listed above.
	Local Projects Communities in the United States have become increasingly more diverse religiously and spiritually in recent decades. A number of scholars have undertaken community research projects chronicling how religion and spirituality are organized and lived in a specific community. Links to those Local Projects are presented here.
	Scholar’s Corner The Scholar’s Corner offers video interviews with Nova Religio and World Religions and Spirituality Project authors and video presentations on topics related to alternative and emergent religions.

Resources

	Interview Forum WRSP has organized an Interview Forum where both interviews conducted by WRSP and interviews published by other media outlets are gathered. Interviews with scholars and other knowledgeable individuals have been selected to offer insights that augment the group profiles on WRSP.
	The Media Center There has been extensive media coverage of the groups, individuals, and activities covered in WRSP profiles. The Media Center identifies and links to a number of media sites that will be particularly useful to religion scholars.
	Books, Articles, Papers, & Reports WRSP supplements religious and spiritual group profiles with Articles & Papers provided by supporting scholars. They offer resources that augment the information contained in WRSP profiles. Permission to duplicate or distribute these materials remains with the authors.
	Video Connections WRSP locates and links to online video materials that supplement and enhance the text entries. The Video Connections entries are listed alphabetically and linked with relevant text entries.
	Archive Centers There are numerous archives that have preserved material of interest to scholars studying contemporary and historical religious and spiritual groups. Many of these archives are small and relatively unknown. WRSP is cataloging these Archive Centers as a research resource for scholars.