In October 1994, fifty-three members of the Order of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Québec were murdered or committed suicide. This incident and two later group suicides in subsequent years played a pivotal role in inflaming the cult controversy in Europe. Despite the importance of the Order of the Solar Temple, there are relatively few studies published in English. This book brings together the best scholarship on the Solar Temple including newly commissioned pieces from leading scholars.

Contents: Introduction; Templars for the age of Aquarius: the archedia clubs (1984-1991) and the international chivalric order of the solar tradition, Jean-FranÃ
ois Mayer; 'Ordeal by fire': the tragedy of the Solar Temple, Massimo Introvigne; Purity and danger in the Solar Temple, Susan J. Palmer; The mystical apocalypse of the Solar Temple, John R. Hall and Philip Schuyler; The dangers of enlightenment: apocalyptic hopes and anxieties in the Order of the Solar Temple, Jean-FranÃ
ois Mayer; Crises of charismatic authority and millenarian violence: the case of the Order of the Solar Temple, John Walliss; Sources of doctrine in the Solar Temple, George D. Chryssides; Death as initiation: Order of the Solar Temple and rituals of initiation, Henrik Bogdan; The Order du Temple Solaire and the quest for the absolute sun, Marc LaBelle; Sects, media and the end of the world, Roland J. Campiche; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.