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Massimo Introvigne Quotes
born 1955 Italy
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements.
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A heart condition does not make one a cardiologist.
The belief that the world would end in 2012 was inconsistent with The Church of Almighty God’s theology, which does not include a doctrine of the end of the world.
For the [ Chinese Communist Party ] it is better to have a bureaucrat who is not very bright but is fanatically loyal to the Party than a very intelligent bureaucrat who thinks independently.
You cannot “rejoice in the truth” without rejecting and exposing iniquity. The lack of conscience, charity, and love leads to bad governance, unjust administration, and an unstable society inimical to its own citizens.
Many have argued that the basic question of Western political philosophy is why we accept to surrender a part of our liberty to join an organization. Wouldn’t it be better to remain free?
Even when reflecting on the momentous question of how education can produce good citizens, excluding any consideration of values based on spirituality can only lead to catastrophic results.
There is a deplorable tendency of expanding the notion of “human trafficking” beyond its original limits, targeting religious organizations that use unpaid volunteers for their missionary or charitable activities.
As we celebrate the World Press Freedom Day, we should tell journalists that we are here to defend their freedom, but cannot defend them against themselves.
In a world hungry for meaning, [the new religious movement Lifechanyuan, also known as Life Zen Temple (生命禪院)] dares to ask: What if the universe were not a machine but a mind?
…if democracy means anything, it must mean justice—even for those whose faith, voice, or conscience challenge the powers that be.
Journalism is not about protecting viewers from complexity. It is about presenting complexity and trusting viewers to navigate it. A documentary that excludes all dissenting voices is not an investigation.
History shows many examples of persecuted believers who win in the end. Religions tend to last longer than governments, regimes, or their opponents. History is fair, and often gives persecuted believers the last laugh.
If a community is treated as an outsider to civic life, the promise of freedom becomes thinner for everyone. The measure of a nation is taken at the margins, where groups seek only the right to exist without being misunderstood.
…prayer is more powerful than prison bars, more enduring than legal persecution.
…a difficult dialogue is better than [having] no dialogue.
… political exile is not exile from influence.
…order can be restored by returning to conscience. Let’s hope this will really happen in the Tai Ji Men case.
…[O]rder can be restored by returning to [the moral compass of] conscience. Let’s hope this will really happen in the Tai Ji Men case.
Tax offices internationally try to expand the taxation of religious properties by using a variety of arguments. Most of them are not persuasive and raise serious problems of discrimination of minorities and violations of freedom of religion or belief.
Ritual suicide is a rare but meaningful phenomenon. It accounts for a small part of global suicides, yet its symbolic significance far outweighs its frequency. When suicide is viewed as a religious or esoteric act, it questions our assumptions about agency, morality, and belief.
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