Massimo Introvigne | |
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Born | Rome | June 14, 1955
Nationality | Italian |
Occupation | Author |
Website | massimointrovigne |
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955, in Rome) is an Italian Roman Catholic[1] sociologist of religion[2] and intellectual property attorney.[3][4] 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".[5]
Introvigne was born in Rome on June 14, 1955.[6][7] Introvigne earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Rome's Gregorian University in 1975, and in 1979 his Dr.Jur. from University of Turin.[8][3] He worked from the law firm Jacobacci e Associati as an intellectual property attorney, specialized in domain names.[4]
In 1972, he joined conservative Catholic group Alleanza Cattolica.[9][better source needed] From 2008 to 2016 he served as vice-president of the group.[10]
In 1988 he co-founded CESNUR and has since served as the group director.[11][12][13]
Beginning in 2012, Introvigne was listed as an "invited professor of sociology of religious movements" at the Salesian Pontifical University in Turin.[14][15]
In 2012, Introvigne was appointed chairperson of the newly-formed Observatory of Religious Liberty of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[16] Beginning in 2018, Introvigne was editor-in-chief of the daily magazine on religion and human rights in China, Bitter Winter, which is published by CESNUR.[17][18]
Introvigne is a proponent of the theory of religious economy developed by Rodney Stark.[19][20]
Swedish academic Per Faxneld, writing for Reading Religion, described Introvigne as "one of the major names in the study of new religions."[21] 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".[22]
In 2001, sociologist Stephen A. Kent described Introvigne as a "persistent critic of any national attempts to identify or curtail so-called 'cults'",[5] arguing that,
In the mid-1990s, Introvigne testified on behalf of Scientologists in a criminal trial in Lyon.[5] After Introvigne was critical of the publication of the 1995 report on cults by the French government, journalists described Introvigne as a "cult apologist", saying he was tied to the Catholic Alliance and Silvio Berlusconi's then ruling party.[23] Introvigne responded that his scholarly and political activities were not connected.[24]
Introvigne has written on the concept of brainwashing.[25] He[who?] published an Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy.[11]
Journalist and Scientology-critic Tony Ortega penned a series of 2018/19 articles criticizing The Journal of CESNUR as an unreliable "apologist journal".[26][27][28]
Introvigne is also director of CESPOC, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.[29]
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 vampire myth.[30][31] 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 a "creative writing contest, Gothic rock music and theatrical performances".[30]