Anson D. Shupe - Work

Work

Shupe is a Professor of Sociology at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus at Fort Wayne, Indiana. He completed his doctorate in political sociology at Indiana University in 1975 and has held office in various professional associations, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Association for the Sociology of Religion. In his research, Shupe has often collaborated with other scholars, notably David G. Bromley and Jeffrey K. Hadden.

An articulate champion of religious freedom, Shupe has conducted fieldwork on the Unification Church and other new religious movements, as well as their opponents. Together with David G. Bromley, Shupe is considered one of the foremost social science authorities on the anti-cult movement, based on a series of books and articles on the topic he coauthored with Bromley.

He co-authored and co-edited two books with Bronislaw Misztal in which they examined and pretty much anticipated the globalization's impact on religious fundamentalist movements. They have formed two important hypotheses about fundamentalist movements. In the stronger version they predicted the diffusion of fundamentalist movements as an antithesis to secularization, arguing that the more societies change the more likely they will be in opposition to modernity. In a weaker version of the globalization hypothesis they suggested that although the agendas of social action of various movements differ, they share, borrow and learn the methods of fundamentalist movements.

Other areas Shupe has researched include the New Christian Right, religious broadcasting, and the political impact of fundamentalism; he has also written about family violence and clergy misconduct, i.e. violent or exploitative behaviour on the part of pastors, ministers or gurus. He has frequently acted as a consultant to attorneys in lawsuits involving issues of religious freedom or clergy abuse.