Soka Gakkai is Japan's largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. Levi McLaughlin's comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its development.

Levi McLaughlin is associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University.