Prophets and Protons: New Religious Movements and Science in Late Twentieth-Century America Book

This book considers how the Hare Krishnas, Unification Church, and Heaven's Gate dealt with science and related it to religion. The Unification church aimed to guide science, Hare Krishnas sought to replace it, and Heaven's Gate attempted to absorb it. The importance of this book in its typology of how new religious movements are incorporating science into their theology and also how science is now necessarily involved in religion. Just as millennialism inspired elements of Pentecostalism and other religious movements, it too is rooted in issues relating to the stewardship of science. Hare Krishna movement offered an alternative to Western science, which appealed to many. Heaven's Gates interestingly often denied even being related to religion, although they would talk about spirituality and prophecy in the same breath. This group thought religion was flawed and that science held all the answers. In a way, their science was their religion. Zeller relates some of his findings to the now-infamous "Sheilaism" in Bellah. Zeller believes his typology is akin to Tweed's new Buddhist typology in finding what attracts people to particular religions. He also points out that Sydney Ahlstrom's work fails to account for the affect science is having on how people connect to religion.